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UNIT - III
Workflows and Checkpoints of process, Software process workflows, Iteration workflows, Major
milestones, minor milestones, periodic status assessments.
Process Planning
Work breakdown structures, Planning guidelines, cost and schedule estimating process, iteration
planning process, Pragmatic planning.

INTRODUCTION TO WORKFLOW
Workflow is the definition, execution and automation of business processes where tasks,
information or documents are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a
set of procedural rules.
Organizations use workflows to coordinate tasks between people and synchronize data between
systems, with the ultimate goal of improving organizational efficiency, responsiveness and
profitability.
A fully functional digital workflow provides four key benefits to a company:
✓ Improved productivity
✓ Process transparency
✓ Faster business reaction time
✓ Improved accountability

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Figure 3-1: Workflow Process

There are seven top-level of software process workflows:

1. Management workflow: controlling the process and ensuring win conditions for all stakeholders

2. Environment workflow: automating the process and evolving the maintenance environment
3. Requirements workflow: analyzing the problem space and evolving the requirements artifacts

4. Design workflow: modeling the solution and evolving the architecture and design artifacts
5. Implementation workflow: programming the components and evolving the implementation and
deployment artifacts
6. Assessment workflow: assessing the trends in process and product quality

7. Deployment workflow: transitioning the end products to the user

Checkpoints of the process

It is important to place visible milestones in the life cycle in order to discuss the progress of the
project by the stakeholders and also to achieve,
1) Synchronize stakeholder expectations and achieve agreement among the requirements, the
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design, and the plan perspectives.

2) Synchronize related artifacts into a consistent and balanced state.
3) Identify the important risks, issues, and out-of-tolerance conditions.
4) Perform a global review for the whole life cycle, not just the current situation of an individual
perspective or intermediate product.
Three sequence of project checkpoints are used to synchronize stakeholder expectations
throughout the lifecycle:
1) Major milestones
2) Minor milestones
3) Status assessments
The most important major milestone is usually the event that transitions the project from the
elaboration phase into the construction phase.
The format and content of minor milestones are highly dependent on the project and the
organizational culture.
Periodic status assessments are important for focusing continuous attention on the evolving
health of the project and its dynamic priorities.

Software Process Workflows

Previous chapters introduced a life-cycle macro process and the fundamental sets of artifacts.
The macro process comprises discrete phases and iterations, but not discrete activities. A
continuum of activities occurs in each phase and iteration. The next-level process description is
the micro processes, or workflows, that produce the artifacts. The term workflow is used to
mean a thread of cohesive and mostly sequential activities. Workflows are mapped to product
artifacts as described in Chapter 6 and to project teams as described in Chapter 11. There are
seven top-level workflows:

1. Management workflow: controlling the process and ensuring win conditions for all
stakeholders

2. Environment workflow: automating the process and evolving the maintenance environment

3. Requirements workflow: analyzing the problem space and evolving the requirements artifacts

4. Design workflow: modeling the solution and evolving the architecture and design artifacts

5. Implementation workflow: programming the components and evolving the implementation

and deployment artifacts

6. Assessment workflow: assessing the trends in process and product quality

7. Deployment workflow: transitioning the end products to the user.

Iteration Workflows
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An iteration consists of a loosely sequential set of activities in various proportions, depending

on where the iteration is located in the development cycle. Each iteration is defined in terms of a
set of allocated usage scenarios. The components needed to implement all selected scenarios are
developed and integrated with the results of previous iterations. An individual iteration's
workflow, illustrated in Figure, generally includes the following sequence:

• Management: iteration planning to determine the content of the release and develop the
detailed plan for the iteration; assignment of work packages, or tasks, to the development team

• Environment: evolving the software change order database to reflect all new baselines and
changes to existing baselines for all product, test, and environment components.

