High Performance IT professionals recent graduate experience comments Accenture 22207

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High Performance IT professionals recent graduate
experience comments Accenture 22/2/07

• from my university studies I had the necessary
  technical foundations programming, networking,
  systems design, along with a deep understanding
  of the software design life cycle, to enable me
  to contribute to one of the companys major
  projects
• studies helped with my approach to a problem
  coding experience is invaluable and time
  management skills

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Introduction to PSPPersonal Software Process

• ANU COMP2100/2500
• Software Construction
• lecture 2 in 2009

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The Personal Software Process

• process?
• motivation
• background
• doing the process

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PSP

• what is a personal process?

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PSP motivation

• A practical response to the problems of software
  development the software crisis
• unpredictable costs and times
• runaway projects
• projects failed and abandoned

• its what people do!
• tools
• processes

We need to define a development process that is

• responsible
• repeatable
• informed
• rational

• mature

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PSP benefits

• responsible
• repeatable
• informed
• rational

• sane
• reflective
• aware
• mature

• potential to dramatically increase your
  effectiveness as a programmer

• a demonstrable, sellable skill

• better knowledge of your self

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BackgroundCMM the Capability Maturity Model

• from the Software Engineering Institute,
  Carnegie-Mellon University
• CMM provides a way to evaluate (and certify) the
  processes followed by a software engineering
  organisation
• some major software purchasers require high
  levels of CMM from their developers as a contract
  condition

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CMM levels
most organisations are still at level 1

• level 1 initialad hoc, chaotic. Individual
  heroes, common disasters
• level 2 repeatablebasic project management
  cost, schedule, estimates
• level 3 definedprocess is documented,
  standardised, integrated
• level 4 managedthe process itself is managed
  process quality and product quality are measured,
  understood, and controlled
• level 5 optimisedcontinuous process improvement
  through feedback and innovation

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An example studies of large projects

• CMM Duration Effort Faults Total cost
• level (months) (person- detected
  months) delivered
• Level 1 30 594 1348 61 5,440,000
• Level 2 19 143 328 12 1,311,000
• Level 3 15 80 182 7 728,000
• Level 4 13 43 97 5 392,000
• Level 5 9 16 37 1 146,000
• Rifkin study of 1300 projects effort, faults
  and cost estimates for developing a software
  system of 200,000 lines of code

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The Improvement Process

• Define the quality goal.
• Measure product quality.
• Understand the process.
• Adjust the process.
• Use the adjusted process.
• Measure the results.
• Compare the results with the goal.
• Return to Step 4 recycle and continue improving.

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PSP in the COMP Software Construction courses

• Learning the discipline of keeping an engineer's
  notebook
• Recording your time use and summarising it
• Following a structured and disciplined process
  for developing software, including reviewing new
  code
• Recording, categorising and analysing all defects
  you find in your code. so you can see where to
  improve

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Time Management

• This material is based on chapters 14 of
  Introduction to the Personal Software Process by
  Watts Humphreys, the creator of the PSP.
• To make realistic plans, you have to know how you
  spend your time, and how long it takes you to do
  things.
• To improve the accuracy of your time estimates
  and plans, you must document them and later
  compare them with what you actually do.
• To make better plans, you need to know where your
  previous plans went wrong. To do this, you must
  record the time you spend.

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Keeping an Engineers Notebook (1)?

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Keeping an Engineers Notebook (2)?
A blog is simply a website. Bloggers typically
write short posts on a topic, and readers make
comments on those posts. This is what makes blogs
a Web 2.0' technology the ability for writers
and readers to participate directly in the
conversation. You can use a personal professional
blog for yourself as a way of recording notes,
data, and reflections in private. Most blog
are structured like this Newest material
is shown at the top of the blog Posts can
include any amount of interactive media,
including links, photos, video, audio and
graphics Posts are also tagged (meaning
that authors give them multiple keywords so that
they can be retrieved later on) and archived.

BLOG IT!
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Recording your Time Use

• PSP forms time_log.pdf

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Time Recording Log Instructions

• Purpose - This form is for recording time spent
  on this course.
• - Use the pages at the back of the engineering
  notebook for the Time Recording Log.
• General - Record all the time spent on this
  course.
• - Record the time in minutes.
• - Be as accurate as possible.
• Header Enter the following
• - your name and today's date,
• - the instructors name and the course name or
  number.
• - Make sure your name is on any Time Recording
  Log copies you turn in with your homework.

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Time recording log instructions ctd.

• Date Enter the date when the entry is made. e.g.
  14/3/07
• Start Enter the time when you start working on a
  task.
• Example 915pm
• Stop Enter the time when you stop working on that
  task.
• Example 1159pm
• Interruption Time Record any interruption time
  that was not spent on the task and the reason for
  the interruption.
• If you have several interruptions, enter their
  total time.
• Example 5322 break,phone,chat 30
• Delta Time Enter the clock time you spent working
  on the task, less the interruption time.
• Example 134 minutes ( from 915 to 1159 164
  minutes, less 30 minutes)?

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(Instructions continued)?

• Activity Enter the name or other designation of
  the task or activity being worked on.
• Example Review
• Comments Enter any other pertinent comments that
  might later remind you of any unusual
  circumstances regarding this activity.
• Example Quiz prep
• C (Completed) When a task is completed, check
  this box.
• U (Units) the number of units of work completed.
• Example you read two chapters, so enter 2 or
  you completed 120 lines of code enter 120.

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Important

• Record all your time for this course.
• If you forget to record a time, promptly enter
  your best estimate.
• If you forget your Time Recording Log, note the
  times and copy them in your log as soon as you
  can.

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Weekly summary

• what did you do the bigger picture
• make a spreadsheet to help you?

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what to do next

• get the PSP forms see the course website side
  menu
• look at the lecture notes for this lecture
  (lecture 2) and for next PSP lecture (lecture 4)?
• get an engineers notebook
• start using PSP as preparation for your lab class
  next week