ORACLE NAIO Excellence combined with Quality A CMMI Case study

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY ORACLE NAIO Excellence combined with Quality A CMMI Case study softwaredi xide com

2 THE CLIENT Process and Quality are important for measuring improvement. Improvement means different things to different organizations. For Oracle-NAIO, it was business goals and measuring progress. Oracle-NAIO (North America India Operations) was started in Jun '3 as Oracle North America consulting's dedicated Offshore unit. It is a flagship of Oracle's Global Blended Delivery model, through which it provides solutions and services around the areas where Oracle Consulting operates. Oracle-NAIO's primary service areas are Consulting Services, Core Technical Services and Managed Services. DEMAND PROCESS MATURITY Oracle-NAIO has been at the forefront in customer satisfaction ratings and financial performance, now the importance turned towards enhancing competencies and delivering business value to customers. To achieve this, NAIO had to be appraised through process maturity under one single globally accepted quality model. The measurement was a long-term strategic effort in response to process maturity. NAIO's approach to process maturity and quality was intended to be compatible with that of CMMI, as detailed in its standards and procedures. The decision was made to adopt CMMI for Software Engineering under the staged representation. Although the processes were used as discrete elements with welldefined interfaces, in practice, some unified other aspects of the system and some overlapped. Business reasons such as, product and project performance, meeting market requirements, continuous cost and cycle time issues had scope for improvement. Such core business reasons were assimilated across the organization and provided a fundamental starting point for the Process Improvement initiative. The Sponsor defined the measurements to assess customer satisfaction, such as: On-time and on-budget delivery Reducing cost to customer by increasing productivity and reducing defects No escalation mails from customer to C-level executives Obtain reference-able and repeat customers CMMI CMMI - Released in 2 - Evolved from several capability maturity models - Focus on infrastructure and process maturity - Intended for software and systems engineering - Knowledge management plan OBJECTIVES The Objectives of the CMMI based Process Improvement Initiative were as follows: FOCUS Benchmark Oracle NAIO processes against the CMMI framework Identify strengths and improvement opportunities Characterize the maturity level Improvement is a continuous journey and the strategy was to follow the benchmarks in Quality and also implementing the CMMI framework and best practices. In this context, the improvement effort began by chartering a Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG). The SEPG team's major focus was on the first milestone, to achieve Maturity Level 3. It emphasized on defining Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Project & Delivery, each with its own primary focus and internal customers. It also focused on Trainings, Gap analysis and compliance checks. All these were driven by robust planning and actions, such as Measurement and analysis plan for the entire organization (NAIO) Shared vision for integrated teams Statistically managing the process Risk management Process for selection of solutions based on wellreasoned evaluation of alternatives. Process and product quality assurance plan for quality assurance. CMM and PCMM are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University. (SM) SEPG, CMMI PSP and TSP are a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University.

