1. Requirements

4.6.1 The NASA Headquarters' Office of the Chief Engineer and Center training organizations shall provide and fund training to advance software engineering practices and software acquisition.

1.1 Notes">1.1 Notes

NPR 7150.2 does not include any notes for this requirement.

1.2 Applicability Across Classes

Appendix D of NPR 7150.2 does not include any notes for this requirement.

Key:    A_SC = Class A Software, Safety-Critical | A_NSC = Class A Software, Not Safety-Critical | ... | - Applicable | - Not Applicable
^X - Applicable with details, read above for more | P(C) - P(Center), follow center requirements or procedures

2. Rationale

NASA software development activities in support of projects often require a balanced blend of software engineering development expertise and knowledge of NASA's acquisition practices and regulations, if software is contracted out.  The OCE and the Centers have committed to support these objectives by providing sufficient funding in support of the training.   In some instances, funding for training may be provided by multiple organizations if the training is beneficial to the communities they represent.

3. Guidance

Software engineer skills and expertise can be acquired through formal courses, on the job training, and specialized work assignments. While some of these skill enhancements come about while executing the project's activities (i.e., funded by the project), many need formal course work to achieve improvements in software engineering capability. 

OCE and Center funding provides an opportunity to build a foundation that supports software improvement activities as well as core courses across a software engineer's career. 

These courses typically are formally developed, and are usually found and maintained as part of the DACUM curriculum set by the OCE^4,5 and Center training organizations.  The OCE partners in funding these courses with Centers to assure balanced offerings and availability around the Agency. The OCE funding supports training for courses associated with 1) CMMI appraisals that support the OCE Software Engineering Improvement Initiative, as well as 2) core software courses across a software engineer's career ( https://nen.nasa.gov/web/software/training ) . 

Software engineers use project training funds to develop specific skills and expertise in programming languages, design tools, operating systems, coding standards, etc.  Project funded training differs from OCE and Center-funded training in that it is generally focused on skills needed to produce software element for system & subsystems.

OCE conducts an annual call with SWG representatives to plan the following year's needs and for course offerings.

Additional guidance related to software training may be found in the following related requirements in this handbook:

4. Small Projects

The responsibility for this requirement is at the Agency and Center level, so all projects are affected regardless of size or scope.

5. Resources

1. NASA Systems Engineering Processes and Requirements with Change 1, NPR 7123.1A, 2009
2. NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements, NPR 7120.5D (NM-7120.81), 2009.
3. "CMMI for Development, Version 1.3", CMU/SEI-2010-TR-033, Software Engineering Institute, 2010
4. OCE Software Engineering Training   
5. NASA APPEL Training Master Schedule and Registration
6. System for Administration, Training, and Educational Resources for NASA (SATERN)
   

5.1 Tools

Tools to aid in compliance with this SWE, if any, may be found in the Tools Library in the NASA Engineering Network (NEN).

NASA users find this in the Tools Library in the Software Processes Across NASA (SPAN) site of the Software Engineering Community in NEN.

The list is informational only and does not represent an “approved tool list”, nor does it represent an endorsement of any particular tool. The purpose is to provide examples of tools being used across the Agency and to help projects and centers decide what tools to consider.

6. Lessons Learned

No Lessons Learned have currently been identified for this requirement.