Two Case Studies

1
Two Case Studies

• CCPDS-R, TRW
• How Microsoft Builds Software
• Different development environments
• Software development life cycle
• Software project management techniques

2
CCPDS-R Case Study

• Command Center Processing and Display System
  Replacement
• TRW Space and Defense in Redondo Beach, CA
• Customer U.S. Air Force
• Focus Common Subsystem
• Mission critical software

3
Common Subsystem

• Primary missile warning system
• Main installation Cheyenne Mountain
• Backup system Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska
• 48-month software development schedule
• 355,000 SLOC
• Ada design implementation language
• 6 builds were required
• Completed successfully, on time within budget to
  customer satisfaction

4
CCPDS-R Acquisition

• Concept definition (CD), 12-month schedule
• 5 major bidders, 2 contracts awarded
• Full-scale development (FSD)
• 1 contract awarded to TRW
• Contract award based on performance in Software
  Engineering Exercise

5
Concept Definition (CD)

• Vision
• Analyze and specify the project requirements
• Define and develop the top-level architecture
• Plan FSD phase software development activities
• Configure the process and development environment
• Establish trust and win-win relationships among
  the stakeholders
• Software engineering exercise

6
Process Overview for FSD

• Standard DOD life cycle after contract award
• Software requirements review (SRR)
• Interim preliminary design review (IPDR)
• Preliminary design review (PDR)
• Critical design review (CDR)
• Final qualification test (FQT)

7
Incremental Design Process

• Individual milestones within a build
• Preliminary design walkthrough
• Critical design walkthrough
• Code walkthrough
• Turnover review

8
Incremental Test Process

• Stand-alone test
• Build integration test establish a stable,
  reliable baseline
• Reliability test
• Engineering string test
• Final qualification test

9
IPDR Demonstration

• Demonstrate defined capabilities at NORAD
• Capabilities well understood by the customer and
  TRW
• 37 evaluation criteria
• Results were apt to change requirements, plans
  and designs
• 31 satisfactory, 6 were not met
• Required redesign and re-demonstration

10
Metrics

• Build Progress ( coded) vs time
• Requirements verified vs time
• Cumulative SLOC vs time
• Average hours per software change order (SCO)
• Mean time between failure (MTBF) vs total test
  hours
• Cumulative SLOC vs budget

11
People factors

• Core team concept
• Leverage skills of a few experts across the
  entire team
• Avoid attrition
• Profit sharing of award fees

12
Microsoft Case Study

• High volume, mass market software
• Redmond, Washington
• Excel, Word, Windows 95, Windows NT, etc.
• Respond to events in the marketplace
• Highly flexible, entrepreneurial company

13
Microsoft Competitive Strategy

• Identify mass markets quickly
• Introduce products that are good enough
• Improve products by incrementally evolving their
  features
• Sell multiple product versions and upgrades
• Sell globally

14
Product Development Philosophy

• Utilize small parallel teams (3 to 8 developers)
• Teams evolve features and products incrementally
• Occasionally introduce new concepts and
  technologies
• Synchronize changes frequently so product
  components work together
• Structured hacker-like approach

15
Synch-and-Stabilize

• Continually synchronize what developers are doing
  as individuals and team members
• Stabilize the product in increments
• Daily build
• Continual testing
• Testers work in parallel with developers (1 to 1)
• Fix defect immediately if checked in code
  breaks the daily build

16
Big Picture Procedures

• Teams work at single physical site
• Common development languages (C and C)
• Common coding styles
• Standardized development tools
• Teams must communicate, debate design ideas, and
  resolve problems face to face

17
Synch-and-StabilizeDevelopment Approach

• Planning Phase
• Development Phase
• Stabilization Phase

18
Planning Phase

• Vision statement
• Product managers define goals for a new product
  based on market research
• Specification document written up by Program
  manager
• During development, feature set in specification
  document may change by 30 or more
• Schedule and feature team formation

19
Development Phase

• Developers design, code, and debug
• Testers pair with developers for continuous
  testing
• 3 major milestones
• Milestone 1 first 1/3 of features (most
  critical and shared components)
• Milestone 2 second third of features
• Milestone 3 final third of features (least
  critical)

20
Stabilization Phase

• Internal testing
• External testing (beta sites and users)
• Release preparation

21
Principles Developing and Shipping Products

• Work in parallel teams but synch up and debug
  daily
• Always have a product you can ship, with versions
  for different platforms and markets
• Speak a common language on a single development
  site
• Continuously test the product as you build it
• Use metric data to determine milestone completion
  and product release

22
Conclusions

• Stakeholders and type of software being developed
  effect the software development life cycle
• CCPDS-R - more externally controlled process
• Microsoft market driven internally controlled
  process geared towards customer satisfaction and
  market share
• Both cases illustrate extensive use of modern
  software project management techniques
• Both cases show level 3 (defined) of CMM