Effective Software Project Management

Chapter 11. The Incremental SDPM Scoping Phase

I find the great thing in this world is, not where we stand, as it is in what direction we are moving.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes American physician and writer

Chapter Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to: Explain the Scoping Phase of the Incremental SDPM strategy Conduct the Scoping Phase of the Staged Delivery Waterfall model Conduct the Scoping Phase of the Feature-Driven Development model Understand the role of the WBS in defining project increments Scope the Incremental plan

The first variation from the Linear SDPM strategy is the Incremental SDPM strategy, which is discussed in this part of the book. Incremental models arise out of the customer’s need to deliver partial functionality at intermediate points along the systems development time line. For a variety of business reasons, the customer cannot wait until the end of the development cycle to get their glimpse of the product and begin to derive business value. Market forces have put them in a position where they need to generate business value early. In many cases it may simply be a positioning strategy. They want to get to the market first and establish an early position for themselves.

The Incremental SDPM strategy is accomplished by “chunking” the functionality and features into meaningful parts so that each part offers marketable business value. Several increments might be defined so that the released product grows in functionality over time. ...