OASIS OSLC Lifecycle Integration for Project Management of Contracted Delivery (OSLC PROMCODE) Technical Committee

Global software delivery is commonplace today. With ever increasing pressure, such as faster delivery, competitive cost, and skill availability,it is becoming common for software delivery to be done by collaboration of multiple organizations forming a chain of carriers and suppliers. Resembling the traditional manufacturing industry supply chain, this trend of software delivery is often called a Software Supply Chain (SSC). The SSC is a new paradigm of software delivery, where carriers and suppliers work together.

Effective collaboration between an SSC acquirer and supplier requires activities to be managed and information to be shared across organizational boundaries. The management of software deliverycan be highly challenging due to the diversity of the development process, method, tools and platforms used by organizations participating in the supply chain. As a result, both the information shared and the management used are usually unique to each organization. Typically, manual operations are performed in exchanging proprietary information and in coordinating activities; resulting in inefficient, error-prone and inflexible operations. As the number of organizations involved in software delivery increases, the need for more systematic and standards-based information sharing and coordination becomes critical.

PROMCODE (PROject Management of COntracted Delivery for software supply chains) is a set of specifications to exchange project management information across organizational boundaries [1]. PROMCODE leverages OSLC specifications [2, 3, 4] and defines a set of resources and links as abstraction of information used in many real projects in SSC. PROMCODE was initially developed by six leading IT companies and a university in Japan who subsequently validated PROMCODE use in each organization's project environment.

The OASIS OSLC PROMCODE TC intends to build on this work to create an open standard specification of a model and information used for project management in SSC. The initiative calls for broad participation from anyone interested in the topic so that the resulting specification will be widely applicable to the global community.

The OSLC PROMCODE TC defines technical elements and guidelines for project management of Software Supply Chains. The OSLC PROMCODE TC will examine the work done by the PROMCODE consortium on exchanging project management information [1], and will modify/extend the work so that it fits the needs of the global community.

The OSLC PROMCODE TC will work to:

1. Define a model of project management information for SSC. A model should describe a minimum set of information and relationships commonly used by carriers and suppliers to manage software delivery.
2. Define a set of resources and their relationships following the OSLC framework as defined by the OSLC Core TC.
3. Create additional technical elements as required to support current and future scenarios for OSLC User Groups, OSLC MS-affiliated TCs, Subcommittees and the OSLC Member Section Steering Committee.
4. Leverage existing work, such as existing OSLC specifications, as much as possible. If gaps are identified, the OSLC PROMCODE TC will attempt to resolve them with other affiliated TCs prior to defining new concepts within PROMCODE.

The OSLC PROMCODE TC is expected to produce within 24 months after the first meeting:

1. Scenarios: a set of scenarios illustrating user stories in the project management for SSC.
2. Specifications: Based on the scenarios, a set of specifications will be developed to address technical requirements for project management for SSC.The set of specifications will provide terminology and rules for defining resource vocabularies in terms of the property names and value-types, and will recommend various resource representations.
3. Supporting and enabling material to support broad adoption including:
   1. Guidance: informative, non-normative material covering topics such as implementation, resource design, and specification development.
   2. Best Practices: publication of various best and good practices to aid in the implementation of specifications and interoperable solutions.
4. Terminology: a common set of terms intended to be used by the OSLC PROMCODE TC.
5. Vocabulary: in support of specifications, a set of vocabularies, including tools and best practices, that can be processed either by machine or manually.

The OSLC PROMCODE TC plans to revise and expand its specifications over time, to enable functionality called for by revisions in, and expansions of, the motivational scenarios. This means new specifications that cover additionalcapabilities may be introduced as scenarios are refined to support new capabilities.

Maintenance

Once the OSLC PROMCODE TC has completed work on a specific deliverable (whether "complete" means it has become an OASIS Standard, or simply a Committee Specification is left to the TC's discretion), the TC will provide maintenance for that deliverable.

The purpose of maintenance is to provide minor revisions to previously adopted deliverables to clarify ambiguities, inconsistencies and obvious errors. Maintenance is not intended to enhance a deliverable or to extend its functionality. In addition to maintenance, the TC may choose to create new versions of specifications that support additional capabilities as needed by scenarios.

This OSLC PROMCODE TC will operate under the "RF (Royalty Free) on Limited Terms" IPR mode as defined in the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy.

The OSLC PROMCODE TC will produce a set of specifications that are applicable to two types of interest groups:

1. End users of the specifications, including implementers (software suppliers, open source project teams, and developers of custom business software)
2. Developers of OSLC specifications, including those produced by OSLC MS-affiliated TCs and other standards groups

The work should be of interest to anyone involved with integration of project management tools.

The OSLC PROMCODE TC will conduct its business in English. The TC may elect to form subcommittees that produce localized documentation of the TC's work in additional languages.