• Requirements: analyzing the baseline plan, the baseline architecture, and the baseline
requirements set artifacts to fully elaborate the use cases to be demonstrated at the end of this
iteration and their evaluation criteria; updating any requirements set artifacts to reflect changes
necessitated by results of this iteration's engineering activities

• Design: evolving the baseline architecture and the baseline design set artifacts to elaborate
fully the design model and test model components necessary to demonstrate against the
evaluation criteria allocated to this iteration; updating design set artifacts to reflect changes
necessitated by the results of this iteration's engineering activities

• Implementation: developing or acquiring any new components, and enhancing or modifying

any existing components, to demonstrate the evaluation criteria allocated to this iteration;
integrating and testing all new and modified components with existing baselines (previous
versions)

• Assessment: evaluating the results of the iteration, including compliance with the allocated
evaluation criteria and the quality of the current baselines; identifying any rework required and
determining whether it should be performed before deployment of this release or allocated to
the next release; assessing results to improve the basis of the subsequent iteration's plan

• Deployment: transitioning the release either to an external organization (such as a user,

independent verification and validation contractor, or regulatory agency) or to internal closure
by conducting a post-mortem so that lessons learned can be captured and reflected in the next
iteration

As with any sequence of a software development workflow, many of the activities occur
concurrently. For example, requirements analysis is not done all in one continuous lump; it
intermingles with management, design, implementation, and so forth.

Iterations in the inception and elaboration phases focus on management, requirements, and
design activities. Iterations in the construction phase focus on design, implementation, and
assessment. Iterations in the transition phase focus on assessment and deployment. Figure 8-3
shows the emphasis on different activities across the life cycle.

These descriptions are pretty simplistic. In practice, the various sequences and overlaps among

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iterations become more complex. The terms iteration and increment deal with some of the
pragmatic considerations. An iteration represents the state of the overall architecture and the
complete deliverable system. An increment represents the current work in progress that will be
combined with the preceding iteration to form the next iteration. Figure, an example of a simple
development life cycle, illustrates the difference between iterations and increments. This
example also illustrates a typical build sequence from the perspective of an abstract layered
architecture.

Figure: 3-2: Iteration Workflow

Three types of joint management reviews are conducted throughout the process:
1) Major milestones: These are the system wide events are held at the end of each development
phase. They provide visibility to system wide issues.
2) Minor milestones: These are the iteration-focused events are conducted to review the content
of an iteration in detail and to authorize continued work.
3) Status assessments: These are periodic events provide management with frequent and regular
insight into the progress being made.
An iteration represents a cycle of activities. Each of the lifecycle phases undergo one or more
iterations.
Minor milestones capture two artifacts: a release specification and a release description. Major
milestones at the end of each phase use formal, stakeholder-approved evaluation criteria and
release descriptions; minor milestones use informal, development-team-controlled versions of
these artifacts.
Most projects should establish all four major milestones. Only in exceptional case you add
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other major milestones or operate with fewer. For simpler projects, very few or no minor
milestones may be necessary to manage intermediate results, and the number of status
assessments may be infrequent.

Figure 3-3: Sequence of life-cycle checkpoints

Major Milestones:
 In an iterative model, the major milestones are used to achieve concurrence among all
stakeholders on the current state of the project. Different stakeholders have different
concerns: 

Customers: schedule and budget estimates, feasibility, risk assessment, requirements

understanding, progress, product line compatibility.

Users: consistency with requirements and usage scenarios, potential for accommodating
growth, quality attributes.
Architects and systems engineers: product line compatibility, requirements changes, trade-
off analyses, completeness and consistency, balance among risk, quality and usability.

Developers: Sufficiency of requirements detail and usage scenario descriptions,

frameworks for component selection or development, resolution of development risk,
product line compatibility, sufficiency of the development environment.
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Maintainers: sufficiency of product and documentation artifacts, understandability,

interoperability with existing systems, sufficiency of maintenance environment.
Others: regulatory agencies, independent verification and validation contractors, venture
capital investors, subcontractors, associate contractors, and sales and marketing teams.
• Life-Cycle Objective Milestone: These milestones occur at the end of the inception phase.
The goal is to present to all stakeholders a recommendation on how to proceed with
development, including a plan, estimated cost and schedule, and expected benefits and cost
savings.
• Life-Cycle Architecture Milestone: These milestones occur at the end of the elaboration
phase. Primary goal is to demonstrate an executable architecture to all stakeholders. A more
detailed plan for the construction phase is presented for approval. Critical issues relative to
requirements and the operational concept are addressed.

