What is the need of Agile Process Improvement?

It is commonly seen that a number of change projects are designed and published but none of actually goes into implementation. Most of the time is wasted in writing and publishing them. This approach usually fails. We should stop working with this methodology and develop a new one. Below mentioned are some common scenarios in the modern business:

1. Developing a stronger project
2. Changing the people working on it.
3. Threatening that project with termination
4. Appointment of a committee that would analyze the project
5. Taking examples from other organizations to see how they manage to do it.
6. Getting down to a dead project
7. Tagging a dead project as still worth of achieving something.
8. Putting many different projects together so as increase the benefit.
9. Additional training

-Drops in the delivery of the normal work always follow a change. 

-Big change projects are either dropped or rejected.

-It all happens because the changes introduced by such projects are mandatory to be followed.

-This threatens the normal functioning of the organization. 

-So, the organization is eventually compelled to kill the whole process and start with the old way of work again. 

-Instead of following this approach, a step by step process improvement can be followed that is nothing but the agile process improvement. 

Now you must be convinced why agile process improvement is actually needed. 

- The changes needs to be adaptive then only the process will be balanced. 

- An example is the CMMI maturity level. It takes 2 years approx. for completion and brings in the following:

1. Restructuring
2. New competitors
3. New products

-Only agile methods make these changes adaptive in nature.

-The change cycles when followed systematically produce results in every 2 – 6 weeks.

-Thus, your organization’s workload and improvement stay perfectly balanced. -The early identification of the issues becomes possible for the organizations thus giving you it a chance to be resolved early. 

-By and by the organization learns to tackle the problems and how to improve work.

-At the end it is able to adapt to the every changing needs of the business.

-The responsibility of the deployment and evaluation of the improvement is taken by the PPQA. 

-Whole process is implemented in 4 sprints:

1. Prototyping
2. Piloting
3. Deploying
4. Evaluating

-A large participation and leadership is required for these changes to take place.

-Some other agile techniques along with scrum can also be used in SPI.

-We can have the improvements continuously integrated in to the way the organization works. 

-The way of working can also be re-factored including assets and definitions by having an step by step integration of the improvements.

-Pair work can be carried out on improvements. 

-A collective ownership can be created for the organization. 

-Evaluations and pilots can be used for testing purpose. 

-In order to succeed with the sprints is important that only simple solutions should be developed. 

-An organization can write the coaching material with the help of the work description standards.

-This sprint technique helps the organization to strike a balance between the improvement and the normal workload. 

-In agile process improvement simple solutions are preferred over the complex ones.

-Here, the status quo and the vision are developed using the CMMI and SCAMPI. 

-Status quo and vision are necessary for the beginning of the software process improvement.

-SPI when conducted properly produces useful work otherwise unnecessary documentation has to be produced.

-An improvement in the process is an improvement in the work. 

-Improving work is what that is preferred by people. 

What is meant by the term system metaphor? What is its use?

System metaphor- well this is a term which is related to the extreme programming but less known of! What is the system metaphor and what is its use and what is the need? 

We shall be discussing all these aspects of the system metaphor in this article. 

"A system metaphor in the simplest words can be defined as a story that any one includes customers, programmers and managers) can tell reading how a system works".

Reasons why we need to use System Metaphor

There are several reasons for why we need to use the system metaphor.  They have been listed below:

1. Architecture: The metaphor is consider to shape the software system or application exactly as it is required by us with the help of identifying the key objects and giving suggestions regarding the aspects of their interfaces. The dynamic and the static models of the system are supported by the system.
2. Shared Vocabulary: A common system of names for the objects and relationships that exist between them are suggested by a system metaphor only and thus it provides a powerful vocabulary for the developers and programming experts. The vocabulary created is shorthand and specialized.
3. Common Vision: System metaphor comes in to as a very handy tool that helps in enabling all the stake holders to agree up on the working of the software system or application. The key structure of how the problem and the solution have been perceived is provided by the system metaphor itself. Overall, this helps in understanding the working of the system well.
4. Generativity: A system metaphor by the means of its analogies can get you new ideas regarding the problem and its solution and can further dig out many other important issues.

How to choose a System Metaphor?

- Even though choosing up a proper system metaphor for your system may take some time and efforts, it is the best option that you have for exploring several possibilities just by looking at the system through various views. 

- If by combining two metaphors you are getting the one that is fit for your then go for it. 

- Now what if you come to know that you could have got a better metaphor for your system than what you have already opted for? No need to worry, you can still develop your system in that direction. 

- Such a measure will also help you in achieving a greater understanding of your problems. 

- What if you are not able to think of any good metaphors? 

- There are some naive metaphors always available to your rescue. Below mentioned are some examples of the system metaphors:

1. Use of a pension tool as a spreadsheet.
2. Using desktop metaphor for graphical user interface.
3. Buckets, lines and bins in C3 payroll.
4. Bills of materials in VCAPS.
5. A double entry system being used as book keeping and spreadsheet.

