"Towards Zero Defects, Predictable Efforts and Delivery on Schedule: The PSP/TSP Way" by Dr.L.N.Rajaram, Director, Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute, Chennai

Most CEOs are initially surprised and eventually resigned to the fact, that software deliveries are unpredictable and the quality of software delivered will depend on how much of ‘testing’ time to remove defects is allowed to them by the customer. A study of data of a typical project in their organization would show that most software engineers inject 1 defect in every 10 lines of code they write. An average engineer spends about 40 to 60 % of his or her time 'unproductively' detecting and fixing the defects and even after that delivers 5 or more defects to the customer. When the emphasis of the management is on 'finishing' the job on schedule, it is hardly likely that anyone would focus on quality. This not only leads to delivery of inferior products but is also the main cause for schedule and effort overrun.

Most managers strive to ensure that their teams deliver more in less time. Unfortunately they neither have the time nor the bandwidth to examine their current practices. Small changes at team and individual levels can go a long way to achieving more than what they aim for.

The Team Software Process (TSP) of the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh is a project management process that enables self directed teams to plan and manage quality using past and in-process defect data.

The Personal Software Process (PSP) of the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh helps software engineers to benchmark their current performance levels in terms of the defects they inject and the schedule and effort overruns that they are prone to commit. The PSP provides a framework that helps software engineers to analyze their activities and to adopt and fine tune their personal process for better results. A PSP trained engineer working in a TSP based project truly performs at CMM Level 5.

The results of SEI Click to view results, from users such as Teradyne, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Boeing, Honeywell and others show a marked improvement in quality of delivered software while at the same time meeting their schedule and bringing down the delivery costs.

Watts Humphrey of SEI shows a Return on Investment of 397%, for an investment of $2.8 million over 5 years in his book ‘Winning With Software: An Executive Strategy’ Click to view.

David Rico shows in ‘Practical Metrics and Models for Return on Investment’  that PSP and TSP have a huge ROI compared to other process initiatives Click to view.

Kelly Kimberling provides experiences of Microsoft Corporation in defect reduction and hence cost savings in the article ‘Microsoft's Pilot of TSP Yields Dramatic Results’  Click to view.

Dr. Rajaram’s talk will cover PSP, TSP principles and experiences of companies that he has helped adopt PSP/TSP and the benefits they accrued.