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As well as funded work and tool support we have several
internal projects and other events that may be of interest to software developers
and the SPI community. This page lists some of our activities and interests.
Contact us at info@osel.co.uk if
you would like to know more about these.
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February
2010: BCS SPIN SG
Details of the next SPIN
meeting... Title: Supporting
a Process Oriented Requirement Method Description: Process modelling as a way
to inform requirements has seen a resurgence in recent years, particularly in
those methods that use Role Activity Diagrams. By using these models within
the requirements phase client needs can be captured effectively in a notation
that makes sense to the business user, whilst also providing a rigorous
description. However, the move to
specification still has pitfalls, notably in ensuring that the understanding
gained from process modelling can be transferred effectively to the
specification so that alignment of business need and software system is
maintained. This talk outlines issues
and potential solutions in ensuring such alignment, and incorporates our
recent experiences in attempting to provide tool support. In particular, we describe
tool support for model driven development (as part of the collaborative EC
project VIDE), and the use of process mashups, including work undertaken at
SAP research. In both cases our focus has been on providing sets of notations
and tools which are accessible to a variety of users, often including those
stakeholders who are not IT experts. Mashups are a relatively
new approach, and use web 2.0 technologies to combine data from different
sources to create valuable information, principally for data aggregation
applications. This utilises the potential of the internet and related technologies,
to allow users to process tasks collaboratively, and form communities among
those with similar interests. We present currently available mashup platforms
and demonstrate how situational enterprise applications can be built by
combining social software, feeds, widgets, web services, open APIs, and so
on. The session does not
require any specific technical skills, though experienced process engineers
will have the opportunity to share their views. Participants will learn: · How to use simple role based process
models · Issues in moving from process model to
specification · How to use simple notational devices to
ensure alignment · How development tools can help, with a
particular focus on the use of mashups · Current process mashup approaches and
future directions. Speakers: Keith Phalp, Sherry Jeary, Dr Lai Xu Keith Phalp is Associate
Dean and Head of Software Systems and Psychology at Bournemouth University.
He is particularly interested in the early, most crucial, phases of software projects,
and in how best to produce software that meets the needs of its sponsors,
stakeholders and users. This involves a variety of topics including:
understanding business needs (strategic and operational), process modelling,
software requirements, business and IT alignment, and software modelling. Dr
Phalp has published extensively in these areas, has experience of process
consultancy, including work with public sector bodies, both in the UK and
Europe, and has taught process modelling to undergraduate, post graduate and
industrial audiences. He was Principal Investigator on the EC funded
framework 6 project VIDE, where Bournemouth led work to produce accessible
models and interface, so that non-technical users could understand and be
involved in requirements and specification of software. He has also published
across a wide range of other computing disciplines, including software
quality, process improvement, metrics and web methods. Sherry Jeary is
co-Director of the Software Systems Research Centre at Bournemouth University
and has research interests that span Web Development Methods, Web Systems and
the alignment of Information Technology with business (strategy and process).
She had several years of management and systems experience across a variety
of domains before moving into academia. She was the BU Project Manager for
the EU Commission funded VIDE project on Model driven development and is
currently investigating the production of useful models in complex
enterprises. Dr Lai Xu is a lecturer in
Business and IT Alignment within the Software Systems Research Centre at
Bournemouth University. Previously she was a Senior Researcher at SAP
research, Switzerland, a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO ICT Centre,
Australia, a post-doctoral researcher at the Organisation and Information
Group of the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences of the Utrecht
University and at the Artificial Intelligence group of the Department of
Computer Science of the Free University Amsterdam. She received her Ph.D. in
Computerized Information Systems from Tilburg University in 2004. Her
research interests include enterprise systems, support for business process
collaboration, virtual enterprises and process mashups. Date: Thursday,
4 March 2010 Venue: BCS
London Offices, Southampton Street Time: 18:00
- 21:00 Meeting Format: Presentation
and discussion afterwards Attendance: Free Sustenance: Sandwiches
and refreshments provided from 17:30, with 18.00 start. Registration: Spaces
are limited and registration is required: To book online go to www.bcs.org/events/registration Membership of the
Institute is encouraged for continued involvement and event attendance. In
order to find out more about Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN-UK)
Specialist Group and other
Member Groups please visit www.bcs.org/membergroupsDelegates |
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November
2009: BCS SPIN SG
Details of the next SPIN
meeting... Title: A
Review of the Draft Software Process Improvement Manifesto Description: In September this year
software process professionals from around the world met to begin the
development of a Software Process Improvement Manifesto. This manifesto of 4 values
and 14 principles is designed to 'give expression to state-of-the art SPI
knowledge'... ...'grounded on hundreds of [man]years of SPI experience'. We will review these
values and principles to explore their scope and content, compare our own
knowledge - and perhaps get
involved in the evolution of this document? Date: Monday,
14 December 2009 Venue: BCS
London Offices, Southampton Street Time: 17:30
- 20:00 Meeting Format: Walkthough
of SPI Manifesto and Workshop Attendance: Free Sustenance: Sandwiches
and refreshments provided from 17:30, with 18.00 start. Registration: Delegates
must register, please goto http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.9416. |
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16
October 2009: UKSMA 2009
Back from the UKSMA conference unscathed. My
eXtreme Measurement paper didn’t appear to annoy too many people (paper and
slides on the presentations page), and there were some excellent
presentations from some of the others there – Jeremy Gardiner’s work on
benchmarking using high volume automated testing sounds promising and Carl
Bideau’s work for CAPGemini is a model for developing good estimation models.
I missed the IGQM presentation but will try to pick it up on the UKSMA
website when the papers are posted there.
Sadly there weren’t enough takers for the tutorial day so
I didn’t get to do my measurement patterns and anti-patterns tutorial – if
there are any takers for this in house do get in touch.
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October
2009: Rule 11
A while ago I posted a list of ten rules
of SPI (below). I’ve spoilt it by coming up with another ten: (the other ten rules of SPI) , and another rule (rule 11) which sounds like an
unimportant tactic, but may be one of the most important rules of all. I’ve
just come across another example of how well it can work, which makes a
pleasing change from all the instances of it being ignored. |
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24 August
Here
are the details of the Autumn SPIN meeting... Title:
Outcome Based Process Improvement and the Ten Rules of SPI Description: Software
Process Improvement is intended to benefit the business but is often
deflected by other concerns. This session has been developed from the
presenter's 'Energizing CMMI' article and the recent webinar 'An
Outcome-based Approach to Process Improvement' that was developed from it. We
will look at the pressures that have developed to distort process improvement
and look at the fundamental SPI practices and approaches that return SPI to
its true purpose: to help those doing the work to do a better job. Ten
rules for process improvement will be presented for discussion and
development. Date:
Tuesday, 8 September 2009 Speaker:
Clifford Shelley Clifford
has a background in software development. He has been helping organizations
increase the effectiveness of their development and test capability for more
than twenty years. He has a particular interests in emerging development
practices, software quality and the problems of software measurement. Venue:
BCS London Offices, Southampton Street Time:
18:00 - 20:00 Meeting
Format:
Presentation and discussion afterwards Attendance:
Free Sustenance:
Sandwiches and refreshments provided from 18:00, with 18.30 start. Registration:
Delegates must register, please send notification to: Mandy Bauer:
mandy.bauer@hq.bcs.org.uk or Clifford Shelley:
shelley@osel.netkonect.co.uk (Dietary
requirements: Please notify Mandy Bauer) |
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23 July 2009:
Realigning SPI for difficult times
It has becoming increasingly clear that
the SPI community is facing the same problems as the rest of the industry as budgets
are reviewed and investments reconsidered. In house process engineers are
feeling vulnerable and vendors are having to rethink their offerings.
