Process 7.3: Process improvement

UMP   Organizational Process          Improvement Process

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The Improvement process activities:

• Activity 7.3.1: Process establishment
• Activity 7.3.2: Process assessment
• Activity 7.3.3: Process improvement

Process improvement opportunity events

The general approach in applying UMP to your project: start development with that process (base documents), which are available immediately:

• Process (documents) from your previous project
• Samples from the Internet
• UMP templates
• UMP samples
• Miscellaneous others, if available

Do not wait until your specific project process is completely defined. Instead, establish and react to improvement opportunity events (e.g. those stated in the UMP tasks descriptions). When an event occurs, use it to improve the process.

Example:
You have chosen to use C++ to code your system. You had no documented Coding guide in your previous project and neither did your team. You are skeptical about using the guides which you can find in the Internet. So you (and your team) decide to start your own project guide, specific to your project and your team from scratch (but you also decided to use the UMP Programming Style template as framework for your guide).

The 1st event came up when your team members wrote first code and checked it in the version control system. You discovered that each team member used version control macros in a different manner. And it is becoming difficult to read someone else’s code. During a half-hour Problem Resolution session team standardized the macro usage; standard unit templates were developed and integrated with your code editor (and documented in the style guide).

Next, your bosses discovered that copyright notice was not included in the code… That was unpleasant but you improved your standard template.

Examining each other’s code, your team members agreed to use common constructions in a standard manner to improve the code readability and reliability.

The number of style requirements grew too large and you decided to incorporate them into the Code Verifier tool.

Subsystem and system tests started and the testers identified patterns of the typical errors; you add this information into your style guide to improve code quality and programming productivity.

Your new team member read the style, used the Verifier and thus was integrated into the team smoothly.

Too ideal? I think not. Just capitalize on your team’s inherent knowledge!

Common process improvement opportunity events

Events common for all tasks:

• The task cost is too high.
• The deliverables quality is not matched to required.