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July 2000
of TATA Consultancy Services (TCS), a firm with offices throughout India, mentioned in his
keynote speech that his organization was able to reduce the amount of project management
time to an average of five percent of the total project effort by using project management
tools. In his view, their project leaders were able to focus their efforts on managing the
project instead of spending excessive amounts of time on the "administrative" aspects.
The Keynotes
There were four interesting speeches. Scott Griffin, chief information officer for the Boeing
Company, described the process-improvement activities that his company began in 1991.
More than 10,000 people at Boeing have been trained in the Software CMM, over 200
assessments have been performed, and several Boeing organizations are at CMM levels three,
four and five. Boeings results are impressive. The accuracy of project estimates has improved
by 87 percent, software quality has improved by 130 percent and productivity has improved
by 62 percent.
Steve McConnell, president and chief software engineer for Construx Software and editor in
chief of IEEE Software magazine, made a compelling case for creating a true profession of
software engineering. Several high-profile studies have shown that the software industry has
some serious problems. Projects are canceled at an alarming rate, and software is routinely
late and over budget. The popular press chuckles about the "blue screen of death," but this is
really no joke. Interestingly enough, McConnell points out that the industries best practices
have been around for 15 years or more. A few examples include automated estimation tools,
introduced in 1975, JAD sessions from 1985, information hiding from 1972 and inspections
from 1976. So what is the problem? The varying rate of the diffusion of information. People
and organizations adopt technology and techniques at different rates, ranging from innovators
to laggards. Increasing the rate at which companies adopt industry best practices is one way
the overall quality of software could improve. McConnell believes that creating a true
profession of software engineering is the best way to advance the industry. Steps are under
way to make this a reality, with new undergraduate, accreditation and licensing programs
becoming available.
James R. Driscoll, vice president for EDSs Wireless Division, delivered a keynote address
entitled "Ensuring Clients Achieve Superior Value in the Digital Economy." Driscoll described
key components of the digital economy and stressed that companies must be fast, flexible and
innovative in order to survive. Competition is changing, with greater value being placed on
knowledge and innovation, and markets overall are becoming more efficient. To effectively
compete and meet the demands of the digital economy, EDS is applying software process
improvement on a global scale. All EDS organizations use a single consistent process set for
software development and the management of the development process. By implementing a
corporate process repository, regional estimating centers and a CMM lead assessor network,
EDS can maximize the return on investment for process improvement and effectively compete
globally.
Ramadorai presented a view of his companys drive toward CMM level five. TCS, Indias largest
IT consultancy, has seven centers at CMM level five and one at level four. By applying the CMM
and quality concepts, they have achieved an estimate accuracy of plus or minus five percent
and a schedule accuracy of plus or minus 0.09 percent.
High-Maturity Organizations
This year it was evident that there are more and more high-maturity organizations in the
industry. High maturity is defined as those organizations at CMM level four and level five. (See
the characteristics of these organizations in Figure 1.) The SEI performed a global survey in
1999 of such firms and found, as of November 1999, 40 level-four organizations and 21 levelfive organizations. Of these, 26 are offshore, with 24 in India and one each in Australia and
Israel. India alone has 14 level-four organizations and 10 at level five. In The Decline and Fall
of the American Programmer (Prentice Hall, 1992), Ed Yourdon makes the case for India
taking market share from American programmers, just as Japan did from U.S. auto makers in
the 1970s. It does seem that India is embracing the CMM as a competitive advantage over the
U.S. software industry.
Figure 1. Characteristics of High-Maturity Organizations
Project
Management
Many use Delphi methods for estimating and Earned Value for project
tracking.
Risk Management
Software Sizing
Quality
Processes
Training
Source: "Understanding High Maturity Practices: A Software CMM Tutorial," Mark C. Paulk,
SEPG 2000
Watts Humphreys New Process
There were several presentations on the Personal Software Process (PSP) and the Team
Software Process (TSP), both developed by Watts Humphrey to improve software quality and
increase developer productivity. Basically, the PSP is about planning for quality and removing
defects early in the development cycle, and is designed to fit within your current development
methodology. Each defect is recorded, tracked and analyzed to determine how to improve the
development process.
Several people presented defect and productivity data before and after the PSP and TSP was
implemented. The results are impressive. Boeing, Hill Air Force Base, AIS and Teradyne have
all published data on their PSP and TSP pilots, as summarized in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Results of the Personal and Team Software Processes
Category
Without PSP/TSP
With PSP/TSP
27% to 112%
-8% to 5%
17% to 85%
-8% to -4%
0.1 to 0.7
0.02 to 0.1
1 to 5 days
0.1 to 1 days
0.2 to 1+
0 to 0.1
Boeing, Hill Air Force Base, AIS and Teradyne have all published data on the
improvements seen from their Personal Software Process and Team Software
Process pilot programs.
* Lines of code
Chart adapted from the presentation "A Quantitative Approach to Software Quality
Management," SEPG 2000.
Where Were the "Dot-Coms"?
Looking at the roster of attendees, I noticed that a certain type of software company was
missing from the conference. There were only a handful of dot-com or Internet companies.
Such powerhouses as Yahoo, AOL, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and Dell had no representation
whatsoever. Naturally, there were a large number of defense agencies, defense contractors,
aerospace companies and the larger commercial service companies, namely EDS, IBM, CSC,
Anderson Consulting and others. The documented charter of the SEI is to "advance the state
of the practice of software engineering" (The Capability Maturity ModelGuidelines for
Improving the Software Process, Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute,
Addison Wesley, 1994). I believe the SEI is fulfilling this goal, as evidenced by the popularity
of the CMM and the data presented at the conference. But there were many organizations that
should have attended the conference. Why do we accept the "blue screen of death" and
operating systems with bugs listed in the tens of thousands? I sometimes wonder when I hear
glowing government reports stating that productivity is increasing because of technology. If
so, why must I reboot my PC several times a week?
All in all, this years SEPG conference was worthwhile. Each presentation I attended was high
quality, both in terms of content and delivery. Most of the time I just couldnt take notes fast
enough; much of this years focus on the characteristics of higher maturity organizations
(those at level four and level five), along with the benefits of applying the PSP and TSP, was
especially relevant to my organizations needs.
I recommend the SEPG conference to anyone who is even remotely interested in software
process improvement. Better still, next years conference is being held in New Orleans. I can
hardly wait.