The default, long term, faster, cheaper, better is no longer
sufficient. And undirected performance improvement also misses the
point. There are two very particular areas that software organizations
are giving considerable attention to, and that the SPI community should be
well equipped to help with - right now – after all, if it’s not their job, whose
is it? The two areas are firstly cost control,
of course, and secondly increased value. Cost control is naturally
receiving the most attention. Difficult, but easy to understand
decisions do make an immediate difference to the budget. But without
balancing cost control with increasing value delivered major damage can be
inflicted to capability as intellectual and process assets are damaged or
lost. And without the increasing value delivered cost control may become
irrelevant as customers disappear. It is ironic that the SPI community has
the tools to help with cost control and increasing customer value, but too
frequently is either unaware of this or lacks confidence to demonstrate it -
and falls victim to cost control itself. The SPI community have a wide
selection of tools for managing cost, but have perhaps grown complacent over
time with the focus shifting to compliance work and SPI ‘vanity projects’.
And value delivered is often a poor runner up to conformance issues. Now is the time for the SPI community to
show what it can do – what it is really meant for. It is time to help our
organizations and customers and to select and use, in anger, those tools for
reducing costs and increasing value. If you would like help in getting your SPI team to focus on the current business realities, help selecting or acquiring to tools to use to deliver value and reduce costs email me at shelley@osel.netkonect.co.uk |
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8 July 2009: Energizing
CMMI
Here are
the slides from the webinar on 23 June. The title was changed to ‘An outcome
based approach to SPI’ to make it clear that good SPI is good SPI and not
limited to CMMI frameworks.
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6 July 2009: Tom Gilb’s 2009
Seminar – Changing Culture
This year the seminar concentrated on changing
software culture (see the paper and slides below). There were plenty of
insights and ideas but perhaps the most surprising thing to emerge was the
remarkable accuracy with which a culture can be described. While you would
expect generic recognition points and values it appears that behaviours can
be described and predicted with uncanny accuracy. What also emerged is that
no one really knows what to do with this understanding. The usual tools for
change were identified and a few new ones too, together with the promotion of
favoured methods and tools, but there was nothing exploiting this ability for
acute observation and characterization. We also had the opportunity to meet Jeff
Sutherland and hear about his work. He was impressive, and as you would
expect he had clear views of the direction software development should be
heading. While this is understandable it is a worry that with a few notable
exceptions the big names in this industry promote a sub set of the models or
tools that software developers need. While promotion of a favourite,
and to be fair, useful, approach is of course to be expected, its promotion
as the answer, rather than an answer cannot be right. (I may set up a
specialist group to promote the waterfall approach to restore some balance –
anyone interested?) The time and effort required to compare, contrast and
select from the many contemporary development models – DSDM, XP, SCRUM, FDD
MDD TDD AMDD… could be far better used. And the implicit presumption that
because this is right that is wrong is damaging. Other disciplines tend to
progress by the gradual accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, but
software development seems to be driven by cycles of fashion, packaging,
re-badging and promoting a favoured sub set, and dismissing prior, hard won
knowledge. A notable exception to this habit was a presentation from
one of the Construx folk. Construx (Steve McConnell’s organization) could
certainly package and promote proprietary methods but don’t. They take a
clear sighted and balanced view of the knowledge that software developers and
managers should have access to – which I like and find more impressive. I’m
sure that in the longer term this is of more value than fashion driven
development. |
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26 May 2009: The Ten
Rules of Software Process Improvement
Recently we have been involved in several
discussions where people (including us) have expressed discontent and concern
about the current state of software process improvement (SPI). It has
prompted the drafting of a list to capture the essence of ‘good’ SPI. Our
list of rules looks like this at the moment: In no particular order…. 1. Improvements are owned by those affected by them. 2. Focus on fixing real problems getting in the way of business
goals - if you aren't have a d****d good reason. 3. Require rapid feedback (results) on the effect of
changes... 4. ...and evaluate and act on them. 5. Use a model to provide a conceptual
framework and scope (actually experience shows that two are better), know how
to use it, and who's in charge - don’t let model compliance become the
primary objective. 6. Don't manage SPI as a project. 7. Measure progress by results, not schedule. 8. Tactics determine strategy. Strategies are valueless until
you know what you can change in practice. 9. SPI is exploratory; many improvement efforts will fail. But
these failures are offset by those improvements that work well. 10. SPI must pay for itself. Demonstrate this or stop. Comments anyone? After drafting these we found
another set on the web by Yingxu Wang and Graham King. Similar but
different … Rule 1:
Software process improvement is complicated system engineering. Rule 2:
Software process improvement itself is a goal-driven and a continuous process Rule 3:
Software process improvement is an experiment process. Rule 4:
Software process improvement is risk-prone. Rule 5:
Software process improvement is a time varying system. Rule 6:
Software process improvement is a random system dominated by human factors Rule 7:
Software process improvement has preconditions. Rule 8:
Process improvement is based on process system reengineering. Rule 9:
Software process improvement achievement is cumulative. They’re good and cover much of the same ground, albeit with
bigger words. And they pre-empt ours by ten years. But they only have nine
rules and we’ve got ten, so we win : ) |
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19
May 2009: A visitor at OSEL
The web site has been given another tidy up a visitor to
the office. Chris Shelley has been here on a ‘go to work’ day and has been
reviewing and editing the web site. He also spent time listening in on a
‘webinar’ – but was not impressed – old hat to a thirteen year old.
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18
May 2009: Changing Culture
I’m intending to present at Tom Gilb’s seminar again this
year. The topic is ‘Changing Culture’. While I’ve been a close student of
software culture (you have to be if you want to have any influence at all)
I’m not sure that I can claim to know how to change it. The paper describes software
cultures and a way of mapping a culture in order to better understand it. It
also lists a number of tools that can be used to change cultures. These are
in no way complete or easy to use, but they do seem to work. And here are the slides
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18
May 2009… ‘Energizing CMMI’
There has been some interest in the
‘Energizing CMMI’ page - we seem to have hit on something that matters to a
lot of people. And following on from this interest we’ve been asked to do a
webinar. It’s scheduled for 23 June. If you’d like to log on and hear more
about SPI, CMMI and getting it to work then let me know and I’ll get you
registered for it. |
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4
April 2009: New Requirement Book
Attended the launch of Ian Alexander and Ljerka Beus-Dukic’s
new requirements book: ‘Discovering Requirements: How to specify products and
services’. It is a described as a set of techniques and methods for eliciting
(or discovering as the authors say) a good set of requirements. Review to
follow in due course CCS |
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March
2009: Next SPIN meeting
The next SPIN meeting will be on the on the evening of Monday 1st June.
