CEN 4021 Class 19 0316 Organization of Process

CEN 4021 Class 19 – 03/16 Organization of Process • • Review Class 17 Goals and Measurement CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09

Tools • Tools should reduce work and increase productivity and efficiency. • Tools represent a significant set of resources for software projects. • There have been claims of 50% - 200% gains in productivity as evidence of a particular tools’ effectiveness. On the other hand the expected savings for some tools did not materialize. • Spmrs should take a realistic note of what should be expected and what effort will be required to achieve the expectation. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 2

Tools cont Tool Identification and Preparation • Some activities the spmr should carry out to prepare for the acquisition and use of the tool: – Identify the specific steps and activities that the tool is expected to automate or improve. – Explore realistic expectations for the tool, stated in terms of productivity gain or efficiency gain that the automation of these steps will bring. – Review the various tools available that will meet these expectations. – Review the training needed to attain the level of competency for the expected gains. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 3

Tools cont Tool Selection: • Spmr must establish an objective set of criteria for tool selection, i. e. , should study the different vendor offerings. • Criteria to evaluate vendor offerings: – The functions that the tool performs and automates – The expected gains in productivity and efficiency from the tool’s functions – The number of users who may simultaneously access the tool – The tool’s performance capacity and reliability CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 4

Tools cont Tool Selection: • • Criteria to evaluate vendor offerings cont: – The vendor’s experience with the tool – The vendor’s past history in supporting the tool – The amount of training needed to use the tool – The effort required to maintain and support the tool – Contractual terms and conditions for the toolespecially the financial terms Some “scoring” mechanism must be established for each criterion. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 5

Tools cont Tool Usage Preparation: • The project team must be trained how to use the tool correctly. • In the start-up period of using the tool the team will lose some productivity due to: exploration, frustration, and further learning. • Spmr must set expectations with the startupperiod in mind. • Spmr must be tactful in persuading team members to use new tools. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 6

Goals and Measurements • During the planning activities, a number of goals and measurements to gauge and validate the attainment of goals were considered and identified. • The project team still needs to be organized and motivated to both understand accept these goals and measurements. • Recall the spmrs are responsible for transforming the plan into executable items during the organizing of POMA. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 7

Goals and Measurement cont Recall: • During the planning phase the goals for and measurements of, the key attributes of the product and services are determined. • Many of the goals for the system are deduced from the functional and nonfunctional requirements i. e. obtained from the customer. • Measurable attribute: An attribute for which there is a well-defined metric and a methodology for its measurements. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 8

Goals and Measurement cont Recall: • • Validation of goal: Comparing a stated goal for an attribute with the actual measurement taken for the attribute. Verification of measurement: Ensuring that the measurement of an attribute is properly taken and recorded through repetition, tracing, or some other means. Metric: The unit used to characterize an attribute. Measurement: The act of characterizing an attribute, which may involve multiple steps, utilizing the agreed upon metric for that attribute. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 9

Goals and Measurement cont • The project plan identifies important attributes and their goals. The metrics and measurement scheme for these goals were also conceived. • In the organizing phase several other important notions must also be considered by the spmrs. – Are the goals and their associated measurement schemes clearly defined? – Has the organization embraced the measuring scheme? – Has the cost of measuring been taken into account? CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 10

Goals and Measurement cont • It is important that the project team understand the definitions of goals and measurements of the project. • To alleviate the problem of the team not understanding the goals and measurement scheme, the spmrs should: – – – Review the goals set for the product and project attributes Review the measurement scheme and modify if necessary Build an “operational” plan for the measurement schemes CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 11

Goals and Measurement cont • • • The desired goals of a project should be stated in a quantitative way. The classic example of a goal is “easy to use”. What does “easy to use” mean? ? ? For goals that can be ambiguous or vague decompose them into subgoals. If the initial requirement was “The product should be easy to use” one decomposed subgoal can be: – Every function in the product should be completed by the user without external intervention. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 12

Goals and Measurement cont • After identifying subgoals for a goal ask the following questions: – Is the subgoal more specific than the original goal? – How would we gauge the transformed attribute? – Is there a need for a specific activity that will allow us to gauge its attainment? • The precise metric and measurement methodology should be defined in terms of a particular test if possible. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 13

