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The CDC Unified Process (UP) is an overarching framework and methodology that contains the necessary information and supporting tools that assist project managers and project teams in following best practices in project management. The CDC UP encompasses requirements of CDC's Information Resources (IR) Governance processes, the HHS Enterprise Performance Life Cycle (EPLC) framework, and other internal and external requirements.

This CDC UP Framework Mapping assists project managers in identifying how System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) activities for product development from various SDLCs align with HHS EPLC.

• Project Management - Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements and deals with the processes of scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management, procurement management, as well as integration management of all of these processes.
• Product Development - A product is an unique and verifiable artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and is either a product by itself or a sub-component of a larger product. Product Development deals with the process of designing, developing, and marketing of new products or applying those processes to the improvement of existing products and often applies an industry standard SDLC such as Rational Unified Process (RUP) to accomplish defined goals.

SDLCs encompass specific activities that have to do with producing project deliverables and concentrate more on the technical and/or product requirements of a project. The CDC Unified Process (UP) is an overarching framework and methodology that contains the necessary information and supporting tools that assist project managers and project teams in following best practices in project management necessary to manage these tasks effectively. The CDC UP also encompasses additional resources that enable project teams to comply with requirements associated with CDC's IR Governance processes, the HHS EPLC framework, and other internal and external requirements.

There are a large number of SDLCs as well as a handful of recognized industry standards organizations such as:

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) - IEEE standard does not prescribe a specific SDLC model, development methodology, nor the creation of specific documents. IEEE provides a list of activities specified in the standard to be incorporated into an organization.
• Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) - CMMI provides guidance for improving processes. CMMI contains a framework that provides the ability to generate multiple process models. Actual processes used in an organization depend on internal organizational factors.

The CDC UP Team has identified components that are similar in many different SDLCs and combined them into one generic SDLC to illustrate how the HHS EPLC maps to a typical SDLC. However, CDC projects are further complicated by the requirement to comply with agency, organization, and federal regulatory requirements and mandates.As a result, CDC projects have three life cycle components that overlap dynamically throughout the life of a project.

• Project Management life cycle
• Product Development life cycle
• Regulatory Compliance

The image to the left illustrates how these three components come together throughout the life of a typical IT project. The image shows the overlap of the CDC UP, EPLC, and CPIC requirements at every phase of a typical project's life. It's important to note that there is not an exact phase-for-phase overlap of these three components. For example: 

 

• Project management concept phase activities from the CDC UP are typically performed in conjunction with some product development initiation phase activities from the EPLC while complying with select phase activities from CPIC to meet regulatory requirements.
• Project management initiating phase activities from the CDC UP are typically performed in conjunction with some product development concept phase activities from the EPLC while complying with select phase activities from CPIC to meet regulatory requirements.
• Project management planning phase activities from the CDC UP are typically performed in conjunction with some product development planning, requirements analysis, and design phase activities from the EPLC while complying withselect and control phase activities from CPIC to meet regulatory requirements.
• Project management executing phase activities from the CDC UP are typically performed in conjunction with some product development planning, requirements analysis, design, development, testing, and implementation phase activities from the EPLC while complying with select and control phase activities from CPIC to meet regulatory requirements.

To further expand on this topic, the image to the right shows a number of industry recognized SDLCs and how they map to the CDC UP and HHS EPLC. The image includes the CDC UP Framework (rolled up), NIST regulatory requirements (rolled up), and a number of SDLCs including EPLC, a generic SDLC,  RUP, Extreme, Scrum, Center for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS).

Traditionally, projects have been organized to go through each discipline in sequence. This leads to the waterfall life cycle.

Waterfall life cycle is a conventional software development process where the underlying assumption is that each phase of work does not begin until the preceding phase is complete.

The image above expands on the mapping of life cycle components to illustrate how multiple different, industry standard, life cycles aligns with the CDC UP and HHS EPLC.

A project using iterative development has a life cycle consisting of several iterations where product development is a process that develops a product incrementally. Each new iteration takes advantage of lessons learned or changes that happened during the earlier development and applies that to new iterations. This process is repeated many times over until the product is complete.

An iteration incorporates a loosely sequential set of activities in business modeling, requirements, analysis and design, implementation, test, and deployment, in various proportions depending on where in the development cycle the iteration is located. Iterations in early project phases focus on management, requirements, and design activities; iterations in middle phases focus on design, implementation, and test; and iterations in later phases phase focus on test and deployment.

The way in which an iterative methodology is used varies appropriately to suit the needs of the project depending upon:

• project life cycle (number of iterations, length of each phase, project length)
• project business goals, project vision, scope and risk size of the Software Development Effort

It is important to note that some of the processes within project management are iterative because of the existence of, and necessity for, progressive elaboration throughout the project's life cycle. For example, as a project management team learns more about a project, the team can then manage to a greater level of detail refining schedules, resources, and quality.

There is an important factor to consider when discussing iterative SDLCs. An iterative SDLC does run from project start to project finish in an entire life cycle as illustrated in the image above. However, during some phases the project may run through many smaller iterations that cycle through an iterative SDLC many times over before continuing on to the next phase or end of a project's life. This is illustrated in the image below showing RUP cycling through development iterations and how the project management and regulatory components align with each iteration.

The image shows how the planning, executing, closing, and monitoring & controlling phases of the CDC UP repeat throughout each iterative cycle of RUP product development. NIST regulatory requirements are included to illustrate that regulatory compliance should always be on the mind of every CDC Project Manager regardless of how many times a product cycle through development.

If needed, the CDC UP Team may be able to assist in the mapping of additional life cycles in an effort to further clarify this framework mapping document. If you require such effort please contact the CDC UP Team via the contact form on this website.

Click here for the accompanying PowerPoint presentation