More about System Metaphor

- Suppose you sign a contract with a client for developing some software system, what you do next? 

- You search for a good system metaphor that will guide the development of your software system or application.

- A metaphor very well guides the development process of a project. 

- Not any one can choose a good metaphor, it requires skills, practice and of course deep knowledge.

- A system metaphor is nothing but a metaphor having a simple design and some essential qualities that the original needs to have. 

What are different characteristics of Capability Maturity Model (CMM)?

Capability maturity model or CMM as it is often abbreviated. It is a development model developed after a prolonged study of the data collected from various organizations from all over the world.

Characteristics of Capability Maturity Model
1.The development of this model was funded by the USDD (United States department of defence).

2.The capability maturity model became the foundation for the development of software engineering institute or SEI as it is popularly known as.

3.The term “maturity” emphasises process optimization and level of formality.

4.Processes are optimized from ad-hoc practices to steps that have been formally defined.

5.Nowadays this model is being used effectively for management of result metrics.

6.Capability maturity model has proved to be great help in active optimization of the processes.

7.This model allows improvement in the development processes of an organization.

8.It is an effective and good approach towards improvement of any organization’s development processes.

9.This model is securely based upon the frame work of process maturity which was developed in 1989.

10.Initially it was used for objective assessment of the processes carried out by the contractors of the government to keep a track on the project.

11.CMM is not only used in the field of software engineering but, it is also applied to organizational processes of a business.

12.It is used in other fields like:
- Software development
- System engineering
- Software maintenance
- Project management
- System acquisition
- Risk management
- Information technology
- Human capital management and
- Services

Where is Capability Maturity Model used?

Capability maturity model is being extensively used in various organizations like in commerce, government offices, software development organizations and industry.

What was the need for Capability Maturity Model?
- In the 20th century the use of computers was wide spread.

- Computerized processes were thought to be less costly, effective and flexible way to carry out tasks.

- As more and more organizations started adopting computerized processing systems, the demand for software development eventually rose.

- As a result CMM was developed, of course with lots of failures.

- The computers were a new technology at that time and so there was a lot of pressure on developers to deliver quality products within a stipulated period of time.

- The US military was in havoc that because all their projects were running out of budget and time.

- So in order to know the reason behind all this, they funded the study at SEI. Active study started at SEI.

- It was watts Humphrey who actually came up with the actual idea of CMM.

- He based his approach on the evolution of software development practices.

- He concentrated on all the processes as one instead of concentrating on just one software development process.

- Since then the CMM has become popular among various organizations and is used as a powerful tool for improving overall performance of the business.

Though CMM proved to be a very effective tool for business but many times it caused problems in software development.

- CMM didn’t allow use of multiple software development practices. It was superseded by CMMI.

- These days still the capability maturity model is being used as the model with the capability of handling general processes when it comes to public domain.

Some Important Facts About CMM
1.CMM is still maintaining its position as a model of maturity of process.

2.CMM provides a place to start the development.

3.It uses a common language and the development is based upon a shared vision.

4.It effectively develops a frame work for actions according to their priority.

5.For an organization it defines the ways for improvement.

6.It is used an aid for better and effective understanding.

CMM has 5 aspects:
- Maturity level
- Key process area
- Goal
- Features
- Practices.

What are different aspects of network testing?

Network is interconnected collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels which shares data and resources. Computers are said to be interconnected if they are capable of sharing data and information. These computers are said to be autonomous since no computer can start, stop and control the other computer.

NEED OF NETWORK
- Network is needed because through network we can share resource which means we can make all programs, data and peripherals available to anyone on the network irrespective of the physical location of the resources and user.
- It provides reliability i.e.a file can have copies on two or three different machines, so if one of them is not available ,the other copies can be used.
- It also affects the cost factor which means personal computer have better price/performance ratio then the micro computers.
- Using a network, it is possible for managers, working far apart, to prepare financial report for the company.
- The changes at one end can be noticed at another and hence it speeds up the co-operation among them.

Network has some disadvantages also.
- Network makes systems more sophisticated and complex to run.
- This can add to costs and you may need a specialist staff to run the network. - If software and files are held centrally, it may be impossible to carry out any work if the central server fails.
- If networks are badly managed services can become unusable and productivity fails.
- File security is more important especially if connected to WAN e.g. protection from viruses.

Network testing is done by various types of tools. These tools help us to test switches, routers, servers and other networks. Network testing aims at determining the strength of the integrity of the network.


- Network testing methodology aims at testing the networking equipments and live networks.
- Network testing requires the network to adhere to the standards of networking. - It doesn’t matter what the software testers test the network for inter- operability, scalability, performance or protocol conformance, they can always rely only network testing for in depth and un biased testing of the network.