Goals and Measurement cont • For “ease of use” example test the following steps might be used: 1. A test case is designed for each function in the product. 2. A numerical count is kept of the number of test cases that are successfully executed by a test subject without any external intervention. 3. This test is repeated with the predetermined number of test subjects to ensure the results’ statistical relevancy. 4. All the unsuccessful test cases are summed. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 14

Goals and Measurement cont • • • A reasonable goal for such a test is to have 5% unsuccessful or 95% successful test cases. In the above example there is still further room for improvement i. e. the number of test subjects and the method of selection. Some measurements can be potentially misleading. If you are using categories to measure if goals are achieved make sure that: – – Create categories that exhaustively cover the range of metrics Each category is mutually exclusive of any other category CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 15

Goals and Measurement cont • See text book for discussion on the meaning: totally complete, mostly complete, partially complete, and not complete. Building a measurement operational plan: • Each item to be measured in the plan may require a slightly different operational plan. • When refining the operational plan the following refinements steps should be considered: – Steps to ensure that the process and methodology are modified to include the details needed to implement each plan. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 16

Goals and Measurement cont – – – • • Steps to ensure that proper resources are made available in a timely manner Steps to ensure that necessary metrics and measurement schemes are defined for each plan item Steps to ensure that goals are defined for the implementation and that the achievement of the goals is validated. Operational Plan: A plan that contains all the details of how to implement what is contained in a general project plan. Operational plan contains many items and extends the initial plan consisting of goal statements. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 17

Goals and Measurement cont • Operational plan allows for successful measurement during the monitoring phase of the project. • During the organization of the project some elements of the plan may have to be revisited therefore a further refinement of the plan is essential. • The following items should be considered during the organizing and preparation phase of the POMA life cycle: – Any additional goal clarification and decomposition CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 18

Goals and Measurement cont – – Well-defined goal validation Specific measurement techniques and schemes Any process extensions and modifications needed to accommodate measurements Additional software/hardware tools needed for measurement activities Embracing the measurement scheme: • • It is very important to get the team on board with the organizational plan for the measurements of the goals. Some measurement schemes may take on quite a bit of complexity. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 19

Goals and Measurement cont • The spmr should not perform all the analysis and justification studies by themselves. Other team members should participate for the following reasons: – – – More team members would understand the goals and measurements. More non-management team members would feel committed to the goals and measurements. Some team members may be counted on to “spread the message” and educate other team members. Sharing the burden would lessen the workload of the spmr. Distributing the knowledge would lessen the general fear of being measured. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 20

Goals and Measurement cont – • Team ownership of the goals would be more likely to be achieved. Disadvantage: – May affect each person’s workload. • Spmr should monitor non-managerial members during the execution of their newly assigned task (goals and measurements) to ensure is it being done correctly. Goal Attainability • Measurement of the process will make some employer feel that they are being continually watched. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 21

Goals and Measurement cont Goal Attainability cont • • Sometime the measurements are used to improve the process for future projects. A spmr should be realistic about the expectation of including the measurements of goals in the process. Before collecting any data explain how the data will be used to the team members. The goals and measurements activity should be properly planned, and the team should be included in the development of some of the goals. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 22

Goals and Measurement cont Goal Attainability cont • The team must embrace the goals and measurements as their own. • During the organization and preparation phase the spmr must actively and positively communicate the goals, measurements and measurement scheme to the team. • All team members must be included in the communication about the goals and measurements. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 23

Goals and Measurement cont Goal Attainability cont • To win acceptance and positive reception of the goals and measurements spmr must ensure the following: – A well-defined goal and measurement scheme – Attainable goals – The team’s participation in the setting of the goals – The team’s understanding and belief in the goals and measurements – The commitment of qualified resources for measurement CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 24

Goals and Measurement cont Measurement cost: • Goals and measurements are important yet few s/w projects do it. Why? – “Success” is often gauged by only a single goal e. g. , a deliverable’s due date. – The organization may not see the value of setting goals and measurements or may fear the process. – Management may not supply enough resources for the goals and measurements activities. – Team may oppose the goals and therefore do not measure them. CEN 4021 Class 17 - 03/09 25