Lecture Software process improvement: Lesson 9 provide students with knowledge about: intro to process management; technology innovations; deming’s approach; process-thinking principles; process-thinking approach; process management responsibilities;... Please refer to the detailed content of the lecture!
Intro to Process Management Lecture # 9 Why is Important to Know Your Current Process? Pontificate on this point for a while Technology Innovations • Initially, new technology innovations and improvements (languages, compilers, CASE tools, and so forth) were viewed as the “silver bullet” • Technology helped, but it did not provide the breakthrough desired Deming’s approach • Other industries began to adopt the approach advocated by W. Edwards Deming and successfully implemented by many companies in Japan • Deming’s approach, greatly influenced by the work of Walter A. Shewhart, deals with the notions of process management and continual improvement Deming’s approach • Deming’s approach contends that to be competitive, improve quality, and increase productivity, the following actions are required Deming’s Approach 1 • Focus on the processes that generate the products and services to improve quality and productivity. Consider the task of building the product or providing the service as a series of integrated and interconnected processes • Ensure that the processes are properly supported Deming’s Approach 2 • Manage poorly behaving processes by fixing the process, not blaming the people • Recognize that variation is present in all processes and that existence of variation is an opportunity for improvement. Improvement comes from reducing variation Deming’s Approach 3 • Take variation into account in the decision making process. Management action uses data from the process to guide decisions ProcessThinking Principles ProcessThinking Principles • Requires unique relationship within the organization, involving its management and management philosophy, its people, and the management of the processes used to produce products and provide services • How SW industry has adopted these principles on the next slide 10 Capability • Is the process capable of delivering products that meet requirements? • Does the performance of the process meet the business needs of the organization? 51 Capability • If a software process is not capable of consistently meeting product requirements and business needs, or if an organization is to satisfy everincreasing demands for higher quality, robustness, complexity, and market responsiveness while moving to new technologies and improving its competitive position, people in the organization will be faced with the need to continually improve process performance 52 Capability • Understanding the capability of the sub processes that make up each software process is the first step in making progress toward process improvement 53 Process Improvement 54 Improvement • What can we do to improve the performance of the process? • What would enable us to reduce variability? • What would let us move the mean to a more profitable level? • How do we know that the changes we have introduced are working 55 Improvement • Resolution of these process improvement issues revolves around measurement and analysis of process performance, which leads to the question of process measurement 56 Process Measurement 1 • Sequential measurements of quality attributes of products and process can provide an effective foundation for initiating and managing process improvement activities 57 Process Measurement 2 • Measurement is a mechanism for creating a corporate memory and an aid in answering a variety of questions associated with the enactment of any software process • To determine the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and products • To evaluate the quality of specific processes and products 58 Process Measurement 3 • Measurements also enable people to detect trends and anticipate problems, thus providing better control of costs, reducing risks, improving quality, and ensuring that business objectives are met 59 Process Measurement 4 • Using measurements to manage and improve software processes show how quality characteristics of software products and processes can be quantified, plotted, and analyzed • In turn, the performance of activities that produce the products can be predicted, controlled, and guided to achieve business and technical goals 60 Measurement Questions 1 • • • • What should be measured? How should the characteristics measured? What is the data telling us? How is our process behaving? 61 Measurement Questions 2 • What are the signals that we should be reacting to? • How do we know that something is a signal? • What should we do when we recognize a signal? 62 Issues in Road to SPI • • • • • Performance Stability Capability Improvement Measurement 63 Summary 64 References • Measuring the Software Process by William Florac and Anita Carleton, Chapter 1 65 ... Measure the? ?process • Control the? ?process – Ensure variability is stable. Why? So that the results are predictable • Improve the? ?process 16 Process? ?Management Responsibilities Improve Process Define Process. .. Responsibilities Improve Process Define Process Control Process Measure Process Execute Process 17 Defining the? ?Process • Defining a? ?software? ?process? ?creates the disciplined and structured environment ... successfully managing the work processes associated with developing, maintaining, and supporting? ?software? ?products and software? ?intensive systems 13 Process? ?thinking Approach • This concept of? ?process? ?management is