1. Activity Overview

Activities are collections of processes and tasks performed by Software Development Teams in the Life Cycle of a Software Development Project. The Activities in this Handbook were derived from NPR 7150.2 and NASA-STD-8739.8 and a host of other resources including guidance from the CMMI, a collection of Industry Best Practices largely focused on the development of Software Products. 

1.1 Activity Components

In this handbook, Activities are not processes. They are not proscriptive, and do not represent a singular way that something must be done. Activities represent a suggested direction to guide the software development team to best achieve the elements of the requirements. They are given the freedom to select details of the way to perform the work that suits them best. In this handbook an activity is comprised of: 

• Activity -  This is a Prototype Process - This is the piece of the Software Development Life Cycle Process Set that is design to perform a portion of the Software Development.
• Requirements  - Elements from NPR 7150.2 and NASA-STD-8739.8 that projects must satisfy and are subject to review and audit by OCE and OSMA. 
• Supplementary Materials - additional guidance, beyond that contained in the SWEHB Requirement pages, to help project teams satisfy the requirements and provide a Software Product that meets the customer's requirements. 

1.2 Activity - (Prototype Process)

The Activity is actually a Prototype Process and is typically a collection of smaller processes that work together to perform some work. Because of the design of the handbook and the driving documents (NPR 7150.2 and NASA-STD-8739.8), there is not a single process that fulfills all of the requirements. Any attempt at such a process would yield a process so large that it would be totally unmanageable. 

Also, this Activity (Prototype Process) mimics but does not replace, some of the processes built and used by Centers in their Software Development work. The purpose of the Activity is to help those needing to build their own process by providing a starting point for a process that contains all of the necessary requirements (from NPR 7150.2) so that there are no holes that need to be filled later. Development Teams may select parts from Center Processes as well as the Activity in this handbook to come up with their own unique process. The resulting process must contain the necessary elements to satisfy the driving documents (NPR 7150.2 and NASA-STD-8739.8). 

Each Activity is derived from a collection of similar processes found in the Software Development Industry, and trimmed down to contain only the necessary elements, and NPR requirements, to stand alone as a complete process. Along the way, the critical requirements (SWE pages) and Supplementary Materials from the handbook are used to reinforce the key elements of the Activity.

The "Activity" will be presented in detail in the first tab of the Activity page. If will be followed by the Requirements tab and the Supplementary Materials tab. 

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SWEHB Introduction

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2. Requirements

The core of any activity is the requirements in NPR 7150.2. Each requirement is defined in a SWE page (a Requirements is commonly referred to as a SWE) which contains supporting materials including:

• The text of the Requirement and the Notes (if any) from NPR 7150.2.
• The history of the requirement through all the versions of the SWEHB in which the SWE appears. 
• The Applicability table graphic describing the Classes of Software for which the SWE is applicable. 
• The Rationale for the requirement. All the requirements are based on established Industry Best Practices contained in a variety of resources including the CMMI. 
• Guidance containing the "how to" information for the requirement. It is somewhat prescriptive in its content and allows for a number of ways in which the requirement might be satisfied. 
• Small Projects contains a short discussion on how the requirement might be met in a small project. 
• Resources is a list of links to other materials that are helpful in understanding how to satisfy the requirement. It includes: ;
  • References - links to other web sites and published materials on the subject.
  • Tools - that might be used during development, testing or other activities.
• Lessons Learned from multiple sources that demonstrate the value of satisfying the requirement.
• Software Assurance tasks, work products, metrics, and guidance associated with satisfying the requirement. 

In an Activity, this tab will contain links to all of the associated requirements (SWE pages) from NPR 7150.2 

3. Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Materials take the form of 

• Topics - these supply more in-depth guidance on specific requirements or groups of requirements that are valuable to a software development team. 
• Document Contents - example / minimal content for key documents typically produced in a Software Development Project.
• Checklists - used to ensure that development or quality objects are not overlooked. These may be downloaded and used by a project. 
• Process Asset Templates - Documents that contain a number of checklist items that can be used in development or Peer Reviews to ensure that development or quality objects are not overlooked. 
• Links to SPAN pages related to the activity. These pages contain links to Center Process Asset Library pages that contain Center resources such as:
  • Processes, Procedures and Work Instructions
  • Templates for documents and other deliverables
  • Example documents from projects
  • Tools
  • Metrics 
  • Training 
  • Lessons Learned
• Associated Activities that are performed together with the activity. For example, a requirements document is created in the A.03 Software Requirements Activity and might be reviewed using the A.10 Software Peer Reviews and Inspections Activity.