Process Improvement for Play (Process Improvement That Works)
Karl E. Wiegers
Many software development organizations are catching up with the CMM software process improvement parade, but too many organizations have dropped again. If you want to get zero rewards from your software process improvement, follow the procedures:
1. A lot of money and time spent on process assessment, consulting services and training graduates.
2. Create a large clip containing various procedures, then telling team members, they must start complying with all procedures immediately;
3. Accept the instructions of high-level leaders: "Do it!"
4. The big clip looking at the procedure is filled with dust, and the team members have not changed their way.
This article describes the lessons learned from the process improvement to avoid useless work, providing a practical skills on how software process improvements, as well as the basic process improvement step description. Supplementary information lists some resources and references.
What is process improvement?
From essential, the process improvement is simple: consistently applying those practices that bring good results and change the practices that lead to problems. This requires the reason why the frank insignifications and careful analysis of the previous project successful places and insufficient places. Your main motivation should be a better software development method and management method to achieve specific business results. You can use the formulated software process framework, such as SEI's software process maturity model (CMM) to guide software improvements. But what you need to remember is that your goal is by no means a simply satisfying model.
Process improvement cycle
Figure 1 illustrates an overall SPI cycle. After defining the business goals you expect, the current process, problem, and project results are evaluated through the process assessment. With the knowledge of evaluation and knowledge about the best practices in the software industry, you can set a real improvement goal. Select a small part of the practice that can solve the current process disadvantages and advance to the target. Determine one to two projects as a pilot of the new process and adjust it before it is officially launched.
Figure 1 software process improves life cycle
Planning to implement new working methods will greatly increase the possibility of your success. The most difficult part is to actually implement an action plan; if you don't do this, you will not change anything. Give new processes some time, then observe whether the action plan is committed to the problem of solving. Hard data about the benefits of the process is more convincing than subjective feelings. Then continue the process to improve the life cycle to solve the next most urgent need. The process improvement is a journey, not the end.
Focus on pain
Pain is the best motivation to change people's working methods. What I said is not an external and human caused pain, but a very true pain encountered in our current working methods. Tell people that change will bring a better future and encourage people to change. More convincing methods are to tell people that if they don't change, they will be in danger.
Evaluation can help reveal the main risks of painful places and projects. The assessment can use a simple brainstorm conference that your team members can find obstacles affecting productivity and quality. Or, you can spend an external consultant to conduct a semi-formal assessment, and you can conduct a strict formal process assessment in accordance with the existing process model (such as CMM). Of course, formal reviews need to spend money and time, but they can compare the process standards to thoroughly current process practice.
According to my experience, the process assessment rarely shows a particularly unexpected problem. Many development groups may have been aware of their problems and habits, and the evaluation of external personnel is just officially revealing this issue. Because external personnel are far from the development organization's office politics, historical contradictions and special characters. The assessment will make you directly face uneasy problems. Assessment is definitely not a forum for faults and personal forums looking for past problems.
The evaluation can indicate a determination and commitment to the process improvement. Remember, to make the issues and recommendations found in the assessment, otherwise, you will be in the waste of money and time, and lose the trust of the defeated team members, they will conclude management of the management. serious. Assessment usually recognizes a lot of improvement opportunities, more than you can add more. "Focus" is the most critical vocabulary in process improvement. Time to design a better process and turn it into a part of the team's daily way to work more than your imagination. I have encountered a project team that is full of 20 people, and advancing improvements in seven improvements. The resource is allocated in seven fields, with no clear priority, although it is very fanatics, but it is hardly effective.
According to your expected business results, the goal of the process, for example, the goal may be "eliminating the incorrect construnce from the development phase to the system test phase", rather than writing a "software constructed incremental procedure". SPI activity
Instead of reaching a target of a target, not the SPI itself. Your manager should be able to express it, and hope that from the SPI program success, what changes will be seen from the behavior and results of the team members.
For those maximum priority goals, start to choose two to three goals first. If you have completed these goals soon, it is very good, select the next improved area from the evaluation report. Don't move too much in a step, don't try too much when you have just started. Large development organizations can be improved in several fields in multiple projects, but each project focuses only on rare areas.
