
Free project management templates from the US Military - porker
http://kkovacs.eu/free-project-management-template-mil-std-498
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jacques_chester
Also of interest may be some of the manuals published at NASA's Software
Engineering Laboratory:

Manager's Handbook for Software Development:
<http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/dts/pm/Papers/nasa-manage.pdf>

Recommended Approach for Software Development:
[http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/dts/pm/Papers/nasa-
approach.pd...](http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/dts/pm/Papers/nasa-approach.pdf)

A lot of really important work was done at SEL and they kept meticulous
records on _how_ they did the work and what worked for them.

The old-school, pre-Agile Manifesto stuff isn't a perfect match for how most
teams like to work today, but it's still full of wisdom and deep knowledge. A
lot of it grew out of aerospace and defence projects, which is why there is
such a heavy emphasis on planning and control to cope with complexity. These
days the SEI is probably the home of that strand of software engineering
thought.

~~~
kkovacs
Thanks Jacques, looks very interesting, indeed!

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timurlenk
This is good stuff. I was wondering, does any one know about similar standards
for system design and implementation?

I would be interested in seeing MIL standards or NASA best practices related
to infrastructure (telecom, data, etc) design and implementation management.

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jrobbins
The problem with most template sets is that they make the user still do a ton
of work. Not just understanding the details of their own project, but a ton of
writing work. And, to be honest, a lot of tech people don't like to write or
always write well. Also, some templates just replace one big blank page with
lots of smaller blanks, which can still stump you when it comes time to write.

A few years ago I attempted to solve the problem by creating ReadySET Pro.
It's a different kind of template set that is faster/more agile to use. People
who have used it say that it is like taking a multiple-choice test instead of
an essay exam, so no stumpers. That's because I spent a year writing high-
quality project document text that you can reuse and tweak to fit your
project. It's almost feels like cheating. You can get four free templates at
readysetpro.com.

~~~
craigmcnamara
The tech guys don't fill that crap out, they hire lackeys to push the paper.
The DoD is an elaborate scam to employ secretaries.

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kkovacs
Thanks for posting this on HN, porker! :)

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bradfa
I converted all the html from the zip file to markdown, if anyone cares. It's
on github.

<https://github.com/bradfa/MIL-STD-498>

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excuse-me
The JSF (joint strike fighter) C++ coding standards are also a good starting
point <http://www.jsf.mil/downloads/down_documentation.htm>

They are a bit heavy handed on "thou shalt not" - but if you use them as guide
- and really think if breaking a rule is worth it in a specific case - they
are good conservative practice.

