Process Improvement : Eight Traps to Avoid

S urviving in the increasingly competitive software business requires more than hiring smart, knowledgeable engineers and buying the latest development tools. You also need to use effective software development processes so those smart engineers can systematically apply the best technical and managerial practices to successfully complete their projects. More organizations are looking at software process improvement (SPI) as a way to improve the quality, productivity, and predictability of their software development, acquisition, and maintenance efforts. However, SPI efforts can be derailed in many ways, leaving the members of the organization jaded, frustrated, and more committed than ever to the ways of the past. This article describes eight common traps that can undermine an SPI program. Learning about these process improvement killers—and their symptoms and solutions—will help you prevent them from bringing your initiative to its knees. However, it is important to realize that none of the solutions presented here is likely to be helpful if you are dealing with unreasonable people. That is a different class of problem. Symptoms: Although individual groups can improve the way they do their work through grassroots efforts, sustainable changes across an organization require management commitment at all levels. Senior managers may claim to support SPI (how can they say otherwise?), but they may not be willing to make short-term sacrifices to free-up the resources required for the long-term investment. Larger organizations must establish alignment between senior management and one or more layers of midmanagers. If you are leading the SPI effort, you might obtain senior management commitment , but get resistance from middle managers. In this case, you will be forced to spend time and energy debating the importance of SPI with people who should only have to be educated, not sold. Such mixed signals from management make it hard for team leaders and software developers to take the effort seriously. Watch out for lip service and buzz words that masquerade as commitments. Lower-level managers who assign their least capable people (or no one) to the program send a clear signal that the lack of management commitment is about to foil your effort. Solutions: Managers at all levels need to send consistent signals about SPI to their constituencies. Executives must be educated about the costs, benefits, and risks so they will have a common vision and understanding of this complex aspect of software engineering. Commitments need to be aligned along the organizational hierarchy, so …