Friday, November 13, 2009

Appraisal Team Requirements for SCAMPI Class A

Appraisal Team Requirements

According to SEI issued SCAMPI MDD V1.2. following are the standard requirements of an Appriasial Team for SEI's recognized SCAMPI Class A appraisal.

Appraisal Team Size:
The minimum acceptable team size for a SCAMPI appraisal is four people (including the team leader). The maximum recommended team size is nine.

Appraisal Team Qualification:
All team members (ATMs) must have previously completed the SEI-licensed Introduction to CMMI course, delivered by an instructor who is authorized by the SEI.

Appraisal Team Experience Restrictions:
With regard to engineering field experience, the team (as a group) must have an average of at least 6 years of experience, and the team total must be at least 25 years of experience, in each of the disciplines to be covered in the appraisal.

With regard to management experience, the team (as a group) must have a total of at least 10 years of experience, and at least one team member (ATM) must have at least 6 years of experience as a manager.

Other Restrictions:
The team must, in aggregate, have representative experience in the lifecycles being appraised.

Team members should not be managers of one of the selected projects or be within the direct supervisory chain of any of the anticipated interviewees.

Good to have:
Although not required in the Parameters and Limits section above, the following are considered recommended best practices and should be employed whenever feasible:
  • Each member should have good written and oral communication skills, the ability to facilitate the free flow of communication, and the ability to perform as team players and negotiate consensus.
  • At least half of the team members should have participated in a previous process appraisal.
  • Team members should be perceived by the appraisal sponsor as credible.
Additional appraisal team member selection considerations include

  • Consider the personal characteristics of individual team members (e.g., communication preferences and personality types) and how these characteristics may affect the dynamics of the team.
  • Use one or more authorized SCAMPI Lead Appraisers as team members.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

CMMI Companies in Pakistan

LIST OF CMMI RATED COMPANIES IN PAKISTAN


These are the companies, financed by the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). This list is not complete as there are some other companies which have been appraiased without any government initiative or financial support, however data is being gathered for such companies, at the moment, only one company could be found yet that is -
Technosoft Solutions private limited - CMMI Level 2 - http://www.techno-soft.com/.

1 NetSol Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd.             CMMI Level 5

2 NCR Pakistan                                       CMM Level 5

3 Kalsoft (Pvt.) Ltd.                                 CMMI Level 3

4 Systems (Pvt.) Ltd.                                CMMI Level 3

5 Digital Processing Systems                     CMMI Level 3

6 ZTE Pakistan, Software R & D Center   CMMI Level 2

7 Eworx Intl (Pvt.) Ltd.                             CMMI Level 2

8 Techlogix Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd.                CMMI Level 2

9 Si3 - System Innovations (Pvt.) Ltd.      CMMI Level 2

10 Abacus Consulting (Pvt.) Ltd.              CMMI Level 2

11 Descon Information Systems                CMMI Level 2

12 E-Dev Technologies                            CMMI Level 2

13 Prosol Technologies                            CMMI Level 2

14 Avanza Solutions                                 CMMI Level 2

15 Shaukat Khanum Cancer Research Hospital (IT DIV)   CMMI Level 2

16 Geopaq Technologies                          CMMI Level 2

17 Advanced Computing and Engineering Solutions CMMI Level 2

18 NADRA                                             CMMI Level 2

19 Technosoft Solutions (Pvt) Ltd            CMMI Level 2

20 Prislogix CMMI Level 2

21 CARE (Center for Advanced Research in Engineering) Pvt. Ltd. CMMI Level 2

Friday, November 6, 2009

FAQs - Role of Management Commitment in Making Software Process Improvement Happen

Q: What do you consider are the three important success factors for process improvement effort?


A: I think most important and critical success factors in process improvement initiatives are:

  1. Have a Process Improvement Group to carry out process improvement activities. Group must have some capabilities otherwise it will be useless and its existence or inexistence is equal. (You know we use a term in Urdu “safaid Hathi” mean white elephant). Following are some of necessary capabilities
    1. All members should know what does “process” and “process improvements” mean as well as know-how and agreed upon the importance of SPI.
    2. A shared vision among the group on problems, issues and challenges faced by the organization; future business goals and intentions of the organization and the benefits of SPI that how SPI will address their problems and issues, how SPI will cope the business challenges as well as how and what extent SPI will satisfy and help in achieving business goals.
    3. Group have representation of all effected functions of the organization (like from QA, PMs, Development, Operations as well as from business development if possible)
    4. Group should be Led by the most effective and knowledge able personality among the group in context of processes implementation
  2. Have an effective and efficient Process Implementation System in-place to deploy and implement the processes in the projects and other organization functions (departments like CM, Trainings, Purchase, HR)
  3. Strong Management Commitment

Q: What are your views about management commitment? How you value it for the success of process improvement initiatives?

A: I consider the management commitment as one of most critical success factors for an SPI program. When I say Management Commitment, I mean two aspects of the commitment. One is Financial Commitment and other is Close Monitoring by Management and lack of any aspect can lead the SPI program to an unsuccessful end.

Financial commitment is very important to run any kind of initiative. It is required to acquire suitable human and other resources, setup a necessary infrastructure, etc. Most important aspect of financial commitment is its continuity till the successful completion of the SPI program, especially in the crises period or in case of failure in some big project or service. As for as Management Monitoring is concerned, it have become a challenge for the success of SPI programs. Lessons learned from many SPI initiatives in software industry have proved that in the organizations where higher management (at director level) itself is not monitored the progress and resolved the issues, SPI programs have been delayed or completely failed. On the other hand, in organizations, where higher management involved in status review meeting and paid a close attention to resolve the issues and dependencies, are very successful in their SPI programs.

