TABLE OF CONTENTS In Chapter 1.3 a Venn diagram was offered (Figure 1.3-1) suggesting that the program requirements universe included not only the product (or program-peculiar) specifications content but the process documentation as well. These requirements will be captured in documents called policies, plans, and procedures. Should we exempt these process requirements from validation and verification? It is suggested that the same situation is present here as in product requirements.
It is possible to create process controls such that they impose cost and schedule risks. It is very common that companies accept wildly unreasonable schedules offered in government requests for proposal (RFP) in order to get the contract. The author recalls that the advanced cruise missile program endured two proposal cycles in the early 1980s. An initial operating capability (IOC) date was defined in the first cycle, and it was very optimistic and risky. After many months of study and proposal preparation, the competing contractors turned in their proposals and the Air Force decided not to accept any of them. Employees of General Dynamics Convair reasoned that they had won according to the selection criteria, and Boeing was supposed to have won. The Air Force put another RFP on the street with the same IOC as the first one and, after several more months, GD Convair was selected. Never has there been such a rapid transform between elation and depression as among the GD Convair team members upon...
