Software Success Improvement

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Software Success Improvement
Paul GerrardGerrard Consulting1 Old Forge
CloseMaidenheadBerkshireSL6 2RD UK e paul at
gerrardconsulting dot comw http//gerrardconsult
ing.comt 01628 639173
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Paul Gerrard

• Paul is the founder and Principal of Gerrard
  Consulting, a services company focused on
  increasing the success rate of IT-based projects
  for clients. He has conducted assignments in all
  aspects of Software Testing and Quality
  Assurance. Previously, he has worked as a
  developer, designer, project manager and
  consultant for small and large developments using
  all major technologies and is the webmaster of
  gerrardconsulting.com and several other websites.
• Paul has degrees from the Universities of Oxford
  and London, is Web Secretary for the BCS SIG in
  Software Testing (SIGIST), Founding Chair of the
  ISEB Tester Qualification Board and the
  host/organiser of the UK Test Management Forum
  conferences. He is a regular speaker at seminars
  and conferences in the UK, continental Europe and
  the USA and was recently awarded the Best
  Presentation of the Year prize by the BCS
  SIGIST.
• Paul has written many papers and articles, most
  of which are on the Evolutif website. With Neil
  Thompson, Paul wrote Risk-Based E-Business
  Testing the standard text for risk-based
  testing.
• In his spare time, Paul is a coach for Maidenhead
  Rowing club.

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Primary sources

• Leading Change, John P Kotter
• Managing Transitions, William Bridges
• Managing Change, Bernard Burnes
• Goal-Directed Project Management, Andersen,
  Grude, Haug
• Test Process Improvement, Koomen and Pol.
• www.tmmifoundation.org
• 15 years experience in software process
  improvement.

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Why is Process the Focus of Improvement?(Test
Process Improvement is a Waste of Time!)
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How to improve

• I want to improve my (insert any activity here)
• _______ people improvement
• _______ organisation improvement
• _______ process improvement

?
Changing people (like me) and organisation (like
my company) is so hard lets not even think
about it
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The delusion of best practice

• There are no practice Olympics to determine the
  best
• There is no consensus about which practices are
  best, unless consensus means people I respect
  also say they like it
• There are practices that are more likely to be
  considered good and useful than others, within a
  certain community and assuming a certain context
• Good practice is not a matter of popularity. Its
  a matter of skill and context.

Derived from No Best Practices, James Bach,
www.satisfice.com
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The delusion of process models(e.g. CMM)

• Google search
• CMM 12,100,000
• CMM Training 12,200
• CMM improves quality 4
• A Gerrard Consulting client
• CMM level 3 and proud of it (chaotic, hero
  culture)
• Hired us to assess their overall s/w process and
  make recommendations (quality, time to deliver is
  slipping)
• 40 recommendations, only 7 adopted they
  couldnt change
• How on earth did they get through the CMM 3 audit?

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But process models make improvement simple dont
they?

• People like simple models
• levels of maturity, stepping stones, checklists,
  roadmaps and outside support for credibility
• But life is much more complicated, unfortunately
• Things should be made as simple aspossible, but
  no simpler - A. Einstein

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People need process?

• A big problem with process is it becomes all
  encompassing
• Process folk sell process and cast all things in
  terms of it, forgetting that people who are
  smart, succeed in spite of process, not because
  of it
• It could be argued, that less smart people need
  process
• (By less smart, we're talking about people who
  need so much structure and enforced discipline
  they can only operate in the military, or in
  prison probably)
• Is our industry really staffed by such people?
• Do we really want production-line workers?

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Physics quotes

• I believe that a scientist looking at
  nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the
  next guy
• It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is,
  it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it
  doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong
• Richard P. Feynman

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Process quotes

• I believe that a process consultant looking at
  non-process problems is just as dumb as the next
  guy
• It doesn't matter how beautiful your process
  model is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If
  it doesn't agree with reality, it's wrong
• PG

Using process change to fix cultural or
organisational problems is not going to
work Improving test in isolation is not going to
work either
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Software Success Improvement
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From this
Perceived Results Chain
CurrentMaturity
FutureMaturity
Acts of Faith
CurrentCapability
FutureCapability
Better Capability better, faster, cheaper
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To this
Actual Results Chain
CurrentConstraints/ Problems
Acts of Change
CurrentCapability
FutureCapability
Better Capability better, faster, cheaper
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Constraints, problems and aspirations