Adopting Agile: Traps and Pitfalls Simon Whittington & Chris Cooper-Bland Overview Over the years we have all developed a comprehensive
portfolio of best practices which will help us avoid the common problems on
projects, the techniques include:
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March 2009: SPIN goes online - BCS
SPIN Forum:
The
British SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network – a BCS SG) has been
exploring, reporting and promoting software process improvement for nearly
twenty years now, looking at what works - what actually improves software
development and testing - and what doesn't. From
early interests in using ISO 9000 and TQM we have reported on the development
and experiences with CMM, SPICE and later CMMI. (SPIN owes its existence to
the development of CMM.) We have tracked the development and use of
measurement for software engineering and management, and have learned from
the SPI experiences of world class software organizations. We have also made
an occasional foray into the more academic aspects of software development.
SPIN was one of the first to recognize and take a look at the possibilities
of agile development; we take a continuing interest in emerging development
practices. The value of six sigma, and other sets of methods for making
changes in software development environments have also been, and continue, to
be explored. We now have an online forum. If you are actively
involved in software process improvement, or technology change, or simply
want to know more about it email
me for an invitation join this independent forum. You will then be able
to exchange experiences and opinions, ask questions, post papers, and
collaborate with you colleagues in SPI… …and… …over this time we have been directed by the needs and
interests of our members. Now, with the introduction of our forum (huddle) we
have a great way of finding out where we should direct our attention now and
in the future. What's next? Show us where the best ideas are. What direction
should SPIN be going? (And not clockwise, or anticlockwise please, or
up or down.) |
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February 2009: BCS SPIN – next
meeting…
The
CMMI and Innovation: A Lost Promise or the Coming Thing?
This
year's SPIN evening meetings are scheduled for:
- Tuesday, 24 February,
- Tuesday, 26 May,
- Tuesday, 25 August,
- Tuesday, 24 November all at the usual
time and venue - 6.oo pm at the BCS London office in Southampton Street. As an
antidote to the current fashion for CMMI compliance we have a talk about real
process improvement. Marilyn Bush is taking a critical look at CMMI and
proposing refinements to enable and encourage innovation in software
development: Title: The CMMI
and Innovation: A Lost Promise or the Coming Thing? Abstract: Modern
companies are always looking ahead. Innovation, though, means more than
aspiration. It corresponds to a choreographed and repeatable process - the
foundations of the CMMI and before it the CMM. Yet over the years those
emphases have been displaced in favour of top-down discipline. This paper
will examine the evolution of the CMMI and the links between the CMMI and the
kind of organizational values that in successful innovative companies foster
systematic creativity. Presenter:
Marilyn
Bush (and Charley W. Bush). Marilyn is one of the authors of the original CMM
and a CMMI assessor and trainer with a particular interest in innovation in
software development. Venue:
BCS London Office, Southampton Street. Time:
18:00 - 20:00, 24 February 2009 Meeting
Format: Presentation and
discussion afterwards Attendance:
Free Sustenance:
Sandwiches and refreshments provided from 18:00, with 18.30 start. Registration:
Delegates must register, please send notification to: Mandy Bauer mailto:mandy.bauer@hq.bcs.org.uk or
Clifford Shelley mailto:shelley@osel.netkonect.co.uk |
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January 2009: A domino model
of software and system processes
The increasing interest in statistical modelling requires
the development of useful models to which the statistics can be applied. The development
of these models is perhaps the most important aspect of any statistical or
simulation modelling. A poor or incorrect model can be worse than no model at
all. But the models that tend to be used at the moment are either simplistic,
traditional, but unhelpful, or so complicated that they tend to be
inflexible, very difficult to validate and difficult to have much confidence
in. A simple model building technique is needed.
The domino model may provide that technique. Everyone is
familiar with the idea of falling dominos, and will have seen elaborate
patterns of falling dominos. This appears to be a useful way of looking at
processes too. In software management the idea that a task is done or not
done, not 90% done is generally accepted good practice, as is the idea of
partitioning large pieces of work into small tasks. The analogy to dominos is
clear. Domino models can be built of most software processes with
opportunities to design for speed, low risk, flexibility - and other required
software development outcomes. Some issues need development – designing
domino models for synchronization is not yet clear but the domino model does
appear to hold promise as an easy to use approach for understanding and
reasoning about software development models, and as a ‘substrate‘ onto which
to graft statistical and probabilistic models. CCS January
2009
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October 2008: Metronomicon
Some years ago Sarah Sheard wrote a paper called ‘The
Frameworks Quagmire’. This attempted to describe the increasing number of
software engineering standards, models and frameworks in use. The paper
included a diagram showing the relationships between
these models and standards, and explaining the title of the paper. (Since
then the situation has got worse: models are products and tend to proliferate
and get ‘improved’, and it is often far easier to invent your own model
that invest in an extant one.) The software measurement community is in
a similar situation. Despite the relative simplicity and abstract nature of
software measurement its application in different domains and software
cultures (engineering, commercial, financial, agile (who seem to be doing a
reasonable job of using measurement)), the academic community (very keen on
measures of software structure), the influence of the business culture and
organizational performance measurement, the strong influence (or distortion)
of a pervasive project management orientation, together with the diverse
needs of the different users of measurement, the collectors and verifiers of
data, and the designers of measures and analyses, have resulted in a metrics
maze every bit as tangled and confused as the frameworks quagmire. Buried in
this maze are a more or less complete set of methods and tools, important
lessons on what works, and perhaps more important, what doesn’t. But
identifying this good stuff, filtering out the worthless or obsolete is very
difficult, especially for practicing engineers and managers simply looking to
use measurement, not wanting to embark on a time consuming quest for
knowledge.
The UK’s Software Metrics Association (UKSMA),
prompted by its Chairman, Rob Radcliff, has initiated the METRONOS project to
address this. METRONOS has two objectives: the first is to use UKSMA’s and
the software measurement community’s experience to review software
measurement knowledge - especially the almost unknown software measurement
standards - and organize and categorize it in a way that makes it easy
for the non specialist to access and navigate around – the metronomicon; the
second, when the first is achieved, is to design qualifications for those
undertaking software measurement in much the same way as the software testing
community has developed qualifications for testers. METRONOS is not inventing
or developing anything new. Everything needed for effective software
measurement is already available. It simply needs organizing and promulgating.
This is an ambitious project depending on the good experience and judgement.
If you would like to help with this work contact me , or any member of the UKSMA
committee. CCS October 2008
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October 2008:
Monte Carlo Methods for Software Projects and Processes
The use of statistical modelling is becoming increasing
popular, and an expected part of software organizations’ planning and risk
management, however the correct application of statistical modelling methods
to complex and subtle software engineering environments can be problematic,
leading to defective or misleading estimation, planning and management
information, or loss of confidence in the delivered information. OSEL can
provide informed and objective guidance on the development and application of
robust and accountable methods based on wide ranging experience within
software development and testing across most industry sectors, together with
a background in the application of statistical models and methods. If
you are considering using Monte Carlo simulations, or other statistical
modelling tools within your organization and would like help, ranging from
guidance, to model development, the identification of appropriate distributions
and running your simulations then contact us now at info@osel.co.uk
for more information.
