Composed of some of the software industry's leading experts, the Airlie Software Council is charged with identifying fundamental processes and proven solutions that are essential for success in the development or maintenance of large-scale software. The Council was purposely structured to include highly successful managers of large-scale software projects, internationally recognized methodologists and authorities on metrics, prominent consultants, and executives responsible for software development at major companies.

Council members included Vic Basili, Grady Booch, Norm Brown, Peter Chen, Christine Davis, Tom DeMarco, Mike Dyer, Mike Evans, Derek Hatley, Bill Hetzel, Capers Jones, Tim Lister, John Manzo, Lou Mazzucchelli, Tom McCabe, Frank McGrath, Roger Pressman, Larry Putnam, Howard Rubin, and Ed Yourdon.

From the beginning, the Council focused on identifying the activities that have the greatest effect for achieving successful large-scale software development--the high-leverage payoffs. The Council has explicitly avoided silver bullets and has identified, articulated, and supported production of:

• Nine Principal Best Practices for software management
   
• A Software Project Control Panel that provides the project manager and staff with key indicators of project status, in three layers of increasingly detailed metrics
   
• A Little Yellow Book whose questions provide a means for program managers to assess how well project management understands and addresses the key issues involved in conducting a successful project
   
• A set of software project caveats--some "worst practices" to avoid
   
• A set of quantitative targets-project stretch--goals and malpractice warning levels

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