Any document, NASA document or external document, that is referred to in a SWEHB page should be treated as reference.
Most references are called out specifically in the content of a page and include a document ID or title and a link to the Resources tab where a link to the reference can be found. Some references may not be directly called out in the text of the SWE page. These are "implied references.
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3. Activity View
Activity View was first rolled out in 2025, in SWEHBVD of the Handbook. It organizes and presents the SWEs and Topics in the SWEHB in a two ways:
By Development Phase - This is for all content that is part of a phase in the Software Life Cycle.
By Organizational Structure - This is for Software Assurance and Institutional content that is distributed throughout the Life Cycle or is supportive of the Life Cycle.
In the A.00 Activity View page of SWEHBVD, there is a "Software Development Life Cycle" diagram with links to all the Activity pages in the view.
Each Activity page has one or more sections devoted to a phase of the Life Cycle. Some of the more complex phases have multiple tabs to group related content. The next level down contains:
Brief explanation of the work that is included.
Frequency of This Activity - statements of when the activity is initially performed and may need to be performed again.
Links to SWEHB pages - These are organized by:
Related SWEs - the requirements that are performed in this activity.
Related Work Products - the Work Products that are generated by satisfying the requirement.
Related Process Asset Templates - the PATs that are available to be used
Related Topics - this Supplementary Material provides additional guidance in support of the requirement.
Related SPAN Links - link(s) to SPAN pages with links to pages in Center Process Asset Libraries having helpful templates and content.
All pages in the SWEHB are reviewed and have links pointing to Related SWEs and Supplementary Materials which are listed in the Guidance tabs or Resources tabs. This cross-referencing extends to Activities and provides Bi-directional traceability among the Activities, Requirements, and Supplementary Materials. See the Crosslinking Tab for more details.
In the original SWEHB (space: 7150), there was a "term" macro in use. Terms were defined in a database structure using the reporting and scaffolding plugins. the "term" macro was put into SWEHB pages wherever a term was used. When the user hovered over the term, a Windows "tool-tip" popped up and contained a definition of the term from the term database.
After a number of updates to Confluence and the plug-ins, the term macro no longer worked as originally designed. The macro was removed from SWEHB pages in version SWEHBVB and the Terms Database was reduced to a static list of terms.
7.1 Terms Database
In SWEHBVD, Terms Database is a static list of terms defined in a variety of documents referenced in SWEHB.
Blog entries are used in the Handbook as a quick method of announcing changes or new content to the Handbook user community. They appear in:
Book A. Introduction in the right column of tab 1. The list includes the five most recent posts. This gives Handbook users a feel for how frequently the Handbook is being updated with new content.
All pages in the SWEHB are reviewed and have links pointing to Related SWEs and Supplementary Materials which are listed in the Guidance tabs or Resources tabs. This cross-referencing extends to Activities and provides Bi-directional traceability among the Activities, Requirements, and Supplementary Materials. See the Crosslinking Tab for more details.
11.1 General Crosslinking
The concept of Crosslinking comes from the application of Bi-directional Traceability. A requirement from NPR 7150.2 is a simple statement of something that must be done in a Software Development Project. When it is enhanced in the Handbook, information is added such as
Rationale - Why the requirement should be done i.e. what is the value to the project of performing the requirement.
Guidance - How to satisfy the requirement. This can include multiple ways to satisfy it, some of which might be complex.
Small Projects - Discussion on alternatives for how small projects might satisfy the requirement.
Resources - References and other helpful information about the requirement.
Lessons Learned - Information about problems that have occurred or were avoided by satisfying the requirement.
Software Assurance Guidance - How SA supports and assists in the satisfying of the requirement.
It is up to the author to identify the crosslinking that is appropriate on a page. This is based on the content. For example, in a SWE page Guidance tab there may be a statement about how a Topic provides a technique that can be used to satisfy the requirement. A link to the Topic page would be included in the text of the tab. It would be appropriate to also have a link in the Topic that points back to the SWE acknowledging that the topic can be used to satisfy the requirement. Additionally, Since all SWEs are a part of one or more Activities, it would be appropriate for the SWE to point to the appropriate Activity. From the point of view of the Activity, the Activity should include the SWE in its list of related SWEs and the Topic in its list of Related SM (Supplementary Materials).
To support this concept, each SWE, and Topic has several child pages. For example, SWE-020 - Software Classification would have the following children:
By reviewing the "Page Information" for a page it is possible to see the incoming and outgoing links for the page this will tell you:
Incoming Links - Other pages that are pointing to the page as s target. This is where other pages will send the user to the page.
Outgoing Links - Links to other pages that the page is sending users to.
Parent Page - the parent of the current page in the hierarchy
Each of the incoming and outgoing links should appear in one of the "Related" pages to be properly crosslinked.
11.3 Crosslinking in SWEs
A SWE page may have links to the following crosslinked pages:
Another SWE page that is in the same phase, in a preceding phase, or a succeeding phase.
SM page that is somehow related to the subject of the SWE or its guidance.
Activity where the SWE may be performed.
11.3 Crosslinking in Supplementary Materials
A Topic or SM page may have links to the following crosslinked pages:
SWE pages that are in the same phase, in a preceding phase, or a succeeding phase.
SM page that is somehow related to the subject of the Topic or its guidance.
Activity where the Topic may be used.
11.4 Crosslinking in Activities
An Activity page may have links to the following crosslinked pages:
SWE pages that are in the same phase, in a preceding phase, or a succeeding phase.
SM page that is somehow related to the subject of the SWE or its guidance.
11.5 Additional Guidance Sections
In each SWE there is an "Additional Guidance" section in tab 3 (and tab 7). This section contains a Related Links table with Include-page macros pulling in the "Related SWEs" and "Related SM" child pages.
In each Topic there is an "Additional Guidance" section in the Resources tab. This section contains a Related Links table with Include-page macros pulling in the "Related SWEs" and "Related SM" child pages.
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Example of a "Related Links" table from SWE-121
Additional guidance related to this requirement may be found in the following materials in this Handbook:
