Solving Problems with the BPCH Mikael Lindvall Michele Shaw Forrest Shull Fraunhofer Center Maryland Systems and Software Technology Conference (SSTC) 2005 Salt Lake City, Utah

The DoD Acquisition Best Practices Clearinghouse Useful Information Active Knowledge Base A Single Source For answers about practices, how to apply them, when they are good to use; lessons learned; and risks to avoid Repository Primary source for practice information in the DOD and industry, domains include Acquisition Software Development Systems Engineering Maintains information on practices to help determine “best” practices Selection Adoption Effective Utilization Applicability and implementation characteristics are analyzed, aggregated, distilled, and vetted by experts Relies on communities of practice Living Knowledge Validated practices SSTC 2005

I’m an acquisition program manager on a project with a tight budget. One day, the developer wants to cut out inspections saying it’s a waste and takes time from development I don’t feel that cutting out inspections is a good idea I would like to base my argumentation on some hard evidence before I meet with the developer Let’s try Google – it always works SSTC 2005

We will now demonstrate how you can use the BPCh to address this particular problem SSTC 2005

SSTC 2005

Inspections SSTC 2005

SSTC 2005

It is comforting to know that the collected evidence shows that inspections have a better ROI than testing because my contractor is in favor of testing SSTC 2005

I realize that someone might believe that cutting out inspections could save them time that can be used for development oriented activities. Instead inspections should be seen as an investment. Detecting defects early will save effort later. SSTC 2005

My question now is: Is there any evidence that Inspections will actually save us time and money? SSTC 2005

“Measuring Inspections at Litton” sounds like a study that might provide some real industry data SSTC 2005

SSTC 2005

Net Impact on Cost: During design and coding, about 3% of the total project effort was used for inspection The net return per inspection range from 64 to 200 person-hours saved per inspection SSTC 2005

Let’s pick another evidence and see if we can get some more information on the return on investment SSTC 2005

“Advances in Software Inspections” is highly rated, let’s pick it SSTC 2005

SSTC 2005

Excessive SIZE OF MATERIALS leads to high PREPARATION RATES Barriers: Excessive SIZE OF MATERIALS leads to high PREPARATION RATES High PREPARATION RATES contributes to excessive RATES OF INSPECTION An excessive RATE OF INSPECTION causes fewer defects to be found SSTC 2005

Net Impact on Cost: Inspections slightly front-end loads the commitment of resources, adding to requirements and design Inspections reduce the effort required during testing and for rework of design and code In each instance, the new uses of inspection were found to improve product quality and to be cost effective, i.e., it saved more than it cost. SSTC 2005

Enablers: Management must show encouragement for proper inspections. Requiring inspections and then asking for shortcuts will not do. SSTC 2005

I learned from IBM that the process is front-loaded and that the return is somewhat delayed. This is the delay that the developer confuses with lack of results It is important to keep down the amount of material that is covered by each inspection for inspections to be efficient Management support is necessary and I realize if I don’t insist on inspections now, the developer will probably never do it again! SSTC 2005

Instead, I will insist on keeping this practice and doing it right I now can argue that it is not a good idea to cut out inspections and instead move into development. Instead, I will insist on keeping this practice and doing it right I’m now ready to meet the developer and discuss this! SSTC 2005

The User View YOU may be the expert Demo machines are loaded up with initial content Follow the scenarios and browse the info We want your war stories… Feel free to give feedback, disagree, or second the opinions that are there! We may follow up with you to help insert lessons learned into the next version of the BPCh! SSTC 2005

Fraunhofer Center Maryland Contact Information Mikael Lindvall Fraunhofer Center Maryland mlindvall@fc-md.umd.edu 301-403-8972 Michele Shaw mshaw@fc-md.umd.edu 301-403-2057 Forrest Shull fshull@fc-md.umd.edu 301-403-8970 SSTC 2005