Leap Frogging to CMM Level 5 through PSP, TSP

CMM/CMMI are Software Process Improvement models that have been implemented successfully by many software companies. However, these companies constitute a small fraction of all the companies engaged in software intensive work. While most companies agree that the model based improvement initiative is needed to streamline their activities so as to deliver better quality software faster and at cheaper costs, there is a road block as these models do not provide guidelines as to how to implement them. Watts Humphrey in his overview to the SEI Technical Report by Noopur Davies et al (Relating TSP to SW-CMM ) says the transition from Level 3 to Level 4 is the most difficult one to achieve as many processes have to be redefined. He goes on to show how TSP can accelerate this transition. The Report itself provides data to prove this point. Further Jim Mchale in this presentation (The Case for using TSP with CMM/CMMI ) provides case histories to show how TSP helps in CMMI implementation.

Agility and Discipline

In his book 'Balancing Agility and Discipline: A guide for the perplexed' Barry Boehm provides six different definitions for the word discipline to show that discipline and agility are not incompatible. A quick glance at the Values of Extreme Programming show several overlaps with TSP principles. However, many proponents of agile methods seem to view them as incompatible with PSP (Personal Software Process)/TSP (Team Software Process). Karen Smiley of ABB shows how these notions are incorrect and the two are actually complementary. ( Agility and Team Software Process ).

Ron Jefferies reports about his encounter with Watts Humphrey at the XP Agile Universe meet where Watts was one of the keynote speakers. Ron talks about Watts' obsession with data and how they carried out an experiment to collect data on defects.

PSP / TSP and Six Sigma

The Personal Software Process (PSP) is low overhead, high maturity software development process targeting tasks done by a single developer.
Six Sigma is a measurement - driven approach to continuous improvement that focuses on reduction of variation, consistency and predictably high quality.

The Team Software Process (TSP) adds high maturity project planning and management processes and when used with PSP, provides a high maturity development process for Software project teams.

Six Sigma provides statistical analysis and decision-making tools that are not built into PSP/TSP.
PSP's training program and metrics framework provide the infrastructure required to get the quality measurements as envisaged by Six Sigma approach.

Six Sigma and PSP/TSP can certainly be used independent of each other. There is a natural synergy between them, with each acting as an "enabling" Technology for the other.

Both PSP/TSP are available under Licence from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI)

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