6.6 Deliveries for Planned Events Like Milestones

Development Model

A development model is a breakdown of the work for development, production, and maintenance of a product into smaller, limited activities. These activities follow each other in a predefined course. The classical waterfall model is an example of how a development model may be constructed . Another example is the iterative development model, where some of the activities are shorter but are repeated a number of times during the project life cycle.

No matter which development model one chooses for a given project, each activity should end with a milestonea specific point with a specified outcome. One of the outcomes for a milestone should be a specific delivery: a milestone delivery. Other points during a project's life cycle may be planned and defined with an associated delivery.

Milestones

The number, names , and content of milestone deliveries depend on the project and the chosen development model. An example of milestones with associated milestone deliveries in a project following a waterfall model is

• Conclusion of preparations

• Conclusion of user requirements specification

• Conclusion of specification of software requirements

• Conclusion of architectural design

• Conclusion of detailed design

• Conclusion of coding and module test

• Conclusion of integration test

• Conclusion of system test

• Conclusion of acceptance test

• Final delivery

These deliveries will typically grow larger as the project progresses and new versions of earlier configuration items replace old ones, with changes rippling through to all affected items. Table 6-1 shows an example of milestone deliveries and their contents and development over time. The numbers shown for the configuration items are their respective version numbers .

The milestones in Table 6-1 are not identical to the activities already mentioned, partly for space reasons, partly to show that milestones may vary from project to project. Some of the configuration items in the deliveries are deliveries in their own right. For example, a subsystem may be a delivery consisting of several source code files and header files. For the sake of clarity, only the top deliveries are included in Table 6-1.

Table 6-1. Contents of Milestone Deliveries

Milestone
Included Configuration Items	Closing of Requirements	Closing of Architectural Design	Closing of Detailed Design	Closing of Module Test	Closing of System Test	Final Acceptance of System Test
Project plan	1.0	2.0	3.0	4.0	4.1	4.1
Configuration management plan	1.0	2.0	3.0	4.0	4.0	4.0
Test plan and test specification	1.0	2.0	3.0	4.5	5.2	6.3
Requirement specification	1.0	1.2	1.3	1.4	1.6	1.6
Architectural design		1.0	1.2	1.3	1.3	1.3
Detailed design			1.0	1.1	1.2	1.3
User manual				1.0	1.1	1.1
Subsystem 1				1.0	1.1	1.2
Subsystem 2				1.0	1.1	1.2
Compiler				4.3	4.3	4.3
Linker				7.2.5	7.2.5	7.2.6
Complete system					1.0	1.1
Release note						1.0
A dash indicates that the configuration item is not part of the delivery.