Cost
Demonstrated ability to model and substantiate costs associated with a net-centric specific
project vision and scope (i.e., a project having elements of C2, security, interoperability,
situation awareness and/or assessment). Includes ability to identify user classes and
appropriate representatives; requirements decision-makers and their decision-making process;
elicitation techniques; documentation and prioritization of use cases; quantifying cost impact of
Requirements quality characteristics and nonfunctional requirements; estimation of development and
Engineering for NCO evaluation of user interface prototypes for portions of the requirements that are not clearly
understood; estimation of development and verification of conceptual test cases from use
cases, and effort required to verify the quality of the use cases, functional requirements,
analysis models, and prototypes.
Demonstrated ability to apply a design-to-cost management strategy and supporting
methodologies to achieve an affordable product by treating target cost as an independent
design parameter that needs to be achieved during the development of the net-centric software
product. Includes a proven understanding of customer affordability or competitive pricing
requirements by the key participants in the development process; establishment and allocation
of target costs down to a level of the hardware where costs can be effectively managed; proven
commitment by development personnel to development budgets and target costs; stability and
management of requirements to balance requirements with affordability and to avoid creeping;
understanding of the product's cost drivers and consideration of cost drivers in establishing
product specifications and in focusing attention on cost reduction. Experience with: product
Design cost models and life cycle cost models to project costs early in the development cycle to
support decision-making; active consideration of costs during development as an important
design parameter appropriately weighted with other decision parameters; creative exploration
of concept and design alternatives as a basis for developing lower cost design approaches;
access to cost data to support this process and empower development team members; use of
value analysis / function analysis and its derivatives (e.g., function analysis system technique)
to understand essential product functions and to identify functions with a high cost-to-function
ratio for further cost reduction; application of design for manufacturability principles as a key
cost reduction tactic.
Demonstrated ability to accurately estimate the cost of software integration for net-centric
applications including SW-SW, SW-HW, COTS and NDI. Ability to quantify costs of I&T
component activities including: SW/SE collaboration; test plan development; subcontractor
collaboration and monitoring; implementation of change management process to be used in the
event of a test failure, discrepancy or anomaly; resource planning to manage availability of
target resources; process development for meeting performance and quality expectations;
Synthesis/Integration testing of requirements associated with “ilities”; development of Software Acceptance Test
Plan; development of staff, schedule, and budget for execution; product validation,
manufacturing validation, and production tests; development of Requirements Trace Matrix;
development of capital and GFE property management plans; procurement or development of
tools required to perform testing activities; COTS licensing, license management, and royalties;
development and management of technical performance measures; risk management process.
Demonstrated ability to accurately estimate costs associated with V&V activities associated
with NCO projects. Evidence of mature processes for estimation of V&V component activities
including: facilities procurement; test environment configurations; HALT/HASS configurations;
certification to standards (e.g., FAA safety of flight); simulation support; signal and image data
Validation and (capture, analyze, or contrive); emulator specification; procurement or development of
Verification automated test tools; stress and high load testing; defect and causal analysis; test bed
specification; field testing; technology evolution.
Demonstrated ability to accurately estimate costs associated with design, development, test,
and integration of software capabilities that improve runtime execution performance and quality
attributes for net-centric system software with respect to dynamic scheduling, load balancing,
Runtime Monitoring resource and network management, dynamic reconfiguration, scaling, self-healing, prognostics,
and Adaptation etc.