Software Development Standards for Nonmonolithic Project Management Strategies: Experience, New Suggestions and Conclusions

Abstract

The paper analyses software development standards for nonmonolithic project management strategies. Such strategies ore best suited for high-risk projocto. The analysis is performed in an incremental fashion, based on existing standards and experience with software projects. Risk factors that undermine manageability as well as qualities that make projects able to cope with the risks are listed. Nonmonolithic project management strategies are described. Brief evaluations of current project standards for their applicability to nonmonolithic projects are given, for each of the main software project disciplines: requirements engineering, configuration management, quality assurance, design and implementation, and maintenance. Where necessary, changes of various extent are suggested. The changes remove harmful biases imposed by traditional approaches: the monolithic Approach to project planning and delivery, and the functional approach to software specification and design.