2007 Presentations

Multi-Tasking, Dinner Parties, and Software Projects

Earl Beede — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:52:29 GMT

by Bruce Henry

The project management tools you choose strongly influence the way your organization approaches project execution. During the development of LiquidPlanner we found that some of our simple models showed quite dramatic departures from “traditional” schedules. The results of these models suggest specific tactics for project prioritization and execution.

Bruce will use a couple simple Excel models to show the effects of multi-tasking and “properly balancing” the load on your team.

Bruce P. Henry managed a team of about 100 software testers at Expedia. But now Bruce manages to confuse himself by thinking about effort-space, duration-space, and schedule-space at LiquidPlanner.

Agile Process Development

Earl Beede — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:04:57 GMT

by Nelson Perez

This presentation is entitled “Applying Agile Techniques to Process Development: Lessons Learned” and is based on an article published in the August 2007 issue of Crosstalk, the Journal of Defense Software Engineering. It presents lessons learned from a process improvement effort that took an organization from no formal process capability to the implementation of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI^SM) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI^®) using the continuous representation with a focus on the staged representation’s maturity level 2 process areas. This presentation summarizes techniques that were used to reduce the overall time to achieve institutionalization of new processes as well as what worked well and what could be further improved. The topics to be covered are a) resource utilization, b) process development, c) using Agile methods to run the process improvement effort and develop related outputs, d) process piloting approach used, e) addressing process improvement via technology improvements, f) leveraging the internet and IEEE standards to speed process development, g) employing the continuous representation of the CMMI model, h) issues associated with QA, and i) process rollout management strategies used.

The presentation is being delivered in two (2) parts. The first part (October 15, 2007) covers the theory and methods. The second part (November 19, 2007) covers the lessons learned in a real world example.

Process Improvement at Nordstrom

Earl Beede — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:38:26 GMT

by Bill Tucker, Nordtrom Bill will share the experience of taking a large IT organization through various process improvement stages that lead to significant improvement in the predictability of technology investments for Nordstrom. This will include ways to define shared processes, defining project roles and estimating project effort more consistently. He is now seeking to take the organization to the next level of maturity (Optimized Stage) as they seek ways to reduce efforts without impacting the quality and reliability of the solutions they deliver for the business. Mr. Bill Tucker began his IT career with Electronic Data Systems in 1980, after graduating from his university studies. While at EDS, Bill worked in many roles including systems analyst, quality analyst, systems engineer, project management and finally account management. His industry experience was focused in the Insurance business line and in the federal and state funded programs for providing medical care. He graduated in the top 5% of his EDS school, and was selected for the "Soaring Eagles" club, a high potential designation that offered him access to senior leaders as mentors during his time there. After almost seven years, Bill left EDS for family reasons. He was hired by Nordstrom DP in December, 1986 to help lead a large Credit Systems implementation. Over the past twenty years at Nordstrom, Bill has worked in most lines of the business as a project and program manager. He also helped form their first quality assurance and process improvement groups. In 1994 he was asked to leave the corporate IT group to join the newly formed Nordstrom Catalog team where he helped them implement the technology solutions needed to grow into the Direct channel business unit they are today. With this work done, he returned to head up the Systems Delivery groups for Nordstrom. He has also served in senior roles on all of the major technology investment initiatives the company has pursued over the past seven years, including the Perpetual Inventory, the Point of Service and Personal Book, and the Direct/Full Line Stores multi-channel integration efforts. Today Bill continues to lead the Systems Delivery groups as well as the Strategic Technology Planning and Enterprise Architecture services. He is a member of the multi-channel strategic planning group and actively supports the new hire and leadership development programs that are in place in Nordstrom.

News in SPI/State of the SPIN

Earl Beede — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:08:57 GMT

by Earl Beede, Chair, SeaSpin

In this presentation, Earl will share his insights from the resent Software Engineering Process Group conference. This conference is sponsored by the SEI, a supporter of SPINs everywhere. After a brief sharing of insights, Earl will lead a focused meeting on the SeaSpin and start the process to elect officers for the next SeaSpin season.

Applying Lean Principles to Plan-Driven Software Projects

Earl Beede — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 20:43:46 GMT

by Jerry Deville, Construx Software

Almost everything written about lean software development has been associated with agile. This leads people to think that lean plan-driven is an oxymoron. This is a myth that must be busted. Effective software teams need to continually ensure each activity they perform is optimized to promote value. Plan-driven lean addresses the very common situations such as when the organization requires greater predictability.

This presentation will introduce you to applying lean thinking when circumstances require use plan-driven approach. It identifies the fundamental lean principles and provides selected examples to illustrate right-sizing your plan-driven projects.

10x Software Engineering

Earl Beede — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 20:41:00 GMT

by Earl Beede, Construx Software

Why is it that some software groups can create essentially the same software for a fraction of the cost/duration of other software groups? Study after study confirms that some groups are an order of magnitude more productive than other groups. Earl Beede is creating a new seminar for Construx on this topic and will preview his findings and some of his material. He will share several principles and practices that leading software groups use to deliver 10x better performance.