Page 1  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 PROFES Product Focused Improvement of Embedded Software Processes PROFES Product Focused Improvement of Embedded Software Processes Blanko’98 Seija Komi-Sirviö VTT Electronics

Page 2  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Table of Contents Introduction Objectives of the PROFES methodology Overview of the PROFES methodology Overview of some PROFES elements Experiences with the PROFES methodology Conclusions

Page 3  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 PROFES project Product driven process improvement Esprit project January 97 - June MECU EU funding 1.7 MECU 303 personmonths

Page 4  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Project Consortium Combination of highly skilled methodology providers and practitioners with expertise in process improvement: –Dräger Medical Technology, The Netherlands - Application Developer –Ericsson, Finland- Application Developer –Etnoteam S.P.A., Italy- Method Provider –Fraunhofer IESE, Germany- Method Provider –Schlumberger Retail Petroleum Systems, France- Application Developer –University of Oulu, Finland- Method Provider –VTT Electronics, Finland, - Project Leader - Method Provider Industrial follow-up group in Finland

Page 5  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Parallel Applications Three parallel industrial applications which are replicated twice –Medical instruments, retail petroleum systems, and telecommunication systems Parallel experiments are used in order to –Facilitate a higher degree of formality in the experimental design –Improve the external validity and statistical significance of obtained results –Augment knowledge transfer between the industrial companies involved

Page 6  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 What customers ask for? TIME TO MARKET COSTS QUALITY Reliability, maintainability, usability...

Page 7  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 What is Missing? Knowledge of the cause-effect link between process and product attributes Ability to predict and monitor results of investments in process improvement and technology Data on proven effectiveness of process improvement approaches and use of specific technology Ability to learn from experience

Page 8  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Key Objectives To link customer-oriented product factors to process characteristics –Focus on improvements to those characteristics of the process that are critical for product quality To combine and enhance the strengths –goal-oriented measurement –process assessment –product and process modelling and –experience factory To support evaluation of cost-benefits To support learning and re-use of experience To address the embedded system domain

Page 9  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 How they are achieved? A model of product and process dependencies (PPD) A suggested improvement cycle A cost-benefit model

Page 10  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 PROFES modularity It is possible to use only the parts which are relevant to an organisation Organisations can choose the method they want to apply for: –process modelling –process assessment (SPICE conformant) –product assessment

Page 11  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 ISO 9126 (Product) ISO 15504, SPICE (Process) – BOOTSTRAP 3.0 (SPICE conformant) GQM (Measurement) QIP (Improvement activities) Experience Factory (Reuse) Product assessment and Process modelling (No specific method is recommended) Background Standards & Methods PPD (Product Process Dependency) Models

Page 12  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 ISO 9126 is adopted as reference for definition of quality characteristics and sub-characteristics No specific method for product assessment is recommended GQM can be used to define specific product goals to be evaluated Approach to Product Quality

Page 13  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 ISO 9126 Characteristics Sub-characteristics

Page 14  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Which Process Assessment? Several assessment methods are available – CMM – BOOTSTRAP – Trillium –….. PROFES recommends a SPICE conformant assessment

Page 15  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Goal-Oriented-Measurement Typical difficulties when performing measurement programmes: Unnecessary and too much data is collected. Inadequate and / or insufficient data is collected. Collected data is not used properly.  People are not motivated for providing data. The usefulness of measures cannot be judged out of context.  Measurements have to be chosen, customised, and used according to goals of interest and the context/environment. Goal-oriented measurement according to the Goal/Question/Metric (GQM) approach.

