Two Case Studies

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

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

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

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

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

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)

Incremental Design Process

Individual milestones within a build

Preliminary design walkthrough
Critical design walkthrough
Code walkthrough
Turnover review

Incremental Test Process

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Synch-and-Stabilize
Development Approach
Planning Phase
Development Phase
Stabilization Phase

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

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)

Stabilization Phase
Internal testing
External testing (beta sites
and users)
Release preparation

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

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