3 The Process Excellence Drive was initiated in Aug 24: Focus for Improvement Project Quality - Elevate overall Oracle Project - Best Practices of Project for delivery organizations - PM Certification and Training initiative - Communication channels for early escalation - An independent Escalation Channel for NAIO SDM S and NAC Pm s - Consistent Quality processes & standard practices across NAC - Elevate the overall Quality - Quality Assurance services for delivery Organizations - Monitor Quality Control functions in the standard Practice Operations of the Service Lines - Target for first-time-right Milestones Achieve through CMMI -5 The Roadmap - Establish SEPG to drive CMMI based Process Improvement - CMMI Level 3 in May 25 - CMMI Level 5 targeted appraisal in May 26 TEAM The CMMI looks for the people in management, engineering, and infrastructure to adopt new behaviors and beliefs. In this environment, the core culture is a principal factor in achieving success, and change leadership is as important as change management. SEPG team started with forming and training distributed Task Forces to begin the task of adopting the process areas within the CMMI. The idea was that a distributed development of the standard operating procedures (SOP) and shared views would make the buy-in much easier. Task Force Team was made up of personnel from PMO (quality management team, knowledge management team & SEPG) and from different practices (SME's and CMMI Champs). It was supported by the Files-online (oracle's internal common share place) that provided workspaces for each Task Force member, information and references concerning the overall effort, and a viable means of communicating among the Task Force members. Apart from the internal team, QAI team facilitated periodic process implementation reviews and checks, primarily to avoid future surprises in successfully adopting and institutionalizing the CMMI Process Areas and Practices. APPROACH With the core team of SME's and the CMMI Champs (internal to organization), the initiative began with the task of process definition in earnest. SEPG and the QAI team translated the CMMI -SW process areas into core processes that were meaningful to Oracle- NAIO s business operations. The CMMI champs along with the SEPG team, came up with a robust milestone based review process, which helped execute the rest of the activities, such as: Definition of Guidelines for baseline Document development CMMI Overview Training, GAP Analysis and Action Planing Identifying Projects Publishing Plan and defining dates and expectations Due to the nature of the organization's business environment, adopting the Systems Engineering practices offered a major advantage because the organization now had the potential to develop a true single process for engineering. Also the CMMI implementation Task Force & QAI's consultant provided frequent feedback on areas and opportunities for improvement. The pen-ultimate phase was the Pre-Appraisal & Readiness Check conducted by the QAI s SEI Authorized Lead Appraiser to ensure that all parameters for attaining the desired maturity level was feasible and fully prepared. This actually helped NAIO set for the Final SCAMPI-A Appraisal. PLANNED VS. ACTUAL Our next Milestone - by MAY 6 Two dimensions to Process improvement Process Area level Improve Capability Process Discipline Process Definition Process Control Continuous process improvement CMMI Level 1 Initial Level 2 Repeatable Level3 Defined Level 4 Level 5 Optimizing CMM Level 3 Milestones Organization level Improve maturity Process Engineering Quantitative Change We are here today Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Sep 1- Oct 12 Sep 1- Oct 29 SOP Development & Rollout Oct 11- Nov 5 Delivery SOP Development Training & Metric Definition Nov 8 - Jan 3 Compliance Checks Gap Analysis & Implementation Reviews Jan 15- Mar 3 Pre & Final SCAMPI-A Appraisal for Level 3 Apr 1- May 31

4 'Capability level of an organization provides a way to predict the future performance of an organization', this statement proved right for NAIO when it met the first milestone of Maturity Level 3. At CMMI Maturity Level-3, NAIO had consciously adopted a staggered approach for the CMMI implementation which inturn has resulted in the following benefits - Improved schedule and budget predictability - Improved cycle time - Increased productivity - Improved quality (as measured by defects) - Increased customer satisfaction - Improved employee morale - Increased return on investment - Decreased cost of quality Below are the metrics to substantiate the results: Schedule Variance - Org. Baseline The SCAMPI-A appraisal was led by QAI India Ltd., a transition partner of the Software Engineering Institute and one of the world's leading Software Process Improvement consultancies. Oracle plans to continue this journey for excellence and is currently focussing on the next milestone of CMMI Maturity Level 5 and subsequently it also plans to take it to the other Oracle Services in a phased manner under the CMMI initiative scope in the coming years. CHALLENGES The challenges to the CMMI based Process Improvement Initiative proved to be manyfold, ranging from developing a relationship with the project team to establishing a buy-in from all levels of organization practices. Listed below are some of them : Schedule Variance % 2% 1% % -1% -2% 15% 15% 15% % Q2 % Q3 Q4-7% -15% -15% -15% Upper Limit Lower Limit Schedul e arianc V e Change in Current Business Mix Revised the plan based on current situation Change in NAC (North America Consulting) Direction Published the CMMI implementation plan to NAC Senior Focus & Drive from NAIO Senior for CMMI Implementation Ensured Senior Commitment upfront Updated status to the Senior on a monthly basis Project ontime Customer Satisfaction Report (Q3 & Q4-5) Project within Budget Quality of Deliverables Parameters Communication Transitioning to technical codes Turnaround time 4.5 Ability of Task Forces to complete deliverables in Time QAI Activity Scheduling Reviewed the plan with QAI and got their commitment on deliverables and support upfront Updated the status / schedule slippage if any with QAI on a monthly basis Integration of PM SOP, Delivery SOP and Metrics SEPG tracked and helped in integration Defect Per Object - Org. Baseline Training onsite NAIO members Published the training plan, solicited participation Normalized Defect Period Training outsourcing team members who work in shifts Published the training plan Conducted trainings as per shifts Upper Limit Low er Limit Total Normalized Defects per Object CMM and Capability Maturity Model are registered in the US Patent & Trademark office by Carnegie Mellon University. SM SEI is a service mark of Caregie Mellon University.

