Book Description
This document was developed to provide any project developing software with a template for generating a Software Development Plan (SDP). This template will be used with project-specific information to produce an SDP that accurately describes the project’s organization, role, and responsibilities. This document shall supplement the "Software Project Planning" (SPP) Process document by providing an SDP template that a project shall use to generate a specific software project SDP.
This template describes the necessary elements to be considered when preparing an SDP. The template provides guidance and samples in the areas that are critical for the proper planning of a software project.
The SDP is the document that allows all personnel including the customer insight into all stages of the software development process and addresses the commitments of the software developer to the allocated requirements. It identifies resources, estimates of size and cost, schedules, constraints, life-cycle chosen, capabilities of the software developer's organization. The plan serves a basis for managing and tracking the software activities defined to accomplish the development of the project’s software. The SDP documents each group's responsibility for the development of the software. Each SDP shall reference the common suite of software management processes ("Project Standards") identified in the "Software Project Planning" process document.
Note that the SDP does not address all of the ISO/IEC 12207/MIL-STD-498 and CMM’s Level 2 and 3 processes, requiring a document such as the "Organizational Programme Management Plan" (OPMP) for full coverage.
The items contained in Performing General Software Development Activities, Section 4, identify basic topics which are necessary to create a workable plan for a software project. When a significant change occurs in the approach to software development, this plan must be updated to reflect that change. In addition, an SDP should be kept current by responding to changes due to programmatic redirection.
