Software Process Improvement
Quality Software Management provides consulting services to software
development organizations - particularly in Software Process Improvement
and establishing ISO9000 or TQM as organizational culture.
The Quality Software Management philosophy is based on over 20
years of successful software development and software management
experience and uses practical, not just theoretical methods
to evolve development organizations. We build a common understanding
of the current development processes (or lack thereof), give the
organization training in how to identify impediments in Key Process
Areas and assist teams in developing changes to the process based
on their knowledge of the problems and measuring the
effectiveness of the changes.
Quality Software Management uses techniques from numerous sources,
including the Software Engineering Institute, the W. Edwards Deming
quality and statistical process-control research and a strong
belief in the writings of Gerald Weinberg.
Our primary expertise is improving software development team effectiveness.
An effective organization has predictable schedules, costs and
quality. An effective organization not only builds products right,
they build the right products!
We can:
- Evaluate your current capabilities, benchmark your current
practices and assist in identifying opportunities for improvement.
- Translate SEI Capability Maturity Model (CMM) into practical
organizational behavior and build SEI Level 2 and Level 3 processes
into organizations.
- Consult on selecting and implementing development tools including
configuration management, defect tracking, and test tools. Establish
systems and processes to connect defect-tracking to software
configuration management.
- Identify meaningful metrics for software development and
testing.
- Provide ongoing education in software development processes,
including how-to training on:
- requirements specification
- project planning and tracking
- design, code, and test inspection programs
- Assist in ISO 9000 certification programs.
- Educate all levels of the organization, senior management
as well as software developers in the value and benefits of quality.
- Justify the business case for process improvement.
- Deploy and customize ClearGuide and ClearDDTS.
Relevant Experience:
Semiconductor Vendor Research Lab, Shanghia, PRC
- Work with international engineering team as advisor on compiler
architecture and optimization issues. Assist in developing requirements,
project plan and test plan for complex language tool for next-generation
64 bit HW.
Mutual Fund Servicing Company, Greenwich CT
- Deliver customized modifications to ClearGuide and ClearDDTS
to integrate customer's existing software processes with SCM
automation supplied by ClearGuide. Added processes to automate
staged-release model where snapshot of release is promoted to
limited release and then to full production. System correlates
change-sets, specific defects and automates the generation of
release lists indicating which defects have been fixed in a specific
staged-release.
Rational Software, Inc,
Lexington, MA
- Design and implementation of ClearGuide's
"basic software development process" for new tool to
guide software developers and automate many project tracking
and configuration management tasks. Processes written in combination
of PDL (Process Description Language) and Perl. Tool (and processes)
are extensible and reconfigurable to provide as much (or as little)
control and guidance as desired. Integration with configuration
and source-control tools removes complex burden from developers,
allowing them to be more effective. Computer connection between
development tasks and source-code changes increases effective
management of complex software development projects and will
help organizations move to higher CMM levels.
Software Localization Vendor
- Advice on ISO 9000, internationalization and localization
training for Unix, Macintosh and Windows.
Addison-Wesley Publishing
- Winner of A-W Excellence in Quality Contest
for work performed with OSF to improve engineering processes.
Case Tools Company
- Analyzed ISO 9000 standard and prepared report describing
tool use for conformance to standard.
Open Environment Corp., Cambridge, MA
- Established source control, configuration management, design
review for 30 person organization. Setup defect tracking system,
quality metrics based on defect density/KLOC. Extended continuous
improvement ideas into Customer Support and System Admin groups.
Organization delivered (measurably!) higher quality products,
on schedule, within budget.
Open Software Foundation, Cambridge, MA
- Key player in software process improvement
efforts at OSF. Involved in establishing TQM training program,
built effective relationships between software development and
quality assurance teams. Integrated defect-tracking and source
configuration management system. Processes evolved to include
peer review, computer-assisted data-gathering. Improved process
with suppliers and customers to automate defect reporting, isolate
patches and produce releases in format that eased customer's
integration with existing code base.
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