sbhide@mentor.com (Sandhi Bhide) (11/17/89)
I would like to know if your company is involved in the Software Engineering
Institute (SEI)'s Assessment program (either SEI-assisted or self-assisted)
and especially if you are a commercial company ?
Based on your experiences I would like to know:
1. Does this address the needs of only DoD/Govt. type of industry or is it
equally applicable to the commercial software companies as well. I have
heard that comment again and again that the structure/criteria described
in the Assessment Guide is very impractical for commercial business. If
anybody has experience with that I would like to hear from some people
working in the commercial environment who are using SEI for that purpose
and hear their experiences. People complain that it is too regimented,
strict and "thou shall" kind of list.
2. Another argument that I have heard is that the criteria is too rigid that it
possibly cannot be met ever. If you look at Watts Humphrey's article
there are no companies at level 4 or 5. I assume that the survey was
limited to US companies. Is the same thing applicable to Japanese
companies? What I mean is, if no companies are ever going to meet that
goal of level 5, and if there are no companies which are at that level,
then may be it is just an imaginary maturity level, that nobody will ever
reach. Is this a dream level, or this is something that we can achieve ?
Since the program started at IBM, what is IBM at?
3. The third thing that I wonder about is people's creativity. By getting
software process under statistical control, and applying by applying metrics
and measurements to fine-tune the process, the software engineers might
end up being robots producing/manufacturing software and losing their
creativity. (May be I have put that too harsh..). Does moving up the
maturity level reduces your creativity ? Moving up the maturity level
makes sense from a financial viewpoint as your quality/productivity go up
and your risks go down and your profits shoot up. But what about the
human element ? Other thing is that the SEI says that the Q and P go
up as you move up the maturity scale, but is there an evidence for that?
4. What is expense involved in moving from stage 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 and what
are the paybacks ?
5. How do you convince your management to go for SEI model and assessment ?
(p.s. By the way, don't try to sell me the SEI idea when you reply. I am well
well versed with their material, Watts's book and have several of their tech.
reports. We are also also their affiliate and I am also a Deming fan. I am
trying to understand other folk's views here.)
What I am looking for is your experience - hands-on with SEI process maturity,
assessment etc. primarily from the commercial world (I mean I am not
excluding aviation, DoD, army etc.. I don't mind getting response from them, but
my focus is my type of industry.). Some of the questions, I am asking are the
questions that the upper management ends up asking and I am preparing for that.
Thanks a lot for your support in advance.
Sandhiprakash Bhide
Software Process Manager
Mentor Graphics Corporation.