1. Requirements

2.1.1.6 The NASA OCE shall maintain an Agency-wide process asset library of applicable best practices.  

1.1 Notes

NPR 7150.2, NASA Software Engineering Requirements, does not include any notes for this requirement.

1.2 History

2. Rationale

The adoption of the NASA Engineering Network (NEN) Software Engineering Community of Practice site for NASA users promotes the continued development of strong engineering culture. The development, capture, and dissemination of software engineering best practices, examples and lessons learned through the use of the NEN Software Engineering Community of Practice enable continuous improvement among the software engineers. The assignment of this responsibility to the Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) assures that relevant software engineering assets and guidance materials are made available to the NASA Software Engineering community.   Funding for and maintenance of the NEN Software Engineering Community of Practice site is provided by the OCE, thus making it independent of Center and project resources.  Centers and projects still have a responsibility to utilize and occasionally share assets via the NEN Software Engineering Community of Practice site.

3. Guidance

Software engineering is a core capability and a key enabling technology for NASA's missions and supporting infrastructure ⁰⁸³. The software community site covers topics such as software requirements, design, implementation, architecture, assurance, testing, training, tools, process improvement, best practices, software release, models and simulations, and software research and technology innovation. The NEN Software Engineering Community of Practice site is a distributed, peer-driven network of individuals, engaged in a specific discipline, who come together to share their collective knowledge and learn from one another. The software community at NASA is focused on software engineering discipline. The NASA Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) maintains Agency-wide process asset data and information, including applicable best practices on the NEN Software Engineering Community of Practice page.

Community members work together to identify common problems and explore solutions, and they often develop and implement best practices. Collective disciplines are identified by a shared passion for a subject, a shared level of practice within a discipline, and trust and willingness to solve problems collaboratively.

Collocated individuals within a discipline commonly share ideas or discuss work challenges. By extending localized interaction to an online, facilitated forum, community members benefit from exposure to a broader set of related information resources, access to a wider field of peer expertise, and expanded opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration

The NASA Engineering Network (NEN) hosts the online environment where software engineering meets to discuss ideas, locate peers, find the latest industry news and events in the software engineering discipline, and access relevant documentation and resources ⁰⁴³.

Electronic documentation that is intuitive and highly searchable gives software engineers the ability to quickly find the information they need, allowing them to do their jobs more effectively. The Software Engineering Community of Practice page, accessible to NASA personnel on the NASA Engineering Network (NEN), and Software Processes Across NASA (SPAN), accessible to NASA users from the SPAN tab in this Handbook, support this objective.

Current software Community of Practice capabilities are centered on a collection of information arranged in a hierarchical fashion. Topics are searchable to help the user quickly locate content related to the user’s needs.

The software Community of Practice and Software Processes Across NASA (SPAN) were established and are managed to satisfy two primary goals.

1. Provide a repository of software engineering assets.
2. Encourage the sharing of these assets within the Agency.

The main types of information that reside on these sites include:

• Documents.
• Handbooks.
• Checklists.
• Reports.
• Presentations.
• Proceedings.
• Course materials.
• Tools.
• Worksheets,
• Software catalogs.
• Metrics repositories.
• Videos.
• Links.
• Contact lists.

The current NEN Software Engineering Community of Practice site and Software Processes Across NASA (SPAN) are only available inside of NASA and are not available to the public.

4. Small Projects

Small projects will find value in searching Software Processes Across NASA (SPAN), accessible to NASA users from the SPAN tab in this Handbook, for example, templates, tools, and best practices prior to needing them on their project.  This could prevent “reinventing” assets that may already exist and may lead to the more efficient execution of the project.

5. Resources

5.1 References

5.2 Tools

6. Lessons Learned

6.1 NASA Lessons Learned

No Lessons Learned have currently been identified for this requirement.

6.2 Other Lessons Learned

No other Lessons Learned have currently been identified for this requirement.