1. Introduction

1.1 Activity Concept

Currently the SWEHB is a collection of pages: 

• SWEs - Requirements from NPR 7150.2D along with Rationale, Guidance, Small Projects, Resources, Lessons Learned and Software Assurance, if applicable
• Topics - Additional guidance for appropriate for some SWEs
• PATs - Process Asset Templates - derived from SWEs and Topics
• Other pages - such as Document Contents, FAQs, etc.

Pages include links to other pages based on the relevance of the content on those pages. 

The notion of Activity is a natural way to bring together pages from the existing SWEHB into a collection of pages that have a common purpose, an Activity. 

1.2 Activity Sequence

Software Engineering activities are conducted in a predictable sequence. This sequence may be a once through / "waterfall" cycle. Or, it may be an iterative  or evolutionary series of cycles which build toward a final product. Regardless of the model chosen, individual activities in all these cycles are very similar. 

The major activity groupings here give you a quick way to find guidance in the SWEHB to help you satisfy the needs of the development project while also satisfying the requirements of NPR 7150.2. 

The activities associated with Software Development are listed in the tabs of this page. Each tab takes you to a list of links to pages where the activity is is explained in more detail. At the lowest level, there is a list of links to specific pages in the SWEHB where details of the activity are explained and more guidance is provided. In some cases, templates or other Process Assets are included to further help you in conducting the activity. 

1.1 Activity Groupings

The tabs in this page initially will contain all of the activities in Ch 2 through 5 of NPR 7150.2. This is done to ensure that all SWEs are accounted for. 

As the page matures, Topics, PATs, and other resources will be distributed to enrich the content of the activities. 

2. Institutional Activities

The Institutional Activities include activities associated with OCE, OSMA, and Centers as well as Software Development Project teams. Each activity contains several requirements (from NPR 7150.2D chapter 2)  ensuring that higher levels of management establish certain means and infrastructure for projects to use in their projects. In some cases, requirements for Project teams are included describing the use of the management provided resources in their projects. 

For example: Management is responsible for providing training for engineers who develop software. Project teams are responsible for ensuring that team members have had this training (in addition to other training on project specific systems and software) so that they may produce high quality software. 

2.1 OCE  and OSMA Software Engineering Initiative

Agency Level Activities are intended to provide "enabling support" to project teams. These activities include direction, guidance and support to project teams. The requirements describing these activities are found in NPR 7150.2D Chapter 2. The full activity includes some requirements from Chapters 3 through 5 which are the responsibility of the project teams to satisfy. Many of the names for these Activities come directly from NPR 7150.2D. In a few cases, the names are changed to better express the full scope of the Activity. 

3. Activities

The Software and Assurance activities associated with Software Development Projects are listed as links below. 

Each page will contain an activity description and contain links to all the associated SWEs, Topics, PATs, and other pages in the SWEHB that are associated with the activity. 

3.1 Software Activity Pages

Links go to existing pages. Underlined (Red in edit mode)  links have not yet been created. All activity pages to be children of the Software Project Activities page.

Content structure is contained in the Activity Template. 

Project Software Activities

3.2 Software Assurance Activities

Many of the activities of Software Assurance run parallel to Software Development Activities. In fact, development activities that have specific SA participation have a tab in the SWE specifically for Software Assurance participation. 

To further this relationship, the activities below draw on the SA requirements and tasks from NASA-STD-8739.8B and are associated with the SWEs in NPR 7150.2D. 

4. Distribution of SWEHB pages

This tab contains a distribution of SWEs into Activities. Each SWE in the SWEHBVD is in the table. The table lists the Primary Activity in which the SWE is located. Also, for those SWEs that are associated with other activities, the associated activities are listed. This table will be used to distribute the SWEs into activities ensuring that none are lost in the distribution process. 

Under Construction in separate spreadsheet. This table will be updated periodically as the spreadsheet is completed. 

4.1 SWE pages

4.2 Topic Pages

Includes Recommended Content pages from some of the topic pages. 

4.3 PAT Pages

4.4 Other Pages

5. Activity Page Structure

We will need to decide how to consistently display information about activities. Since we have two groups involved with the Activity pages. There are multiple ways of displaying the information related to an Activity. 

5.1 Common Elements in the Activity Structure

5.1 Combined Format

In the combined format, Activities that are closely related such as Planning may have a combined format. Tab 2 information is associated with both Software Engineering and Software Assurance content.  An additional tab is provided to include SA tasks (from the included SWEs) that apply to the activity. 

A risk associated with this way of displaying Activity information is that it may be difficult to easily pick out the SA pieces from the Engineering pieces of an activity. It will be critical to specify who is involved in each element of the activity. An example of this can be found in Planning where the Engineering and Assurance elements of the activity run in parallel and have considerable overlap. Engineering will plan certain processes and then Assurance will plan the auditing of those processes. 

5.2 Separate Formats 

In separate formats, there is  only one template. The indication of who is performing the activity is indicated in the title of the Activity. In this example, SA activities include the SA Task lists from the associated SWEs. Software Engineering Activities would not have SA Tasks displayed in section 2.1. 

6. Alternative Activity Styles

The Activity is a new concept for organizing content in SWEHB. In this tab, we explore various ways to display activity content while keeping several requirements in mind: 

• minimize the creation of new content by reusing existing content as much as possible. 
• minimize training necessary to use the activity, it should be obvious how to use the activity and its information
• make the activity inclusive so that Software Developers and Software Assurance and others can use it easily

6.1 Initial Reactions to First Two Templates

At our 12/13/2023 meeting, there was some discussion about the organization and content of the two templates reviewed. It was not clear how these templates would accomplish the inclusivity requirement above. In this tab, we will explore some alternatives to these first two templates to attempt to get an Activity organization that satisfies all of the requirements. 

7. Other Considerations For Activities

7.1 Readiness Reviews in Activities

Topic 7.9 - Entrance and Exit Criteria covers a number of reviews that occur at the completion of certain activities.

• Should these reviews be accounted for in the activities? 
• Are they activities by themselves? 
• Do we need PATS for each of these reviews?
  • Could be a single PAT for each review or 3 PATS (Entrance Criteria, Materials for Review, Exit Criteria) for each review. 

7.2 Life Cycle Products

Topic 7.8 - Maturity of Life Cycle Products at Milestone Reviews covers maturity of certain life cycle work products at the times of readiness reviews. Currently they are mentioned in the Inputs and Outputs sections of activity tab 1. 

• Should these Work Products be accounted for in the activities in greater depth? Currently I list the docs that are in 7.18. Maybe this should be expanded to cover the docs in NPR 7150.2D, Chapter 6?
• Some docs in Chapter 6 are not broken out in 7.18. They exist as sections of the docs (like Software Development Plan). Should these be mentioned in the appropriate activity?

7.3 Software Engineering Products 

From NPR 7150.2D, Chapter 6, there are some products in the list that are not in Topic 7.18 Documentation Guidance (Minimum Document Content):

• w. Programmer’s/Developer’s Manual

Does this require another Topic?