Management involvement is also a source of continuous motivation for those who are not very proactive and ambitious regarding the SPI spatially for those SEPG members, who are participating part time on voluntary basis.

CMMI Companies in Egypt

1. EDS-Egypt   -  http://www.eds.com/

CMMI-Level 3 - 26 August, 2004
Reassessment on 5th July, 2007
CMM-Level 2 - February, 2003

2. ITSoft  - ww.itsoft.com.eg

CMMI-Level 5 - 21 September, 2006
CMMI-Level 4 - 25 August, 2005
CMM-Level 3 -  24 June, 2004
CMM-Level 2 -  6 May, 2004

3. IBM Egypt – Cairo Technology Development Center -  http://www.ibm.com/

CMMI-Level 5 5 October, 2005
CMM-Level 3 16 August, 2004




4. Raya Software  - http://www.rayasoftware.com/

CMMI-Level 3 - 3 September, 2004


5. ITWorx Limited - Egypt

CMMI-Level - 3 29 December, 2005
CMMI-Level 2 23 December, 2004
http://www.itworx.com/


6. Data Management Systems (DMS) – Software Development, Implementation and Maintenance Projects

CMMI-Level 4 - 18 August, 2005
CMM-Level 3 11 August, 2004
http://www.dmsegypt.com/


7. Digital Vision

CMMI-Level 2 - 22 June, 2006
http://www.digitalvisionco.com/


8. LINKdotNET - Link Development

CMMI-Level 3 - 29 June, 2006
http://www.link.net/


9. Egypt Network - S/W Development Management and IT Services Unit

CMMI-Level - 2 29 June, 2006
http://www.egyptnetwork.com/


10. Delta Software CMMI-Level 3 16 August, 2007

CMMI-Level 2 - 10 July, 2006
http://www.delta-sw.com/


11. Harf Information Technology

CMMI-Level 3 - 16 July, 2006
http://www.harf.com/


12. Microtech

CMMI-Level 3 - 21 July, 2006
http://www.microtech-eg.com/


13. Horizons Software

CMMI-Level 3 - 26 July, 2006
http://www.horizonssoftware.com/


14. Fujitsu Egypt – Professional Services Projects

CMMI-Level 2 - 26 July, 2006
http://www.fujitsu.com.eg/


15. VIAS EGYPT

CMMI-Level 3 - 21 September, 2006
http://www.valeo.com/


16. Civil Information Technology Company (CITC)

CMMI-Level 2 - 21 February, 2007
http://www.citc.com.eg/


17. Intercom Enterprises

CMMI-Level 2 - 1 March, 2007
http://www.intercom.com.eg/


18. E-Smart Soft

CMMI-Level 2 - 14 March, 2007
http://www.esmartsoft.com.eg/


19. Informatique

CMMI-Level 2 - 15 March, 2007
http://www.informatique-eg.com/


20. Emak International Academy - ERP Division

CMMI-Level 2 - 29 March, 2007
http://www.emakacademy.com/


21. Environmental Systems & Research Institute-North East Africa (ESRI-NEA) previously QSIT

CMMI-Level 2 - 5 April, 2007
http://www.qs4it.com/

22. Giza Systems, ISG-ERP Implementation Unit

CMMI-Level 3 - 12 April, 2007
http://www.gizasystems.com/


23. Global Consulting Services and Software Development (GCSSD)

CMMI-Level 2 - 4 May, 2007
http://www.gcssd.com/


24. Vertika - ERP Implementation

CMMI-Level 2 - 28 February, 2008
http://www.verti-ka.com/


25. Systems Management Consultants (SMC)

CMMI-Level 2 - 25 June, 2008
http://www.smcsoftware.org/


26. GNS Egypt (GNSE Group)- E Solution Division

CMMI-Level 2 - 2 July, 2008
http://www.gnsegroup.com/


27.Classified Enterprise

CMMI-Level 2 - 2 September, 2008


28. Ajyal Information Systems

CMMI-Level 2 - 25 December, 2008
http://www.ajyal.com/


29.YAT Software House

CMMI-Level 2 - 1 February, 2009
http://www.yatsoftware.com/


30. Asset Technology Group - Product & Services Department

CMMI-Level 2 - 19 February, 2009
http://www.assettechnology.com/


31. The Egyptian Telephone Company (QuickTel), R&D Switching Software Division

CMMI-Level 2 - 26 February, 2009
http://www.quicktel.net/

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Lessons Learned in Framework-Based Software Process Improvement

Abstract
Software process improvement (SPI) has emerged as a critical area for organizations involved in software development. There is now considerable evidence that SPI can provide substantial gains in quality, productivity, and cycle time. Currently, most organizations that embark upon a SPI program tend to use a framework like the Capability Maturity Model for their process improvement. In this article we discuss some of the lessons learned in using these frameworks for software process improvement. First, three critical success factors are discussed. The rest of the lessons have been grouped into three categories – framework related, process related, and SPI management related. For each category we discuss a few key lessons. These lessons are based on the experience of the author in implementing a CMM-based SPI program in a large software organization in India, and helping many organizations in India and other countries (primarily the US and Mexico) with their SPI programs.

Rules of Software Process Improvement

Software process improvement is a complicated, systematic, and highly professional activity in software engineering that requires theory and models, skilled technical and managerial staff, as well as motivated top management commitment. A set of basic rules that predominate over software process improvement is summarised as follows:


Rule 1: Software process improvement is complicated system engineering.
A process improvement programme has to be thoroughly planned.