SCRAM: A method for assessing the risk of schedule compliance
Adrian Pitman, Angela Tuffley, Betsy Clark · 2013
Schedule slippage is an unfortunate reality for many large development software intensive systems engineering programs particularly when the project enters the critical systems integration and testing phase. The Schedule Compliance Risk Assessment Method (SCRAM) was developed as a collaborative effort between the Australian Defence Material Organisation, Software Metrics Inc and RedBay Consulting. It utilises a framework for organizing the information gathered during an assessment, to identify the root causes of slippage, to communicate the reasons behind the schedule slippage, and for structuring recommendations to address the root causes. This framework, referred to as the Root Cause Analysis of Schedule Slippage model (or RCASS) depicts the major areas impacting schedule and the relationships between these areas. SCRAM includes schedule health checks to evaluate the construction and logic of the program schedule, schedule risk analysis (SRA) to show the probability distribution of completion dates and software metric analysis (SMA) to estimate and benchmark software development. To date, SCRAM has been applied to a number of defence programs in Australia and the US. These assessments have typically been applied when schedule problems occur during the Integration and Testing phase. However prior to this critical phase, SCRAM can be used at the commencement of a program to identify and mitigate potential risks or during program execution to monitor schedule. In 2010, the SCRAM Process Reference / Assessment Models were developed as ISO/IEC 15504 Information technology Process assessment conformant models in an effort to maximize consistency and provide an objective framework for assessment. This effort, funded by the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation, was undertaken to support SCRAM as it is rolled out to a wider audience of users. This presentation will discuss the SCRAM Methodology, the RCASS Model that underpins the root causes of schedule slippage, use of schedule risk analysis (SRA) and software metric analysis (SMA) including real-world examples of successful assessments using SCRAM to identify schedule risks both prior and during the systems integration and testing phase.