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July 2008:
More than Projects
The usual way of describing software development
work is as a project. It is a convenient shorthand, recognized and supposedly
well understood across the industry, and built into models of software
development and management. When a piece of work is identified as a project
it triggers the use of project management tools and roles and provides a
framework for the work. The downside of this is that much software
development work is not suited to being treated as a project. The work may be
simple, short term or repetitive or in other ways not like a project needing
planning, tracking, project boards etc., etc. And by invoking the project
model routine work may become inflexible, unresponsive and overloaded with
management and administrative tools that increase costs, obstruct and delay
the work, and discredit project management techniques. What are the
alternatives? And why do we not have a choice? There are remarkably few words
describing packages of work that deliver a result or value that are used in
software development. Some, like Scrum, have a following (including me), but,
despite its many strengths, proprietary terms like this will not attract a
wide following and may fall from favour in the longer term. Terms like release
and fix are understood but are often bundled into the project framework
with all that implies in terms of management overheads. It is worth taking a
look at other professions to see what terms they use for packages of work: case,
engagement, brief, operation, commission, exercise, revision, value stream,
service, mission, sortie, study…. . These sound odd when applied to
software development or support but they do provide a variety of models or
metaphors, rather than the largely unsuccessful project monoculture that
software developers tends to be stuck with. However to be genuinely useful
some way of categorizing the work to be performed and its context is needed
to enable the correct model to be selected and built. First is the character
of the problem to be solved. Manfred Bundschuh’s excellent categorization of
problems - Interpolation (simple, puzzle like, ‘production’ oriented),
Synthesis (real problem, interesting, engaging, containing ‘unknowns’,
and ‘project like’), and Dialectic (research, exploratory, with
‘unk-unks’, and rather worrying) - is really useful for this. Then
there is the scale; how big is the task?, man days, weeks, years? This
requires more than categorization into little project, project,
or programme. There are qualitative differences too. The culture and
organization (or organizations) within which the work is to be performed will
also exert an influence and should be described and categorized. And so
on. With a useful categorization and selection criteria models for the work
can then be evaluated for their suitability. There will always be projects,
but these will be real projects requiring project management, not arbitrary
bundles of work mislabelled as projects. There will be value streams for
routine processing of software changes or defects, and perhaps small packages
of work directed by no more than ‘five paragraph field orders’ (the military
may be a very fruitful source of models – they are experts at delivering
results in uncertain situations). We are currently working to identify
a set useful models for software development - borrowing from other
professions - and to develop a simple methodology to enable the optimum
model to be selected and implemented from patterns or pattern sets, to
provide the optimum approach to software development and support. If you
would like to help us with this work, or to trial some of the models and
patterns do get in touch. CCS. |
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10 July 2008
BCS Software Process Improvement
Network (SPIN) Specialist Group CMMI Workshop 20 Years of CMM and CMMI –
Where are we now, where next? - 21-22 October 2008, Oxford CMMI, and
its predecessors, SPA and CMM, have been in widespread use for twenty years.
They have exerted a major influence on the way software development is
managed worldwide. The British SPIN is conducting a two day workshop
this autumn to assess experiences with these models and to identify and
propose improvements to CMMI model and the way it is used. This is an
opportunity for experienced users of CMMI to compare their experiences and
contribute improvement proposals to these influential tools. There
will be two aspects to the workshop: The Model: Areas of interest include: The Scope of CMMI: CMMI addresses a wide range of
software development and management activities in terms of ‘process areas’.
Are these PAs correctly placed within the model? Are there too many PAs (at
ML3)? Could the emphasis be shifted within or across PAs. Are some PAs
missing? The Structure of CMMI: The structure of CMM and CMMI has
evolved over their lifetime, from the high profile maturity levels to the
detailed practices. What aspects of CMMI’s structure are most useful, and
what are the least? Is the structure sufficiently general to enable
widespread and useful interpretation? Best and Worst: CMMI is expensive. Which parts of
the model give best return on investment and which the worst? High Maturity: Maturity Levels 4 and 5 focus on
quantitative aspects of software development. Does the focus on process
control deliver the benefits expected? What is the value of the quantitative
process models required of high maturity organizations? Does the drive for
control driving out excellence? Using CMMI: Areas of interest include: Patterns of Use: How is the model being
interpreted and used to improve software development and management, are there
better ways? How is CMMI best adapted for different types of organization? Appraisals: What works and what
doesn’t. Are appraisals now audits? What influence do appraisals have on
process improvement and innovation? Is the SCAMPI process now too onerous? Ethics and conflicts of interest: Lead Appraisers are often placed
in difficulties as they advise organizations on process improvements and then
lead assessments. How should potential conflicts of interest be managed? Perspectives: What perspectives is CMMI
intended to be viewed from, and what perspectives are not intended, or
ineffective? How should senior managers, software staff and customers view
and use CMMI? How do their interests influence the way CMMI is used? Other Models: How should CMMI relate to emerging
approaches to software development and management? Is CMMI capable of
coexisting with these contemporary approaches? Users of
CMMI are invited to submit a concise statement of an issue, concern or
opportunity for improvement of the model or its use, based on evidence or
experience, together with a description of its resolution. (The statement of
issue and resolution can be from one to five pages in length. Guidelines for
the statements will be provided on the SPIN website, or with this
invitation.) Space at the workshop is limited and preference will be given to
those statements received early. Send your statement to any of the
organizing committee: The
closing date for submission is 15 September. Selected
workshop participants will be able to present their statement, contribute to
workshop panels, and to work with other workshop participants in the
development of a set of experiences and proposals for refinements to the CMMI
model and its patterns of use. (Participants may submit more than one
statement but will only be able to present one.) It is
intended that the products of the workshop will be refined, published and
made widely available to the CMMI community. Attendance
at the workshop is free, but participants will be responsible for their own
travel and accommodation arrangements, and their expenses. |
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June 2008
Managing Risk and Uncertainty This year Tom Gilb’s seminar was concerned with risk and uncertainty. Plenty of ideas – in particular I was surprised by the extent to which risk is dealt with implicitly, by designing the project and the software to minimize risk, rather than explicitly with traditional risk management techniques. I spoke about the customary, de facto standard technique; its strengths and weakness, and proposed some modifications to make it more effective and credible, including the need to introduce some carefully selected risks into projects to inject life and value into them. The paper is here and the slides here. And I collected sufficient new ideas (thanks in particular to Russ and Matthew) and confirmation of existing ones to begin rebuilding our standard project risk management tools. |
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May 2008
The
International Conference on Agile Processes and extreme Programming
XP208 will be in Limerick from 12 to 14 June – details below…. The International Conference on Agile
Processes and eXtreme Programming in Software Engineering, XP2008, is
the leading world event on the topics of agility in software and information
systems development. Keynote Speakers: Case Study:
Co-presented by Neil Munro, HBOS and Brian Hanly,
Exoftware. The ninth conference (XP2008) will be hosted by Lero – the Irish
Software Engineering Research Centre at the University of Limerick on the
west coast of Ireland. The conference brings together both industrial
practitioners and researchers in the fields of information systems and
software engineering, and focuses specifically on theory, practical
applications and implications of agile methods. Register
