Software Development

Summaries and minutes

• SoftDevDiscSummary: Ray's synthesis of comments shared at the Tech WG telecon, 16 Aug.

Links

Here is a collection of links and attachments describing the software development processes and procedures used at various organizations.

First, some general resources on software development processes, courtesy of Maria:

The Many Dimensions of the Software Process http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds6-4/software.html

Optimize or Adapt http://www.ddj.com/architect/184414595

How ISO 9001 compares with the CMM http://www4.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/lehre/vorlesungen/vse/WS2004/1995_9001-cmm.pdf

How Scalable Are CMM Key Practices? http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1998/04/scalable.asp

How CMM Impacts Quality, Productivity,Rework, and the Bottom Line http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2002/03/diaz.html

Three Dimensions of Process Improvement Part I: Process Maturity http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1998/02/processimp.asp

Part II: The Personal Process http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1998/03/dimensions.asp

Part III: The Team Process http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1998/04/dimensions.asp

The following are links to documents describing software development and testing for the Keck Observatory Archive, courtesy of Bruce Berriman at IPAC:

• koa_hires_pdmp_version1.1.doc:

• KOA_Maintenance_plan.doc:

• KOA_rmp_Version1.1.doc:

• KOABackupNRecoveryplan.doc:

• KOATestPlan_v1.0.pdf:

• MSC_KOA_DQAPlan_v1.0.doc:

• Archive_CMPlan_v0.9.1.doc:

• MSC_KOA_SoftwareDevelopmentPlan_v1.2.doc:

Bruce also provided a link to the Montage software development documents:

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/publications.html

and cited these documents from NASA's Software Engineering Lab, regarding which Bruce says "these are two of the most useful docs I have read on S/W process."

• ApproachtoSoftware.pdf:

• ManagersHandbook.pdf:

Pepi provided these documents describing the CIAO software testing procedures and the Chandra software development process:

• ciao_test.ps:

• SoftwareDevelopmentProcessattheChandraX.doc:

Alberto sent the following documents describing software development in the Engineering and Software Support Division at Space Telescope:

• ESS_SDP_Document_v19.doc:

• SystemTestPlanTemplate-v3.doc:

Jeff Kantor (LSST Project) wrote as follows:

You are welcome to leverage what we have put in place:

- A system engineering process based on SysML (see http://www.sysmlforum.com) and the Enterprise Architect CASE tool with the SysML MDG Add-in (see http://sparxsystems.com/products/mdg_sysml.html)

- A software requirements and design process based on Unified Modeling Language and the Iconix Process (see http://www.iconixsw.com) and the Enterprise Architect CASE tool and the Iconix Process MDG Add-In (see http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/partners/iconix/#addIn)

- A code development and management environment based on python, C++, trac, svn, and eups (see http://dev.lsstcorp.org:8100/trac)

Together, they form our process, standards, and tools.

Tom wrote: The HEASARC does not have a general framework for software development but in the FTOOLS (now HEAdas) area the teams are often large enough that a more standardized approach is appropriate. The HEAdas Developer's Guide describes how FTOOLS are to be developed, specifically in the HEASARC environment. It's available on-line at

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft/headas/developers_guide/developers_guide.html

It's an example of a relatively informal software process. A less stringent approach may also be appropriate for the NVO.

Ray provided his own view of the LSST software development process:

• LSSTswproc.txt:

-- BobHanisch - 10 Aug 2007

A classic book on software engineering is "The Mythical Man Month" by Fredrick Brooks.

The Wikipedia articles on Software Engineering and the Software Development Process have a discussion and numerous useful references.

R.S Pressman & Associates, Inc. provide many references and links and, of course, products for software engineering modeling and implementation.

-- CarolChristian - 13 Aug 2007

Nicole Radziwill sent these documents:

• APQC_PCF.pdf: a summary of the Process Classification Framework (PCF), a structure for a battery of business processes.
• QSDR_xx.pdf: a manuscript of an article in press describing worksheets for developing a quality system.

She also provided some explanatory comments to accompany these documents.

-- RayPlante - 17 Aug 2007 (for Nicole)

Just checking to make sure I can now post here!

-- NicoleRadziwill - 23 Aug 2007

The following is an attempt to classify our software projects (facility grade, research prototype, framework service, contributed, etc.), as our development process will need to be tailored for each type of project.

• project-types.txt:

-- DougTody - 23 Aug 2007