Table 3-1. The general status of plans, requirements and products across the major milestones

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Figure 3-4: Engineering artifacts available at the life-cycle architecture milestone

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Figure 3-5. Default agendas for the life-cycle architecture milestone

Initial Operational Capability Milestone: These milestones occur late in the construction
phase. The goals are to assess the readiness of the software to begin the transition into
customer / user sites and to authorize the start of acceptance testing.
• Product Release Milestone: Occur at the end of the transition phase. The goal is to assess the
completion of the software and its transition to the support organization, if any. The results
of acceptance testing are reviewed, and all open issues are addressed and software quality
metrics are reviewed to determine whether quality is sufficient for transition to the support
organization.

Minor Milestones: 
The number of iteration-specific, informal milestones needed depends on the content and length of the
iteration.  
 Iterations which have one-month to six-month duration have only two milestones are needed:
the
 iteration readiness review and iteration assessment review. For longer iterations some other
 intermediate review points are added. 
 All iterations are not created equal. An iteration take different forms and priorities, depending
on where the project is in the life cycle. 
  Early iterations focus on analysis and design. Later iterations focus on completeness,
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consistency,
 usability and change management. 
 
 Iteration Readiness Review: This informal milestone is conducted at the start of each iteration to
review the detailed iteration plan and the evaluation criteria that have been allocated to this
iteration

Iteration Assessment Review: This informal milestone is conducted at the end of each iteration to
assess the degree to which the iteration achieved its objectives and to review iteration results, test
results, to determine amount of rework to be done, to review impact of the iteration results on the plan
for subsequent iterations. 

Figure 3-6: Typical minor milestones in the life cycle of an iteration

Periodic Status Assessments

Periodic status assessments are management reviews conducted at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly) to
address progress and quality indicators, ensure continuous attention to project dynamics, and maintain
open communications among all stakeholders.
Periodic status assessments serve as project snapshots. While the period may vary, the recurring event
forces the project history to be captured and documented. Status assessments provide the following:
• A mechanism for openly addressing, communicating, and resolving management issues, technical issues,
and project risks
• Objective data derived directly from on-going activities and evolving product configurations
• A mechanism for disseminating process, progress, quality trends, practices, and experience information
to and from all stakeholders in an open forum
Periodic status assessments are crucial for focusing continuous attention on the evolving health of the
project and its dynamic priorities. They force the software project manager to collect and review the
data periodically, force outside peer review, and encourage dissemination of best practices to and
from other stakeholders.
The default content of periodic status assessments should include the topics identified in

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Table 3-2: Default content of status assessment reviews

Work Breakdown Structures

A good work breakdown structure and its synchronization with the process framework are critical
factors in software project success. Development of a work breakdown structure dependent on the
project management style, organizational culture, customer preference, financial constraints, and
several other hard-to-define, project-specific parameters.
A WBS is simply a hierarchy of elements that decomposes the project plan into the discrete work
tasks. A WBS provides the following information structure:
 A delineation of all significant work
 A clear task decomposition for assignment of responsibilities
 A framework for scheduling, budgeting, and expenditure tracking
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Many parameters can drive the decomposition of work into discrete tasks: product subsystems,
components, functions, organizational units, life-cycle phases, even geographies. Most systems have a
first-level decomposition by subsystem. Subsystems are then decomposed into their components, one
of which is typically the software.

