RTI Software Development Methodology and CMMI Presented at International Field Directors & Technologies Conference Karen M. Davis Vice President, Research Computing Division May 20, 2008 3040 Cornwallis Road P.O. Box 12194 Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA 27709 1 RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute
Background Fewer, small, colocated teams working closely together Larger organization, more teams, often distributed, more complex work 2
Software Development Lifecycle Contributes to high quality projects & deliverables that meet client s needs Systems Documentation Change control Staying on budget and on schedule Adds structure What When/How Hand offs Results - Outcomes Manages technology part of overall project plan Clients ask about it 3
SDLC: Historical Application As required by clients As adopted by staff Contributed to creation of tools and templates Varied significantly by project size and scope 4
Current Situation More Clients Asking for demonstrable Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Compliance More Deliverables include documents More Projects Are Using RCD s* SDLC and finding benefits More Procurements Asking about Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification * RCD is RTI s Research Computing Division 5
Our Approach Defined an RCD IT Project Management Process that is compliant with CMMI Level 2 requirements Produced guide for staff to use to implement the process Includes detailed steps for each SDLC phase Establishes QA monitoring protocols for each phase Details methods to review projects for compliance with processes and policies in each phase Provided tools for staff to use to perform phase-specific tasks What to do CMMI Framework How to do it Project Mgmt Guide Help to do it Project Mgmt Toolkit 6
Software Development Life Cycle Model 7
CMMI Level 2 Process Areas REQM PP PMC SAM MA PPQA Requirements Management Project Planning Project Monitoring and Control Supplier Agreement Management Measurement and Analysis Process and Product Quality Assurance CM Configuration Management 8
9
CMMI Activities to Date Issued policy that all projects that begin system development after October 1, 2007 will be conducted in accordance with the IT Management Process Worked with consultant to understand and plan for the assessment process Formed internal appraisal team Conducted an internal appraisal 10
Results of Internal Appraisal Eight projects were assessed against CMMI v1.2 28 staff members participated in the appraisal Appraisal conducted based on document reviews and interviews with project staff Findings were categorized as: Strength Weakness Ongoing Improvement Activity Indicates a characteristic of the process that is robust and institutionalized will contribute to goal satisfaction achieved by effective implementation of the Process Area s key practices (i.e., documented, enforced, trained, measured, and able to improve) Characteristic of the process that may increase risk Process Area s key practices are not effectively implemented potentially impacts a Process Area s goal from being achieved A process improvement that is not yet institutionalized, and demonstrates movement towards becoming a strength. 11
Internal Assessment Findings In general, RCD complies with CMMI through its managed process policy as implemented in the IT Project Management Guide Need to address weaknesses in some process areas Projects are producing lifecycle documentation Our major challenges Consistency in configuration management of project artifacts Continuous monitoring against plans Historical metrics at the level of the system development task 12
Overall Good project management practices are in place Project plans are sufficient and progress monitored Product/system requirements derived from customer requirements and include all stakeholder input Unit, system, and integration testing are consistently performed End-user documentation is developed for externally used systems Measurement objectives are identified and tracked Source code control consistently implemented 13
lessons learned Important to have enough projects far enough through the life cycle Not all required processes are intuitive Experience based estimating vs historical based estimating Ensuring all process steps in the plan are not only followed but documented Real changes to how one ensures compliance are likely needed 14
Next Steps Currently developing a Process Improvement Plan to identify activities to address weaknesses discovered by the internal appraisal Are reviewing proposals from potential companies to conduct the two required formal appraisals Formal appraisals planned in FY09 15
Considerations Benefits of formal SDLC Cost to comply with CMMI requirements Ensure efforts are aligned with client requirements Quality Timeliness Price Importance to clients and potential clients 16
Contact Information: Karen Davis (919) 485-2799 kdavis@rti.org 17