Defining and Documenting Software Processes (CKA #1)

This tutorial covers CKA area #1 of the International Software Process Improvement Certification (ISPIC) requirements.

Concepts

Your software process is the way you do things that produces your results. To improve your software, you must improve your software process; and first and foremost that requires accurately identifying your REAL software process, which often is not readily apparent. Life cycle and process capability maturity models can provide guidance but frequently by themselves are not sufficient for defining your specific software process. This interactive workshop describes how to identify and use a variety of techniques to document procedural aspects of your software process. Moreover, it addresses the vitally important and seldom-recognized non-procedural aspects of your software process which so influence procedural effectiveness and efficiency. Exercises enhance learning by allowing participants to practice applying practical techniques to realistic examples.

Participants will learn:

• Why defining processes matters for predicting, controlling, and improving one's results.
• Identifying and distinguishing the REAL software process from the Presumed Process.
• Role and limitations of life cycle and capability maturity models for defining software processes.
• Generic and more formalized techniques for documenting software process procedural aspects.
• Methods and issues for identifying and documenting non-procedural aspects of software processes.

Outline

• DEFINING SOFTWARE PROCESSES
  • What a process is, and is not, why it matters
  • Common process misperceptions, consequences
  • Processes predict results
  • Improve processes to improve results
  • Exercise: Define your software process
  • Distinguishing REAL from Presumed Process
  • Defined and documented processes
  • Silos are out-of-context and deceptive
  • Define a process from start to full end result
  • Relation between process and measurement
  • Measuring results vs. guiding improvement
  • Project and product vs. process measures
  • Identifying sub-processes
  • Exercise: Define your REAL software process
  • Limits of procedural process definition
• DOCUMENTING SOFTWARE PROCESSES
  • Fundamental flowcharting
  • Exercise: Charting a process flow
  • State transition diagrams
  • Process mapping "swimlanes"
  • Showing delays, bottlenecks, handoffs
  • Exercise: Mapping a process flow
  • Formal documentation formats
  • IDEF-0
  • ETVX
  • Exercise: IDEF-0 vs. ETVX
• MODELS AS PROCESS DEFINITIONS
  • Life cycle concepts, relation to process
  • Waterfall fundamental development phases
  • Economics of quality, earlier is cheaper
  • Waterfall strengths, weaknesses
  • Prototyping and iterative development
  • Timeboxing
  • Agile eXtreme Programming (XP)
  • Backbone daily builds integration
  • Continuous integration
  • Spiral model
  • IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP)
  • Proactive Testing™ Life Cycle
  • Exercise: Life cycle as process, pros and cons
  • Process capability maturity models
  • Maturity model strengths and limitations
  • Need for specialized maturity models
  • Test maturity, CMM-based vs. TPI models
• NON-PROCEDURAL PROCESS ASPECTS
  • Effect of beliefs on procedural aspects
  • Customs and accepted ways of doing things
  • Execution skill
  • Management practices tend to be left out
  • Hiring, firing, promotion, reward, politics
  • Casting project parameters in concrete
  • Meaningful improvement, lessons learned
  • Exercise: Your REAL software process