Successful strategy of implementing software process improvement based on CMM

Software Process Improvement based on CMM has been accepted by more and more Chinese software enterprises. At present, in China has set off a small climax of CMM evaluation, but, through evaluation is not the ultimate goal of the enterprise, the fundamental benefit of software enterprises is through the implementation of software process improvement, improve the management level of enterprises. CMM as a model of the U.S. military evaluation of software process capability, he is in the United States to study some of the larger management base of the software companies to put forward for the actual needs of Chinese software enterprises to cut, and, in the CMM also did not tell the enterprise how to follow this standard enterprise process improvement. The author from 98 started to host an enterprise software Process improvement Project, in this 3 years, accumulated a lot of experience and lessons, now summed up 6 strategies for the software companies are or ready to implement CMM reference.

Strategy one: From low up, active improvement

There are usually two ways to do software process improvement, which I call top-down and self low. In the Top-down approach, the enterprise sets up a propulsion group, commonly known as the SEPG (software Engineering process Group), which is the organizer of the "development method" in the enterprise. SEPG organizes a number of developers to set up task teams, which prepare various enterprise standards and specifications based on the standards for process improvement references, undergo a series of reviews, training, and then allow developers to execute them. The most common resistance in the implementation process comes from developers, who often complain that the development specifications of the enterprise are not in line with the actual situation of the enterprise, and the standard is too high to be achieved. This approach, time-consuming and laborious, everyone's views are relatively large, the standard set more perfect, but also in the review to everyone on the surface must be recognized, the standard-setting people spent a lot of energy, the assessment of the standard waste of our time, implementation is still difficult to carry out. This way in 98, the first half of 99 I used in the enterprise, the results are very little. Later, we lowered the requirements, abandoned a variety of standards and norms, using a simple and easy strategy, from the low upward approach, that is, by SEPG to find developers, project managers to let them find their own problems: what are your shortcomings? How will you improve? Well, after developers and project managers talk about their own improvements, make sure they do. In this approach, there is no need for managers to spend too much effort on standard setting and improvement, which is done by the developers themselves, and the managers only act as a watchdog, as long as the developers do what they want. When you do the next project, managers will also ask these 2 questions: What are your weaknesses? How will you improve? Then the management supervises the developers. In this process gradually improve the formation of standards and norms.

In the above two Chinese law, we can compare from several aspects:

Of course, with the 2nd approach, you have to be objective, you are to improve the process, not to pass the assessment in a short time.

Strategy two: Gradual, from easy to difficult, from coarse to fine, from loose to strict

One of the core ideas of CMM is the grading improvement, in the CMM model, the process capability of the software enterprise is divided into 5 levels, many enterprises are likely to violate the idea of grading improvement, make a revolution, expect to improve the management level in a short time, it is obviously unrealistic, we need to be improved rather than revolution. Grading improvement is actually to step by step, can you do it in Level 2? Impossible, for each kpa of level 2, you may first achieve a part of each KPA activities, stability, and then implement another part of the activities, if you are now level 1, would like to all of the 2 level of all KPA activities are satisfied is not realistic. In the implementation of the CMM process must be in accordance with the actual situation of the enterprise, do not expect too high, to take a step by step. First set the most basic improvement plan, and then gradually improve, to grasp the idea of grading improvement.

To achieve a step-by-step, first of all to have a clear understanding of the status quo, in the analysis of the status quo, the following four questions must be answered:

What are the current problems (of course, there may be many problems)?

What are some of the problems that we need to address urgently?

What are the issues that we can solve at the moment?

What problems are we can't solve at present, need to lay a good foundation before we can solve?

The next step is to propose a solution against the criteria. In accordance with the "ability, to mention the quot principle of the issue priority."

To the SPP, Spto 2 kpa, you may be able to take 5 cycles to meet the CMM2 level requirements:

First cycle: from scratch, familiarize project team members with the process of planning, and be familiar with the importance of project plan tracking.

Step one: Require each project team to make a project plan using Project 2000, which is planned to meet certain conditions, such as:

The particle size of the task cannot be too large;

Task load should be balanced;

Tasks as parallel as possible;

Wait a minute.

The second step: for each project team, according to the planned progress of tracking, in the plan to implement the process of timely detection of problems and solve problems.

The third step: summarize the problems in the implementation of this cycle, such as:

Incomplete task identification in project plan;

(a) The projected workload estimates are not allowed;

When the project is in progress, the problem is not timely and so on.

Second cycle: Add a complete lifecycle model definition

Life cycle model is the main line of project management management, and defining a good life cycle is the most critical basic work to carry out the CMM2 level.

Step one: Require each project team to define its own lifecycle model first, make the project plan template

Step two: Require each project team to do the project plan according to the project plan template

Step three: Follow up the project plan

The third cycle: to increase the scale, workload and other measures

The first step: to make a formal estimate of the size and workload of the project

The second step: according to plan touch version do project plan

Step three: Follow up the project plan

Fourth cycle: Increasing risk analysis

Project risk management for domestic software companies, is generally a difficult point, may be a lot of risk, risk can be foreseen, but there is no good evasive measures. Therefore, it is recommended that risk management be improved in a later cycle.

Fifth cycle: systematic, institutionalized

At the beginning, ask not to be too strict, the requirements of the document to be thicker, to hold the essence rather than the fur.