The V-model represents the development standard for public-sector IT systems in Germany. For many companies and authorities, it is the way forward for the organisation and implementation of IT planning.
More and more IT projects are being abandoned before being completed, or suffer from deadlines and budgets being significantly overrun, as well as reduced functionality. This is where the V-model comes into its own and improves the product and process quality by providing concrete and easily implementable instructions for carrying out activities and preformulated document descriptions for development and project documentation.
The current standard, the V-Modell 97, in whose development IABG also played a decisive role, has not been adapted to innovations in information technology since 1997. It was for this reason that the Ministry of Defence/ Federal Office for Information Management and Information Technology and Interior Ministry Coordination and Consultancy Office for Information Technology in Federal Government commissioned the project "Further Development of the Development Standard for IT Systems of the Public sector Based on the V-Model 97" (WEIT) from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and its partners IABG, EADS, Siemens AG, 4Soft GmbH and TU Kaiserslautern.
In addition to new methodology and technology, the new V-model XT (eXtreme Tailoring) includes extensive empirical knowledge and suggested improvements, which were accumulated throughout the use of the V-model 97. In addition to the updated content, the following specific improvements and innovations have been included:
- Simplified project-specific adaptation - tailoring
- Checkable project progress steps for minimum risk project management
- Tender process, award of contract and project implementation by the customer
- Improvement in the customer-contractor interface
- System development taking into account the entire system life cycle
- Cover for hardware development, logistics, system security and migration
- Installation and maintenance of an organisation-specific procedural model
- Integration of current (quasi) standards, specifications and regulations
- View-based representation and user-specific access to the V-model
- Expanded scope of application compared with the V-model-97
With the V-model XT, the underlying philosophy has also developed further. The new V-model makes a fundamental distinction in customer-contractor projects. The focus is on the products and not, as before, the activities. The V-model XT thus describes a target and results-oriented approach. This underlying philosophy is apparent in many aspects:
- Decisive points of the project implementation strategies predefine the overall project management framework by the logical sequencing of project completion.
- Detailed project planning and management are implemented based on the processing and completion of products.
- Each product is explicitly allocated a role for which it is responsible.
- The product quality is checkable by making requests of the product and providing an explicit description of its dependence on other products.
IABG brings to the WEIT project its overall expertise acquired in the development of all the V-model predecessors. In addition, IABG deals with the topics of project management, request capture, quality assurance, usability and ergonomics, change management and system security, as well as compliance with the standards ISO 15288 and CPM.
Being intimately involved in the old and new V-models, the services of IABG extend to tailoring the model to company-specific requirements, in the form of so-called company standards, advice and coaching in the development of guidelines in conformity with the V-model, right through to the implementation and management of I&C projects and systems in line with the V-model. As an independent company and a service provider with no allegiance to a specific product, IABG can also offer support to its customers for the entire lifecycle of their IT projects:
- From the planning stage, based strictly on the requirements of the user, and from the word go taking into account the profitability of the IT system
- Via implementation integrating current technologies and security measures
- Right through to its operation, designed to be user-friendly and cost-efficient.
With the just concluded phase II of the project (implementation), the V-model XT is now complete. Phase III (introduction and distribution) of the project will essentially comprise putting together a distribution and further development concept, setting up tool support and an internet-based communication and exchange platform, and developing a training concept.
The publication of the new model is planned for November of this year. Approval of the V-model XT by the Federal Ministry of the Interior is expected to take place by February 2005 at the latest.
V-Modell® is a registered trademark of Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