Here - http://www.lero.ie/XP2008/Registration.html |
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April
2008 BCS SPIN SG Gradual Process Improvement using Agile Retrospectives Tuesday 20 May 2008 Speaker: Rachel Davies - Rachel provides consultancy and coaching teams in agile software development. She has been applying agile approaches since 2000 and has experience of a range of agile methods including XP, SCRUM, Lean and DSDM. Rachel is a well-known presenter at and organizer of industry conferences and a long serving director of non-profit Agile Alliance. Venue: BCS London Office Time: 18:00 - 20:00 Meeting Format: Presentation and discussion afterwards Attendance: Free Sustenance: Sandwiches and refreshments provided from 18:00, with 18.30 start. Registration: Delegates must register, please send notification to: Mandy Bauer mandy.bauer@hq.bcs.org.uk or Clifford Shelley shelley@osel.netkonect.co.uk (Dietary requirements:
Please notify Mandy Bauer) Full details of how to get to the BCS London office can be found here: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html courtesy of the BCS
Electronic Publishing group (these are by far the best location instructions I have seen anywhere). Note:
Delegates need to be BCS members. The BCS has a special offer open until the 30
April 2008 where SPIN members can join the BCS free of charge. If non-BCS
members wish to take advantage of this offer, then please contact Clifford
Shelley so that he can register you as a SPIN member with the BCS. For
further information, please consult ‘Joining a Group’ on the SPIN website: http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.7057. |
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February 2008
BCS SPIN SG CMMI and Metrics, 19 February 2008 This
is free event with limited numbers, so it is on a first come first serve
basis. The details are: Title:
CMMI and Metrics (A review of the application of measurement for CMMI) Date:
Tuesday 19 February 2008 Speaker:
Dr Clifford Shelley Venue:
BCS London Office Time:
18:00 - 20:00 Meeting
Format: Presentation and discussion afterwards Attendance:
Free Sustenance:
Sandwiches
and refreshments provided from 18:00, with 18.30 start. Registration:
Delegates must register,
please send notification to: Mandy Bauer mailto:mandy.bauer@hq.bcs.org.uk or
Clifford Shelley mailto:shelley@osel.netkonect.co.uk (Dietary
requirements: Please notify Mandy Bauer) Full
details of how to get to the BCS London office can be found here: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html courtesy
of the BCS Electronic Publishing group (these are by the best location
instructions I have seen anywhere) As
you are probably aware there has not been too much activity within the group
for some time. In the past we have held full day meeting and charged for
attendance, but recently it has proved hard to get enough attendee to make
this worth while. So we have decided on a change of format, we are still
looking for a lively debate and will value your input into the future of the
group. We
would also like to draw your attention to another event being run by the
Young Professionals Group, details are here: |
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August 2007
Introduction to CMMI v1.2 Oxford October
2007… Marilyn
Bush is presenting an SEI licensed ‘Introduction to CMMI v1.2’ course
in October on the 10th to 12th, in Oxford. Marilyn is one of the contributors
to the original S/W CMM and one of the most experienced and insightful CMMI
assessors and trainers; if you are planning to attend an Intro to CMMI course
this is the one. Course and booking details are here. |
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2 August 2007
The next SPIN meeting
is on 14 August at the BCS’s London Offices. Visit http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.9416
for details and a
booking form
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July 2007
Smart Decision Making Tom Gilb’s annual
symposium in London was concerned with ‘smart decision making’ this
year. My talk concerned
the anatomy of decisions, and looking at decision dysfunction (why
organizations force smart people to make dumb decisions). A paper was also
presented. |
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29 March 2007
Another new training course for 2007…
Formal Technical Reviews: From Inspection
to Walkthrough: A
one day workshop that presents the principles and practice of Formal Technical
Reviews (FTRs). Participants will be able to plan what and when to review and
how to perform reviews, in line with industry best practice, to reduce
project risks and improve software quality to the required level. Call or
email for details.
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29 March 2007
The UK
Software Metrics Association is issuing a call for papers for their autumn
conference: The UK
Software Metrics Association (UKSMA) |
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16 January 2007
Two pieces of work
are nearing completion. We have a GQM procedure that we would like
independently reviewed – based in the GQM course it presents GQM as a
practical tool for use by individuals or teams, taking measurement from
initial needs through to validation of measurement data. Supported by models
and templates we think this takes the best of the GQM ideas and presents it
in a useful and practical package useable by anyone. The other piece of work
is handbook of software reviews. Again aimed at individuals and teams looking
for practical advice this handbook shows how to perform reviews for best
effect, managing the insidious ‘email review’ and ‘expert review’ problems. |
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16 January 2007
It is time to get
the British Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) functioning again. SPIN
is a BCS specialist group for software people looking for better ways of
working from both management and technical perspectives. If you have an
interesting software process improvement, and, particularly, if you have
ideas for SPIN – how it could be more effective, have ideas about what you
would like from it, or would like to help the SPIN group then get in touch
with Clifford Shelley using the email contact above. |
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15 January 2007
The UK Software Measurement
Association is beginning to think about the next measurement conference this
autumn. If you have ideas for a theme let us know. (I would like the theme to
be measurement in other disciplines – other areas struggle with measurement
too, and some have come up with useful ideas the software community could
use. I’d also like to see some attention paid to measurement in the small.
Too much attention is given to ‘measurement programmes’ with little new,
useful or successful.) |
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24 October 2006
Just back
from the UK Software Measurement Association (UKSMA) conference. Good
material but the pace of development for software measurement needs to
accelerate: the world is changing and approaches to software measurement need
to keep up. OSEL’s paper on enhancing the inspection process to recognize
design excellence – not just defects - was well received. Here are the paper and slides. |
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12 September 2006
New training courses for 2006 and 2007…
Four new
courses are being completed for delivery in late 2006 / early 2007.
These courses have been designed to meet the needs of software developers and
managers working to meet changing business conditions, or respond sensibly to
the increasing pressures to conform to new governance models and standards.
The courses are: TCM: The Innovation Management
Tool. A half
day workshop introducing and using the people and process oriented methods
that makes PDCA and continuous process improvement a practical reality. Goal/Question/Metric. Measurements are increasingly
required to demonstrate the value and integrity of software development, but
defining and using software measures is notorious for it expense and
ineffectiveness. This half day course distils the learning from the best
software measurement methods and makes software measurement quick, simple and
effective. Six Sigma for Software Developers. A one day workshop specifically
for software developers and managers that gives and overview of the six sigma
approach and then selects and describes the tools that work best in software
organizations. Lean Software Development. An intensive one day
workshop introducing software developers to the ideas of lean software
development and describing the thinking tools that reduce timescales and cut
through waste. We will be posting
more details of these courses in due course. If you would like to find out
more now please email us at info@osel.co.uk
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28 July 2006
The UK SPIN group
should be reforming again soon. At a meeting yesterday a provisional programme
of meetings was discussed. Dates are 25 September, 4 December, 26 February
’07, and 21 March ’07 with topics covering process improvement failure modes,
off shoring, and managing change. The meetings will be held in London
at the BCS Offices in Southampton Street. The folk at Lamri are
offering to help so expect SPIN to start presenting a more interesting and
professional face to the world. If you want to know what process improvement
is really like, and where its heading (without the spin – so to speak), or
would like to present a paper do get in touch – either here or email Andrew
Griffiths at Lamri.