Communication, communication, communication
When people are asked to change their familiar ways, they usually feel comfortable because they feel comfortable for familiar ways (even if the efficiency is not high), but I am worried about unknown. Taking into account the heavy process burden affects creativity and the on-time publishing of software is also common, this fear often exceeds the reality. Your team member may have a frustration, even if they have made their best, the assessment results still find out the shortcomings of the process. Customers and other external groups will also think that the SPI program adds obstacles to the things you need from programmers.
To solve the above problems, communication should run through process improvement activities. The cost of the current process should be clearly stated. The consideration may include: including the expansion schedule, loss of function, a large number of overtime, high product support costs, unhappy customers, low-quality, low-quality, etc., to interpret process improvement activities for individuals, project teams, companies What is the benefit of the customer. In order to reduce the concern of the unstoppable change, it is emphasized that the new process will be carefully selected, and it is created by the team members, and will be promoted in the future, find those who are willing to try new procedures and file templates and provide information feedback. " Allied Army, helping to work for successful changes.
Achievements to team members and related personnel. The disclosed person who contributes to each successful change, indicating that constructive participation SPI plan is an expected behavior. Analysis of unsuccessful change attempts to understand why it is difficult and adjust your approach.
A key SPI operation principle is, "gentle and continuous pressure". Maintaining the goals and status of the process to see the entire team. Emphasize how to improve the goals of the company uniform. Leave the time at the group meeting to review the progress of the improvement activities, and report to the management report to the management of improvements to obtain their support.
The thing of the disaster is that the process improvement plan to start the process of bluff in the beginning of the year, but no longer lifted, until the end of the year, check to achieve the goal. Of course, there is no goal. For most project members, work in project activities is always more important than process improvement. The manager should constantly emphasize the team to emphasize process improvement work is important and valuable.
Establish an organization guarantee for the process improvement
Seriously treat the process improved organization, usually set a three-story organizational architecture to ensure the success of the process improvement (Figure 2). But you should adjust this idea based on your organization, the organizational structure should not be too complicated. As long as it can be guaranteed, the improved action is recognized, started, implemented, and achieved. The Administration Steering Committee (MSC) provides resources and setting direction and priority. It may also recognize a "process owner" for each process improvement, a process improvement to reach a process improvement and providing coherence in the working group. Members of the Utly Management Steering Committee include the organizers of the organization, process to improve managers, leading the SPI's personal, selected project managers and department managers. The different levels of management are actively involved in the MSC, indicating that organizations are very serious about improvement. The responsibilities of MSC include:
l Set the priority in the field of improvement;
l Franchise setup working group engaged in the field of specific improvements;
l monitor improvement activities and status;
l Evaluate the impact of completed improvement activities;
l Management process improves risks and eliminates obstacles.
Figure 2 Typical software improved organizational structure
Software Engineering Process Team or SEPG (pronounced "S-E-P-G", "Sep-Gee" or "SEE-PEG"), coordinating various process improvement activities. SEPG acts as a management agent to implement a process change program. A large organization's SEPG should have a full-time manager, some full-time software process experts, some part-time personnel who are round-replaced.
Process experts often come from test and quality assurance personnel, but at least there are at least a few SEPG members should have solid development experience. Project management experience is also a need. These qualifications provide more credible to developers and managers.
Sepg learns a lot of evaluation, process improvement framework, how to write good processes and procedures, how to affect the knowledge of changes. The humanity and organization of change management are as important as the technical aspects of process improvement. Effective SEPG members should be organized, patient, flexible, and effective communication, they can change their methods according to their personal circumstances. They are skilled promoters, can and different participants, some participants may not believe in SPI and unwilling to participate in the sensitive topics,.
For those related to all process improvements, SEPG is a resource. Their expertise, resource and external relationships accelerate changes, because people who participate in process improvement know where they can seek help. SEPG members usually perform the following functions:
l Develop a strategic and tactical process improvement plan;
l Leadership or participation process assessment;
l Coordinating and promoting various process improvement work group;
l Collect information and literature in the industry's best practice;
l Accumulate organization process wealth, such as procedures, templates, checklists, work product examples, and sharing within the organization;
l The new process, procedures, and templates developed by the review workgroup;
l Leading process improvements in the entire organization, such as metrics and training programs.
