6 Part 6: V-Modell Reference Activities
6.3 Activities
6.3.13 Process Improvement
6.3.13.3 Preparing, Introducing and Maintaining an Organization-Specific Process Model
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Purpose
The execution of process improvement will start with the preparation or revision of the contents of the organization-specific process model. This will ensure that the parts of the organization-specific process model will have reached a state in which they are operational and tested, respectively accepted, and that their broad introduction can be carried out organization-wide.
Also part of the process improvement will be the testing of the processes for conformity against required national, international or organization-specific standards. If necessary, the process descriptions shall be adapted to these standards.
For process improvement the lessons learned reports from the projects shall be analyzed. They will include lessons that were learned from the process areas already introduced with earlier process improvements. These lessons learned will be important clues for the revision of, for example, process descriptions or document templates (see Figure 27 ).
Activity Flow
Figure 27: Activity Diagram "Preparing, Introducing and Maintaining an Org.-Specific PM"
6.3.13.3.1 Preparing Process Descriptions, Standards, Information, and Templates
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Organization-Specific Process Model: Experience Base, Organization-Specific Process Model: Organization-specific Directives and Informations, Organization-Specific Process Model: Process Descriptions, Organization-Specific Process Model: Training Concept, Organization-Specific Process Model: Training Documentation |
In this subactivity the following elements shall be prepared or - if they already exist - revised and maintained:
- »Process Descriptions
- »Templates for process descriptions (»Product Templates)
- Training concepts for process training (»Training Concept)
- Documents and information for process training (»Training Documentation)
- »Organization-specific Directives and Informations
- Project execution strategies
- Rules for adapting the organization-specific process model to the project conditions
- Coordination of subprocesses
- »Experience Base.
The rules for the adaptation of the organization-specific process model will permit the project-specific selection of process elements and project execution strategies.
6.3.13.3.2 Preparing and Maintaining Metrics Catalog
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Organization-Specific Process Model: Metrics Catalog |
When preparing the metrics catalog, the following approach shall be used:
- At first groups of objectives and the objectives that will be relevant to the projects shall be determined or derived from primary targets.
- To support the pursuit of these objectives, »Metrics shall be defined that make quantitative and qualitative statements in this context. Metrics will be based on »Measurement Data Types that also shall be defined in the metric catalog. Also analysis methods shall be specified and it shall be determined how to communicate the results.
Defining Measuring Objectives
Measuring objectives shall be adopted or determined from the targets of the specifications, for example from the topics »Project Overview, Project Targets and Success Factors, »Measurements and Analyses - Organization and Directives of the project manuals of individual projects or from the objectives of the organization. Additional objectives may be determined for example by conducting interviews with the target groups (for example »Project Leaders, quality assurance representatives, line superiors).
If the objectives are not detailed enough they shall be refined. For the primary objective 'to be the first on the market' the resulting project objectives will be for example 'meeting the deadlines', 'minimizing project risks', 'planning and ensuring quality from the start'.
Starting with the measuring objectives, questions shall be derived that can be answered by using metrics. This will include for example questions such as the state of the project with regard to the planned deadlines or how much progress has been made in the field of quality assurance.
Defining Metrics and Measuring Data Types
On the basis of the questions, metrics and measuring data types shall be defined, linked to the respective measuring objective and documented in the »Metrics Catalog. For determining metrics, formulas from the measuring data types shall be used. Values for measuring data types may be numerical data or also elements of selection lists, for example values for the presumable project expenditures: "according to plan"; "exceeds planned values by five percent", "exceeds planned values by ten percent"; "exceeds planned values by more than ten percent". If metrics are not based on numerical data, they are also called soft metrics. Metrics may also be composed of other metrics.
For each metric it shall be determined how and by whom the measurement data shall be analyzed, in what form the »Metrics Analysis shall be processed and how and when the result shall be communicated. For this purpose it will be stated for example that the metric shall be visualized in form of a bar chart, a curve or a table, and in what report types it shall be distributed. It must be taken into account that the metrics analysis may answer the questions connected with the metric.
For every measurement data type, the measurement times, measurement units and the persons involved in the measurement must be defined. To support the acquisition of »Measurement Data , an appropriate repository structure shall be provided. This may be a distributed structure, because depending on the metric the associated measuring data may be deposited in different tools. In individual cases it may also be necessary to provide corresponding tool support.
The metric catalog shall be updated continuously. New metrics that have proven their worth in projects shall be adopted. Based on lessons learned reports from the projects or due to changed framework conditions, individual metrics shall be revised or, from case to case, deleted.
