1. Chapter – 9 Checkpoints of the process

2. 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

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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