Software Process Improvement Works! Advanced Information Services Inc
Abstract
In the early years of Advanced Information Services Inc. (AIS), we were not profitable because our projects were not predictable. Most of our projects were on fixed cost contracts and experienced schedule and budget overruns. Although quality was not measurable, indications of our quality problems were the significant amount of rework necessary at the end of a project and the attendant customer dissatisfaction. People worked long hours, and heroic efforts were needed to complete projects. In 1992, our Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Girish Seshagiri, attended a conference on continuous process improvement based on Watts Humphrey's Managing the Software Process [Humphrey 89]. Girish returned from the conference convinced that process improvement would solve our problems, and he communicated his vision to everyone in the organization. The onset of the initiative was for us to base our software process improvement effort on the Capability Maturity Model (CMM(registered trademark)). In 1995, that initiative evolved into using the Personal Software Process SM (PSPSM) along with the CMM. Over the lifetime of the initiative, the AIS Development Group has transformed its ad hoc development into practices that are process oriented and disciplined. Our average project schedule overrun has been reduced from 112% to 5%, and our average budget overrun from 87% to -4%. We now average one defect per 20,000 lines of code in delivered products. One half of the products delivered in the past three years have been defect free. The rewards of these schedule, budget, and quality successes are satisfied customers and company profitability. The AIS Development Group was recognized for these results by the software professional community with the 1999 IEEE Computer Society Software Process Achievement Award. In addition, AIS was recognized by the business community with a 1999 Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative award by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Mass Mutual. The AIS culture has changed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- AD1147394
Entities
People
- Girish Seshagiri
- Gloria Leman
- Pat Ferguson
- Prasad Perini
- Susan Renner
Organizations
- Carnegie Mellon University