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Projects do not run in isolation, they rely on care and feeding from their supporting organizations. The nature of that
support is characterized in the following sections. The Rational Unified Process (RUP) assumes that the kinds of
services described here will be available from outside the project and that in any organization there will exist some
equivalent capability to provide them, but does not prescribe the structure or operation of these entities. The
following descriptions are taken from [ROY98] (q.v.).
The Software Engineering Process Authority (SEPA) facilitates the exchange of information and process guidance both to
and from project practitioners. This role is accountable to the organization general manager for maintaining a current
assessment of the organization's process maturity and its plan for future process improvements. The SEPA must help
initiate and periodically assess project processes. Catalyzing the capture and dissemination of software practices can
be accomplished only when the SEPA understands both the desired improvement and the project context. The SEPA is a
necessary role in any organization. It takes on responsibility and accountability for the process definition and its
maintenance (modification, improvement, technology insertion). The SEPA could be a single individual, the general
manager, or even a team of representatives. The SEPA must truly be an authority, competent and powerful, not a staff
position rendered impotent by ineffective bureaucracy.
The Project Review Authority (PRA) is the organizational entity responsible for ensuring that a software project
complies with all organizational and business unit software policies, practices, and standards. A software project
manager is responsible for meeting the requirements of a contract or some other project compliance standard, and is
also accountable to the PRA. The PRA reviews the project's conformance to contractual obligations and the project's
organizational policy obligations. The customer monitors contract requirements, contract milestones, contract
deliverables, monthly management reviews, progress, quality, cost, schedule, and risk. The PRA reviews customer
commitments as well as adherence to organizational policies, organizational deliverables, financial performance, and
other risks and accomplishments. It is recommended that a single individual be nominated as the PRA; that individual
may delegate the work of monitoring and review as required, and meetings in which the PRA engages may require the
support of others from the development organization's executive management team, so that, at least for the duration of
the meeting, the PRA appears as a team of people. It is strongly recommended however that ultimate authority for
performance should rest with an individual, who calls for support as needed.
The Software Engineering Environment Authority (SEEA) is responsible for automating the organization's process,
maintaining the organization's standard environment, training projects to use the environment, and maintaining
organization-wide reusable assets. The SEEA role is necessary to achieve a significant return on investment for a
common process. Tools, techniques, and training can be amortized effectively across multiple projects only if someone
in the organization (the SEEA) is responsible for supporting and administering a standard environment. In many cases,
the environment may be augmented, customized, or modified, but the existence of an 80% default solution for each
project is critical to achieving institutionalization of the organization's process and a good ROI on capital tool
investments.
An organization's infrastructure provides human resources support, project-independent research and development, and
other capital software engineering assets. The infrastructure for any given software line of business can range from
trivial to highly entrenched bureaucracies. The typical components of the organizational infrastructure are as follows:
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Project administration: time accounting system; contracts, pricing, terms and conditions; corporate information
systems integration
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Engineering skill centers: custom tools repository and maintenance, bid and proposal support, independent research
and development
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Professional development: internal training boot camp, personnel recruiting, personnel skills database maintenance,
literature and assets library, technical publications.
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