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8 June 2006
Developed from the note below this draft paper discusses the ‘opposite of a defect’ and why it matters. I submitted this to Eurostar with no luck but the perceptive people at UKSMA have asked me to present it (a little more developed) this autumn. I’ll have copies with me at the SEPG in Amsterdam next week. I’m keen to hear comments on these ideas - especially if its been developed elsewhere already. |
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1 February 2006
Peter Leeson is
running the popular three day ‘Introduction to the CMMI’ course in April in Milton
Keynes:
Course
Description This
three-day course introduces systems and software engineering managers and
practitioners, appraisal team members, and engineering process group (e.g.,
SEPG, EPG) members to Capability Maturity Model® Integration
(CMMI) fundamental concepts. CMMI models are tools that help organizations
improve their ability to develop and maintain quality products and services.
CMMI models are an integration of best practices from proven
discipline-specific process improvement models, including the CMM®
for Software, EIA 731, and the Integrated Product Development CMM. Participant cost is £1000.00 (plus VAT) per person.
This includes the training material, a light lunch on site and the
registration with the SEI. A non-refundable deposit of £100.00 is required
upon registration. Full payment is required by first day of workshop. Contact Q:PIT for details. |
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6 January 2006
The excellent BCS Quality SiG (North West) is having a process modelling and definition seminar on 26 January. Details here. |
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4 January 2006 – happy new year!The BCS’s SPIN group is planning their first meeting of the new year on 23 February at the BCS offices at Southampton St. London. The topic is metrics. The speakers are: Grant Rule, Rob Radcliff, Graham Thomas and Norman Fenton. Go to http://www.spin.bcs.org/events.htm for further details (in the near future). Alternatively email me at the address above. |
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December 2005
Here is a paper
describing an elaboration of the review process usually encountered. Three stage
formal reviews are not new, but not well known either. They are usually
encountered in engineering and defence organizations – they deserve to be
better known. |
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16 June 2005What’s the opposite of a defect? Identifying the mirror images
of software defects may be useful for improving software development and
development processes:
The data of primary interest from software inspections is
defect data. Analysed with care it can provide information about the software,
and the projects and processes that produced it. The value of defect data to
software engineering is not surprising. Defect data - whether as defect
counts or of measures of deviations from a norm - is also the primary source
of information for process control and revision in production engineering. However there
is a difference. Like manufacturing defects, software defects give rise to
rework, delay, increased cost, system failures and customer dissatisfaction,
but the uniformity, consistency and conformance to standard, so valued in
manufacturing’s essentially replication processes, are not the only criteria
by which software is judged: software development is design; and, as in
manufacturing design, excellence is the driver, not uniformity. Excellence is
not assessed solely by the number of defects. A good design will have a
certain number of defects, but an excellent design is not defined by fewer.
There is something else. Whatever this is it isn’t assessed by quality
control. But software quality control performed early in the development
cycle, particularly inspections, is not quality control alone. It is an aware
process performed by people that, as well as recognizing defects, may also
recognize excellence: ingenious solutions to difficult problems; prior
solutions; opportunities, and the elimination of complexity. This is
recognized as one of the additional benefits of software inspections but does
not appear to be formally managed or measured. In fact current practice may
actively obstruct the capture of this information. Discussion of design
options is discouraged, the focus to being fixed on detecting defects alone.
This may be a reflection of the origins of inspection as a hardware defect
detection technique, used to improve consistency and uniformity. Software
inspections can become even more valuable when adapted for use in a design
process; when they are supplemented by a requirement to recognize,
acknowledge and record those rare points of excellence that surprise and
please (and give rise to the occasional twinge of envy). Like defects these
points should be recorded, counted and analysed. Similar counts
and analyses of ingenuity could identify the nature and perhaps sources of
excellence. (There doesn’t appear to be useable antonym for defect.) The
analysis of points of excellence (undefects? proeffects? profects perhaps?)
would be similar to that of defects but, unlike defects, the emphasis would
be an amplifying or reusing them to produce ‘profective’ products and
processes. The removal of defects is a major contributor to the delivery of high
quality software, but is bounded by the lower limit of zero defects; the
amplification of excellence, by dissemination of profects, has no limit.
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3 June 2005Many thanks to Jaap
Bloem who, in response to the defect analysis paper, pointed to the work of Professor Chris Verhoef who has been
using elegant graphical techniques to reveal insights from unpromising
looking software data. Professor Verhoef’s paper 'Quantifying SPI' is a model of
the use of graphical techniques to analyse complex software data. The
techniques are notable for their simplicity and power. These approaches
really should be distinguished from the complex, obscuring, and often
inappropriate statistical analyses that so much software data is subject to.
(It’s tempting to add a ‘G’ for ‘Graphics’ to Basili’s GQM giving GQMGTuTu
- with the second G directed by Tukey and guided by Tufte.)
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13 May 2005Here is the draft
of a paper about analysing software defect data I will be presenting later
this year. Your comments would be welcome. It suggests that SPC
techniques are not a useful as might be thought and that simpler defect
analysis techniques can do more and open up opportunities for improvement. It
also proposes using software inspections for more than identifying defects.
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3 May 2005Download an evaluation
copy of PODS v1.9 for Lotus Notes (R5 and later) with full functionality:
defect tracker, change index, risk register, action tracker, test logger and
much more! The 814k zip file contains complete PODS, the PODS manual,
and installation notes. Available on the PODS page.
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18 April 2005Unexpected validation
for the rpi approach to process improvement (see www.osel.co.uk/rpi/rpi.htm): The
emphasis with rpi is on problem solving – ‘if you aren’t solving a problem
question what you are doing’, and ‘upstreaming’ (T - 1). These are
recommendations from the ‘theory of constraints’ (Goldratt, Theory of
Constraints) which, in a nutshell, suggests that improvement work be focussed
on removing bottlenecks. Optimisation in other areas does nothing but
increase queues at the bottlenecks. This is precisely what we have been
learning and promoting with rpi. Nice to know we’re getting it right.
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6 April 2005We are planning two
public courses later in the year:
Rapid Process Improvement. A one day tutorial on the use of
the RPI toolset, Central London, 8 September 2005, £285.
An Introduction to CMMI – Staged and
Continuous,
A three day
training course, Central London, 20-22 September 2005, £745.
Details of these
courses will be posted on our events page in due course. If you would like
details now please do email us.
