Ottawa Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN)
Workshop April 20, 2000

 


Workshop Topic:
Three Topics Related to the Capability Maturity Model for Software

Presenter:
Mark Paulk,
Senior Member, Technical Staff,
Software Engineering Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
U.S.A.
mcp@sei.cmu.edu

Mr. Mark Paulk is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at the Software Engineering Institute. He has been with the SEI since 1987, initially working with the Software Capability Evaluation project. Mark was the "book boss" for Version 1.0 of the Capability Maturity Model for Software and was the project leader during the development of CMM Version 1.1. He is also actively involved with software engineering standards, including
  • ISO 15504 (aka SPICE -- Software Process Improvement and Capability determination), an emerging suite of international standards for software process assessment
  • ISO 12207, Software Life Cycle Processes
  • ISO 15288, System Life Cycle Processes
Prior to joining the SEI, Mark was a Senior Systems Analyst for System Development Corporation (later Unisys Defence Systems) at the Ballistic Missile Defence Advanced Research Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Mark holds a master's degree in computer science (Vanderbilt University) and a bachelor's degree in mathematics and Computer science (University of Alabama, Huntsville).

Professional society memberships and certifications
  • Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ)
  • ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer
  • SEI Lead Assessor
Marvin's Summary:
A very useful workshop for those of us involved in process improvement and the management of change within organizations or parts of organizations. With a more complete understanding of what motivates people and how to tailor the CMM practices, we are now better equipped to lead our organizations to higher process maturity. Mark reminded us that the goal of any process improvement is to help the business in the long term.

Topic 1: Using the Software CMM with Good Judgement:

Subtopics:
    The Current State of affairs - history of CMM, relation to TQM, IDEAL model
    Software CMM Interpretation - true use is for improvement, all organizations will need to tailor practices
    "Good" Interpretation and Principles - "success is based on achieving business objectives"
    Abusing the Software CMM - "The danger of Focusing on Score"
    Concluding Thoughts - "Let Common Sense Prevail", "Tie improvements to business needs"
Mark summed it up when he said "use common sense" when applying the CMM. The practices in the Software CMM are oriented towards large, contractual projects and organizations. Organizations will meet the Goals of the Key Process Areas in different ways than the detailed practices indicate, practices having been designed as interpretation guidelines. Mark gave detailed interpretations of several areas within the CMM including: Planning, Risk Management, Process Definition, Documentation & Deployment, Training, Peer Reviews, etc.

Topic 2: People Issues: The "Soft Side" in Software Process Improvement:

Software is developed by people, working in teams. Many studies indicate that there is great variation in the performance between individuals and between teams. "Success depends on competent people working together effectively." Mark reviewed some of the current thinking on how people operate (e.g. Meyers-Briggs Types, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs) and on organizational structures (e.g. Constantine's Organizational Paradigms) and how a Continuous Improvement program could be tailored to succeed in these situations. Mark reviewed in some detail the People CMM, an five level maturity progression of people related issues, leading from such key process areas as "Work Environment and Communication" in Level 2 to "Coaching and Continuous Workforce Innovation" in Level 5. Mark also reviewed several key issues from McConnell's Rapid Development, e.g. Productivity Environments, Theory W management, etc.

Mark's summarized the importance of people issues in his last chart: "If you do not deal with the people issues successfully, process improvement and organizational change will not occur".

Topic 3: Practices of High Maturity Organizations:

A study was done in late 1999 of the 61 organizations at that time assessed to be at SW-CMM level 4 & 5, in order to find similarities between these organizations.

General points of interest:
  • 24 of these organizations were in India
  • wide range of businesses
  • no particular kind of organizational structure
The survey results (37 of the 61 organizations responded) were broken down as to:
Typical - over 90% of the organizations performed the activity
Most - Between 60% to 90% of the organizations performed the activity
Many - Between 40% to 60% of the organizations performed the activity
Some - more than one organization performed the activity

Most (more than 60%) high maturity organizations
  • align process improvement with TQM
  • have multiple process & quality improvement initiatives, focussing on systems engineering and on people issues
  • use consistent (but not formal) process notations
  • use internet, intranet, or WWW to deploy process assets
  • do customer satisfaction surveys on their processes (process customers and users)
  • have required training in people issues
  • use incremental and/or evolutionary life cycles
  • use data to talk to the customer
  • use cost models
  • use lines of code to measure software size
  • do systematic risk management
  • have independent SQA functions with process assurance performed by an independent SQA group while product assurance is embedded in the process (e.g. peer reviews)
  • processes automated, automated data collection and analysis
  • independent (from developers) test groups
  • both inspections and walkthroughs used
  • defect density used for quantitative management of the process
  • measurements are business results oriented
  • systematic reuse
  • use control charts (SPC)
  • have ISO 9001 certification
Mark's final note "The biggest challenge for high maturity organizations is to protect their process maturity during organizational restructuring - buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, rapid growth, etc.. The biggest challenge for the software community is to become an engineering discipline."

SEI WEB Pages Report submitted by:

Marvin Doran,
Communications Committee,
Ottawa SPIN,
Quality Specialist,
Nortel Networks
email: doran@nortelnetworks.com