BACKGROUND: The SSG Systems Engineering Process (SEP) consists of the basic processes necessary for a common software development process across all software projects within SSG regardless of the project type or the current life cycle phase.  The SEP is based on experience with a variety of software development and maintenance projects.  In addition, it is heavily influenced by the requirements of the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI’s) Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for Software and the Central Design Activity (CDA) Standard Engineering Process framework.  The SEP applies to all software development and maintenance efforts, whether undertaken by SSG personnel only (organic), or by a combination of SSG personnel and contractors.  The SEP does not directly apply to contractors working independently on SSG issued contracts.  These contractors are presumed to be following their own standard processes.  However, all Statements of Work (SOWs), Statements of Objectives (SOO), or task statements should be developed such that documentation and deliverables from contractors represent the same degree of quality and content as that prescribed by the SEP.  SSG tracks progress of those contractors by following the SEP Contract Management Process.  All on-site contractors supporting SSG shall follow the SEP.  The SEP is invoked whenever SSG must compete for a software project or respond to a customer request.  The SEP organizes all activities and products and illustrates the interdependence among them.

 

TAILORING:  All products and activities in the SEP may not apply to every project or environment.  In the SEP Tailoring Guide [[PDGD002]] two tailoring worksheets are provided; one contains the products and associated activities required for a new start software development effort and one contains the products and associated activities required for sustainment of a legacy system with established life cycle documentation.  These tailoring worksheets list the products and associated activities the SEP requires a project to produce or perform.  The Project Manager (PM) and the Software Project Manager (SPM) will use the appropriate tailored worksheet to identify the products that will be produced and the activities that will be performed to produce these products on their project.

 

INTRODUCTION:  The SEP homepage provides a list of procedures, guides, checklists, forms, templates, and organizational plans.  Each procedure can be read from your browser or downloaded to your computer in an MS Word document.   Each web-formatted procedure has links to all referenced assets so that you can easily navigate through the SEP.

There are approximately 70 procedures in the SEP.  Each procedure includes:

            1. Entry or input criteria:  The document or activity that must have been completed prior to executing the activities contained in the procedure.

            2. Exit or output criteria:  The document or activity that must be performed during the execution of the procedure.

            3. Persons (or roles of persons) responsible to carry out the procedure.

            4. Assets that the persons can use to aid in carrying out the procedure.

            5. Specific steps for executing the procedure.

 

The procedures are bundled into nine phases as outlined in the CDA SEP.  They are normally executed in succession except for the Project Planning and Analysis phases. At SSG, the Analysis phase is executed prior to the Project Planning phase.  The nine CDA SEP phases (as required by ESC) are:

            1. Requirements Evaluation and Proposal

            2. Project Planning

            3. Analysis

            4. Design

            5. Construction

            6. Testing

            7. Implementation

            8. Customer Support

            9. Completion

 

Each phase has work products (something you must produce) that become a part of the system being developed or a part of the life cycle documentation that supports the system being developed.  Templates provide information needed to complete the work products.  Within each phase there are guides that provide valuable information and tips for the completion of the work products.  While the nine phases lay out a logical flow for the evolution of functional requirements, they do not address the systems engineering processes that aid or support the requirement evolution.  These are addressed in the Global procedures.  The Global procedures are: Software Project Tracking and Oversight, Software Configuration Management, Software Quality (Process) Assurance, Organizational Process Definition, Training; Reviews; and Software Contract Management.  These global procedures are executed whenever appropriate, independent of the phase.

 

A Release Schedule Template will be used to create a detailed schedule for each release.   Release Schedules are rolled up into a Master Project Schedule that depicts the planned releases for the project.  Activities that support the global procedures are woven throughout the Release Schedule Templates.

 

TRACKS and EXECUTION: The SEP has two tracks, new starts for new project development and sustainment for project maintenance.  New starts follow the nine phases previous described and the order the phases are executed is:

1. Requirements Evaluation and Proposal

            2. Analysis

            3. Project Planning

            4. Design

            5. Construction

            6. Testing

            7. Implementation

            8. Customer Support

            9. Completion

 

The analysis phase is executed before the project planning phase.

 

In the sustainment track, there are just three phases, pre-development, development and post-development.  The sustainment phases contain  the new start phases and are executed in the same order as the new start phases as follows:

A. Pre-Development

1. Requirements Evaluation and Proposal

            2. Analysis

            3. Project Planning

B. Development

            4. Design

            5. Construction

C. Post-Development

            6. Testing

            7. Implementation

            8. Customer Support

            9. Completion

 

Once again, the analysis procedures are executed before the project planning procedures.  In addition, the Requirements Evaluation and Proposal part of the Pre-Development phase has been shortened to just two Procedures executed in the following order:

SW1PR001A - Requirements Evaluation for Sustainment Systems

SW1PR010 - Propose the Contents of the Next Release and Approve it.

 

 

TRAINING:  The SEPG provides two one-day introduction courses, SEP Orientation and SEP Newcomers (for those people who are new to SSG) and four specific SEP courses in Requirements, Design, Testing, and Project Management.  Check the Management Information System (MIS) for courses and dates.