Figure 3-7: Work Breakdown structure

Conventional WBS Issues

Conventional work breakdown structures frequently suffer from three fundamental flaws.
1. They are prematurely structured around the product design.
2. They are prematurely decomposed, planned, and budgeted in either too much or too little detail.
3. They are project-specific, and cross-project comparisons are usually difficult or impossible.
Conventional work breakdown structures are prematurely structured around the product design.
Figure shows a typical conventional WBS that has been structured primarily around the
subsystems of its product architecture, then further decomposed into the components of each
subsystem. A WBS is the architecture for the financial plan.
Conventional work breakdown structures are prematurely decomposed, planned, and budgeted in
either too little or too much detail. Large software projects tend to be over planned and small
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projects tend to be under planned. The basic problem with planning too much detail at the outset is
that the detail does not evolve with the level of fidelity in the plan.
Conventional work breakdown structures are project-specific, and cross-project comparisons are
usually difficult or impossible. With no standard WBS structure, it is extremely difficult to
compare plans, financial data, schedule data, organizational efficiencies, cost trends, productivity
trends, or quality trends across multiple projects.

Conventional work breakdown structure, following the product hierarchy

Management
System requirement and design
Subsystem 1
Component 11
Requirements
Design Code Test
Documentation

…(similar structures for other components)

Component 1N Requirements Design

Code Test Documentation
…(similar structures for other subsystems)

Subsystem M Component M1
Requirements
Design Code Test
Documentation
…(similar structures for other components)
Component MN
Requirements
Design Code Test
Documentation
Integration and test
Test planning
Test procedure preparation
Testing
Test reports
Other support areas
Configuration control
Quality assurance
System administration

Evolutionary Work Breakdown Structures

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An evolutionary WBS should organize the planning elements around the process framework rather than
the product framework. The basic recommendation for the WBS is to organize the hierarchy as
follows:

 First-level WBS elements are the workflows (management, environment, requirements, design,
implementation, assessment, and deployment).
 Second-level elements are defined for each phase of the life cycle (inception, elaboration,
construction, and transition).
 Third-level elements are defined for the focus of activities that produce the artifacts of each phase.
A default WBS consistent with the process framework (phases, workflows, and artifacts) is shown in
Figure. This recommended structure provides one example of how the elements of the process
framework can be integrated into a plan. It provides a framework for estimating the costs and
schedules of each element, allocating them across a project organization, and tracking expenditures.
The structure shown is intended to be merely a starting point. It needs to be tailored to the specifics
of a project in many ways.
 Scale. Larger projects will have more levels and substructures.
 Organizational structure. Projects that include subcontractors or span multiple organizational entities
may introduce constraints that necessitate different WBS allocations.
 Degree of custom development. Depending on the character of the project, there can be very
different emphases in the requirements, design, and implementation workflows.
 Business context. Projects developing commercial products for delivery to a broad customer base may
require much more elaborate substructures for the deployment element.
 Precedent experience. Very few projects start with a clean slate. Most of them are developed as new
generations of a legacy system (with a mature WBS) or in the context of existing organizational
standards (with preordained WBS expectations).
The WBS decomposes the character of the project and maps it to the life cycle, the budget, and the
personnel. Reviewing a WBS provides insight into the important attributes, priorities, and structure of
the project plan.
Another important attribute of a good WBS is that the planning fidelity inherent in each element is
commensurate with the current life-cycle phase and project state. Figure 10-3 illustrates this idea. One
of the primary reasons for organizing the default WBS the way I have is to allow for planning
elements that range from planning packages (rough budgets that are maintained as an estimate for
future elaboration rather than being decomposed into detail) through fully planned activity networks
(with a well-defined budget and continuous assessment of actual versus planned expenditures).

Default work breakdown structure

A Management
AA Inception phase management
AAA Business case development
AAB Elaboration phase release specifications
AAC Elaboration phase WBS specifications
AAD Software development plan
AAE Inception phase project control and status assessments
AB Elaboration phase management
ABA Construction phase release specifications
ABB Construction phase WBS baselining
ABC Elaboration phase project control and status assessments
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AC Construction phase management

