AV-8B JSSA TEAM SOARS TO LEVEL 4
NAVAIR News Release
1/10/2003
By Linda Lou Crosby
After a 17-day Software Capability Maturity Model (CMM) assessment, NAVAIR's AV-8B Joint Systems Support Activity (JSSA) learned that their software capability has achieved a Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Level 4 rating, out of a possible five. The assessment took place September 2002 and was performed by an SEI-authorized lead appraiser.
The team's rating puts them in the top 14 percent of the 1,800 government and industry software teams that have been assessed since 1987. Of that total number, less than five percent have been government organizations.
AV-8B started on the software road to excellence in April 2000 when they stood up their Systems/Software Engineering Process Group (SSEPG). Now, only two and a half years later, AV-8B has accomplished more than the team dreamed possible. According to SEI statistics, it normally takes six years, on the average, to go from Level 1 to Level 4.
AV-8B's JSSA supports the Harrier aircraft mission for the U.S. Marine Corps, integrating new capabilities into the aircraft. This complex integration takes an intensive software effort. The AV-8B team was evaluated on and reached Level 4 on two projects: H2.0 - an operational flight program block upgrade effort, and AVJMPS - a mission planning software development effort.
Debra Borden, former AV-8B JSSA lead and sponsor of the AV-8B process improvement effort, talked about how this task began. "AV-8B had been striving to document and institutionalize a software development process for the avionics and mission support systems since 1993. The real effort to attain a CMM Software rating came in the last three years. This would not have happened if Dwayne Heinsma (present AV-8B JSSA lead) had not picked the right people to head this up, like Lisa Pracchia, the AV-8B process improvement lead; and Brad Hodgins, the AV-8B software task team lead. Really, the combination of Dwayne, Brad and Lisa were instrumental in achieving this rating."
Heinsma credited his team with catapulting the JSSA from Level 2 to Level 4. "We have a PSP/TSP champion leading the software team, an organizational process champion leading the development and the institutionalization of organizational standards, a senior JSSA leader championing the overall effort and removing roadblocks, and most importantly, an excellent team of software engineers, systems engineers and product integrity support members who made it all happen."
"Our mission is to help defend this nation," Heinsma said. "We do that by putting increased warfighting capability in the hands of our Marines. Higher quality software leads to less re-work which results in shorter turnaround time for the product, which means the product gets to the Fleet faster and within budget. It's a win-win-win proposition."
What advice does the team have for others contemplating such an effort? Dave Curry said to start slowly and make small changes. "Let people adjust and find 'their' way. They should know that these are their processes. CMM doesn't write them for you. A team that understands that is more willing to buy in."
Brad Hodgins said having someone committed to process improvement, as their primary task is vital. "Having Lisa focused on processes and working to meet her schedule helped us balance our resources among the various projects and the process improvement effort for the organization."
Jeff Schwalb said describing your process improvement progress, as "quick" or "slow" is relative. "What I want people to understand is the 'quickness' TSP offers relative to the traditional 'one-step-at-a-time' approach to process improvement. In a nutshell, TSP gives you a defined and documented process that you can use right away, and then refine as you go."
As for AV-8B's future, Heinsma said he is already visualizing future success for the team. "We expect to be ready for our first formal CMMI assessment in a couple of years. With the continuing progressive teamwork evidenced by AV-8B, they will be ready."
Level 4 software success took:
- 30 people participating in the overall assessment, including software and supporting teams.
- Document review, interviews, and, synthesis of thousands of pieces of data in a two week period of time
- Review of more than 4,300 documents
- Generating 535 observations
- Assessing the 259 best practices encompassed in Levels 2 through 4 of the CMM
All within 17 days
The following are quotes from the AV-8B team:
Chris Rickets, AV-8B lead software engineer and TSP design manager on the H2.0 project: "Success came because of the team's ability to change paradigms by abandoning the old way of doing business and implementing PSP/TSP."
Dave Curry, AV-8B software engineer and TSP process manager on the AVJMPS project:
"The software engineers showed incredible discipline in using TSP and learning how it and other artifacts apply to the various CMM concepts. We had to change what we do to develop software. We had to change how we think about developing software. TSP is a tool - the team made it work!"
Jeff Schwalb, PSP instructor and TSP launch coach: "There is great strength in the AV-8B PSP/TSP approach. That's because it gives individuals, the team, its supporting staff and management a starting point for process discipline. All that's left is to fill in the process gaps at the organizational level."
Lisa Pracchia, the AV-8B process improvement lead: "To be meaningful, process improvement isn't something that happens to you, it's fundamental practices you adopt for getting your work done. Adopting TSP as a standard software process framework at AV-8B was an organic decision by the software team. When challenges arose, it was these institutionalized processes that the software team fell back on and not ad hoc pandemonium."
Katie Smith, AV-8B software quality engineer: "Without a doubt, having EVMS in place to monitor cost and schedule was a major contributor along with management initiative and support for process improvement."
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