Lecture Software process improvement: Lesson 35 provide students with knowledge about: process assurance; components of planning and organization; project team; project standards; schedule monitoring; project tracking; effective communication;... Please refer to the detailed content of the lecture!
Process Assurance Lecture # 35 Process Assurance • Process assurance consists of the collective activities carried out while developing a product to ensure that the methods and techniques used are integrated, consistent, and correctly applied • Emphasis is given to cost, time, technical requirements, testing measurements, and prototyping Process Assurance • Process assurance involves the interrelationships of several different components • Depending on how these are managed, they can have a major positive impact on the products Process Assurance • Once an effective process assurance program is put in place and shown to be beneficial, then emphasis can be placed in making verification and validation strategies effective and in improving the quality of the products Process Assurance • Successful process assurance is based on planning and organization • There are several important components of planning and organization Following slide to be inserted Components of Planning and Organization Components of Planning and Organization Project Team Project Standards Schedule Monitoring Integrated Technology Project Tracking Planning & Organization Measurement Estimating Project Risks Steering Committee Effective Communication Project Team • Project team is the project manager’s only means of reaching the project goals • Selection of team members is a vital step to the success of the project • Size of the team depends on the size and complexity of the project Project Team • It is important to identify the blend of the technical knowledge and the experience required for the successful completion of the project • Special attention should be paid to creating team composition that fosters mutual respect among team members and maintains good team morals Project Standards • Before the project is started, the team should establish standards for activities such as requirements gathering, developing design, and conducting unit tests • Standards or guidelines should also be established for quality control activities such as walkthroughs, reviews, and inspections 10 Lack of Project Leadership • Ensuring that the project is in the hands of a good project manager and that the project is progressing according to the preestablished schedule is vital for the success of the project • Selecting an individual who is goal oriented, possessing the right traits with a positive attitude and competence for managing the project is a challenge 58 Lack of Project Leadership • However, even if an excellent project manager is allocated, the success or failure of a project may not have anything to do with the individual who is assigned to manage the project because other factors still influence the project’s outcome • There are three attributes that must be treated equally: 59 Lack of Project Leadership – The individual assigned to the project must have the responsibility to manage it (if an individual assigned to a project has no authority to make any decisions on the project, he or she will have very little control over the project) – The authority of that manager must be equal to the responsibility – The manager must have access to the necessary resources for successfully completing the project 60 Lack of Project Leadership • There are projects whose outcome depends heavily on the project manager’s performance and motivation, for example, information systems projects often have different characteristics and require a different management style than realtime systems 61 Lack of Project Leadership • For this type of project, it is important to select a project manager who is most suitably matched in skills and personality to handle the requirements of the project and also the team members who are assigned to the project 62 Lack of Project Leadership • Although technical knowledge is necessary, the knowledge of human interactions and relationships is more important since it allows the project manager to deal with unexpected and adverse situations • The project manager should be flexible, responsive, and effective in coordinating daytoday activities 63 Lack of Project Leadership • For some reason, if the project schedule is sliding or if there are situations that need attention and decision making, the project manager should be competent enough to deal with them 64 Lack of Project Leadership • Careful planning and early process control can avoid pitfalls at the later stages of the project • Changing work environment and technology in the middle of the project can pose problems • In such situations, the project manager must be in a position to make effective decisions and implement them 65 Lack of Project Leadership • The project manager should also be the content expert, thus allowing him or her to develop quick solutions and implement decisions and changes that are best for the success of the project • The project manager should be credible and respected by other team members to be able to orchestrate the strategies for the project and carry out negotiations 66 Lack of Project Leadership • When under time constraints, the project manager should possess the skills to evaluate the schedule, risks, and resources, and arrive at the conclusions that would be best for the project • If the goals of the project are unclear, the project manager should be able to work with the team members to go through the entire scope of the project, evaluate the 67 benefits, and finalize the goals Lack of Measures of Success • In addition to the causes of failures listed above, another major contributor to failure is when you define the project success based on development efficiency measures only, such as on time and within budget • Effectiveness measures for the project are completely ignored, such as technical performance and quality 68 Lack of Measures of Success • To evaluate the success of the project, objective measurements should be developed, for example, the project is completed on time, within budget, and with all the required features • Successful companies enforce standards which require consensus to evaluate effectiveness and success criteria of the project 69 Lack of Measures of Success • Each element of the success criteria must be defined and agreed upon prior to starting the project 70 Summary 71 References • Inroads to Software Quality by Alka Jarvis and Vern Crandall, Chapter 1 72 .. .Process? ?Assurance • Process? ?assurance consists of the collective activities carried out while developing a ... Emphasis is given to cost, time, technical requirements, testing measurements, and prototyping Process? ?Assurance • Process? ?assurance involves the interrelationships of several different components •... Depending on how these are managed, they can have a major positive impact on the products Process? ?Assurance • Once an effective? ?process? ?assurance program is put in place and shown to be beneficial, then emphasis can be placed in