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From time to time we are invited to give talks; at
Software Engineering or Process Improvement Conferences, at Software Process Improvement
Network (SPIN) meetings, and within organisations as part of their seminar
programmes. These talks give us an opportunity to review our thinking on
software process improvement, software engineering management, and
measurement issues. Our presentations are listed here. Slides for the
presentations are usually available from the organization where the
presentation was given. If they’re not available there contact us and we’ll
email them to you. Better still, some of them have developed into tutorial
sessions and training courses provided by OSEL.
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15. Analysis of Defect (and
other) Data, 2005
Software quality controls, and in particular software inspections
performed during the course of software development provide defect data,
which in combination with other data, can provide considerable information
about the quality of the items inspected, the processes that produced the
items, and the prospects for future development. These data can be combined,
analysed and presented in many ways. These are reviewed and their limitations
and validity assessed. The need for a limited, standard set of robust
analyses is proposed together with a suggestion for extracting other
information from inspections.
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14.
Six Sigma – and its application to software development, UK SPIN May 2003 & UKSMA
2004
This
presentation was developed to explore the potential of the six sigma approach
to process improvement. The technical origins of six sigma were reviewed and
the development of effective tools for beneficial change discussed. There are
surprises fore both those that think six sigma is not applicable to software
development, and for those that do! (See the ‘what’s new’ page for a copy of
the slides and the paper.)
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13. SPI
Approaches – Successful Implementation, February 2003
This presentation was given at the UK SPIN in February 2003 as the basis of a
workshop. OSEL first started to look at the different approaches to SPI to
identify what was successful and why back in 1996. This work has continued
and our thoughts are not just that some approaches work and others don't but
some approaches work in some types of organisations where other approaches
would be less successful. This has enabled us to identify the different types
of organisation and therefore select the approaches that have the greatest
probability of delivering benefits.
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12.
Metrics - Beyond Numbers, September 2002
This presentation was given for the first time at a SPIN meeting in September
2002. We take another look at the nature of measurements and their
relationship to the software products or processes they are measuring.
Prompted by observations of the way children learn to count a simple
'Measurement Maturity Model' has been developed. This model is described. It
maps levels of sophistication and types of valid software measures to the
level of empirical understanding of the product or process to be measured.
The role of graphics and the careful display of data as synthetic graphics are
also discussed together with some speculations on the future development of
software metrics and display mechanisms.
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11. Software
Project Management: Monitoring and Control,
First presented in April 2001
We were invited to speak at a meeting hosted by Agilent in the spring of
2001. We took the opportunity to develop this presentation to review the
ideas of monitoring and control from first principles. We developed a simple
model of project control, identifying the essential characteristics of
effective monitoring and control, and worked this through to practical advice
and checklists. Much of the thinking behind this presentation was derived
from our experience of designing and implementing PODS - our project
information manager. It provides the information necessary to monitor (in
real time) and control projects in a consistent and reliable manner. The
presentation was delivered again at a SPIN UK meeting in 2001.
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10. eXtreme
Programming:
experiences with a new approach to software development,
February 2001
This presentation describes the eXtreme Programming approach and our experiences
of using some XP techniques in developing our software information management
tool, PODS, which provides an organisation with real-time status of all of
their programmes and projects. Analogies between the philosophy of XP and
that of RPI (see 7 - below) are made.
Our
experience with XP is described on the IEEE Dynabook - www.computer.org/seweb/Dynabook/Commentator.htm.
This tends to give a less
positive interpretation of XP than we intended. Since the Dynabook posting
our valuation of XP has increased as our product matured and more XP
practices came into play.
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9. TickIT
International Articles
We were invited to contribute to TickIT International. We wrote about our
approach to process improvement: RPI.
And software measurement and the display of measurement data has been a long
standing interest so we produced this.
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8. Rapid Process
Improvement,
First presented in June 1999
Rapid Process Improvement has been developed from a number of sources. Prompted
by the need to capture our own expertise we have developed a number of
discrete tools for making and managing changes to the software process.
During this process we presented our ideas to colleagues at Lockheed Martin
under the umbrella title 'Software Production Engineering' where the role of
a Software Production Engineer - analogous to a Production Engineer was
discussed. Then with the response to the SPI Asset Repository presentation
(see 6 - below) we began the development of a simple SPI tool taxonomy and
populated it with the tools that we have developed and discovered in use
elsewhere. This process improvement tool-set has been under continuous
development and has matured in to what we believe to be an import set of
assets for the SPI community.
The RPI workshop that
describes the need for RPI and describes the tool-set has now been presented
more that a dozen times both publicly and as in-house training workshops and
is continually updated.
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7. It's not the model
- its what you do, February 1999
We take a look at the different types of software process models, the
different approaches to SPI, and the different tools that can be used. This
presentation looks at the strategies used to make change - rather than
describing the models themselves. The advantages of the various strategies
and some of the tools used to implement these strategies are described.
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6. SPI
Asset Repository for SPIN - UK
September 1998
This was the original proposal for the establishment of a UK SPIN SPI tools
repository available for all. The response to this proposal was interesting.
In general the idea was received with some caution. On being prompted no one
appeared able or willing to describe any SPI tools. This has prompted us to
identify the SPI tool-set described in the RPI presentation.
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5.
Metrics in the context of CMM/SPICE
September 1998
Software Metrics remains a popular topic. This presentation describes what
measurement is and looks at the way measurement is included into two of the
most influential software process models; the CMM and SPICE.
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4. SPI
How to get started - and keep going
February 1998
This presentation was developed to provide an opportunity to discuss the do's
and don'ts of SPI. Given the poor track record of the majority of SPI
initiatives and the startling success of others this presentation identifies
those SPI characteristics that improve the probability of success.
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3.
Software Process Improvement and the Capability Maturity Model
March 1996.
This presentation was designed to introduce the ideas of process improvement
and the SEI's Capability Maturity Model to the construction industry. A large
number of points of points of recognition and similarity were identified
resulting in the UK construction industry's SPICE project (not ISO 15504),
managed by the University of Salford, which is developing a CMM style
maturity model to direct construction industry process improvement and
innovation initiatives.
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2.
Metrics Led Software Process Improvement
November 1995.
This presentation gives an overview of the three elements found in successful
software measurement activities: an understanding of the software development
environment - its capability and needs; the tools and techniques of sound
measurement; and the human factor. Attributes for initiating and sustaining a
successful measurement programme are described along with some common
mistakes. The material covered in this presentation is discussed in more
detail in chapter 4 'Making Software Measurement Work' of 'Implementing a
Quality Management System', edited by D.N.Wilson, ISBN 1853125938
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1. Making Software Measurement Work
1995
This paper was first published as chapter four of ‘Implementing a Quality
Management System’ edited by D.N. Wilson and published by Computational
Mechanics.
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