“The title makes a huge promise: a way to divide commitment into increments that are both meetable (good news for developers) and meaningful (good news for managers and stakeholders). And the book makes good on that promise.” –Tom DeMarco, Principal, The Atlantic Systems Guild, author of Peopleware, Deadline, and Slack   “I am seriously impressed with this ICSM book. Besides being conceptually sound, I was amazed by the sheer number of clear and concise characterizations of issues, relationships, and solutions. I wanted to take a yellow highlighter to it until I realized I’d be highlighting most of the book.” –Curt Hibbs, Chief Agile Evangelist, Boeing   Use the ICSM to Generate and Evolve Your Life-Cycle Process Assets to Best Fit Your Organization’s Diverse and Changing Needs   Many systems development practitioners find traditional “one-size-fits-all” processes inadequate for the growing complexity, diversity, dynamism, and assurance needs of their products and services. The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model (ICSM) responds with a principle- and risk-based framework for defining and evolving your project and corporate process assets, avoiding pitfalls and disruption, and leveraging opportunities to increase value.   This book explains ICSM’s framework of decision criteria and principles, and shows how to apply them through relevant examples. It demonstrates ICSM’s potential for reducing rework and technical debt, improving maintainability, handling emergent requirements, and raising assurance levels.   Its coverage includes What makes a system development successful ICSM’s goals, principles, and usage as a process-generation framework Creating and evolving processes to match your risks and opportunities Integrating your current practices and adopting ICSM concepts incrementally, focusing on your greatest needs and opportunities   About the Website: Download the evolving ICSM guidelines, subprocesses, templates, tools, white papers, and academic support resources at csse.usc.edu/ICSM.  

Table of Contents:
Foreword         xiii Preface         xv About the Authors         xxi   Prologue         3   Chapter 0: Introduction         7 0.1 A World of Change   7 0.2 Creating Successful 21st-Century Systems   9 0.3 ICSM Distilled   16 0.4 Using the ICSM   25 0.5 Incremental ICSM Adoption Approaches   28 0.6 Examples of ICSM Use   29 0.7 How ICSM Might Have Helped a Complex Government Acquisition (healthcare.gov)   30 References   32   Part I: The Four ICSM Principles            35  Chapter 1: The First Principle: Stakeholder Value-Based Guidance          37 1.1 Failure Story: The Too-Good Road Surface Assessment Robot   38 1.2 Success Story: The Hospira Next-Generation Intravenous Medical Pump   42 1.3 The Fundamental System Success Theorem and Its Implications   47 1.4 The System Success Realization Theorem and Its Implications   49 References   55   Chapter 2: The Second Principle: Incremental Commitment and Accountability         57 2.1 A Failed Total-Commitment Project: Bank of America’s MasterNet   59 2.2 A Successful Incremental-Commitment Project: The TRW Software Productivity System   63 2.3 The Two Cones of Uncertainty and the ICSM Stages I and II   69 2.4 Alternative Incremental and Evolutionary Development Models   71 2.5 Development as C2ISR   75 References   78   Chapter 3: The Third Principle: Concurrent Multidiscipline Engineering         81 3.1 Failure Story: Sequential RPV Systems Engineering and Development   84 3.2 Success Story: Concurrent Competitive-Prototyping RPV Systems Development   86 3.3 Concurrent Development and Evolution Engineering   89 3.4 Concurrent Engineering of Hardware, Software, and Human Factors Aspects   92 3.5 Concurrent Requirements and Solutions Engineering   94 References   96   Chapter 4: The Fourth Principle: Evidence- and Risk-Based Decisions   97 4.1 Failure Story: The Unaffordable Requirement   99 4.2 Success Story: CCPDS-R   101 4.3 Feasibility Evidence as a First-Class Deliverable   104 4.4 How Much of Anything Is Enough?   