This glossary provides a brief definition of the important terms used in this report. It is arranged in alphabetical order.
TERM DEFINITION Building Block A generic method, practice, tool, or process definition in the inventory of software process assets owned and maintained by an organization. Current best A process and associated implementation procedures that an practice organization keeps current through continuous process improvement. Lessons Learned The organization's current best practice for recording a project's best practices, experiences with tools, problems, and other lessons learned in a postmortem report. Metrics The organization's current best practice for measuring software projects, products, and processes. Organization A documented set of generic software building blocks which Standard Software define how a software organization does business. Process Product The organization's current best practice for inspecting (peer Inspections reviewing) software documents and code to remove defects. Programming The set of programming languages, and organizational standards Language for using them, in which the organization is proficient. Project Defined The compilation of tailored building blocks, in a software Software Process development plan, for a specific project. Project Estimation The organization's current best practice for estimating the cost, schedule, resource requirements, and size of a development effort. Project Management The organization's current best practice for managing software projects (includes planning, and tracking and oversight). Project Reviews The organization's current best practice for conducting technical and management reviews. Requirements The organization's current best practice for eliciting and Management managing a project's requirements. Risk Management The organization's current best practice for assessing and managing software project risk. Software The organization's current best practice for SCM. Configuration Management (SCM) Software Quality The organization's current best practice for SQA. Assurance (SQA) Subcontract The organization's current best practice for managing Management subcontractors in the performance of all or part of a software project. Support Tools The set of management and development tools that support the organization's standard process and practices in which the organization is proficient. Software Design The organization's current best practice for performing software design. Software The organization's current best set of development methods in Development current use (e.g., object oriented, structured, etc.) in which Methods the organization is proficient. Software Life The set of software life cycles (e.g., waterfall, evolutionary, Cycles spiral, rapid-prototyping, etc.) for which the organization is proficient at executing a software project. Software System The organization's current best practice for performing software Test system test. Tailoring rules Documented rules that provide guidance for adapting the organization's standard software process to specific project requirements. Technical The organization's current best practice for managing and Documentation producing technical documents. Training The organization's current best practice for training personnel in the use of software development methods, tools, and practices. Unit Test The organization's current best practice for performing unit test activities.
APPENDIX A. PROCESS & PLANNING TOOL SUPPORT
The tools examined for this report were defined to allow users to maintain their organization's standard software process using the tool, tailor that process to the needs of a specific project, develop the project WBS and schedule with the same tool, and track progress during project execution.
It was assumed that these requirements would be implemented in a number of tools. Initially, both custom and commercially available tools were examined. In time, the list of tools was limited to those that were released (or had target dates for release) as Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products.
A breakdown of the functionality requested for these tools is as follows:
a. Share data with other tools (e.g., spreadsheets and/or scheduling tools).
b. Allow the organization to develop and maintain the organization's standard software process within the tool. The process should be able to be custom designed for the needs of the organization.
c. Provide a combined process definition and project management capability. (Project management here is assumed to include building and modifying WBSs, activity networks, and schedules and tracking progress against the schedules.)
d. Allow a number of user roles to have access to the data in the tool set in different ways.
e. Have a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to support ease of use.
f. Support software process definition and software process modeling.
g. Tie its project management capabilities to software process enactment.
h. Provide both Gantt and activity network (e.g., Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) or Critical Path Method (CPM)) outputs.
i. Provide a relationship between the WBS and the project's defined software process.
Five tools were found that claimed to provide a majority of the requested capabilities. These tools and their advertised capabilities are listed in Table A-1 along with vendor, point of contact, and minimum system configuration information. None of the tools were examined in detail since the vendors contacted were not able to provide demonstration versions (or limited time examination copies) on request.
At the time of this research, it appeared that tools with the requested capabilities were just beginning to reach the market. This initial set of tools was unable to provide the full set of requested capabilities, and in dealing with vendors, it appeared that this type of tool set is still quite immature and not ready for use in a production environment.
It will be interesting to see the next generation of these tools and how they mature to support process driven project planning and project management.
Table A-1. Integrated software process and project management tools.
| Tool | firstCASE | PEAKS |
| Vendor | AGS Management Systems 1012 West Ninth Ave. King of Prussia, PA 19406 | Cedar Creek Process Engineering P.O Box 308 Cedar Creek, TX 78612 |
| Point of Contact | Valerie Palamountain 610-265-1550 | Terrel 800-303-8468 terrelj@source.asset.com |
| Data Import/Export | Import Text Files Export Text Files, Report Writer to Excel/Lotus files. Can copy and paste between applications. | ASCII text files. Import/Export Plans API Data Access |
| Flexible Process | Can be customized by your organization to incorporate your standards and procedures | Yes |
| Combination of Process Definition and PM | Yes, suite of tools | Combined |
| Role Driving? | Can define roles and responsibilities | Process Driven |
| Ease of Use | Windows based | GUI, point and click |
| Process Definition and Modeling | through fcprocess | Yes |
| PM tied to Process Enactment | Yes | Supports low level enactment in conjunction with other tools |
| Gantt & PERT or CPM | Gantt, PERT, CPM includes resources | Gantt |
| WBS tied to Process Structure | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | PC/Windows, Windows NT, OS2 | IBM RISC System 6000 w/ AIX 3.2.5 porting to Windows NT and Mac 7.x |
Table A-1. Integrated software process and project management tools. (Cont.)
| Tool | Process Engineer | Tool Project Management (TPM) [12] |
| Vendor | LBMS 1800 West Loop South, Sixth Floor Houston, TX 77027 | Applied Business Technology 361 Broadway New York, NY 10013 |
| Point of Contact | 800-345-LBMS | Kristine Kiltz 212-219-8945 |
| Data Import/Export | Bi-directional data transfers for various schedulers including Microsoft Project 3.0, Project Workbench 3.0 for Windows and Timeline 5.0 for DOS | Export to Text files |
| Flexible Process | Yes, with PE/Process Manager | Yes |
| Combination of Process Definition and PM | Yes, suite of tools | Yes, suite of tools |
| Role Driving? | Yes | No |
| Ease of Use | Reportedly easy to use | GUI, reportedly highly intuitive |
| Process Definition and Modeling | Yes, with PE/Process Manager | Yes via Methods Architect |
| PM tied to Process Enactment | Yes | |
| Gantt & PERT or CPM | Gantt, PERT, Resource Charts | Gantt, CPM |
| WBS tied to Process Structure | Yes | |
| Platforms | At least 386/33, MS-DOS 3.1 or greater, MS-Windows 3.1, 4 MB RAM, 15 MB available on hard drive, mouse and any network operating system | PC/Windows |
Table A-1. Integrated software process and project management tools. (Cont.)
| Tool | WBS Chart for Project | |
| Vendor | Jim Spiller and Associate (JSA) 3256 Seminole Circle Fairfield, CA 94533 | |
| Point of Contact | 707-425-2484 | |
| Data Import/Export | Import/export to Mircosoft Project files. (.MPX) | |
| Flexible Process | ||
| Combination of Process Definition and PM | No | |
| Role Driving? | ||
| Ease of Use | GUI, Windows | |
| Process Definition and Modeling | ||
| PM tied to Process Enactment | None | |
| Gantt & PERT or CPM | None | |
| WBS tied to Process Structure | ||
| Platforms | PC/Windows |
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