• Constraints are fixed headcount, budget,
  timescales, quality of requirements, contracts
  etc.
• Problems are testing takes too long too
  expensive cant hire testers bugs get through
  etc. etc.
• Aspirations
• Personal personal development, fulfilment,
  motivation
• Organisational hero culture to team culture,
  outsourced, higher consistency, predictability
• Acts of change are

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Acts of change focused on constraints, problems
and aspirations

• Changes in behaviour to address specific problems
  (effectiveness, efficiency etc.)
• Targeted personal and team development
• Infrastructure change (process, techniques,
  tools, environments) to support the changes
• Managed Transition

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Principles of change

• Current behaviour assessed in the context of
  current problems, goals and constraints
• Aspirations drive the definition of goals
• People in the job define and consent to the
  required changes in behaviour
• People supported by
• Personal/team development plans
• Infrastructure investment (process, technology,
  tools, environment) specific to the change
• Transitions are managed, not assumed.

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Eight stage change process (Kotter)

• Establish a sense of urgency
• Create a guiding coalition
• Develop a vision and strategy
• Communicate the change vision
• Empower broad-based action
• Generate short term wins
• Consolidate gains, produce more change
• Anchor new approaches in the culture.

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Eight stage change process (after Kotter)

• Mission
• Coalition
• Vision
• Communication
• Action
• Wins
• Consolidation
• Anchoring

Changes identified here
This is where your test model comes into play
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Vision

• This is where the practitioners, with support,
  identify the changes to make
• External model (TPI, TMMi, TOM, brainstorming)
  might provide improvement suggestions
• Practitioners identify the specific problems,
  underlying causes, changes to be made, and
  pathway to the vision.

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Section 3 Example Findings (rapidly growing
software house)

• 3.1 Some Perceptions
• 3.2 Product Quality
• 3.3 Customer Management
• 3.4 Organisation and Methodology
• 3.5 Planning and Scheduling
• 3.6 Product and Release Management
• 3.7 Development
• 3.8 Developer Testing
• 3.9 System Testing
• 3.10 Support

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Perceptions (3 of 15)
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Section 4 - Recommendations

• 4.1 Company Management
• 4.2 Organisation and Planning
• 4.3 Methodology
• 4.4 Product Management - Requirements
• 4.5 Product Management Project/Work Package
  Management
• 4.6 Releases/Installations/Customer Support
• 4.7 Development - Design
• 4.8 Development Better Practices
• 4.9 Development Product Development,
  Refactoring
• 4.10 Development Testing
• 4.11 Training
• 4.12 System Testing

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We recommend changes based on findings, not
idealised models

• We do whole-process assessments
• So, the recommendations arent just
  testing-related
• Could be a change in requirements/development/CM
• Could be a change in attitude, leadership, policy
• Could be a change in organisation
• Could be a change in emphasis
• Could be an agile approach
• Could be a novel approach
• Could be a change in personnel
• None of these changes are promoted by current
  testing models, but are almost always required.

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Section 5 - Implementation

• 5.1 Explanation
• 5.2 Organisation and Management
• 5.3 Product Strategy
• 5.4 Customer Support/Product Improvement/Implement
  ation
• 5.5 Project/Change/Release Management
• 5.6 Development Methodology
• 5.7 Test Strategy
• 5.8 Development Test Methodology
• 5.9 Design Process
• 5.10 Development Process
• 5.11 Training

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Sample recommendations (3 of 73)

• Organisation and Management
• Recommendations 4 6 8 9 10

Constraints
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Alternatives are old fashioned, IT centric,
inflexible

• Improvement models implement waterfall
  approaches
• Structured, systematic, bureaucratic, v-model
  based
• Favoured by service companies selling large teams
• They try to resolve symptoms through testing,
  when many testing symptoms are caused by
  problems elsewhere
• Less than 5 of these approaches focus on people
  issues
• IT focused, not business focused
• Every organisation is unique, their problems and
  causes are probably unique too - models just
  cant accommodate this.

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Summary

• You have to treat every change project as unique
• You need to understand how things are
• But you also need to understand the reasons WHY
  they are
• You must listen to practitioners and managers
• To hear their ideas for improvement
• To align/augment ideas with the known constraints
• To refine the vision to be something achievable.

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Thank-You
Software Success Improvement

• www.gerrardconsulting.com
• paul_at_gerrardconsulting.com