Intergroup Coordination

a key process area for level 3: Defined

Intergroup Coordination involves the software engineering group's participation with other project engineering groups to address system-level requirements, objectives, and issues. Representatives of the project's engineering groups participate in establishing the system-level requirements, objectives, and plans by working with the customer and end users, as appropriate. These requirements, objectives, and plans become the basis for all engineering activities.

The technical working interfaces and interactions between groups are planned and managed to ensure the quality and integrity of the entire system. Technical reviews and interchanges are regularly conducted with representatives of the project's engineering groups to ensure that all engineering groups are aware of the status and plans of all the groups, and that system and intergroup issues receive appropriate attention.

The software-specific practices related to these engineering tasks are described in the Requirements Management and Software Product Engineering key process areas.

Goals

Goal 1

Goal 2

Goal 3

Commitment to perform

Commitment 1 -- The project follows a written organizational policy for establishing interdisciplinary engineering teams.

1. The system requirements and project-level objectives for the project are defined and reviewed by all affected groups.

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   Examples of affected groups include:
   • software engineering,
   • software estimating,
   • system test,
   • software quality assurance,
   • software configuration management,
   • contract management, and
   • documentation support.

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2. The engineering groups coordinate their plans and activities.
3. Managers are responsible for establishing and maintaining an environment to facilitate interaction, coordination, support, and teamwork between the project's engineering groups, between the project and the customer or end users, as appropriate, and throughout the organization.

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   The end users referred to in these practices are the customer-designated end users or representatives of the end users.

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   Ability to perform

   Ability 1 -- Adequate resources and funding are provided for coordinating the software engineering activities with other engineering groups.

   Ability 2 -- The support tools used by the different engineering groups are compatible to enable effective communication and coordination.

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   Examples of support tools that should be compatible include:
   • word processing systems,
   • database systems,
   • graphics tools,
   • spreadsheet programs,
   • problem tracking packages, and
   • library management tools.

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   Ability 3 -- All managers in the organization receive required training in teamwork.

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   Examples of training include:
   • building teams;
   • managing teams;
   • establishing, promoting, and facilitating teamwork; and
   • group dynamics.

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   Refer to the Training Program key process area.

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   Ability 4 -- All task leaders in each engineering group receive orientation in the processes, methods, and standards used by the other engineering groups.

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   Refer to the Training Program key process area.

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   Ability 5 -- The members of the engineering groups receive orientation in working as a team.

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   Refer to the Training Program key process area.

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   Activities performed

   Activity 1 -- The software engineering group and the other engineering groups participate with the customer and end users, as appropriate, to establish the system requirements.

   Specifically, these groups:
   1. Define the critical characteristics of the customer's and end users' requirements, as appropriate.
   2. Negotiate critical dependencies.
   3. Document the acceptance criteria for each product delivered to the customer or end user, as appropriate.

   Activity 2 -- Representatives of the project's software engineering group work with representatives of the other engineering groups to monitor and coordinate technical activities and resolve technical issues.

   1. The representatives of these groups monitor and coordinate technical activities by:
      • coordinating the specification and providing the technical review and approval of the system requirements and system design;

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        The system requirements and system design are typically the responsibility of the system engineering group, but representatives of the other engineering groups are expected to have significant involvement in these tasks.

        The system requirements and system design include:

        • the overall system requirements,
        • the system configuration (i.e., hardware, software, and other system components),
        • the allocation and tracing of requirements to these system components, and
        • the definitions of the interfaces between these system components.

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      • providing the project-level technical review and analysis needed to manage and control changes to the system requirements and project-level objectives throughout the project's life cycle;
      • tracking and reviewing the design and development activities for hardware, software, and other system components; and
      • assessing, developing recommendations for, and tracking technical risks that involve more than one engineering group.

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      Refer to Activity 10 of the Integrated Software Management key process area for practices covering risk management.

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   2. The representatives of the groups handle technical issues by:
      • resolving project-level conflicts and clarifying system requirements and design issues;
      • developing joint recommendations to resolve problems; and
      • addressing process issues that span the engineering groups of the project.

   Activity 3 -- A documented plan is used to communicate intergroup commitments and to coordinate and track the work performed.

