u03a1 SkyNet Risk Summary - Joe Schartman

10/22/2008

Stakeholders

• Have you identified all stakeholders?

• The stakeholders groups of concern are the contracting sponsor Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the DHS customer representatives including DHS SkyNet program management, and civilian contract representatives, the BA corporation developer prime contractor, and the end users and effected civilians groups, the BA developers and customer representatives that work together for the rapid application development using joint application development (RAD/JAD) process.

• Have you identified from all groups the leader or spokesman?

• The leader point of contact (POC) for the stakeholders groups are the DHS program manager (PM), BA PM and chief engineer, the site directors, and the state/county/city senators/majors for respective sites.

• Have you ever met the stakeholders?

• Acting as the BA PM, I have weekly program status meetings with the DHS PM and the respective site directors where integration testing has been planned.

• Do you have information on the background of the stakeholders (history)?

• The BA corporation contracts office has supplied the public information that is available on the stakeholders POCs.

Fears

• Do you know what the fears are generally for the type of stakeholders you have (e.g. Programmers)?

• The DHS has fears that the system installation will not occur on schedule and that the requirements will not be completely verified/implemented.

• The developers have fears of requirements changing and additional enhancements added after the spiral requiremnts definition periods.

• All stakeholders have fears that contract funding will be cutback or terminated by the US congress or change of administrations.

• Do you know what the fears are of the stakeholders per group?

• Customers fear that developers will not correctly implement the requiremnts.

• Developers fear the customers will add or change requirements.

• Contracting departments fear the contract terms will be overrun, cutback, and/or terminated.

• Developers fear that their developed code will contain bugs or faults

• System Integrators fear that system interfaces will not interface successfully.

• Do you know what the fears are for each individual?

• Customers fear that the individual requirements they specified are not clear or will be misunderstood/implements.

• Developers fear the customers will add or change requirements affecting their classes.

• Do you know how this project affects the fears of the stakeholders?

• In general, all stakeholders have fears that the system will have flaws and defects that provide for holes that can be exploited. These exploits may result in security breaches and lifes lost.

Wishes

• Do you know what the wishes are generally for the type of stakeholders you have (e.g. Programmers)?

• An issue refers to a concern, complaint, compliment or suggestion that a stakeholder wishes to raise. All such issues will be addressed using formal Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) process.

• Do you know what the wishes are of the stakeholders per group?

• Customers will wish for additional capabilities.

• System integrators will will for higher performance hardware (HW)

• Software Developers will will for lower level requirements.

• Management will wish for development ahead of schedule.

• Do you know what the wishes are for each individual?

• The individual for each stakeholder group identified above will have the same type wish with respective to the components and functionality within thier responsiblility.

• Do you know how this project affects the wishes of the stakeholders?

• This project will affect the personal security and freedom for all of the stakeholders. Each individual stakeholder wish is critical for achieving this security and freedom goal.

Requirements

Product

• Are the cause and goal of the project clear to you?

• Yes, the cause and goal for the SkyNet are clearly to not allow security breaches of the national boarders via illegals, smugglers, and terrorists.

• Is the project scope identified and does it include what you can change, what you must change, and what you can't change?

• The scope is not sufficiently detailed since the requirements are still very high level so that the parameters for many of the boarder protection sensors and system alerting mechanisms are not detailed for precise qualification testing.

Process

• Are the constraints identified (money, time, people)?

• The contraints are identified for the first few system spiral deliveriers regarding project budget, time, and personal. These constraints need to be planned for future spirals based on the metrics for successfully completed spiral prototypes.

• Do you have any idea how much room there is to negotiate these constraints?

• No, this will depend on the DHS and military budgets and current adminstrations during the renogotiation periods. Hopefully the system will be successful and there will be budget for future expansions.

• If there are already estimations, do you know how much you can trust them?

• The current estimations should be accurate for completing the first spiral prototype project phase iteration. The system is being built ontop a well know realtime linux platform and the developers have experience with these type of GUI interfaces. This prototype also minimizes risk since the SkyNet sensors are being simulated for the prototype development and system qualification stages.

• Is the project strategy clear and easy?

• Not easy but clear. Develop prototype using simulation for sensors and wired internet for components which will be lab qualified.

• Is the project organisation identified? Does every member have added value to the project?

• Yes, the initial project organisation requires a system requirements, development, and testing teeams. Each team has a project manager, lead engineer, and engineering support staffs. All team project managers report the the chief project engineer.

Project management

• Are you able to negotiate?

• RAD/JAD based requirements changes after each requirements definition phase will be handled by an Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) process. This process allows regotiation.

• Are you able to think in win-win situations?

• We are confident of a successful delivery for the planned spiral implementation and believe that ECP enhancements can be managed with additional schedule and budget negotiations.

• Are you risk averse?

• We are not risk averse since the prototype spirals are planned to implement the highest risk design features early in the spiral process. A major risk aversion is delaying the wireless capabilities until System Qualification Testing (SQT)

• Do you include your own stakes into the process?

• The development group will reuse some existing software middle for OS core and Service orientated archecture (SOA) SW layers. This SW reuse is both risk aversion and an example of using development stakes in the process.

• Are you able to give the project back in case it smells like a trap?

• There is no financial penalty for a no-go forward decision. The current SW baseline would then need to be captured and delivered to the customer.

Feedback

• Is everyone aware for the need and use of giving feedback?

• The plan calls for getting early customer feedback and signoff on design and prototyped functionality. This feedback will be using formal peer reviews and informal RAD/JAD teleconferences.

• Have you any idea how to provide feedback?

• Customer feedback will be tracked formal peer reviews and informal RAD/JAD teleconferences.

• Do you really understand the techniques you want to use?

• We have delivered succesful systems to DOD and Government organisations for many decades. We are experienced using the RAD/JAD extreme agile processes for over a decade.

• Did you schedule (time, money, people) activities to provide the feedback?

• The System Development Plan will be followed for schedule (time, money, people) activities and the feedback process tools.