ACA Deployment phase planning
ACB Deployment phase WBS baselining
ACC Construction phase project control and status assessments
AD Transition phase management
ADA Next generation planning
ADB Transition phase project control and status assessments
B Environment
BA Inception phase environment specification
BB Elaboration phase environment baselining
BBA Development environment installation and administration
BBB Development environment integration and custom toolsmithing
BBC SCO database formulation
BC Construction phase environment maintenance
BCA Development environment installation and administration
BCB SCO database maintenance
BD Transition phase environment maintenance
BDA Development environment maintenance and administration
BDB SCO database maintenance
BDC Maintenance environment packaging and transition
C Requirements
CA Inception phase requirements development
CCA Vision specification
CAB Use case modeling
CB Elaboration phase requirements baselining
CBA Vision baselining
CBB Use case model baselining
CC Construction phase requirements maintenance
CD Transition phase requirements maintenance
D Design
DA Inception phase architecture prototyping
DB Elaboration phase architecture baselining
DBA Architecture design modeling
DBB Design demonstration planning and conduct
DBC Software architecture description
DC Construction phase design modeling
DCA Architecture design model maintenance
DCB Component design modeling
DD Transition phase design maintenance
E Implementation
EA Inception phase component prototyping
EB Elaboration phase component implementation
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EBA Critical component coding demonstration integration

EC Construction phase component implementation
ECA Initial release(s) component coding and stand-alone testing
ECB Alpha release component coding and stand-alone testing
ECC Beta release component coding and stand-alone testing
ECD Component maintenance
F Assessment
FA Inception phase assessment
FB Elaboration phase assessment
FBA Test modeling
FBB Architecture test scenario implementation
FBC Demonstration assessment and release descriptions
FC Construction phase assessment
FCA Initial release assessment and release description
FCB Alpha release assessment and release description
FCC Beta release assessment and release description
FD Transition phase assessment
FDA Product release assessment and release description
G Deployment
GA Inception phase deployment planning
GB Elaboration phase deployment planning
GC Construction phase deployment
GCA User manual baselining
GD Transition phase deployment
GDA Product transition to user

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Figure 3-8: Evolution of planning fidelity in the WBS over the life cycle

Planning Guidelines
Software projects span a broad range of application domains. It is valuable but risky to
make specific planning recommendations independent of project context. Project-independent
planning advice is also risky. There is the risk that the guidelines may be adopted blindly
without being adapted to specific project circumstances. Two simple planning guidelines should
be considered when a project plan is being initiated or assessed. The first guideline, detailed in
Table, prescribes a default allocation of costs among the first-level WBS elements. The second
guideline, detailed in Table, prescribes the allocation of effort and schedule across the lifecycle
phases.

Web Budgeting Defaults

First Level WBS Element Default Budget
Management 10%
Environment 10%
Requirement 10%
Design 15%

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Implementation 25%
Assessment 25%
Deployment 5%
Total 100%

Default distributions of effort and schedule by phase

Domain Inception Elaboration Construction Transition

Effort 5% 20% 65% 10%
Schedule 10% 30% 50% 10%

The Cost and Schedule Estimating Process

Project plans need to be derived from two perspectives. The first is a forward-looking, top-
down approach. It starts with an understanding of the general requirements and constraints,
derives a macro-level budget and schedule, then decomposes these elements into lower level
budgets and intermediate milestones. From this perspective, the following planning sequence
would occur:

1. The software project manager (and others) develops a characterization of the

overall size, process, environment, people, and quality required for the
project.
2. A macro-level estimate of the total effort and schedule is developed
using a software cost estimation model.
3. The software project manager partitions the estimate for the effort into a top-level
WBS using guidelines such as those in Table 10-1.
4. At this point, subproject managers are given the responsibility for
decomposing each of the WBS elements into lower levels using their top-
level allocation, staffing profile, and major milestone dates as constraints.

The second perspective is a backward-looking, bottom-up approach. We start with the end in mind,
analyze the micro-level budgets and schedules, and then sum all these elements into the higher level
budgets and intermediate milestones. This approach tends to define and populate the WBS from the
lowest levels upward. From this perspective, the following planning sequence would occur:

1. The lowest level WBS elements are elaborated into detailed tasks
2. Estimates are combined and integrated into higher level budgets and milestones.
3. Comparisons are made with the top-down budgets and schedule milestones.
Milestone scheduling or budget allocation through top-down estimating tends to exaggerate the
project management biases and usually results in an overly optimistic plan. Bottom-up estimates
usually exaggerate the performer biases and result in an overly pessimistic plan.
These two planning approaches should be used together, in balance, throughout the life cycle of the
project. During the engineering stage, the top-down perspective will dominate because there is
usually not enough depth of understanding nor stability in the detailed task sequences to perform
credible bottom-up planning.
During the production stage, there should be enough precedent experience and planning
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fidelity that the bottom-up planning perspective will dominate. Top-down approach should be
well tuned to the project-specific parameters, so it should be used more as a global
assessment technique. Figure illustrates this life-cycle planning balance.

