Chapter – 9 Checkpoints of the process

Introduction The purpose of checkpoint is to achieve The following Synchronize stakeholder expectations & achieve concurrence on three evolving Perspective : Requirements, design & Plan Synchronize related artifacts into consistent & balance state Identify the important risks, issues & out-of-tolerance conditions Perform a global assessment for the whole life cycle

Introduction Three sequences of project checkpoints are used to synchronize stakeholders expectations throughout the life cycle Major milestones Minor milestones Status assessments

Major milestones These system wide events are held at the end of each development phase They provide visibility of system wide issues, Synchronize the management & engineering perspectives & verify that the aims of the phase have been achieved Note:The most important major milestone is usually the event that transitions the project from elaboration phase into construction phase

Minor milestones Status Assessment These iteration focused events are conducted to review the content of iteration in detail & to authorize continued work The formats & content of minor milestones are highly dependent on the project & the organizational culture. Status Assessment The periodic events provides management with frequent & regular insight into the progress being made Periodic status assessments are crucial for focusing continuous attention on the evolving health of the project & its dynamic priorities

Typical sequence of life cycle checkpoints Life cycle Life Cycle initial Product objective milestone Architecture milestone operational capability release milestone milestone Major Milestones Minor Status Assessment Inception Elaboration Construction Deployment iteration1 iteration2 iteration3 iteration4 iteration5 iteration6 iteration7

The general status of plan, requirement & product across major milestones Plans Milesstone Requirements Product Life Cycle objectives Milestone Definition of the stakeholder Responsibilities Low-fidelity life cycle plan High-fidelity elaboration Phase plan Baseline Vision, including Growth vectors, Quality Attributes & priorities User case model Demonstration of at least One feasible architecture Make buy/reuse trade-offs Initial design model Stable design set Make buy/reuse decisions Critical component prototyoes Stable vision & use case Model Evaluation criteria for Construction release, Initial operational capability Draft user manual High-fidelity construction Phase plan Low-fidelity transition plan Life Cycle architecture milestone Acceptance criteria for Product release Release user manual Stable implementation set Critical features & core Capabilities Objective insight into Product qulaties Initial operational capability milestone High-fidelity transition plan Stable deployment set Full features Complaint quality Product release milestones Next generation product plan Final user manual

Major milestones(1 of 6 ) The four major milestones occur at the transition points between lifecycle phases which are used to achieve concurrence among all stakeholders on the current state of product.Different stakeholders have different concerns Customers schedule & budget estimates, feasibility , risk assessment, requirement understanding,progress, product line compatibility Users Consistency with requirements & usage scenarios, potential for accommodating growth, quality attributes Architects & System engineers Product line compatibility,requirements changes, trade-off analysis, completeness & consistency, balance among risks, quality & usability. Developers Sufficiency of requirements detail & usage scenario descriptions, frameworks for component selection or development, resolution of development risk, product line compatibility, sufficiency of the development environment

Major milestones ( 2 of 6 ) Maintainers Others Sufficiency of product & documentation artifacts,understandability, interoperability with existing systems, sufficiency of maintenance environment. Others possibly many other perspectives by stakeholders such as regulator agencies, independent verification & validation contractors, venture capital investors, subcontractors, associate contractors, & sales & marketing teams

Major milestones ( 3 of 6 ) The four major milestones are Life cycle objectives milestones Life cycle architecture milestones Initial operational capability milestone Product release milestone

Major milestones ( 4 of 6 ) Life Cycle objectives milestone The life cycle objective milestone occur at the end of inception phase.This will result in authorization from all stakeholders to proceed with elaboration phase The goal is to present all stakeholders a Recommendation on how to proceed with development including a plan, estimated cost & schedule, expected benefits & cost savings The vision & critical issues related to requirements & operational concepts are addressed A draft architecture & a prototype architecture demonstration provide evidence of the completeness of the vision & the development plan

Major milestones ( 5 of 6 ) Life cycle Architecture milestone The Life cycle architecture milestone occurs at the end of elaboration phase The primary goal is to demonstrate an executable architecture to all stakeholders. A more detail plan for construction phase is presented for approval Critical issues relative to requirement & operational concept are addressed The software development project ready for this transition exhibits the following characteristics The critical use case have been defined A stable architecture is baselined The risk profile is well understood The development plan for the construction & transition phase is defined

Majormilestone (6 of 6 ) Initial operational capability milestone The Initial operational capability milestone occurs late in the construction phase. The goals are To assess the readiness of the software to begin the transition into customer / user sites & to authorize the start of acceptance testing Issues are addresses concerned to installation instructions, Software version description & user manuals & the ability of the development organization to support user sites. Product release milestone The product release milestone occurs at the end of the transition phase.The goal is to assess the completion of the software 7 its transition to the support organization The results of acceptance testing are reviewed & all open issues are addressed which includes installation instructions,software version descriptions,user & operator manuals, software support manuals & installation of the development environment at the support sites

Minor milestones ( 1 of 3 ) The number of iteration specific, informal milestones needed depends on the content & the length of the iteration For most iterations only two minor milestones are needed Iteration readiness review Iteration assessment review

Minor milestone ( 2 of 3 ) Iteration readiness review This informal milestone is conduct at the start of each iteration to review the detailed iteration plan & evaluation criteria that have been allocated to this iteration Iteration assessment review This informal milestone is conducted at the end of each iteration to assess the degree to which the iteration achieved its objectives & satisfied its evaluation criteria

Minor milestone ( 3 of 3 ) Typical Minor milestones in the life cycle of an iteration Management Requirement Design Implementation Assessment Deployment Iteration N-1 I Iteration N Iteration N+1 Iteration Readiness Review Iteration N Initiation Iteration Design Walkthrough Iteration Assessment Review Iteration N Closeout

Periodic Status Assessments ( 1 of 5 ) Managing risks requires continuous attention to all the interacting activities of a software development effort. Periodic status assessment are Management reviews conducted at regular intervals to address progress & quality indicators Ensure continuous attention to project dynamics Maintain open communications among all stakeholders

Periodic Status Assessment ( 2 of 5 ) Objective of periodic Status Assessment The main objective of status assessment is to ensure that the expectations of all stakeholders are synchronized & consistent. Periodic status assessment serve as project snapshots.it provide the following A mechanism for openly addressing,communicating & resolving management issues,Technical issues & project risks. Derived directly from on-going activities & evolving product configuration. A mechanism for disseminating process, progress,quality,trends,practices & experiences information to & from all stakeholders in an open forum

Periodic Status Assessment ( 3 of 5 ) Recurring themes from unsuccessful projects include status assessments that are High-overhead activities because the work associated with generating the status is separate from the everyday work. Frequently canceled because of higher priority issues that require resolution. Recurring themes from successful projects include status assessments that are Low-overhead activities because the material already exists as everyday management data. Rarely canceled because they are considered too important.

Periodic Status Assessment ( 4 of 5 ) Default content of status assessment reviews Topic Content Personnel Staffing Vs actuals,Attritions,Additions Financial Trends Expenditure plan Vs Actuals for the previous,current & next major milestone Revenue forecasts Top 10 Risks Issues & criticality, resolution Plan Quantification of exposure Technical progress Configuration baseline schedule for major milestone Software management metrics & indicators Current change trends Test & quality assessment Cont.

Periodic Status Assessment ( 5 of 5 ) Default content of status assessment reviews Topic Content Major milestone plans & results Plan,Schedule & risks for the next major milestone Pass/fail results for all acceptance criteria Total size,growth & acceptance criteria perturbations Total product scope