5 WHO WE ARE WHY ORACLE TRUSTED QAI FOR THEIR CMMI JOURNEY? Oracle was looking for a consulting partner with global reputation and thought leadership and consisting of knowledgeable, committed and technically outstanding professionals, who truly understood the industry and Oracle NAIO's line of business and could guide them in their process improvement initiative. They needed someone who could hand-hold & provide relevant, specific and practical advice to help them improve their Software Processes and achieve Operational Excellence. QAI was the unanimous choice, because it stands out for: Credibility and reputation in the market Professionalism, Knowledge & Experience of its consultants Global & multi-cultural exposure And overall, being an international organization committed to offering a complete range of multi-disciplinary skills & services with working knowledge across domains & technologies for most of the leading Software Companies. During the course of this journey, QAI India contributed by: Identifying the business process requirements of Oracle NAIO Assisting in aligning the process improvement plan to Oracle's business objectives Providing structured feedback during all milestone reviews & check points; sharing practical process improvement ideas; innovative methods & solutions resulting in proper & timely action by Oracle NAIO Competent and confident consultants, with their high involvement they virtually became a part of the organization during the engagement Continuous feedback and guidance to the organization helping towards institutionalization of practices and preparing for a successful appraisal Making process improvement part of people's jobs and getting ownership (people like to contribute more than they like to take ownership) QAI stepped in with their extensive expertise and rich experience and deployed their best practices to overcome several of the typical challenges faced by Organizations in their CMMI journey by bringing to the table it's learning with over 1+ successful ene-to-end implementations across several leading Software Corporations of the world. QAI is Asia s largest and amongst the world s top three firms in the enterprise wide deployment of process initiatives that contribute to Operational Excellence. Set up in 1994 as the Asia-Pac hub, QAI s mission is to facilitate enhanced competitiveness in Software, BPO and other knowledge intensive organizations through multi-faceted interventions in the areas of Process Improvement, be it business, engineering, people management or IT, through our services in: Consulting Training People, Process and Operational Assessments Benchmarking Certification Conferences Resource provisioning & Quality Outsourcing e-learning through QAI eschool This unique blend of services enables clients using one service to benefit from our experience, knowledge base, network, and learning in other services. QAI's holistic approach to process improvement consultation is based on the objective of integrating People, Process, and Technology, which are critical to the performance of an organization. QAI s helps organizations, achieve their business goals better, faster and cheaper by facilitating Operational Excellence, through: Process, Project, Quality, Change, Human Capital, IT Service and Innovation thus helping companies the world over to reduce cycle times, increase productivity and improve quality of service delivery and processes QAI has provided it s range of services to over 2 organizations spanning over 3 countries across 5 continents. QAI s engagements cover implementation of most of the globally accepted and recognized process frameworks & quality models like SW-CMM, PCMM, CMMI, SM COPC, ITIL, BS 15, BS 7799, Six Sigma, OPM3, etc. QAI believes in contributing to the development of the Nations of Software and BPO Excellence by working closely with government bodies, government funded agencies, research institutions, defense organizations, software parks, local industry associations, and World Bank funded projects in several countries. Our regional bases across the globe - in USA, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Middle East and India, help us innovatively distribute and manage engagements across multiple locations. INDIA qaiindia@qaiasia.com Phone: , SINGAPORE qaisingapore@qaiasia.com Phone: CHINA qaichina@qaiasia.com Phone: MALAYSIA qaimalaysia@qaiasia.com Phone: ,