107 4.5 Summing Up the Principles   108 References   109   Part II: ICSM Life Cycle and Stage I: Incremental Definition         113 Chapter 5: The ICSM Life Cycle          115 5.1 ICSM Life Cycle   115 5.2 Comparison of ICSM to Other Life-Cycle Models   115 5.3 Stage I: Deciding Why, What, When, Who, Where, How, and How Much   119 5.4 ICSM Case Study   120   Chapter 6: Exploration Phase          123 6.1 What Is the Exploration Phase?   123 6.2 What Are the Potential Pitfalls during Exploration?   126 6.3 Potential Major Risks to Watch for at the End of Exploration   127 6.4 How Exploration Scales from Small to Large, Complex Systems   128 6.5 Role of Principles in Exploration Activities   128 6.6 Exploration for the MedFRS Initiative   129   Chapter 7: Valuation Phase         133 7.1 What Is the Valuation Phase?   133 7.2 What Are the Potential Pitfalls during Valuation?   135 7.3 Major Risks to Watch for at End of Valuation   136 7.4 How Valuation Scales from Small to Large, Complex Systems   137 7.5 Role of Principles in Valuation Activities   138 7.6 Valuation for the MedFRS Initiative   139   Chapter 8: Foundations Phase         143 8.1 What Is the Foundations Phase?   143 8.2 What Are the Potential Pitfalls during Foundations?   146 8.3 Major Risks to Watch for at the End of Foundations   146 8.4 How Foundations Effort Scales from Small to Large, Complex Systems   147 8.5 Role of Principles in Foundations Activities   149 8.6 Foundations for the MedFRS System of Systems   150 8.7 Stage I Summary   152 Reference   152   Part III: Stage II: Incremental Development and Evolution           155 Chapter 9: Development Phase         157 9.1 What Is the Development Phase?   157 9.2 Ready to Release?   169 9.3 What Are the Potential Pitfalls during Development?   171 9.4 Major Risks to Watch for during Development   171 9.5 How Development Scales from Small to Large, Complex Systems   172 9.6 Role of Principles in Development Activities   174 9.7 MedFRS Development   174 Reference   178   Chapter 10: System Production and Operations   179 10.1 What Is “Production”?   179 10.2 What Are the Potential Pitfalls during Production?   180 10.3 Major Risks to Watch for during Production   181 10.4 What Is the Systems Operations Phase?   181 10.5 What Are the Potential Pitfalls during Operations?   183 10.6 Major Risks to Watch for during Operations   183 10.7 Production and Operations for the MedFRS Initiative   184 10.8 Stage II Summary   185   Part IV: Applying ICSM to Your Organization          189 Chapter 11: ICSM Patterns and Common Cases         191 11.1 ICSM Patterns   192 11.2 ICSM Common Cases   194 11.3 Common Case Examples   201 11.4 Summary: The ICSM Common Cases Overview   204 References   204   Chapter 12: ICSM and Your Organization          205 12.1 Leveraging Your Current Process Investments   205 12.2 Maximizing the Value of Your Organizational Knowledge   208 12.3 Where the Impact Is   208 References   210   Chapter 13: Evidence-Based Life-Cycle Management          211 13.1 Motivation and Context   211 13.2 Commitment Review Process Overview   212 13.3 Feasibility Evidence Description Development Process   213 13.4 Evaluation Framework for the FED   217 13.5 Example of Use   218 13.6 Applicability Outside ICSM   221 References   222   Chapter 14: Cost and Schedule Evidence Development          223 14.1 A Review of Primary Methods for Cost and Schedule Estimation   225 14.2 Estimations and the ICSM   228 14.3 The Bottom Line   233 References   233   Chapter 15: Risk—Opportunity Assessment and Control         235 15.1 The Duality of Risks and Opportunities   235 15.2 Fundamentals of Risk-Opportunity Management   236 15.3 Risk Management within ICSM   244 15.4 Risk and Opportunity Management Tools   245 15.5 Using Risk to Determine How Much Evidence Is Enough   247 References   247   Afterword          249   Appendix A: Evidence Evaluation Framework   253 Appendix B: Mapping between ICSM and Other Standards   261 Appendix C: A Value-Based Theory of Systems Engineering   277   Index         299