Stretching to Achieve NFL-Caliber Agility for Software Development Programs
(Room S320A)
27 Nov 18
2:00 PM
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2:30 PM
Procurements with significant software development have a tradition of using the Waterfall process. The Waterfall method is well understood, and underlies the Navy’s Systems Engineering Technical Review (SETR) process, which assumes that a system’s components mature at the same rate. However, that is not always the best way to run a software development program. For the best outcome, the software development and review process should fit the program’s needs.
A recent upgrade to an acoustic training system took a hard look at the traditional Waterfall method versus other best-practice software development processes. The combined efforts of the Government team and the developer to define and implement a novel software development process have yielded highly successful results in program cost savings and accomplishments. This novel method leverages key components of an Agile process with the spirit of the Rapid Capability Insertion mythology that has been embraced by the US Navy across many of its major development programs while meeting the contractual milestone requirements of the SETR process. The process utilizes sprint tasking focused on a disciplined “gate” process with early and continuing Government involvement to ensure that the design and development is achieving the desired result. The net result is a product that is representative of the US Navy’s requirements while maximizing the funding and schedule performance of the program. This is significant to the acquisition community professionals who have been seeing disappointing results using traditional development approaches in complex software development programs.
This paper will address software development best practices; identify the characteristics of a program for which this novel method optimally works; the recommended metrics for monitoring progress and measuring success; and the specific seven actions that led to a successful outcome.