Process Improvement

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide1

Objectives

To explain the principles of software process

improvement
To explain how software process factors
influence software quality and productivity
To explain how to develop simple models of
software processes
To explain the notion of process capability
and the CMMI process improvement model

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide2

Topics covered

Process and product quality

Process classification
Process measurement
Process analysis and modelling
Process change
The CMMI process improvement framework

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide3

Process improvement

Understanding existing processes and

introducing process changes to improve
product quality, reduce costs or accelerate
schedules.
Most process improvement work so far has
focused on defect reduction. This reflects the
increasing attention paid by industry to
quality.
However, other process attributes can also
be the focus of improvement

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide4

Process attributes

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide5

Me
Cha
An

The process improvement cycle

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide6

Process improvement stages

Process measurement

Process analysis

Attributes of the current process are

measured. These are a baseline for
assessing improvements.
The current process is assessed and
bottlenecks and weaknesses are identified.

Process change

Changes to the process that have been

identified during the analysis are introduced.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide7

Process and product quality

Process quality and product quality are closely

related and process improvement benefits arise
because the quality of the product depends on its
development process.
A good process is usually required to produce a
good product.
For manufactured goods, process is the
principal quality determinant.
For design-based activity, other factors are also
involved especially the capabilities of the designers.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide8

De
v
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Pr
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Pr
od
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qua
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Principal product quality factors

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide9

Quality factors

For large projects with average capabilities,

the development process determines
product quality.
For small projects, the capabilities of the
developers is the main determinant.
The development technology is particularly
significant for small projects.
In all cases, if an unrealistic schedule is
imposed then product quality will suffer.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide10

Process classification

Informal

Managed

Defined process model which drives the development

process.

Methodical

No detailed process model. Development team chose

their own way of working.

Processes supported by some development method such

as the RUP.

Supported

Processes supported by automated CASE tools.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide11

Pr
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Process applicability

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide12

Process choice

Process used should depend on type of

product which is being developed

For large systems, management is usually the principal

problem so you need a strictly managed process;
For smaller systems, more informality is possible.

There is no uniformly applicable process which

should be standardised within an organisation

High costs may be incurred if you force an inappropriate

process on a development team;
Inappropriate methods can also increase costs and lead
to reduced quality.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide13

Inf
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Process tool support

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide14

Process measurement

Wherever possible, quantitative process data

should be collected

However, where organisations do not have clearly defined

process standards this is very difficult as you dont know
what to measure. A process may have to be defined
before any measurement is possible.

Process measurements should be used to

assess process improvements

But this does not mean that measurements should drive

the improvements. The improvement driver should be the
organizational objectives.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide15

Classes of process measurement

Time taken for process activities to be

completed

Resources required for processes or

activities

E.g. Calendar time or effort to complete an

activity or process.

E.g. Total effort in person-days.

Number of occurrences of a particular event

E.g. Number of defects discovered.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide16

Goal-Question-Metric Paradigm

Goals

Questions

What is the organisation trying to achieve? The

objective of process improvement is to satisfy
these goals.
Questions about areas of uncertainty related to the
goals. You need process knowledge to derive
these.

Metrics

Measurements to be collected to answer the

questions.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide17

Process analysis and modelling

Process analysis

The study of existing processes to understand

the relationships between parts of the process
and to compare them with other processes.

Process modelling

The documentation of a process which records

the tasks, the roles and the entities used;
Process models may be presented from
different perspectives.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide18

Process analysis and modelling

Study an existing process to understand its

activities.
Produce an abstract model of the process.
You should normally represent this
graphically. Several different views (e.g.
activities, deliverables, etc.) may be required.
Analyse the model to discover process
problems. This involves discussing process
activities with stakeholders and discovering
problems and possible process changes.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide19

Process analysis techniques

Published process models and process

standards

Questionnaires and interviews

It is always best to start process analysis with an existing

model. People then may extend and change this.
Must be carefully designed. Participants may tell you what
they think you want to hear.

Ethnographic analysis

Involves assimilating process knowledge by observation.

Best for in-depth analysis of process fragments rather
than for whole-process understanding.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide20

Process model elements 1

Activity
(shown as a round-edged
rectangle with no drop
shadow)

An activity has a clearly defined objective, entry and exit

conditions. Examples of activities are preparing a set of test data to
test a module, coding a fu nction or a module, proof-reading a
document, etc. Generally, an activity is atomic i.e. it is the
responsibility of one person or group. It is not decomposed into subactivities.

Process
(shown as a round-edged
rectangle with drop
shadow)

A p rocess is a set of activities which have some coherence and

whose objective is generally agreed within an organisation.
Examples of processes are requirements analysis, architectural
design, test planning, etc.

Deliverable
(shown as a rectangle with
drop shadow)

A deliverable is a tangible output of an activity that is predicted in a

project plan.

Condition
(shown as a parallelogram )

A condition is either a pre-condition that must hold before a process

or activity can start or a post-condition that holds after a p rocess or
activity has finished.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide21

Process model elements 2

Role
(shown as a circle with
drop shadow)

A role is a bounded area of responsibility. Examples of roles might

be configuration manager, test engineer, software designer, etc. One
person may have several different roles and a s ingle role may be
associated with several different people.

Exception
(not shown in examples
here but may be
represented as a double
edged box)

An exception is a description of how to modify the process if some

anticipated or unanticipated event occurs. Exceptions are often
undefined and it is left to the ingenuity of the project managers and
engineers to handle the exception.

Communication
(shown as an arrow)

An interchange of information between people or between people

and supporting computer systems. Communications may be
informal or formal. Formal communications might be the approval
of a deliverable by a p roject manager; informal communications
might be the interchange of electronic mail to resolve ambiguities in
a document.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide22

Rol
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The module testing activity

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide23

TE
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IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide24

Process exceptions

Software processes are complex and process models

cannot effectively represent how to handle exceptions:

Several key people becoming ill just before a critical review;

A breach of security that means all external
communications are out of action for several days;
Organisational reorganisation;
A need to respond to an unanticipated request for new
proposals.

Under these circumstances, the model is suspended

and managers use their initiative to deal with the
exception.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide25

Process change

Involves making modifications to existing

processes.
This may involve:

Introducing new practices, methods or

processes;
Changing the ordering of process activities;
Introducing or removing deliverables;
Introducing new roles or responsibilities.

Change should be driven by measurable

goals.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide26

Intr
odu
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Identif
Prior
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The process change process

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide27

Process change stages

Improvement identification.
Improvement prioritisation.
Process change introduction.
Process change training.
Change tuning.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide28

The CMMI framework

The CMMI framework is the current stage of work on

process assessment and improvement that started
at the Software Engineering Institute in the 1980s.
The SEIs mission is to promote software technology
transfer particularly to US defence contractors.
It has had a profound influence on process
improvement

Capability Maturity Model introduced in the early 1990s.

Revised maturity framework (CMMI) introduced in 2001.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide29

Process capability assessment

Intended as a means to assess the extent to

which an organisations processes follow
best practice.
My providing a means for assessment, it is
possible to identify areas of weakness for
process improvement.
There have been various process
assessment and improvement models but
the SEI work has been most influential.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide30

The SEI capability maturity model

Initial

Repeatable

Process management procedures and strategies defined

and used

Managed

Product management procedures defined and used

Defined

Essentially uncontrolled

Quality management strategies defined and used

Optimising

Process improvement strategies defined and used

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide31

Problems with the CMM

Practices associated with model levels

Discrete rather than continuous

Companies could be using practices from different levels

at the same time but if all practices from a lower level
were not used, it was not possible to move beyond that
level
Did not recognise distinctions between the top and the
bottom of levels

Practice-oriented

Concerned with how things were done (the practices)

rather than the goals to be achieved.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide32

The CMMI model

An integrated capability model that includes

software and systems engineering capability
assessment.
The model has two instantiations

Staged where the model is expressed in terms

of capability levels;
Continuous where a capability rating is
computed.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide33

CMMI model components

Process areas

Goals

24 process areas that are relevant to process capability

and improvement are identified. These are organised into
4 groups.
Goals are descriptions of desirable organisational states.
Each process area has associated goals.

Practices

Practices are ways of achieving a goal - however, they

are advisory and other approaches to achieve the goal
may be used.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide34

CMMI process areas 1

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide35

CMMI process areas 2

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide36

CMMI goals

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide37

CMMI practices
Practice

Associated goal

Analyse derived requirements to ensure that they are

necessary and sufficient

The requirements are analysed and

validated and a definition of the
required functionality is developed.

Validate requirements to ensure that the resulting

product will perform as intended in the users
environment using multiple techniques as
appropriate.
Select the defects and other problems for analysis.
Perform causal analysis of selected defects and other
problems and propose actions to address them.
Establish and maintain an organisational policy for
planning and performing the requirements
development process.

Root causes of defects and other

problems are systematically determined.

The process is institutionalised as a

defined process.

Assign responsibility and authority for performing

the process, developing the work products and
providing the services of the requirements
development process.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide38

CMMI assessment

Examines the processes used in an organisation

and assesses their maturity in each process area.
Based on a 6-point scale:

Not performed;
Performed;
Managed;
Defined;
Quantitatively managed;
Optimizing.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide39

The staged CMMI model

Comparable with the software CMM.

Each maturity level has process areas and
goals. For example, the process area
associated with the managed level include:

Requirements management;
Project planning;
Project monitoring and control;
Supplier agreement management;
Measurement and analysis;
Process and product quality assurance.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide40

Le
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The staged CMMI model

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide41

Institutional practices

Institutions operating at the managed level

should have institutionalised practices that
are geared to standardisation.

Establish and maintain policy for performing the

project management process;
Provide adequate resources for performing the
project management process;
Monitor and control the project planning process;
Review the activities, status and results of the
project planning process.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide42

The continuous CMMI model

This is a finer-grain model that considers individual

or groups of practices and assesses their use.
The maturity assessment is not a single value but is
a set of values showing the organisations maturity in
each area.
The CMMI rates each process area from levels 1 to
5.
The advantage of a continuous approach is that
organisations can pick and choose process areas to
improve according to their local needs.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide43

Projec
and
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A process capability profile

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide44

Key points

Process improvement involves process analysis,

standardisation, measurement and change.
Processes can be classified as informal, managed,
methodical and improving. This classification can be
used to identify process tool support.
The process improvement cycle involves process
measurement, process analysis and process
change.
Process measurement should be used to answer
specific process questions, based on organisational
improvement goals.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide45

Key points

The three types of process metrics used in the

measurement process are time metrics, resource
utilisation metrics and event metrics.
Process models include descriptions of tasks,
activities, roles, exceptions, communications,
deliverables and other processes.
The CMMI process maturity model integrates software
and systems engineering process improvement.
Process improvement in the CMMI model is based on
reaching a set of goals related to good software
engineering practice.

IanSommerville2004

SoftwareEngineering,7thedition.Chapter28Slide46