QESP Meetings
How is this for excitement?
Imagine running a large (many tens millions of Pounds sterling), safety critical defence aviation project on a legacy platform (parts going back almost 30 years) in a CMMI level 5 environment. It includes joys such as DoD Mil Std 2167 and RTCA 178B. Andy will cover some of the problems and delights he encounters in managing such work.
UML’s ability to deliver formal quality and metrics
Unified Modelling Language (UML) has long being perceived as something very complex and expensive, a notation to be sued by OO designers and coders, something very expensive yet delivering unclear benefits for a small fraction of IT people.
The ASMA/SQA talk will discuss UML capability to deliver formal quality and metrics. It will contain examples and approaches of integrating UML modelling with management processes and procedures, generating and managing high-level testing specifications, developing UML-based metrics. The presentation is designed to be interactive and active participation from the ASMA/SQA SIG will be expected.
Tools and standards for Safety assurance
The August Safety Critical Workshop had 2 themes:
- TOOLS for Safety Assurance (including tools used for security and mission-critical systems)
- STANDARDS (including updates to MIL-STD 882E, DefAust(5679), UK DefStan 00-56 and IEC 61508)
Kevin Anderson will be discussing these topics and more.
Knowledge of the tools and standards associated with safety assurance helps to broaden everybody’s perspective of software quality.
Creating high-quality, project-specific methodologies using method engineering
Interest in the industrial adoption of processes and methodologies is growing. Rather than seeking a one-size-fits-all methodology, we can identify influences and commonalities that can be incorporated into a repository of method fragments as part of a method engineering approach to the construction of a high-quality, project-specific methodological approach to software development. Using the OPEN Process Framework as an exemplar, and in the context of software process improvement (SPI), I will demonstrate the value of method engineering in creating support for modern software development.
A Study of the Perceptions of IT Professionals on IT Outsourcing
Outsourcing Information Technology (IT) functions are becoming common IT strategies. Whether it is the implementation of large I.T. systems, or smaller software applications, the task is expensive, and is often a difficult process with high failure rates. Recent studies of what factors influence project management success identified 23 unique critical success factors, with good communication being one of the important factors. Yet, very often the decision to outsource appears to be poorly communicated. The impact on IT professionals’ is not good. The purpose of this research is to reveal what perceptions exist within in-house IT professionals. This research provides the results of a study completed by 120 in-house IT professionals. The majority of the respondents (94.1%) came from Government; Banking/Financial Services; Retail and Travel industries. Respondents were asked about their perceptions on IT outsourcing in terms of the benefits to the organization and to the IT professionals. A strong correlation between the employee’s perceptions on IT outsourcing and the level of outsourced IT functions within their company was identified. The results of the study also show that the perception of the staff affects the staff performance on an IT project, resulting in the greater possibility of project failure.
UML’s ability to deliver formal quality and metrics
Unified Modelling Language (UML) has long being perceived as something very complex and expensive, a notation to be sued by OO designers and coders, something very expensive yet delivering unclear benefits for a small fraction of IT people.
The ASMA/SQA talk will discuss UML capability to deliver formal quality and metrics. It will contain examples and approaches of integrating UML modelling with management processes and procedures, generating and managing high-level testing specifications, developing UML-based metrics. The presentation is designed to be interactive and active participation from the ASMA/SQA SIG will be expected.
Measurement in a High Maturity Organisation
(CMMI level 5)
In November 2003, IBM Australia’s Application Management Services (AMS) line of business was formally assessed at CMMI Level 5. The AMS organisation provides application development, enhancement, maintenance and support services to IBM clients. Typically, the organisation delivers more than 3,000 work products in a year, with over 1,000 projects completed. These are delivered to a standard meeting overall schedule, budget and productivity commitments.
Establishing measurement practices and capabilities appropriate to a high maturity organisation has been a significant journey, paralleling the six year organisational transformation program that resulted in the Level 5 assessment. However, sustaining the measurement focus needed to support continuous process improvement presents different and ongoing challenges. The presentation will discuss measurements experiences and observations from life in a high maturity organisation.
A Longitudinal Study of Requirements Volatility in Software Development
Software development is considered to be a dynamic process where demands for changes seem to be inevitable. Modifications to software are prompted by all kinds of changes including changes to the requirements. Changes to requirements give rise to an intrinsic volatility, which impacts on the software development lifecycle. Requirements Volatility (RV) is considered to be a major source of risk to the management of software projects. Investigating the sources and impacts of requirements changes is an important prerequisite for understanding the nature of requirements volatility. This increased understanding will improve the process of requirements change management and ultimately software development.
In this presentation, Dr Didar Zowghi will discuss the results of her longitudinal study of Requirements Volatility over the last 10 years. She has conducted extensive empirical studies of RV focusing on identifying source of, reasons for, and impacts of RV during software development project. She has also investigated the strategies used by practitioners to manage RV. The results have facilitated a better understanding of this complex phenomenon and have provided insight on how to improve requirements engineering practices to manage RV more effectively.
Web Services Design Methodologies
(In conjunction with the NSW ACS Web Services SIG)
Current best practice in Web Services is to view services as autonomous entities that use explicit message-passing to exchange information (as exemplified in leading platforms such as WSE, Indigo, and Axis). In a message-oriented system, super-loose coupling is the norm and consistency requirements must be relaxed - both of which can be perplexing for architects coming from a distributed object world where coupling is generally tight and consistency guaranteed.
However once these concepts are accepted, they enable the development of applications which are highly scalable in terms of load, adaptive in terms of re-use, and highly robust in the face of change. This talk will introduce the architectural concepts underpinning message-oriented Web Services at the individual service and network of service levels of abstraction. Building on that foundation, the discussion will move into the realms of architecting Web Services to best exploit some of the WS-* protocols to attain true enterprise-grade quality of service for Web Services-based applications.
Practical Software Risk Management
Software risk management is essential in the current climate of escalating compliance requirements, exposure to litigation, competitive pressures, rapidly changing business requirements and ever-increasing technical complexity. Changes which increase exposure to risk include new regulations, new business systems, major projects and outsourcing initiatives. Various risk management standards tell us what to do but not how to do it. We know that measurement is needed for software risk management - but what do we measure? This interactive workshop will start with a brief review of current approaches by a panel of experts who will then lead participants in discussion and in sharing experience. The aim is to arrive at a practical, effective approach to software risk management which can be applied in current and future projects.
Using Project Process and Product Measurement to Improve Project Decision Making
The presentation will introduce the concepts of software measurement and via some industry case studies provide the audience with an insight into how measurement can assist project managers in informed decision making. The presentation will introduce the national role of Australian Software Metrics Association (ASMA) in assisting Australian organisations to implement measurement. It will provide some background on the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) and the practical uses of their repository of industry data.