We feel that the PSP and the TSP are remarkable technologies that can change the face of the software industry, and we share the SEI's zeal to promote their widespread use. We feel that a freely available, powerful support tool could help to remove one of the most significant barriers to PSP / TSP adoption. We therefore aim to develop a world-class tool under the open-source model, and distribute it freely to anyone using the PSP and/or TSP. We feel that this is the least we can do to thank the SEI for developing and distributing these remarkable processes.
The Personal Software Process(SM), created by Watts Humphrey of the Software Engineering Institute, introduces software engineers to a disciplined process for software engineering. Engineers using the PSP to develop software follow defined processes and collect detailed metrics on the time required to produce a product, the defects that were injected and removed at various stages in development, and the size of the finished product.
These metrics are then analyzed using statistical methods, enabling engineers to produce highly accurate estimates based on historical data, track progress and quality of a project in progress, predict schedule impacts, and predict the quality of a finished software product. The PSP encourages engineers to quantitatively determine ways to improve their process.
For more information on the PSP, see the official PSP website at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/tsp, maintained by Carnegie Mellon University.
The Team Software Process(SM), also created by Watts Humphrey, is a process framework for teams of PSP-trained engineers. The TSP scales well and can be used by teams of 3 to 20 people to develop software products of significant size and complexity.
Teams of engineers using both the PSP and the TSP to develop software have consistently observed remarkable improvements in their work:
Both the PSP and the TSP require the collection and analysis of metrics at a very fine-grained level. Further, TSP requires teams to roll-up individual metrics to produce team metrics. Once data are collected at this level, statistical analyses of the data permit remarkable planning, tracking, prediction, and control of software products and projects.
These metrics collection and analysis processes, however, are not trivial. In any real-world project, tool support for the PSP and TSP become important considerations. Although studies have demonstrated that people can maintain their productivity when using the PSP without tool support, the "frustration factor" inherent with such an approach tries the patience of all but the most disciplined engineers, making PSP behaviors difficult to sustain.
Ideally, PSP/TSP practitioners would like to have a support tool that:
This initiative aims to develop an open-source tool to meet all of these needs.
Development on the dashboard is ongoing. To obtain the latest version of the dashboard, visit our web site at: http://www.processdash.com.
For more information on the TSP, see the official TSP website at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/tsp, maintained by Carnegie Mellon University.
Personal Software Process(SM), PSP(SM), Team Software Process(SM), and TSP(SM) are service marks of Carnegie Mellon University. The open source team that writes the Process Dashboard is not affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University. |