Angela Tuffley

SPICE for small organisations

There is a perception in small to medium software developers that international standards and process improvement models such as ISO/IEC 15504 are developed and are relevant only for large organisations. This paper discusses the results of a case study focusing on the conduct of a process improvement project in a small organisation, Mirrabooka Systems Pty Ltd. The project involved providing financial assistance, assessment services and process improvement mentoring to improve the capability of the organisations software development processes. The activities centred around the provision of ISO/IEC 15504 conformant assessments, or more commonly known as SPICE Assessments, the results of which provided a basis for developing and implementing a process improvement programme for the organisation, which was implemented over a period of 18 months, and finally determining the improvements realised over that time frame. It discusses both the benefits and concerns Mirrabooka Systems Pty Ltd experienced by participating in the project and also demonstrates that ISO/IEC 15504 is not just suitable for large organisations but is also relevant and beneficial for small organisations. Copyright

SoS capability schedule prediction

The Australian Defence Materiel Organisation recently developed a process for determining the probability that a system development program will meet their stated delivery or completion date as well as predicting the actual schedule and identifying factors that are driving the schedule. This process, the Schedule Compliance Risk Assessment Methodology (SCRAM), provides a framework for identifying and communicating the issues and risks to, and the root causes of, schedule slippage and providing recommendations to mitigate and/or remediate issues and risks. To date, SCRAM has been successfully applied to a number of major development acquisition programs in Australia and the United States. This paper describes the application of the SCRAM process to predict the completion date of an SoS capability, conduct a root cause analysis of any identified schedule slippage, and identify possible remedial actions that can be taken to reduce schedule slippage.