Right-Sizing the SW Development Process Altaf Khan

Right-Sizingthe SW Development

Process

Altaf Khan

software development process?

Good process and continually

improving process are admirable goals

They are also very natural goals: Good

technical workers will focus on them whether your tell’em to or not!

software process

standards?

the trouble with CMM ...

the trouble with model-based process

improvement ...

how do we know if the model is correct?

(because the author says so!)

how do we know if the model is applicable to

all sorts of projects and organizations?

(because the author says so!)

they give no guarantees

false sense of security

creativity stifling

atmosphere

don’t get me wrongstandards are good

standardizethe interface

What is the alternative to model-based process

improvement?

achtung!

!CMM issuesCMM issues

CMM philosophyCMM philosophy

Are there any fruitful alternatives to model-

based process improvement?

here is one alternative ...

Define the (business) objective

of the process improvement effort

example:I wanna finish my projects on time,

within budget, and with known quality

WARNING!WARNING!One should not expect One should not expect too great a benefit for too great a benefit for the current project, but the current project, but should should look for longer-look for longer-term improvementsterm improvements

Process Improvement Recipe

• Define “your” current SW development lifecycle

• Identify the main bottleneck

• Look for a remedy for removing the bottleneck

• Remove that bottleneck

• Identify the next one; find remedy; remove

…

…

K E Y M E S S A G E

solve process problems

one at a time

how do I identify

problems?

measure your process!

measurements help in the identification of problems!

measurements help in determining the effectiveness of remedies!

Anything that you need to quantify can be measured in some way that is superior to not measuring at all!

Tom Gilb

A fewA few meaningful,meaningful, butbut

simplesimple-to-implement-to-implement

measuresmeasures

Time

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Sorted Milestones

Actualprogress

Planned

Milestone 8 was planned to be achieved on the 91st day

Milestone 8 was was actually achieved on the 100th day

Defects

Time

Total reported defects

Defects yet to be fixed

Defects fixed to date

Defects

Test cases

Upper limit

Lower limitActualdefects

DefectRipple

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Defect Fixed

4 -

3 -

2 -

1 -

0 -

Three new defectsappeared as aconsequence offixing defect 5

Not

- A

- D

efec

t

Time

4 -

3 -

2 -

1 -

0 -

the measuremeasure should beas simple as possible, but

meaningfulmeaningful

the (perpetual) process improvement cycle

Identifyproblem

Keepmeasuring

Findremedy

Pilot remedy

Propagate

Learnfrom pilot

Identifyproblem

Keepmeasuring

Findremedy

Pilot remedy

Propagate

Learnfrom pilot

3main main messagesmessages

Essential Processes

Project planning & tracking

Requirements management

Configuration management

Defects tracking

motivatethe team about the benefits before implementing the process

involve the team in the design of the process

Don’t make more than a single change during the lifecycles of individual projectsotherwise you’ll impede the progress of the project significantly