Anchoring the software process

Software organizations need common milestones to serve as a basis for their software development processes. The author proposes three such milestones, gives an example of their use, and discusses why they are success-critical for software projects. To avoid the problems of the previous model milestones-stakeholder mismatches, gold plating, inflexible point solutions, high risk downstream capabilities, and uncontrolled developments-software projects need a mix of flexibility and discipline. The risk driven content of the LCO, LCA, and IOC milestones let you tailor them to specific software situations and yet they remain general enough to apply to most software projects. And, because they emphasize stakeholder commitment to shared system objectives, they can provide your organization with a collaborative framework for successfully realizing software's most powerful capability: its ability to help people and organizations cope with change.