PSP/TSP/cmme to build a high-performance team

PSP/TSP/cmme to build a high-performance team

In today's society, the demand for software is constantly changing. Enterprises must be able to develop quickly to meet such requirements. Many enterprises also face budget, staff cutting, or project time and cost control to increase profits. Software quality is often not guaranteed under this rapid market environment pressure.

 

For more than 20 years, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University has been committed to creating and promoting a series of methods to help enterprises effectively develop high-quality software. Among them, the cmme model has been recognized by many software development organizations in China. cmme can evaluate and improve the process to stabilize, coordinate and improve the fundamental capabilities of these organizations. Although this model provides a powerful framework for improvement, it focuses on what enterprises should do rather than how to do it.

 

An enterprise is composed of multiple teams and individuals. Organizational Process improvement requires changes in team and individual behavior, to develop high-quality software, every engineer who develops the software must complete the work with high quality.

 

Personal software processes (PSP) and team software processes (TSP) are specifically designed to optimize and standardize the work of individuals and teams, by enabling individuals and teams to use predefined standard processes to establish measurable goals and track the fulfillment of goals, the quality can be improved, and a high-performance team can be built in conjunction with cmme, optimize the process of the entire organization.

　　

Recently, internationally renowned multinational enterprises such as Microsoft and intuit have promoted the benefits of process improvement by expanding their focus to personal software processes (PSP) and team software processes (TSP.

 

 

So what is PSP and TSP?

Personnel costs account for 70% of software development costs. The skills and work habits of software engineers largely determine the software development process. PSP engineers have a standardized and structured method to develop software. These trained engineers are used to new and ever-changing technologies. PSP instructs engineers on how to manage quality from the very beginning, analyze the results of each job, and use it to improve the process of the next project. When engineers know how to use cross-domain and methodological approaches to measure and manage their own work, they can successfully communicate, learn new skills, acquire new technologies, and participate in high-performance teams. PSP is a prerequisite for introducing TSP organizations.

 

The Team Software Process (TSP) and PSP help high-performance engineers work in a team to develop software products with quality assurance, produce secure software products, and improve process management in the Organization. Through TSP, an organization can establish a self-managed team to track their work, establish goals, and have their own processes and plans. These teams can be pure software development teams or integrated product teams, ranging from 3 to 20 engineers. The TSP team may use XP, RUP or other methods in a wide range of fields. TSP enables a team of engineers with PSP to learn and succeed. If your organization uses TSP, it will help your organization establish a set of mature and standardized engineering practices to ensure secure and reliable software.

 

 

Application and Effect of PSP and TSP in the industry

CMMS is a standard used by leading system integration and software organizations to evaluate and improve their management processes and capabilities. Many organizations in China have already passed or are conducting cmme consulting and evaluation. The implementation of PSP/TSP can promote the benefits of process improvement and accelerate the enterprise's evaluation at all levels through cmme. More importantly, PSP/TSP can continue to improve the results.

 

PSP is not only a required course for high school students from internationally renowned universities such as SEI or software colleges, but also widely used in various industries. More and more enterprises around the world have implemented PSP/TSP to enhance their competitiveness. Software Enterprises include Microsoft, quarksoft, Baan, intuit, advanced information services, teradyne, and integrated circuits, systems integration and other industries such as ABB, Honeywell, Motorola, Allied signal, Boeing, and Xerox.

 

The implementation of PSP and TSP has brought remarkable results for these organizations in terms of software quality and cost control. Microsoft, as the world's largest software supplier, recently launched a project to test the SEI personal software process (PSP) and Team Software Process (TSP ), enables a software development team to change behaviors, improve processes, and deliver better software.

 

TSP builds a team. Before using TSP, the team had 10 developers who had no confidence in the project, work, or even each other. The work of the team members is carried out independently, rather than as a team, without collaboration. Four days after the implementation of the TSP project, the group became a real team.

 

TSP reduces defects, improves quality, and saves costs. During the TSP training, Microsoft developers significantly reduced the number of single-component testing defects from over 25 defects/lines of code to 7 defects/lines of code. Microsoft's team, like other software development teams, spent 40-60% of the overall development time on testing because they used the time to discover and solve product defects. However, since Microsoft's TSP trial run team spent time removing defects in early stages, such as personal review and team check, their tests only took 11.5% of the total project workload. In the end, the trial run project team delivered the product to the test on time and provided high quality. This reduces the project cost by 35%.

 

 

Close integration of PSP, TSP and cmme models will become an inevitable trend

As Watts Humphrey, founder of CMM/cmme, said, the quality, timeliness, and cost control requirements for software engineering teams to deliver products will become increasingly demanding in the future, enterprises and individuals that cannot meet these requirements will be eliminated. Considering the implementation effects of PSP and TSP in major enterprises so far, the close combination of PSP, TSP and cmme models will become an inevitable trend.

 

As developers, through PSP training courses, they can learn the most advanced skills and best practices in software process management and project management to improve the quality of their projects, improve estimation and planning capabilities while reducing product defects. Individuals who pass PSP training can also obtain the PSP training certificate authorized by SEI, which is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to enhance the personal career development space and value of engineers.

 

As a development team, the implementation of TSP can establish a high-performance team in a short period of time, ensure the quality and security of the team's development products, and better plan and control the project time and cost, to improve the process management of the Organization.

 

From the perspective of the entire enterprise, all experience proves that PSP and TSP can accelerate the implementation of CMMs within the enterprise, while also maintaining the need for improvement. When many world-renowned enterprises begin to implement PSP and TSP, Chinese software organizations must improve their international competitiveness. PSP and TSP are the only way to go, it not only improves the company's external image and international recognition, but also brings a greater competitive advantage to the company.