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          Apart from minor (but pertinent) details, the PDP is divided into four major parts, namely: Project Organization, Managerial Process Plans, Technical Process Plans, and Supporting Process Plans. The Project Organization part of the PDP document describes and illustrates the organizational hierarchy of the developing team. The Managerial Process Plan section of the PDP describes how the developing should start and how it will close. Apart from which, this section also tackles the general and specific details of managing resources, budget, staff and schedule. The Technical Process Plan part of the PDP is where the process, methods, tools and techniques in building the system, as well as maintenance and release, are stated. And, the Supporting Process Plan section of the PDP provides general details about configuration management, testing, standards and quality assurance, reviews, issue management, subcontract management and improvement plan. This part is essential because many documents particularly the Test Plan and the Quality Assurance documents base its initial plans, standards and processes.

          The first part of the Project Development Plan document details the purpose, scope and objectives of the project. Of course, the developers of the system must know what they are building, and the limitations and extent of the finished product. The initial section of the PDP also enumerates the list of deliverables of the project like documents and the finished system itself.

          The first major part of the PDP document is the Project Organization. This is where the internal and external organizations are identified, together with their roles and responsibilities. Improper or poorly defined position in the organization causes confusion amongst the members of the developing team regarding each one’s roles and responsibilities; causes some members of the team to slacken around and do nothing, while some have more than enough in their hands; and some members tend to assume the responsibility supposed to be assigned to another team member. Thus, poor staffing or poor Human Resources management might contribute heavily to the project’s total failure.

          The second major part of the PDP document is the Managerial Process Plans.  This is where the specific and general management process for the project appears. While doing this part of the PDP before, I find the contents of this section repetitive especially in the areas of schedule, budget, staffing and resources management. There are certain developers who don’t have to worry about estimating schedule, budget, staffing and resources because the company where they are employed provides them with all the things that they need.  However, there are developers who must do all the estimating and budgeting. Thus, the Start-up Plan (under the Managerial Process Plans) is where all the initial plans of the developers are found. Usually, this plan came about during the pre-Requirements stage. The opposite of the Start-up plan is the Close-out Plan that discusses how the project should end. Work Plan section (under the Managerial Process Plans) is where the specific details of budget, schedule, staffing and resources are found. Also, we can have an early glimpse of the Work Breakdown Structure and the specific work activities. Risk Management Plan (under the Managerial Process Plans) describes the mechanisms used to identify, analyze, build mitigation and contingency plans; and manages the risks possibly found in the project.

          The Technical Process Plans describe the processes used for developing the product or IT services.  The activities in the Work Breakdown Structure follow a guideline in the form of a Software Development Life Cycle Model (i.e. Waterfall Method). If a Life Cycle Model is not determined, sometimes it is difficult to prioritize the activities in the project.

          Lastly, the Supporting Process Plans of the PDP discusses the supporting processes of the project, namely: configuration management, testing, documentation, quality assurance, reviews, issue management (which I find somewhat similar with Risk Management), subcontract management and improvement plan. Configuration management has something to do with the configuration items identified in the project. These configuration items are already named as early as pre-Requirements stage but they are visible for every phase-end or if an item is already declared original and final version. Samples of configuration items are documents. Once changes are made in these items (which normally happens during project-end), a control board analyzes changes prior to acceptance or rejection. The analysis of the control board is one of several activities under Configuration Management. The general guidelines for the Test Plan and the Quality Assurance Plan documents are first planned and described in the Supporting Process Plans of the PDP. Without the initial guidelines, there is a huge possibility that testing and quality assurance activities are taken for granted.

          The Project Development Plan document is very important and essential especially if you’re into software development. Without this document as guide, an IT developer might experience “groping in the dark” in the middle of the project, NO FORMAL GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS established, and there is poor management in areas of budget, staffing, schedule and resources.

P. Lobrin

plobrin@gmail.com

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Here is an except:-
< The software testing maturity model, shown in Figure 1, is similar to a software process maturity model that is familiar to many software engineers. It has been described by Watts S. Humphrey in his book Managing the Software Process,2 and has been cited by Frank Houston, a former FDA staffer, and Steven Rakitin in presentations to the Health Industry Manufacturers Association.3,4 The version shown here as Figure 2 is adapted from Rakitin's presentation. The process model adapts well to automated software testing because effective software verification and validation programs grow out of development programs that are well planned, executed, managed, and monitored. A good software test program cannot stand alone; it must be an integral part of the software development process.
Level 1: Accidental Automation. The first level of the software testing model--like level 1 in the software process model-- is characterized by ad hoc, individualistic, chaotic attempts to get the job done. Important information (for example, what to test) is not documented and must be extracted from in-house experts. Test plans are sketchy. Test results are not documented consistently. Schedules slip. Either products are delayed or testing becomes a cursory, poorly documented exercise. Management is uninvolved or uninformed.
This level has been designated Accidental Automation because the use of any automated tools or techniques comes about almost as if by accident and is not supported by process, planning, or management functions. Products released on the basis of such testing may well be accidents waiting to happen. Testing at this level may be appropriate only for a product that has no potential for harming the patient or user; it is never appropriate for a computerized medical device.
Level 2: Beginning Automation. The second testing level corresponds directly to Level 2¬Repeatable in the software process maturity model (see Figure 2). There are hundreds of capture-and-replay test tools on the market today that simply repeat the responses of a system under test.5 As in the process model, however, these tools have limited capabilities and lose their economic usefulness quickly as a product changes.
Level 2 testing is still dependent on information locked in the minds of in-house experts, although documentation is beginning to appear in the form of software requirements specifications (SRSs) and test requirements specifications (TRSs). However, in most cases, large portions of these documents are written after the fact and used to meet regulatory requirements rather than to direct the development and test processes. Writing them does, however, provide good practice for moving to level 3.
Level 3: Intentional Automation. At the third level, automated testing becomes both well defined and well managed. The TRSs and the test scripts themselves proceed logically from the SRSs and design documents. Furthermore, because the test team is now part of the development process, these documents are written before the product is delivered for testing. Consequently, schedules become more reliable. Level 3 is appropriate for many medical device manufacturers.
Level 4: Advanced Automation. The highest testing maturity level is a practiced and perfected version of level 3 with one major addition: postrelease defect tracking. Defects are trapped and sent directly back through the fix, test creation, and regression test processes. The software test team is now an integral part of product development, and testers and developers work together to build a product that will meet test requirements. Any software bugs that do occur are caught early, when they are much less expensive to fix. When testing is performed at this level, an FDA inspector can pick up any piece of product documentation and trace the development process all the way from the SRS that describes the feature to the test results that validate it. >>

Would “Level 4 automated testing” automatically
occur unless it was sabotaged by office politics ?

Would it be criminally irresponsible not to do “Level 4 automated testing” ?

Which one do you guys thing is better choice that is involve more coding and easier to find job with high salary.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks