Vol. 10, No. 1 …

1 2003 Vol. 10, No. 1 practical PROCESSIMPROVEMENT PLANNINGBy Neil Potter and Mary SakryWe have seen many approaches to improvement planningduring the past 16 years. Two stand out as the mostcommon. With the first approach, small teams develop aplan to document the tasks they typically perform whenthey develop software. The notion is that if their currentpractices are documented, they can be shared among thedevelopment group and the best ones will become bestpractices. Unfortunately, the result is often a stack ofpaper that is the second approach,a company strides towardthe achievement of animprovement frameworksuch as ISO9001 or theSEI CMM1. The primaryfocus typically consists ofdeveloping animprovement plan tocreate procedures thatdescribe how the companyshould operate. Becausethe framework requires that procedures must exist,documenting them appears to be a logical first step and themost direct path to the goal.

2 The result is often a mixtureof too-few benefits, universal frustration, and lots of these two examples, the approach to improvementplanning is the problem, not the use of a framework or thedefinition of best practices. These process -centric approaches have a high risk of failure because theyencourage teams to focus on a target (for example, processdocumentation) that is all-too-often seen as irrelevant tothe real work of the organization. An alternative approach is to focus the improvement planon the organization s goals and problems, and to tieimprovement activities directly to current project this approach, improvement focuses on the real issuesof the organization, with each change driven by a specificneed. Improvementframeworks are adoptedfully but in small pieces,with each piece fitted to aproject problem or goal. In this article we focus ondeveloping animprovement action activities thatoccur before and after thisstep ( , scoping,identifying an owner,setting priorities, riskmanagement and scheduling) are described in [Potter02].

3 Developing the action plan a project exampleIn this example we show the creation of a sampleimprovement plan for the goal and problems of one project(Figure 1).(Continued on page 2)Project goal: Reduce product development cycle to six-to-nine months for product XProblems preventing the achievement of the goal:1. Changing requirements2. Loss of resources; difficult to replace people withspecialized skills who leave the project3. Too many features for the six-to-nine-monthdevelopment cycle4. Poor quality of incoming code from other groups5. Inadequate availability of test equipmentFigure 1 A goal and related problems for one project1 Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity ModelPRACTICAL process improvement planning (Continued from page 1)To develop an improvement action plan,follow these actions usingbrainstorming and a the action plan based on thegoals and 1: Enumerate ActionsUsing Brainstorming and aProcess FrameworkThe following two questions helpidentify actions for your 1: What Actions Are Needed to Address the Problems and Achievethe Goals?

4 You can develop such actions bybrainstorming with a group of colleaguesor project team members. Actions thatcould be taken to address problem #3include: Establish a review process with clientsto negotiate features for a six-to-nine-month development cycle. Rate each feature based on value to thecustomer (1 10 points) and cost todevelop (1 10 points). Establish an incremental delivery planto phase in lower priority 2: If a process ImprovementFramework Is Being Used, WhichElements Will Help the Problems andGoals Listed?If you are using an improvementframework, choose individual elementsfrom the reference material that addressthe problems and goals. With ISO9001,look for small pieces that specificallyaddress your problems; don t select onewhole section of the standard. Similarlywith the CMM, select individualactivities. CMM elements that could betaken to address problem #3 include: Review project commitments withsenior managers, software engineers,and the customer to obtain agreement(based on Software Project Planningactivity 4 [SPPac4]).

5 Perform risk management related to theschedule, resource, and technicalaspects of the project (based onSoftware Project planning activity 13[SPPac13]).Applying elements from the frameworkto each problem provides a real-lifecontext for using these elements. Aframework (such as the CMM) is notimplemented by developing a plan towrite procedures and then determininghow to use them ( process -centricapproach). It is implemented piece bypiece to solve the real problems of 2: Organize the ActionPlan Based on the Goals andProblemsThe format in Figure 2 is one suggestedway of organizing the action plan. Thetable displays the information visually so that it is clear which actions supporteach columns are defined as follows:Primary Goal and Intermediate Goals:This column states the primary andintermediate goals of the improvementproject. Each intermediate goal in theaction plan is based on one problemstatement.

6 For example, the problemstatement Changing requirements canbe rewritten as an intermediate goal Manage changing requirements. Theintermediate goal is a statement of thedesired outcome when the problem hasbeen of Goal:This column remindsyou of your motive for this goal. Themotive is determined by asking, Why do Iwant to achieve this goal? What benefitdoes it provide?Always complete thiscolumn. It will keep you focused and pullyou through times when you are ready togive :This column lists all the actionsthat contribute to achieving theintermediate goal. Some of these aresmall; some of them are more involvedand will need breaking up into furtherdetail. If your improvement plan is for agroup of projects or one largedepartment, make each action specific toa project where it will be applied example, the action Interviewcustomers to elicit requirements can berestated as Interview customers to elicitrequirements for product J.

7 Beingspecific makes the plan meaningful anddirectly focused on someone s need. Ifthere are other known recipients for thisaction, they can be added as separateactions. If other recipients have not beenidentified yet, you can identify them lateras you deploy your :This column records the priorityof your actions. For each intermediategoal, mark approximately 20 percent ofthe actions with an asterisk. If there areonly five or six actions in the list, marktwo or three. Focus on the ones that youbelieve will help you make the greatestprogress toward the intermediate focus should be on achieving theintermediate goal you stated, notnecessarily on doing all of the Estimate:This column is for anestimate of the time required forcompleting the action. The column canbe totaled to determine how much time isrequired for each intermediate :This column is for the name of theperson responsible for completing theaction.

8 (Continued on page 3)Your focus should be on achieving the process improvement planning (Continued from page 2)Primary Goal andIntermediate Goals(The results you want)Reduce productdevelopment cycle to six-to-nine months forproduct XSet feature priorities for a six-to-nine-month developmentcycle (based on problem 3).Next intermediate goalPurpose of Goal(Why do you want to achieve the goal?)Deliver earlier thancompetitionEnsure that commitments purposeActionsEstablish a review process withclients to negotiate features fora six-to-nine-monthdevelopment each feature based onvalue to the customer (1-10points) and cost to develop (1-10 points).Check progress and takecorrective project commitmentswith senior managers,engineers and the customer toobtain agreement. [SPPac4]Perform risk managementrelated to the schedule,resource and technical aspectsof the project. [SPPac13]Establish incremental deliveryplan to phase in lower (*=essential)1*2*-345 TimeEstimateWhoSummaryThe goal-problem approach keeps your process improvement plan focusedon compelling issues that people want to fix now.

9 The plan centers on theorganization s challenges, with small actions continuously taken to movethe organization toward its goals. You can then use a framework as a sourceof ideas, solutions, and actions to achieve this scope. The resulting plan isboth compelling and 2 Action plan example[Potter02] Potter, N., Sakry, M., Making ProcessImprovement Work - A Concise Action Guide for SoftwareManagers and Practitioners, Addison-Wesley, 2002. See Understand customer needs. Clarify product requirements this workshop, IN SEARCHOF EXCELLENTREQUIREMENTS, software engineers,managers, requirements analysts and user representatives learn how to gather,document, analyze and manage customer requirements for software applications. Decrease product development time-to-market. Reduce this workshop, ACCELERATING PRODUCTDEVELOPMENTFOR SOFTWAREPROJECTSTHROUGH LEAN CYCLETIME REDUCTION, project managers and theirteams learn how to accelerate delivery through specialized schedule optimizationand Lean Thinking techniques.

10 Manage projects effectively. Meet project deadlines and reduce this three-day SOFTWARE PROJECTPLANNINGAND MANAGEMENT workshop,project managers and their teams learn how to meet deadlines through betterestimation, reduce surprises using risk management, schedule work for betteroptimization, understand and negotiate project trade-offs, and track progress. Meet project deadlines. Scope and estimate the project one-day SOFTWARE ESTIMATION workshop (a subset of Software ProjectPlanning and Management) helps teams develop more accurate estimates. Avoid schedule delays caused by needless product rework. Finddefects two-day INSPECTION (PEER REVIEWS)workshop teaches teams to efficientlyfind defects in code and documentation. (Includes moderator skills.) Hands-on SEI CMM/CMMI. Perform a mini-CMM following workshops are available: SEI LEVEL2(one day), SEI LEVEL3(two days), SEI LEVEL4(one day).