The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model Principles and Practices for Successful Systems and Software

The spiral model combines the best of top-down and bottom-up development, offering powerful advantages in large and complex software projects. Now, its creator -- the legendary software engineering pioneer Barry Boehm -- has thoroughly updated the original model to reflect the needs of today's increasingly interdependent and interrelated systems. Embracing the Spiral Modelfully introduces Boehm's new Incremental Commitment Spiral Model (ICSM), and demonstrates how to use it to fully address modern stakeholder goals and values. Boehm and three expert co-authors demonstrate how ICSM can be used to address more of the development cycle and nearly every type of development projects. Next, the authors guide implementers in applying ICSM's principles, implementing its activities, and adapting it to their own environments. To support effective implementation, Boehm will provide a complete set of electronic tools and templates, and process guides. As they proceed, software professionals will learn how to use ICSM to address challenges including concurrency, emergence (complexity arising from a multitude of simple interactions), and time to market -- all while maintaining the spiral model's proven qualities of effectiveness, resilience, and affordability. This concise, accessible book also shows how to overcome key misunderstandings of the original spiral model -- and thereby achieve far better results.

Barry Boehm developed a conceptual version of the spiral model at TRW in 1978, but only in 1981 was able to employ it in successfully leading the development of a corporate TRW software development environment. After its formal publication in 1988, he and his colleagues have devoted extensive effort to clarify and evolve it through several intermediate versions into the ICSM. He is the USC Distinguished Professor of Computer Sciences, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Astronautics; the TRW Professor of Software Engineering; the Chief Scientist of the DoD-Stevens-USC Systems Engineering Research Center, and the founding Director of the USC Center for Systems and Software Engineering. He was director of DARPA-ISTO 1989-92, at TRW 1973-89, at Rand Corporation 1959—73, and at General Dynamics 1955-59. He is a Fellow of the primary professional societies in computing (ACM), aerospace (AIAA), electronics (IEEE), systems engineering (INCOSE), and lean and agile development (LSS), and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

 

Dr. Richard Turner has over thirty years of experience in systems, software and acquisition engineering. He is currently a Distinguished Service Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and a Principle Investigator with the Systems Engineering Research Center. Although on the author team for CMMI, Dr. Turner is now active in the agile, lean and kanban communities. He is currently studying agility and lean approaches as a means to solve large systems issues. Dr. Turner is a member of the Executive Committee of the NDIA/AFEI Agile for Defense Adoption Proponent Team, the INCOSE Agile SE Working Group, and was an author of the new IEEE Computer Society/PMI Software Extension for the Guide to the PMBOK that spans the gap between traditional and agile approaches. He is a fellow of the Lean Systems Society, a Golden Core awardee of the IEEE Computer Society, and co-author of three other books: Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed, co-written with Barry Boehm, CMMI Survival Guide: Just Enough Process Improvement, coauthored with Suzanne Garcia, and CMMI Distilled.

 

Jo Ann Lane is currently the systems engineering Co-Director of the University of Southern California Center for Systems and Software Engineering, a member of the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) Research Council representing the system of systems research area, and emeritus professor of computer science at San Diego State University.  Her current areas of research include system of systems engineering, system affordability, expediting systems engineering, balancing lean and agile techniques with technical debt, and innovation in systems engineering. Previous publications include over 50 journal articles and conference papers.  In addition, she was co-author of the 2008 Department of Defense Systems Engineering Guide for Systems of Systems and a contributor to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK).  Prior to her current work in academia, she was a vice president in SAIC’s Healthcare and Software and Systems Integration groups.

 

Dr. Supannika Koolmanojwong is a faculty and a researcher at the University of Southern California Center for Systems and Software Engineering. Her primary research areas are Systems and Software Process Modeling, Software Process Improvement, Software Process Quality Assurance, Software Metrics and Measurement, Agile and Lean Software Development and Expediting Systems Engineering. She is a certified ScrumMaster and a certified Product Owner. Prior to this, she was a software engineer and a RUP/OpenUp Content Developer at IBM RationalSoftware Group.

FOREWORD BY FRED BROOKS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART I THE FOUR ICSM PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER 1 THE FIRST PRINCIPLE: STAKEHOLDER VALUE-BASED SYSTEM DEFINITION AND EVOLUTION

CHAPTER 2 THE SECOND PRINCIPLE: INCREMENTAL COMMITMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY  

CHAPTER 3 THE THIRD PRINCIPLE: CONCURRENT MULTIDISCIPLINE SYSTEMS DEFINITION AND DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 4 THE FOURTH PRINCIPLE: EVIDENCE-BASED AND RISK/OPPORTUNITY-BASED DECISIONMAKING

PART II. ICSM STAGES AND PHASES

CHAPTER 5 STAGE IOVERVIEW

CHAPTER 6 STAGE II OVERVIEW                  

PART III: THE ICSM PROCESS DECISION TABLE WITH 10 RISK-DRIVEN COMMON CASES

CHAPTER 7 OVERVIEWOF PROCESS DECISIONSFOR 10COMMON CASES  

CHAPTER 8 SMALL CUSTOM SOFTWARE SYSTEMS              

CHAPTER 9 NDI AS A WILDCARD                 

CHAPTER 10 LARGER,MORE COMPLEX HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SYSTEMS                

APPENDIX 1 -CASE STUDIES          

APPENDIX 2 -MAPPINGS OF ICSM TO STANDARDS AND MODELS

APPENDIX 3 -GLOSSARY

APENDIX 4 –VALUE BASED ENGINEERING