Speed testing is another aspect of network testing.
- Speed test can be used to verify if the internet service provider is delivering the connection speed that they promised or not.
- These days network equipment face validation challenges.
- There is a dire need of improving the quality and the performance of the core product.
- While the network complexity is constantly increasing, the process of network testing is increasingly becoming more intricate and time consuming.

There are certain problems that arise while performing the network test. They have been listed below:


- The complex combination of software, firmware and hardware components makes it very difficult to test a particular device as a single integrated system. Such cases often require manual intervention.
- The streamlining of remote manufacturing processes not only makes the whole testing process more complicated but it also makes it difficult to meet the market requirements on time.
- Performing network testing across a wide variety of scripts, testing equipments and network protocols requires complex configuration processes and long set up.

Whether the network to be tested is WAN (wide area network), LAN (local area network), VPN (virtual private network, data center products or other networking devices, network testing over comes their validation challenges and at the same time it increases test automation coverage and provides massive reduction in overhead testing costs and time consumption.

These days automated network testing set up is available. It significantly reduces the test duration, coverage and optimized test operations. Such set ups offer complete automation and configuration of the test prior to testing. The created test cases confirm to standards and provide maximum flexibility and re-usability.

How to implement Controllers - Programming Guidelines

To implement controllers, a good programming practice is to use abstract classes and interfaces. It increases the ability of the software to be reusable and manageable. It allows the software to have plug and play options.

WHAT IS AN ABSTRACT CLASS

Abstract class is a class that cannot be instantiated. It is located at the top of an object oriented class hierarchy. It defines the actions possible with objects of all subclasses of class. The methods defined in abstract class are called abstract methods.

WHAT IS AN INTERFACE

Interfaces define the signatures of a set of methods withoutthe body. Interfaces define a standard and public way of specifying the behavior of classes. Interface can only contain abstract methods, properties but we don’t need to put abstract and public keyword. All the methods and properties defined in Interface are by default public and abstract. Interfaces exhibits polymorphism.

- Interfaces are needed when similar methods are implemented by unrelated classes.
- Through interfaces, we can actually capture similarities among unrelated classes without artificially forcing a class relationship.
- Interfaces are needed to reveal an object's programming interface without revealing its class.
- Interfaces are needed to model multiple inheritance which allows aclass to have more than one superclass.

IMPLEMENTATION METRICS

The metrics used for implementation are the metrics for the design. These are:
- Lines of Code (LOC)
- Number of classes.
- Number of documentation pages.
- Total cost.
- Effort.

Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE)

Component based software engineering (CBSE) offers inherent benefits in software quality, developer productivity, and overall system cost. And yet, many roadblocks remain to be overcome before the CBSE process model is widely used throughout the industry. The benefits of object-oriented design and component-based development seem obvious:
- Reusing software saves money in the development phase of software projects, i.e., the more components you reuse, the less software you have to build.
- The more applications in which you use a given component, the more valuable that component becomes.
- Reusable components enable application developers to customize applications without high costs and long development cycles.
- Reused software components have fewer bugs because they are used more often, and errors are uncovered and corrected along the way.

Why CBSE?
The goal of component-based software engineering is to increase the productivity, quality, and time-to-market in software development thanks to the deployment of both standard components and production automation. One important paradigm shift implied here is to build software systems from standard components rather than "reinventing the wheel" each time. This requires thinking in terms of system families rather than single systems. CBSE uses Software Engineering principles to apply the same idea as OOPs to the whole process of designing and constructing software systems. It focuses on reusing and adapting existing components, as opposed to just coding in a particular style. CBSE encourages the composition of software systems, as opposed to programming them.
CBSE should, in theory, allow software systems to be more easily assembled, and less costly to build. Although this cannot be guaranteed, the limited experience of adopting this strategy has shown it to be true. The software systems built using CBSE are not only simpler to bold and cheaper – but usually turn out to be more robust, adaptable and updateable.
CBSE allows use of predictable architectural patterns and standard software architecture leading to a higher quality end result.

The CBSE Process :
CBSE is in many ways similar to conventional or object-oriented software engineering. A software team establishes requirements for the system to be built using conventional requirements elicitation techniques. An architectural design is established. Here though, the process differs. Rather than a more detailed design task, the team now examines the requirements to determine what subset is directly amenable to composition, rather than construction. For each requirement, the team will ask:
- Are commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components available to implement the requirement?
- Are internally developed reusable components available to implement the requirement?
- Are the interfaces for available components compatible within the architecture of the system to be built?
The team will attempt to modify or remove those system requirements that cannot be implemented with COTS or in-house components. The CBSE process identifies not only candidate components but also qualifies each components’ interface, adapts components to remove architectural mismatches, assembles components into selected architectural style, and updates components as requirements for the system change.
There are two processes that occur in parallel during the CBSE process. These are:
* Domain Engineering
* Component Based Development