This document briefly communicates the scope and resources of the project to all stakeholders. Provide general information on what the project is for, and specific data on the development activities, cost, schedule and risks. Provide an overall approach to software development for all people associated with the project.
Table of Contents
1 Scope
2 Referenced Documents
3 Project Objectives
4 Project Estimates
5 Project Risks
6 Schedule
7 Project Resources
8 Organization
9 Tracking and Control Mechanisms
10 Appendices
This paragraph shall contain a full identification of the system and the software to which this document applies, including, as applicable, title(s), abbreviation(s), version number(s), and release number(s).
This paragraph shall briefly state the purpose of the system and the software to which this document applies. It shall describe the general nature of the system and software; summarize the history of system development; identify the project stakeholders; identify current and planned operating sites; and list other relevant documents.
This paragraph shall summarize the purpose and contents of this document and shall describe any privacy considerations associated with its use.
This section shall list the number, title, revision, and date of all documents referenced in this plan.
This section shall include, as applicable, an overview of:
a. Requirements and constraints on the system and software to be developed
b. Requirements and constraints on project documentation
c. Position of the project in the system life cycle
d. Requirements and constraints on project schedules and resources
e. Other requirements and constraints, such as on project privacy, methods,
standards, interdependencies in hardware and software development, etc.
Estimate the size, cost and schedule of the project. COCOMO and/or other cost estimation tools can be used.
Describe the techniques used to estimate the project. Identify any historical data used for estimates.
Provide a description of all identified risks for the project, including risk exposure quantities. Also provide plans for mitigating the risks. Identify the constituent risk factors that contribute to the potential occurrence of each risk. Use a 0-10 scale for quantifying both risk probability and risk impact. The initial set of risks defined here will be updated throughout the project.
Document procedures for monitoring the risk factors and for reducing the potential occurrence of each risk. Identify contingency procedures for each area of risk.
This section shall present schedule(s) identifying the activities (in each build, if applicable) and showing initiation of each activity, availability of deliverables and other milestones, and completion of each activity.
The activities described here should be tracked with progress metrics..
Provide a work breakdown structure.
Provide an activity network, depicting sequential relationships and dependencies among activities and identifying those activities that impose the greatest time restrictions on the project.
Show a timeline chart of activities.
Describe the project organization and resources to be applied.
This section shall include personnel resources, including as applicable:
1) The estimated staff-loading for the project (number of personnel over time). This plan will be tracked using effort metrics.
2) The breakdown of the staff-loading numbers by responsibility (for example, management, software engineering, software testing, software configuration management, software product evaluation, software quality assurance)
3) A breakdown of the skill levels and geographic locations of personnel performing each responsibility
Provide an overview of developer facilities to be used, including geographic locations in which the work will be performed, facilities to be used, and other features of the facilities as applicable to the project effort.
Identify library-furnished equipment, software, services, documentation, data, and facilities required for the contracted effort. A schedule detailing when these items will be needed shall also be included.
Also include other required resources, including a plan for obtaining the resources, dates needed, and availability of each resource item.
Describe the software metrics to be used for tracking and controlling the project development, and the process used to collect and analyze the metrics. Each team must report weekly progress, effort and trouble report metrics as well as risk items. Describe all the different sets of progress metrics that will be tracked. Examples include major development milestones, lines of code, etc. Progress metrics can also be broken down by function or sub-teams. Optional metrics include requirements volatility.
Appendices may be used to provide information published separately for convenience in document maintenance (e.g., charts). As applicable, each appendix shall be referenced in the main body of the document where the data would normally have been provided.