Page 16  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 The Elements of GQM GQM has four elements: Goals, Questions, Models and Measures: Goal Q1 Model1 Q2 Model 2 Q3 Model 3 Q4... M1M2M3... Definition Interpretation

Page 17  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Product/Process Dependencies (PPDs) Which software processes or development practices which software product quality yield ? … in which context situation? Inspections GQM UML Case Tools Reliability Cost etc.. Maintainability Time to Market etc.. Large Projects OO Development Unstable Requirements Verification Planning

Page 18  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Product - Process - axis Bootstrap GQM QIP/EF ISO9126 PRODUCT PROCESS PPD

Page 19  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 The PPD-EP PPD-EP (Product Process Dependency Experience Package): –helps in the selection of process improvement actions driven by product quality targets –can be continuously enhanced by including additional product-process links experimentally validated using GQM –accumulates software engineering best practices

Page 20  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 PPD Development and Usage Experience Base 12 Improvement Programme Evaluate & Update PPD Models Retrieve & Reuse PPD Models 3 Develop & Tailor PPD Models Data Analysis Knowledge Acquisition Validation

Page 21  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 An example of building and using PPD-EP

Page 22  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 An example of a PPD-EP PPD-EP Product Quality Reliability Process ENG.3 Software Requirements Analysis Practice Software Inspections ViewpointSoftware Engineer EnvironmentPROFES-A StatusPreliminary Context CF.1Size of inspection team CF.2Experience of inspection teamlow averagehigh CF.3Problem treatment of inspection team pragmatic detailed CF.4Complexity of inspected document low averagehigh very_high CF.5Size of inspected documentsmall average large very_large CF.6Management commitmentlow high CF.7Overall time pressurelow average high CF.8Module affected by new hardware old_hw new_hw CF.9Module developed externallyinternally externally Notes & Comments This PPD-EP addresses the interrelation between document complexity and characteristics of the inspection team. For complex documents, the team needs to have average size, high experience level, and a pragmatic problem treatment attitude. Otherwise, requirements inspections of complex documents are not regarded to be effective.

Page 23  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Benefits from PPD models PPD models provide –Well-organised planning and evaluation of product-driven software process improvement –Reduction of overhead cost for improvement programmes –Easy access to software engineering best practices –Acquisition and reusability of organisational knowledge and experience

Page 24  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 PROFES Experience Factory - Why ? Projects and organisations have different aims: Projects: to develop software products according to predefined requirements, costs and time constraints. Organisations: to improve their products over time, to avoid making the same mistake twice, to perform re-use wherever advantageous.  Reuse of experiences across projects is needed  Projects cannot be expected to “manage” corporate experience  A separate organisational unit is required: the Experience Factory (EF)

Page 25  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 PROFES Types of “Experience” Experience is packaged in the form of models

Page 26  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 The Improvement Cycle The improvement cycle provides guidelines to: –effectively combine process assessment, goal oriented measurements and process modelling –package experience for re-use –define hypothesis and validate them to feed the PPD-EP

Page 27  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 The PROFES improvement Cycle - Motivation presentations to achieve commitment - Preliminary product quality needs identification - Process assessment and descriptive process modelling - Product assessment and characterisation - Product improvement goal setting - Select or build PPDs - Improvement planning - Prescriptive process modelling - Measurement planning - Process changes implementation - Continuous measurement and quality monitoring - Measurement data analysis - Process re-assessment and interpretation - PPD evaluation - Packaging and storing experiences for reuse SET GOALS PLAN ANALYSE CHARACTERISE PACKAGE EXECUTE P r o d u c t - P r o c e s s - D e p e n d e n c y PPD PRODUCT O r g a n i s a t i o n a l a n d P r o j e c t P r o c e s s e s PROCESS

Page 28  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Organisational and Project Level Improvement at organisational level : –definition of overall product improvement goals –planning of the overall improvement programme –definition and implementation of organisational solutions –selection of pilot projects –monitoring of improvement programme –organisational learning Improvement at project level: –implementation and evaluation of suggested improvement solutions –achievement of product improvement goals

Page 29  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 The Cost-Benefit Model The cost-benefit model is a repository of costs-benefits data based on use of improvement methods It can be enhanced and tailored to specific environments

Page 30  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Exploitable Results User Manual and PROFES book Consultancy service package Presentation and training material Tools to support the PROFES methodology A core PPD repository A core cost-benefit model

Page 31  Copyright PROFES Consortium Blanko’98 Conclusion PROFES integrates and enhances well known methods –assessment, measurement, product & process modeling PROFES supports industry in –focusing investments in process improvement on customer driven product quality objectives –PPD repository & learning and re-using experience