Software Development Activity Cycles

Written from the perspective of a Technical Project Manager, this study presents a scenario for a complete “shift left” software development effort. It brings considerations for Test and Support as early as the Inception Stage. Based on an innovative model – Development Process Activity Cycles (DPAC) – this representation allows visualization of progress including recursive activities. The model is based on an interpretation of the Deming quality cycle of Plan Do, Check Act (PDCA).  Periodic Management reports are generated using configuration management data generated during the Act phase of each iteration. There is no Test stage in the DPAC model; Test is represented in the back swing Check Phase of each iteration.

This approach allows the user or Subject Mater Expert (SME) to contemplate the face of the system through several iterations of design and development, using the triad principle (“Power of Three”) matching a programmer, tester and member of the user community  This approach incrementally reveals the best fit to the intent of the vision statement and iteratively uncovers the needs of the user while maintaining conceptual integrity.This book provides a holistic and comprehensible view of the entire development process including ongoing evolution and support, staffing, and establishment of a comprehensive quality engineering program. It describes activity inside the “belly of the beast.” By including support services as a part of the development model a complete return on investment (ROI) can be calculated and a value stream can be measured over the entire Application Life Cycle.

You will

• See how the various disciplines constituting the software development process come together   
• Understand where in the iterative development process progress can be measured and control exercised
• Review how a quality engineering program will positively affect the quality of the development process
• Examine how the quality of the development process profoundly affects the quality of the software system

Who this book is for

Intended for a technical audience, this work should be of interest to all technical personnel including analysts, programmers, test and production, especially mid level managers and anyone familiar with the principles of a Lean, Agile approach to development.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The DPAC Model

Chapter 2: Why Include Support in a Development Model?

Chapter 3: The Inception Stage

Chapter 4: The Elaboration Stage

Chapter 5: The Construction Stage

Chapter 6: The Assembly Stage

Chapter 7: The Evolution Stage

Chapter 8: Risk Management

Chapter 9: Engineering Software Quality

Chapter 10: Final Remarks

Appendix A: Software Quality Defined

Appendix B: Summary of Standards, Guidelines, and Procedures

Appendix C: Quality Engineering: By Area

Appendix D: Data Flow Diagramming

About the Author

Robert F. Rose has provided services to both private and public sectors including telecom and healthcare, NavAir, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). His experience includes pioneering design and development of a warehouse system for storing and analyzing medical records, design and development of an early prototype logistics tracking system for the V22 Osprey, and design and implementation of a complex enterprise wide web based directory system. Among his accomplishments he was Technical Project Manager for the Presidential Commission’s Inquiry on the Challenger Disaster. The DPAC model is the product of independent efforts both in management and in preparation of the technical approach section for various responses to Requests for Proposals (RFP). Now retired, Robert has pulled together the sum of his experience with the process of developing software into the DPAC framework. It is entirely original work not derivative from other approaches.