A central theme of these Guidelines is how to turn an adverse situation into a success - how to turn a challenge into a victory. The most important ingredient in achieving these goals, the most crucial resource in producing a quality product, is the people selected to do the job. The skills, talent, experience, creative abilities, or lack thereof, of the team are the determinants of success of failure in the software world. These Guidelines cover the gamut of software life cycle management activities, from pre-acquisition strategic planning to post-deployment software support. They condense and assimilate into one document the range of guidance now being used for the acquisition and management of software intensive systems DoD-wide. PART 1 - Introduction, provides a basic overview of why major software acquisitions fail or succeed, the unique DoD software environment, and soft-intensive system life cycles and methodologies. PART II - Engineering, focuses on risk management. Ada, software development maturity, measurement and metrics, reuse, and software tools and support. PART III - Management, covers the software development process, software quality assurance, contract management techniques, and continuous process improvement. These Guidelines should be read by all levels of managers involved in the development and acquisition of major software-intensive systems. Program Executive Officers (PEO's), Designated Acquisition Commanders (DAC's), program managers, software maintainers, engineers, action officers, and technical personnel will all benefit from the guidance provided herein.