Example
Business objective: "To be first on the market"
Primary project objective: "The product is available in time for the XY fair"
Detailed objectives:
- Meeting deadlines,
- Assuring quality.
Questions:
- Is it possible to meet the planned deadlines?
- Have the planned quality assurance measures for documents been taken, how far are they advanced?
- Is the system to a very large extent free from faults? How many faults are reported in the system and on how many defects trouble-shooting has been performed?
Metrics from the metrics catalog:
- To what degree the deadlines in the project have been met: The currently planned milestone deadlines are shown in relation to time in the course of the project, thus visualizing milestones. In addition it can be seen at what time which milestone was moved.
- Percentage of documents and reviews already covered: The number of inspected documents is compared to the total of planned documents.
- Fault statistics: The number of faults that have been closed is compared to the number of faults that are still open at the time of the report. This includes providing all fault signals and error messages.
6.3.13.3.3 Performing Piloting
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The prepared organization-specific process model shall be translated into the world of actual projects. Since it may still include faults and shortcomings, it shall be tested in a pilot project. The exemplary implementation of the process improvement provides evidence whether it will be suited for subsequent broad introduction. The extent of the pilot project should be visible at a glance, and the selected project should not be particularly critical. Faults and problems that occurred during piloting shall be eliminated in the process descriptions, and the lessons learned shall be recorded in a lessons learned report.
The execution of piloting will include the following subtasks:
- Preparing the piloting
- Training the pilot users
- Executing the piloting by supporting the pilot project
- Finishing the piloting
- Feedback/experience gained with the process
- Improving the process description
For piloting suitable operational projects shall be selected on the basis of criteria such as:
- For many pilotings a synchronization with the project start of the operational project is very useful.
- As far as possible the pilot project will not be a critical project (with regard to the business case).
- The stakeholders are receptive to process improvements.
- It is possible for the pilot project to cover the process improvements (e. g. no hardware improvement for a software project).
- The project is representative of the development projects of the organization.
- Because of process improvements, a particular payoff is expected for the pilot project (for example elimination of particular problems).
In the kick-off for the pilot project all participating persons shall be familiarized with the forthcoming tasks, and the contents of the »Piloting Concept shall be presented.
Based on the piloting concepts, training measures for the staff of the pilot project shall be planned, incorporated into the »Training Plan and carried out.
6.3.13.3.4 Performing Roll Out
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The broad introduction of the product improvement may be executed organization-wide if after piloting the process components of the product »Organization-Specific Process Model have reached an operational, tested and accepted state. Time schedule, resources and approach for the broad introduction were already described in the »Realization Concept.
For the broad introduction different approaches may be used, which will be described in the concept of realization. The process may be implemented top-down (starting at the highest hierarchical level of the organization and then going down) or just-in-time (starting for each project when a suitable time in the life cycle has been reached). The approach that will cover best the improvement possibilities and organizational requirements should be selected.
Broad introduction will include the following steps:
- Communication and embedding in the organization structure
- Kick-off
- Training of staff
- Coaching during the broad introduction
Like piloting, process implementation or broad introductions will start with a kick-off as an important component. Communication measures will be generally crucial for a successful and lasting process improvement. The communication concept was already described in the realization concept.
Based on the realization concept, training measures shall be planned and carrierd out. Necessary procedureal steps include the selection of personnel to be trained, scheduling, organizing the necessary resources and training the instructors as required. After the training has been completed, the lessons learned data base will record the training level of the staff members in order to provide a survey of their qualification. In addition, assessment sheets of the trainees will be evaluated, improvement possibilities will be determined and the offered training will be revised.
Coaching will be another important factor in the successful implementation of the process improvement into project practice. Coaching will accompany the operational projects in selected phases (for example project initialization) and during the whole project. It is to support the approach and to provide assistance in critical situations. The approach will thus be based on the previously prepared and piloted process description and include support for the application of new procedures, the preparation of documents from templates, the use of tools or the participation in meetings. Coaching may be performed in several ways, for example as part-time consulting or as full-time work on the operational project.
One of the main objectives of coaching (in addition to project support) will be to comprehensively impart knowledge complementary to the training, so that the extent of coaching can be reduced in the course of the project, the project staff will be able to use the process techniques independently and thus a lasting application of the process improvement can be ensured. This will also be done by the active involvement of project staff in the improvement project, who will be later available as points of contact for their colleagues and serve as multipliers for the process improvements. Furthermore, this is to encourage the project staff to advance process improvement topics by actively participating in shaping them.