ER2C SDMLC: enterprise release risk-centric systems development and maintenance life cycle

Abstract

Traditional systems development life cycle models can be viewed as technical life cycle models in systems development projects. These life cycle models mostly focus on the initial delivery of systems as part of projects. However, many systems end up in a perpetual development mode and can be viewed as a continuum of releases rather than the deliverables of temporary projects. Newer versions of such systems are usually released as part of support/maintenance processes rather than through rigorous projects. In environments with quick-fix maintenance or loose release management regimes, lack of rigor may result in the compromise of quality, especially quality-in-use. This may cause end users’ exposure to risks as a result of using potentially faulty releases and products. Minimizing product risks should be an inherent inclusion in product life cycle, regardless of whether the product is released as part of a project or as part of support/maintenance work. A novel systems development and maintenance life cycle model is proposed that models the life of a system as a sequence of releases. It covers non-project maintenance-related releases as well as major projectized releases under a unified consistent governance model. It proposes applying different levels of rigor depending on analyzed release risks via the enforcement of different thresholds to a set of metrics that are extracted from release artifacts. The proposed life cycle model supports iterative development and is conformant to ISO 15288:2015. Evaluations performed by a community of practice in a large government agency in Queensland, Australia, has demonstrated the success of the proposed model in a number of areas, especially in how risk is managed when changes are introduced to systems after their initial release.