Personal Software Process Use in Organizations

1. Personal Software ProcessUse in Organizations CIS 376 Bruce R. Maxim UM-Dearborn

2. These notes are based on: Introduction to the Personal Software Process Watts S. Humphrey Addison-Wesley Longman (1997)

3. Personal PSP Implications • If you seek personal excellence, the PSP can help you to attain it. • By defining and measuring your work, you gain the knowledge to improve your personal performance. • The question is, “do you want to improve?”

4. Personal PSP Implications • To consistently improve, you must critically examine your own performance. • To do this, you need a process framework and performance measurements. • The PSP provides a suitable framework and set of measurements.

5. Personal PSP Implications • As a software professional you need to • make commitments you can meet • deal with unreasonable commitment pressures • review status and plans with customers, managers, and coworkers • The PSP will help you to perform professionally even when your customers, managers, or coworkers do not.

6. Personal PSP Implications • The PSP involves change and change involves risk. • your methods may have sufficed in the past • no one else may use disciplined personal practices • But the problems of the future will be more challenging than those of today. • will your current methods be adequate? • do you know a better way?

7. Personal PSP Implications • In using the PSP, you may face resistance. • do you have a supportive environment? • does your management agree with your interest in personal improvement? • Your PSP efforts will be most rewarding when your management and your teammates share your interests and objectives.

8. The Costs of the PSP • The time investment • process development takes about 1 to 2 hours per form and script • process updates will be needed at least every 3 months • data entry and analysis will take about an hour for each PSP-sized project

9. The Costs of the PSP • The emotional investment • the PSP takes a lot of work • there will be occasional frustrations • You will clearly see your own limitations • if you can’t face your personal limitations, you should not use the PSP • and perhaps you should reconsider your decision to be a software engineer

10. The Benefits of the PSP • Insight • you will better understand your strengths and weaknesses • you will be better able to maximize your assets • the PSP will help you to objectively deal with your weaknesses

11. The Benefits of the PSP • Ideas • by defining your process, you can control it • you can then act like a process owner • your critical facilities will be in gear • you will unconsciously observe your working self • you will see many ways to improve your process and your performance

12. The Benefits of the PSP • Improvement framework • a defined process provides a language for thinking about your work • you can better see how the process parts relate • you can better focus on priority areas for improvement

13. The Benefits of the PSP • Personal control • you will have a planning framework • you will have data on which to base your plans • your plans will be more reliable • you will be better able to track your status • you will be better able to manage your work

14. The Benefits of the PSP • Accomplishments and personal bests • you will recognize your personal bests • you will better understand how to repeat and to surpass them • you will see where and how you have improved • you will have your own personal improvement goals • you will have the satisfaction that comes with knowing you are doing superior work

15. The Benefits of the PSP • When your team’s processes are defined • you can better back up and support each other • you will more precisely relate to each other • you will no longer need to protect yourself from your peers’ failures • they won’t need to protect against your failures • Teams perform better when they can concentrate on the job and not worry about being defensive.

16. Using the PSP in an Organization • Introducing the PSP into an organization involves 2 situations. • the solo PSP performer - you are the only person using the PSP in your organization • the lone PSP team - your team uses the PSP but they are the only team in the organization to do so • You will also need management support for PSP introduction.

17. The Solo PSP Performer • It is hard to maintain personal discipline without the support of peers and managers. • It is easy to get discouraged by a slow rate of personal progress. • Your peers may kid you for wasting your time with the PSP.

18. The Solo PSP Performer • If you are not confident that the PSP helps you, it will be hard to withstand such criticism. • normal statistical fluctuations will seem like major disasters • instead of learning from your mistakes you may get defensive about them • Until you have data to support the benefits of the PSP, you would be wise to say little about it.

19. The Lone PSP Team • When your team has been trained in the PSP, you will have a powerful base of support. • You will be able to • review each others’ work • share process improvement ideas and results • celebrate successes • get support when you need it

20. The Lone PSP Team • Be cautious about describing your results. Other groups may • critique your results • argue that they already do better work • They are probably comparing their occasional best results with your normal performance. • Without consistent data, such comparisons are meaningless and should be avoided.

21. The Lone PSP Team • If your results are superior, others may feel defensive. • Be careful not to seem critical of other peoples’ work • do not imply that your results apply to them • suggest they try the PSP for themselves • Concentrate on how the PSP has helped you to improve

22. Organizational PSP Support • To be most effective, you will need organizational support. • education and training • database and analysis • process definition • tools • To get these, you will need management’s help.

23. Organizational PSP Support • You may have trouble getting management support unless • they see your work as a prototype for the organization • you have data to demonstrate the benefits of the PSP for your team • Seek to interest others in exploring the PSP • other projects • SQA and the SEPG

24. Organizational PSP Support • Support champions on other teams who wish to try the PSP. • Seek the support of the process, quality assurance, and training groups. • When other groups are interested in the PSP, management will be more willing to support you.

25. Introducing the PSP – part 1 • In getting management support, show enough of your own and other groups’ data to convince them that • there are important benefits • the costs are controllable • When they understand the potential value of the PSP, they will more likely provide support for long enough to produce measurable results.

26. Introducing the PSP – part 2 • In introducing the PSP, it is essential that • it be introduced with a formal course • all professionals voluntarily participate • the engineers be given time to do the work • the managers provide weekly support and encouragement to their engineers to complete the PSP exercises • the engineers’ personal data be respected as their private property

27. Introducing the PSP – part 3 • Where possible, do the PSP training by project team. • Attempt to build clusters of PSP-trained teams that can reinforce and support each other. • In selecting the initial projects, try to pick ones that are not in perpetual crisis.

28. Introducing the PSP – part 4 • After PSP training, adapt the PSP to each project by • measuring and planning the current process • adjusting PSP2.1 or PSP3 to the project needs • testing each process change before general introduction • planning for continuous process improvement