The SEPG team writes all new procedures and then imposes the practice of giving the project group is not a good idea. Such a typical way "partitions, 殃 and others" is always a failure. Participate in the work group (process improvement working group or process action team) to participate in realistic and new procedures. The recommended way is that the procedures are developed by improved working groups (also known as "Process Action Team" or "Process Improvement Team") with procedure definitions.
A working group consists of 3 to 6 project representatives, responsible for a particular improvement area. Their deliverable results generally include the description of the current process of this field, newly developed process, and process wealth. The work of the Working Group may only include a new process for a project, perhaps define a new process for the entire organization. Seriously study the scope of the workgroup target for three months. If the continuation is too long, then the work members will lose enthusiasm, and people will have more. You can re-authorize to the working group, or call a new group to perform the next round of improvement activities. Try to let all project members and project managers participate in a working group at some time (of course, do not have to be completed once), which will help all team members' feelings of the new process. SEPG members can initiate each meeting of each of the workgroups. However, it is important to maintain the work group after the transfer of the process improvement plan and maintain the working group after the evacuation of training. It is very important for software development organizations.
Planning action
Watch your SPI as a project, provide organizational structure, resources, and other development projects. Two useful planning ingredients, overall strategic software process improvement plans and tactical action plans for each working group. Some people don't want to plan their plan, and the development plan is used as a useless and burden. However, the development plan is not difficult, difficult is to think, ask questions, listening, understanding and consultation. In fact, the development plan is just copying the content you think. Even if a simple project, the plan can also help the project execute in accordance with the prescribed processes and provide references that can be used to track progress.
Figure 3 provides a template for strategic SPI programs, strategic SPI plan guidance organization's long-term process improvement. Organization process improvement manager is usually the main author of the Strategic SPI program, while SEPG members and key managers should review and approve the Strategic SPI program. Use this template for your SPI planning.
Each Working Group should use standard templates to prepare action plans to describe the workgroup to achieve goals and how to implement them. Action plan should be identified:
l The business and technical objectives need to be completed, which will compare tracking with the overall goals written in the strategic SPI plan.
l Whether the process changes to the measurement item to achieve the expected results
l Process change organization
l Participants, their roles and commitments
l Working Group report status, results, and reporting mechanisms
l External dependent or risk
l Date target for all activities
l A list of action entries, indicating each action entry, indicating the person in charge, deadline, purpose, activity, delivery results, and the required resources.
The action entry to improve the tactical plan of each process is limited to 9 specific, fairly small actions. This will help control the workload of the working group within a few months, not for participants.
Figure 3 Strategic Process Improvement Plan Template
Advance to success
The leader of process improvement is a leader, guiding organizations to recognize need to be better practices, and then successfully implement new practices. This guidelines require stable goals and firm determination, and the goal of continuous changes will make the participants feel confused and frustrated. They will do their hands and say "Wait until you want to know what you really want, then tell me." Avoid being pursued by higher CMM levels, but focus on improving business outcomes, using the guidance provided by existing frameworks such as CMM by selective and creatively.
Decide that your enthusiasm for SPI is also assigned resources. An organization, if the funds improving on the software process account for only 3% -4% of the total budget (including training, assessment, consultation, Sepg personnel, working groups, etc.), then its so-called SPI is just a casual trial A try. If the capital input ratio reaches 7% -8%, the company is quite serious about SPI; and 10% of the proportion means that companies have huge investment in SPI. By tracking the time spent on the SPI activity, it is determined whether the plan works complete and whether your current resource investment is consistent with your goals. productivity
Initial state
Process improvement
Improved future state
Don't quit here
learning curve
time
Figure 4 Process Improved Learning Curve
Recognizing the reality of the learning curve, short-term performance fell because you learn new working methods and combine with each person's personal procedure. For individuals, it will take time to absorb new better work; for organizations, as a whole, make good working methods to institutionalize the operational procedures. Time. Time and money you spend on SPI are strategic investments in the long-term success, and those resources cannot be used in the current project. I feel happy in small victory and celebrate your success. Try to make your work tomorrow's project better than yesterday,
I should be happy for each small progress and should be kept, letting tomorrow's work is always better than today, and ultimately you will lead in competition. This is the truly reasonable process improvement.
