The Process Advisor System
The Process Advisor system has been designed to act as your personal consultant for software process improvement. If your organization has struggled to achieve higher levels of software process maturity, if you haven't achieved the real benefits of software engineering technologies, then Process Advisor is for you.
Process Advisor integrates a detailed workbook, automated tools for use on your PC, enlightening video sessions, and a comprehensive textbook to take you through each step of a software process improvement cycle.
The Process Advisor Workbook
It's not difficult to understand the technical aspects of software engineering and CASE, but it can be difficult to develop an effective strategy for making them work within your organization. The Process Advisor workbook provides you with process assessment questionnaires, grading templates, an 'expert system' for interpreting your results, planning matrices, technology selection criteria, a variety of justification models, Process Improvement Plan outlines, a process framework, and many other pragmatic aids that will help you to increase your level of software process maturity. The workbook serves as your "consultant in a box" and contains 184 pages that define 31 software process improvement tasks. Questionnaires, worksheets, tables, selection and justification models are included. Contents include:
- Introduction
- Assessing Your Software Process
- Software Engineering Process Assessment Questionnaire
- Interpreting Assessment Results
- A Quasi-Expert System for Interpreting Your Answers
- Interpreting the Overall Grade
- Creating a Skeleton Assessment Report
- Developing an Education Strategy
- Developing an Education Plan
- Selecting and Justifying Methods and CASE Tools
- Software Engineering Transition Planning
- Completing the Cycle
Automated Tools
To complement your workbook, you get a diskette containing spreadsheet models to be used for process assessment, education planning, technology selection and justification, and transition planning. In addition, you'll receive document templates that make process improvement planning simple. All can be customized to fit local needs. Models require Microsoft EXCEL and are available for the Macintosh and PC. Automated Tools include:
- the assessment questionnaire
- an education planning matrix
- a training cost estimator, metrics collection models, transition cost estimator
- justification and cost models
Video Sessions
Process Advisor video has been developed to assist you in using the workbook and to provide supplementary guidance and commentary. Consisting of seven video sessions totaling almost two hours in length, Process Advisor video features discussion and Q&A;A with Dr. Roger S. Pressman, an internationally recognized consultant and author on software process improvement. Video Sessions average 12 to 18 minutes in length and include unique question and answer video inserts, where common questions about a particular transition activity are addressed. Video Sessions are available in VHS and PAL formats. Session topics include:
Session 1 Introduction to Process Advisor
Session 2 Assessing Your Software Process
Session 3 Interpreting Assessment Results
Session 4 Developing an Education Strategy
Session 5 Selection and Justification
Session 6 Transition Planning
Session 7 Completing the Cycle
Questions & Answers (throughout)
An Explanation of Process Advisor Tasks (throughout)
The Textbook
The Process Advisor textbook - A Manager's Guide to Software Engineering - has been written by Dr. Roger Pressman to complement the Process Advisor system. The book couples a unique question and answer format with pragmatic, up-to-the-minute advice written in a to-the-point, conversational style. It provides a comprehensive discussion of many important aspects of the technology.
Applicability and Compliance
Process Advisor is appropriate for all software applications areas and for organizations of all sizes. Although designed for organizations at SEI maturity levels 1 and 2, it may also be applied by more advanced organizations. Strategies developed using Process Advisor are compliant with the SEI Capability Maturity Model and are consistent with the quality philosophy espoused by ISO 9001 and ISO 9000-3.
|