Planning balance throughout the life cycle

Bottom up task level planning based on metrics

from previous iterations

Top down project level planning based on

microanalysis from previous projects

Engineering Stage Production Stage

Inception Elaboration Construction Transition
Feasibility iteration Architecture iteration Usable iteration Product
Releases
Engineering Stage Planning Emphasis Production Stage Planning Emphasis
Macro level task estimation for Micro level task estimation for
production stage artifacts production stage artifacts
Micro level task estimation for Macro level task estimation for
engineering artifacts maintenance of engineering artifacts
Stakeholder concurrence Stakeholder concurrence
Coarse grained variance analysis of Fine grained variance analysis of actual
actual vs planned expenditures vs planned expenditures
Tuning the top down project
independent planning guidelines into
project specific planning guidelines
WBS definition and elaboration

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Figure 3-9: Cost & Schedule Estimate process

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Figure 3-10: Estimate Cost Data Flow Diagram

The Iteration Planning Process

Planning is concerned with defining the actual sequence of intermediate results. An
evolutionary build plan is important because there are always adjustments in build
content and schedule as early conjecture evolves into well-understood project
circumstances.
Iteration is used to mean a complete synchronization across the project, with a well
orchestrated global assessment of the entire project baseline.
• Inception iterations. The early prototyping activities integrate the foundation components of a
candidate architecture and provide an executable framework for elaborating the critical use cases
of the system. This framework includes existing components, commercial components, and custom
prototypes sufficient to demonstrate a candidate architecture and sufficient requirements
understanding to establish a credible business case, vision, and software development plan.
• Elaboration iterations. These iterations result in architecture, including a complete
framework and infrastructure for execution. Upon completion of the architecture iteration, a
few critical use cases should be demonstrable: (1) initializing the architecture, (2) injecting a
scenario to drive the worst-case data processing flow through the system (for example, the peak
transaction throughput or peak load scenario), and (3) injecting a scenario to drive the worst-case
control flow through the system (for example, orchestrating the fault-tolerance use cases).
• Construction iterations. Most projects require at least two major construction iterations:
an alpha release and a beta release.
• Transition iterations. Most projects use a single iteration to transition a beta release into the final
product.
The general guideline is that most projects will use between four and nine iterations.
The typical project would have the following six-iteration profile:

• One iteration in inception: an architecture prototype

• Two iterations in elaboration: architecture prototype and architecture baseline
• Two iterations in construction: alpha and beta releases
• One iteration in transition: product release
A very large or unprecedented project with many stakeholders may require additional inception
iteration and two additional iterations in construction, for a total of nine iterations.

Pragmatic Planning
Even though good planning is more dynamic in an iterative process, doing it accurately is far easier.
While executing iteration N of any phase, the software project manager must be monitoring and
controlling against a plan that was initiated in iteration N - 1 and must be planning iteration N + 1.
The art of good project· management is to make trade-offs in the current iteration plan and the next
iteration plan based on objective results in the current iteration and previous iterations. Aside from
bad architectures and misunderstood requirements, inadequate planning (and subsequent bad
management) is one of the most common reasons for project failures. Conversely, the success of
every successful project can be attributed in part to good planning.
A project's plan is a definition of how the project requirements will be transformed into' a product
within the business constraints. It must be realistic, it must be current, it must be a team product, it
must be understood by the stakeholders, and it must be used. Plans are not just for managers. The
more open and visible the planning process and results, the more ownership there is among the team
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members who need to execute it. Bad, closely held plans cause attrition. Good, open plans can shape
cultures and encourage teamwork.

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