About Software Process Improvement
- SPI or Software Process Improvement is a program that has been developed to provide
guidance for the integrated long – range plan for the initiation and management
of the SPI program.
- SPI is based up on a model called the IDEAL model which has
the following 5 major stages:
- Initiating
- Diagnosing
- Establishing
- Acting
- Leveraging
- These 5
major steps form a continuous loop.
- However, the time taken for the completion
of one cycle varies from one organization to other.
- Depending on the available
resources an organization must be able to decide whether or not it would be
able to commit to software process improvement.
- SPI requires many activities to
be carried out in parallel to each other.
- Some part of the organization may
take care of the activities in one phase while others take care of the other
phase activities.
- Practically, the boundaries of the various stages in a
software process improvement are not clearly defined.
- The infrastructure also
plays a great role in the success of the SPI.
- The value added to SPI by
infrastructure just cannot be underestimated.
- It provides a great help in
understanding its roles.
About Initiating Phase
- As the name indicates this
is the starting point of the process.
- This stage involves setting up of
the improvement infrastructure.
- Then the infrastructure’s roles and
responsibilities are defined.
- The resources are checked for availability
and assigned.
- Finally, an SPI plan that will guide this initiating phase as
well as the other higher stages.
- It is during this stage that the goals of
the software process improvement are defined and established based up on
the organization’s business needs.
- During the establishing phase these
goals are further refined and specified.
- Two components are typically established namely:
Ø A software engineering process group or SEPG
Ø A management steering group or MSG
About Diagnosing Phase
- In this stage, the organization as per the SPI plan starts.
- This stage serves as foundation for the stages that will follow.
- The plan is initiated keeping in view the vision of the organization along with its business strategy, past lessons, current business issues and long term goals.
- Appraisal activities are carried out so that a baseline of the current state of the organization.
- The results of these activities are reconciled with the existing efforts so as to be included in the main plan.
About Establishing Phase
- In this stage the issues
to be addressed by the improvement activities are assigned priorities.
- Also, the strategies for obtaining a solution are also pursued.
- The draft of the
plan is completed as per the organization’s vision, plan, goals and
issues.
- From general goals, measurable goals are developed and put in to
the final SPI plan.
- Metrics essential to the process are also defined.
About Acting Phase
- Solutions addressing the
improvement issues discovered in the previous stages are created and
deployed in and out of the organization.
- Other plans are developed for the
evaluation of the improved processes.
About Leveraging Phase
- This stage is led by the
objective of making the next pass through the process more effective.
- By
this time the organization has developed solutions and metrics concerning
performance and achievement of the goals.
- All this data obtained is stored
in a process database that will later serve as source information for the
next pass.
- Also, this information would be used for the revaluation of the
strategies and methods involved in the SPI program.
- Software
process improvement activities work with two components namely, the tactical
component and the strategic component.
- The former is driven by the latter that
is based up on the needs of the organization.
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