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24 March 2005This is an observation
that I’m not aware of having been made before. I’ve noticed that those
organizations making progress in software process improvement - whether or
not it is measured in terms of conformance to standard, CMM Levels perhaps,
or improved performance - tend to be using two software process
models; the operational model and the reference model. The operational model
is the description of how work is performed, and may be an established
lifecycle model or an acquired and tailored commercial model, RUP, say, or
even a toolset. The reference model is used to direct and guide the
development of the operational model - in many cases this is CMM(I) -
although it can be something else, including models used by others as
operational models. The value appears to be in the models complementing each
other; the operational model being an explicit and coherent framework and
tools to support working practice, and an interpretation of the reference
model; the reference model providing direction and validation to the
operational. Where this occurs it appears to have happened quite
unconsciously, and contrasts with organizations where the new improved way of
working (whatever it may be) is introduced as both the operational and
reference model, overwriting existing practices, with predictable
consequences. This two model approach is implied in CMM(I)’s OPD where architectures
and lifecycles reside, but the relationship between these and the CMM(I)
itself, especially with respect to effectiveness of SPI, appears obscure, and
tends to be ignored when the ‘implementation’ of CMM(I) is discussed. (I have
never liked the term CMM(I) implementation – maybe this is why.) Has this
operational/reference, two model approach been noticed or reported elsewhere?
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7 March 2005I’ve been pointed to this and found it referenced in
the lean software development book – see library. It’s not exactly an easy
read but it may just open a door to understanding software processes a little
better. S/w development is intimately connected to software management which
is ‘difficult’. Professor Koskela’s paper may shed some light on this.
Distinguishing service models from project models as alternatives for
software and systems development (see the RPI slides) is not popular; the
project being taken as the default regardless of its appropriateness. This
paper may help justify non project oriented software management approaches.
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28 February 2005Thinking about the CMM
again it occurred to me that you hear little about the many different ways it
can be used for process improvement. Here are some suggestions:
1. Use the CMM (or CMMI) to tell you what not
to try. This was
how we originally used it. When the CMM first appeared we were undertaking
ambitious and diverse process improvement efforts, in particular software
measurement. Some things worked others didn’t. The CMM made it very clear for
the first time that some things come first and others, dependent on them,
come later. Use the CMM to understand your capability and make that better – don’t
launch process improvements to become more mature, use it to become more
effective and more efficient. Work to be a really good <whatever level you
are, even L1> organization and understand your organization and measure
the effect of your work before even thinking about changing level.
2. Start at the top. Look to Levels 4 and 5 for toolsets for
improvement and not as distant maturity levels. The tools described at levels
4 and 5 can be used (carefully and locally) whatever the your ‘official’
maturity rating. (A TQM organization not developing software, or just
starting software development would be level 1, but equipped with the L4 and
5 processes to make it more effective – why not try it too.)
3. Think of the maturity levels not as levels but as
types: project
oriented, process oriented, TQM oriented…. Some organizations are
intrinsically project oriented, others process oriented. An organization may
be a really good intrinsically L2 type organization, or it could be naturally
L3, but with holes. Which? Don’t spoil the good L2 organization by making it
mimic a L3 organization, but the ventilated organization could really benefit
by a drive to patch the holes. Trying to be the wrong type of organization,
process oriented when project oriented, or visa versa, is like wearing shoes
on the wrong feet, uncomfortable and unhelpful. Decide what type of
organization you are and work to be really good at that. Don’t be a ‘cargo
cult’ organization.
4. Put the levels and process areas to one side and
look at the really important features of the CMM, the common features. The common features describe
all the process areas at all the levels in the s/w CMM. Why? - because
they are the key to understanding, managing and improving processes. Invest
in understanding and putting in place your own common features and you will
be unable to stop improvements in performance. (The common features persist
in CMMI, but tend to be overshadowed by the model’s size and complexity.)
If you have found good
ways of using the CMM - beyond formal assessment, ‘gap analysis’
then attempting to be the next level (or two) up by <scheduled date> - let
us know and we can add them to the list.
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17 January 2005Peter Leeson is running a three
day ‘Introduction to the CMMI’ course in March 29 - 31, from 9.00 to 5.00 in
Milton Keynes, in the UK. This course fulfils a prerequisite
requirement for any course requiring an official SEI Introductory CMMI
course. Email us at info@osel.co.uk or
call on 01993 700878 for more details. The SEI
Introduction to CMMI®
This
three-day course introduces systems and software engineering managers and
practitioners, appraisal team members, and engineering process group (e.g.,
SEPG, EPG) members to Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) fundamental
concepts. CMMI models are tools that help organizations improve their ability
to develop and maintain quality products and services. CMMI models are an
integration of best practices from proven discipline-specific process
improvement models, including the CMM for Software, EIA 731 and the
Integrated Product Development CMM. In
response to community requests, this course is an upgrade to the existing
Introduction to CMMI, Staged Representation and Continuous Representation
courses, incorporating concepts from both. The course also includes
improvements to slides, exercises, and other course materials identified in
other change requests submitted by the community. The course is composed of lectures and class exercises with ample opportunity for participant questions and discussions. After attending the course, participants will be able to describe the components of CMMI models and their relationships, discuss the process areas in CMMI models, and are able to locate relevant information in the model. |
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7 December 2004Just received this
from the British Computer Society…
Following
an exploratory meeting yesterday (25 November), a proposal is being
developed for the formation of a BCS Open Source Specialist Group. Subject
to approval of its formation by the Specialist Groups' Executive Committee,
this SG will have a wide remit and will also include health/informatics. If any
member is interested in being a member of this group (and especially if
anyone would be interested in serving on an interim Committee to get the group up
and running), please contact Peter Murray, Chair, BCS HI Nursing SG, by
15 December on peter@open-nurse.info Regards John
Stephens Specialist
Groups' Officer BCS 1
Sanford Street
SWINDON SN1 1HJ e-mail:
jstephens@hq.bcs.org.uk Tel (direct): 01793 417631 |
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6 December 2004We have added a
dedicated RPI page where we
will be trialing access to the RPI toolset assets prior to moving them across
the SPIN website in March 2005. If you want something on the page that is not
available yet email us for it, but take a look at the RPI slides -
below - to make sure you really do want it first.
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2 December 2004The US Sarbanes Oxley
Act seems to have the potential to stir things up in the software process
community. The requirements imposed by this act may trigger increased management
interest in visibility and accountability in software development and support
- and that can’t be bad.
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(4 November 2004The web site has been
given a tidy up by a visitor to the office. Eleanor Shelley has been here on
a ‘go to work’ day and has been making herself useful by conducting some
usability tests on PODS and editing some of our web pages.)
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October 2004
We have
drafted a procedure called ‘Process Workshop’. It has been developed to
provide a simple, template procedure to put in place changes to working
practices and engage developers and managers in process improvement. Its
value is as an explicit and teachable process that can be used by everyone
and ‘officially’ recognized and measured. It encourages consensus building
and provides publicity for small, well scoped changes. This is in
contrast to TCM, a tool for larger scale process improvements used for
identifying and agreeing the problem and then formulating the fix. Comments
on the PW draft documents would be very welcome - procedure.pdf,
procedure diagram.pdf. It
would be useful to us to know if you already do something similar, or if this
would be useful to you. Notes on errors and omissions, except typos, also
welcome. |
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October 2004
I’ve just been sent
this - radice.pdf.
