From Competitive Engineering: A Handbook for Systems Engineering, Requirements Engineering, and Software Engineering Using Planguage
10.1 Introduction to Evolutionary Project Management
In 1994, the US Department of Defense issued a temporary military standard, MIL-STD-498, which explicitly supported the use of evolutionary project management (Evo). It also supported the related concept that projects do not initially have the final and correct user requirements specified. This standard has now been evolved into civil standards (such as IEEE standards) and is continuing to influence new standards. Such recognition for Evo is deserved as it has probably the best track record of any known project management method (Larman and Basili 2003).
Practical Experience with Evolutionary Project Management
Surprisingly, many project cultures have little formal knowledge of Evo, even though it has been in use since the 1960s. The first documented large-scale industrial use of Evo was from 1970 to 1980 and on, within IBM Federal Systems Division (IBM FSD, later owned by Loral and Lockheed Martin). Working within the military and space sector, they had complex high-tech projects requiring state-of-the-art performance with fixed financial budgets and fixed deadlines. These extreme requirements drove them into developing methods known as Cleanroom , which included using Evo. Harlan Mills reported on these early IBM FSD experiences as follows:
Ten years ago general management expected the worst from software projects cost overruns, late deliveries, unreliable and incomplete software. Today, management has learned to expect on-time, within budget deliveries of high-quality software. LAMPS a 4 year 200 person-years (project was delivered) in 45 incremental deliveries. Every one...
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Topics of Interest
Glossary Introduction Purpose of the Glossary This glossary contains the master definitions of the fundamental Planguage concepts. Its central purpose is to define concepts not words. I view...
Overview This chapter through Chapter 10 focus on the inclusive topic of project management. The topics of project planning and project monitoring and control are covered in this chapter. This...
At the beginning of this book, in Chapter 1, I mentioned the absolute need for an SPMO to embrace a methodology and to use it for all software projects an IT organization will undertake. The next...
THE PMO Defining the PMO As the importance of project management has grown, many organizations have identified the need for a central center of organizational project knowledge, one with...
Chapter List Chapter 3: Project Management Processes for a Project Overview Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to...