   This plan is:
   1. The baseline for:
      • the project schedule,
      • the contractual and technical aspects of the project, and
      • the assignment of responsibilities to the engineering groups.
   2. Used to coordinate activities between the different engineering groups.
   3. Readily available to the members of all engineering groups.
   4. Updated to incorporate all intergroup commitments and changes to these commitments.
   5. Updated as the work progresses to reflect progress and plan changes at the project level, particularly when major project milestones are completed and when plans change significantly.
   6. Reviewed and agreed to by all engineering groups and the project manager.

   Activity 4 -- Critical dependencies between engineering groups are identified, negotiated, and tracked according to a documented procedure.

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   Refer to Activity 9 of the Integrated Software Management key process area for practices covering management of critical dependencies.

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   This procedure typically specifies that:
   1. Each critical dependency is explicitly defined, including:
      • the item to be provided,
      • who will provide it,
      • when it will be provided, and
      • the criteria for acceptance.
   2. Critical dependencies are negotiated between the software engineering group and other engineering groups in the project and organization.
   3. Need dates and availability dates of critical dependency items are tied to the project schedule and the software schedule.
   4. The agreement for each critical dependency is documented, reviewed, and approved by both the receiving group and the group responsible for providing the critical dependency item.
   5. Critical dependencies are tracked on a regular basis and corrective actions are taken when appropriate.
      • Status and actual or projected completion are compared to the plan used to coordinate intergroup commitments.
      • Effects of late and early completions are evaluated for impacts on future activities and milestones.
      • Actual and potential problems are reported to the appropriate managers.

   Activity 5 -- Work products produced as input to other engineering groups are reviewed by representatives of the receiving groups to ensure that the work products meet their needs.

   Activity 6 -- Intergroup issues not resolvable by the individual representatives of the project engineering groups are handled according to a documented procedure.

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   Examples of intergroup issues include:
   • incompatible schedules,
   • inadequate funding,
   • technical risks,
   • system-level design and requirements defects, and
   • system-level problems.

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   Activity 7 -- Representatives of the project engineering groups conduct periodic technical reviews and interchanges.

   In these meetings, the participants:
   1. Provide visibility of the needs and desires of the customer and end users, as appropriate.
   2. Monitor the technical activities of the project.
   3. Ensure that the groups' interpretation and implementation of the technical requirements conform to the system requirements.
   4. Review the commitments to determine whether they are being met.

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      Refer to the Software Project Tracking and Oversight key process area for practices covering reviews.

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   5. Review the technical risks and other technical issues.

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      Refer to Activity 10 of the Integrated Software Management key process area for practices covering risk management.

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   Measurement and analysis

   Measurement 1 -- Measurements are made and used to determine the status of the intergroup coordination activities.

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   Examples of measurements include:
   • actual effort and other resources expended by the software engineering group for support to other engineering groups;
   • actual effort and other resources expended by the other engineering groups in support of the software engineering group;
   • actual completion of specific tasks and milestones by the software engineering group to support the activities of other engineering groups; and
   • actual completion of specific tasks and milestones by the other engineering groups to support the activities of the software engineering group.

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   Verifying implementation

   Verification 1 -- The activities for intergroup coordination are reviewed with senior management on a periodic basis.

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   Refer to Verification 1 of the Software Project Tracking and Oversight key process area for practices covering the typical content of the senior management oversight reviews.

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   Verification 2 -- The activities for intergroup coordination are reviewed with the project manager on both a periodic and even-driven basis.

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   Refer to Verification 2 of the Software Project Tracking and Oversight key process area for practices covering the typical content of the project management oversight reviews.

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   Verification 3 -- The software quality assurance group reviews and/or audits the activities and work products for intergroup coordination and reports the results.

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   Refer to the Software Quality Assurance key process area.

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   The software quality assurance responsibilities for this key process area may be subsumed into a quality assurance function that covers all the project engineering groups.

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   At a minimum, the reviews and/or audits verify:
   1. The procedure for identifying, negotiating, and tracking critical dependencies between the project engineering groups.
   2. The handling of intergroup issues.

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  antoine@apple2.com 29-04-2000