It is a fascinating case study on the use and value of software inspections
by Ron Radice (see book reviews). I’m not too sure if I should be posting
this paper here - note it is copyrighted – but it does include links to the
author’s web site.
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September 2004
We have been
contributing to the SPICE (Structured Process Improvement for Construction
Enterprises) since its inception. SPICE is a model for process improvement,
inspired by the SEI’s CMM, intended for the construction industry. SPICE III
is now preparing to launch the Level 3 definition. See www.scri.salford.ac.uk or email us
for details
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September 2004
Don’t forget the UKSMA
conference in September - http://www.uksma.co.uk/
– we will be there speaking on Six Sigma ( paper slides ) and
presenting the Rapid Process Improvement (RPI) tutorial ( slides ).
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July 2004
Just returned from the
SCRUM course. SCRUM is a ‘wrapper’ for agile software
development, or perhaps more accurately, an agile wrapper for software
development. It’s a deceptively simple set of ideas - 30 day ‘sprints’ to
develop and deliver workable code of value to the business – with daily team
meetings (scrums) during sprints to keep development on course by the
self-managing team. In essence a refined and practical take on the
iterative/incremental development approach. SCRUM has a lot of potential – it
meets a real need, it’s simple, technically easy to implement – but like
anything involving new ways of working, potentially career limiting. It’s
designed to break the software development log jam and get value out of
software development fast. It sits neatly between the agile development
methods and the business that must get value from them. Its not just process
– like XP there’s some attitude in this too. There’s a SCRUM book (by Ken
Schwaber and Mike Beedle, SCRUM’s originators - ISBN 0-13-067634-9) but
it doesn’t do credit to SCRUM itself. If you can, get yourself on a Certified
Scrum Master course. The presenters at our 2 day course, Ken Schwaber and
Joseph Pelrine, clearly know what they’re talking about and were able to hold
our attention with great ideas, clear thinking and some good stories too. I
don’t agree with everything they said but like any good idea it’s made me
think and question what I believe. As an extra goodie it’s intended to keep
SCRUM open so everyone can get access and contribute to its development. Find
out more at http://www.controlchaos.com/.
If you would like a SCRUM
tutorial or SCRUM training we now have a Certified ScrumMaster - contact us.
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June 2004
SPIN has just started
up again – kick started by Tom Gilb’s excellent seminar on Agile Inspection. At
the next SPIN meeting this autumn we intend to start up two SPIN initiatives
(if the committee will let us). Firstly restart the SPI tools repository to
acquire and give SPI practitioners access to simple effective SPI tools.
(This was tried in ’98 but while the need was there few tools were
forthcoming. This has now changed.) Secondly start a SPIN project to develop ‘fault grids’ invented by
Jeremy Dick. Fault grids appear to be the most effective way of analysing and
presenting defect data. They have considerable potential but have had very
little exposure in the software development community. This project hopes to
change that.
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26 May 2004
I’ve just received this.
Short notice but could be interesting if you can make it…
The
Thames Valley Agile Special Interest Group would like to invite you to our
first seminar at Oxford Brookes University on the 1st June 2004.
Topics:
An introduction to Agile Software Development / Extreme
Programming (XP) explained
Speaker:
Tim Bacon - Thoughtworks
Date:
Tuesday 1st June 2004
Time:
19.00 - approx 21.00
Cost:
Free
Location:
Oxford Brookes University
Headington Campus
Gipsy Lane
Oxford
OX3 0BP
(Arrive at main reception from where you will see signs to the Agile User
Group).
Summary:
Agile Software Development has had a dramatic impact on the Software Development industry over the past few years. Since the release of Kent Beck's book, 'Extreme Programming Explained - Embrace Change', Agile SD has gone from strength to strength. As more and more organisations are reaping the advantages of using these disciplined yet lightweight approaches to deliver customer focused software faster, its is becoming imperative for software teams to be able to utilise these 'agile' skills to keep up in the market place. |
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April 2004
UKSMA – the software measurement group have issued a call for papers for their autumn conference: The UK Software
Metrics Association (UKSMA) CALL FOR PAPERS The 15th Annual UKSMA
Conference is to be held on 15 September 2004, at the
University of Wolverhampton. The theme of the conference will be Software Measurement in Practice. You are invited to submit papers on
the subject of software measurement to conferences@uksma.co.uk.
Please submit a
short description summarising your paper. Each presenter has 45
minutes, including 10 minutes for questions. It
would be appreciated if you would indicate your intention to submit a
paper as soon as possible even if the description is not yet ready, so that
we can gauge the response. Deadline for papers is 7th May 2004 - Notification of acceptance by 28th May 2004. |
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March 2004
In passing – we’ve
helped another of one of our client’s to CMM L2. They have just had a registered
CBA IPI and have achieved L2. This in very short timescales and with clearly
improved performance.
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January 2004
The value
of quality controls in all stages of software development and maintenance is becoming
increasingly evident, not just as quality controllers identifying defects,
but also as management and communications tools. This is leading us to find
define and categorize the best of these techniques and processes. It looks
like a big job. If you would like to help with this or simply contribute some
views email us. |
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September 2003
We’ve come across some interesting new ideas – dynamic
configuration of systems – update your systems while they’re running. Potentially
makes the traditional release process easier simpler and less risky. |
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May
2003 |
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April 2003 Satyam is a major Global
consulting and IT services company assessed at CMM Level 5. Satyam has a
wealth of software process and process improvement knowledge. OSEL has detailed
knowledge of UK and European software process capabilities and software
process improvement programmes. It also has highly effective process
improvement tools. We will be working
closely together with Satyam to maximise our capabilities by making world
class performance available - effectively - to organisations requiring
improved understanding and performance of their software processes. |
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March 2003 The integration of the P2
metrics tool with the Microsoft PODS is underway. Following increasing
interest from industry and also a request at the UKSPIN we have prepared an
overview and comparison on Six Sigma and its applicability to software
development. |
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February 2003 The growing interest in the
Unified Process and experiences of PRINCE2 has shown a need to integrate
these two methods. We are currently working on integrating the management
method and the software process. |
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January 2003 PODS is now being ported
to VB. It is intended that this variant of mPODS will replace the current
Access based mPODS towards the end of this year. The new mPODS will retain
all the lPODS functionality, include P2, and be capable of working from most
databases. We have begun a study to
see how closely the PODS tool-set maps onto the PRINCE2 project management
method. PODS was deliberately developed independently of any particular
methods to ensure maximum applicability but the obvious synergies between
PODS and PRINCE2 have prompted us to consider a PODS variant that explicitly
supports PRINCE2. We are offering lPODS
1.8(d) (running on Lotus Notes R5) free with a view to extending the user
base. The distribution is of a design protected PODS but may change - see
below. Contact shelley@osel.netkonect.co.uk for an lPODS pack. OSEL is reviewing its
PODS distribution options. Should we take PODS open source? The impact of the
open source movement is impressive and opportunities for wider use and
improvement of PODS are tempting. Any views? |
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November 2002 The Tactical Change
Management (TCM) method is being revised. The current issue (1.4) is rather
'procedural' in feel. We are revising it to make it look less intimidating
and to make it easier to learn. |
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September
2002 |
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June
2002 |
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May
2002 |
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