IEEE SPMP 1998

The IEEE Software Project Management Plan

IEEE, The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering, offers a template for software development plans. This standard is widely used. One of its main qualities is that it does not impose any type of methodology onto the organisation adopting it. Here's the template that IEEE provides for its Software Project Management Plan (SPMP):

  1. Introduction
    1. Project Overview Project objectives, product description, major work activities and milestones, master budget and schedule.
    2. Project Deliverables List of deliverables, and their attributes such as delivery dates, quantity, location, and so on.
    3. Evolution of SPMP Updating process of the SPMP, SPMP under Configuration Management
    4. References All material referenced in the plan and retrieval mechanisms.

  2. Project Organisation
    1. Process Model Description of the software development process used for the project or a pointer to it.
    2. Organisational Structure Internal management structures such as project accounting, reporting, responsibilities, and so on.
    3. Organisational Boundaries Specification of the interfaces between the project and the organisations it involves, such as sponsoring organisation, parent organisation, customer organisation and subcontractors.
    4. Project Responsibilities Each project function and/or activity (major deliverables) listed as a unit's (or someone's) responsibility.

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  3. Managerial Process
    1. Management Objectives and Priorities Description of the management objectives the project is aimed at fulfilling.
    2. Assumptions, Dependencies and Constraints Description of the hypotheses defining the project. Assumptions are the beliefs that justify the project. Dependencies are the organisations, events (internal or external) and support functions the project depends on. Constraints may come from the organisations involved, budgets, schedules or anything else of finite nature that limits the project in some aspect.
    3. Risk Management Risk assessment, tracking and mitigation mechanisms. Risk management plan or pointer to it.
    4. Monitoring and Controlling Mechanisms Description of Verification and Validation Procedures (audits, reviews, inspections and walkthroughs), distribution lists, reporting mechanisms and formats.
    5. Staffing Plan Description of skillsets per project phase, start times and duration.

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  4. Technical Process
    1. Methods, Tools and Techniques Description of or pointers to technical methods for software development, pointers to configuration management plan, quality plan, procurement plan, and so on.
    2. Software Documentation Description of or pointer to the documentation plan, including naming conventions and style guides.
    3. Project Support Functions List of the required support functions for the project. These may be quality assurance, secretarial support, contract negotiation support, and so on.
       
  5. Work Packages, Schedule and Budget
    1. Work Packages List of work packages with their (unique) identifiers. These may be presented with a WBS diagram.
    2. Dependencies Description of the order of execution of work packages. A PERT chart is recommended.
    3. Resource Requirements List of required resources, including people, support hardware and software, facilities, and so on.
    4. Budget, Resource Allocation and Schedule Budget allocation for each work package. Resource allocation per project phase and per work package. Detailed schedule of project activities (PERT and/or GANTT).

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  6. Additional Sections