Customer Reviews

Software Process Improvement: Practical Guidelines for Business Success

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I purchased this book because of the good reviews and the 'practical' in the title. Overall this book does a good Job of presenting the 'What' of Continous Process improvement, Plan/Do/Check etc. but lacks the 'How To' which I was looking for as a SQA engineer. I would have liked more 'practical' examples of (e.g.) a compliant Configuration Management Process. The book does give a good 'Overview' of the various Process models - CMM, SPICE etc. but if your looking for a detailed 'How To' implemention guide then I would try elsewhere.

This book is the best implementation guide on the market for Software Process Improvement. Whether you're a fledgling company trying to design quality software with no guidelines to go by or a well-developed organization with processes in place, this book offers up many ways you can improve your software quality.

It gives you a benchmark to compare your company with ISO 9001, CMM and others which is invaluable. If you're looking for help bringing your software processes into alignment - you want this book!

Dr Sami Zahran is a long time advocate and practitioner ofsoftware process improvement with a track record of work in ICL,United Nations, DEC and IBM.

'Software Process Improvement - Practical Guidelines for Business Success' provides comprehensive guidance on implementing software process improvement and more.

In five largely independent sections, Dr Zahran covers, Process Thinking, A Framework for Software Process Improvement, Making Software Process Improvement Happen, Current Models and Standards for Software Process Improvement and Business Benefits of Software Process Improvement.

Finally, there is some data on the benefits of software process improvement and more usefully, a number of detailed case studies of software process improvement experience gained in US and European environments.

With a forward from Watts Humphrey, a preface by the SEI's Mark Paulk, well ordered layout and copious use of diagrams, charts and tables, Dr Zahran's book will provide rewarding reading and an excellent reference work for anyone who is intent on bringing about software process improvement END

This book provides a very good practical reference for business. I particularly like the step by step guidance on creating an SPI (Software Process Improvement) action plan in Chapter 9. The action plan provides a nice conclusion to part 2 ( a framework for software process improvement).

By the way congratulations on providing a framework for SPI. Coming from a development background I know how difficult it was to arrive at a framework for a modern Software Development Process (SDP), let alone SPI. For example, DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method) the current UK defacto standard,(launched 1995) took a quarter of a century to arrive. But I digress.

From a business point of view you cannot control what you cannot measure let alone derive any benefit from it. As Dr Sami states in Chapter 12 (Measuring the benefits of software process improvement):

"One of the major obstacles to the adoption of SPI is the reluctance of business management to invest ... because they do not have convincing evidence of the return on investment."

This is soon remedied in this same chapter as Dr Sami states:

"This chapter provides a summary of the evidence of the business benefits of SPI." with useful examples of process-related, project-related, product-related and customer-related measures. I would certainly recommend putting all that data in a database (e.g. SQL Server or Oracle) for analysis and, using a Service-Oriented Architecture view, providing the whole package as a service to the business. The data including graphs, charts, reports etc. could be nicely presented in a browser. Perhaps Dr Sami could provide a chapter or book about software support for SPI. But I digress again.

Evidence of business benefits does not stop in Chapter 12, but is continued in Chapter 19 (The evidence: business benefits of software process improvements) with facts and figures from the US Air Force, Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon's investments in SPI and gained direct benefits.

In Chapter 20 (Epilogue: future of SPI) Dr Sami advocates "Process discipline" as "a prerequisite for industrialisation". He mentions how process discipline is a necessary foundation for software industrialisation, with all the benefits that can bring. This is compared to the benefits of mass production brought about by manufacturing industry during the industrial revolution. How prophetic. Certainly with business-oriented initiatives such as the OMG's (Object Management Group - see www.omg.org) introduction of Model-Driven Architecture (MDA - see www.omg.org) and other software industry efforts for the continuous improvement of the SDP in order to bridge the semantic gap between users and developers and bring the whole process that much closer to the business, a software blueprint might actually emerge.

This is a good, thought provoking reference that I shall keep in my library for many years to revisit time and time again.

This book is an excellent reference source for understanding the concepts, issues, and initiatives concerning information system process improvement. It is well organized and flows logicallly. It is especially an excellent source document for managers who are responsible for setting the overall direction of their company's IT programs. The book should be read by anyone who is concerned with software process improvement.

Dear Readers of Zahran's book: I am the author and the publishers have plans to publish a new edition which reflects the new CMMI and SCAMPI (instead of CMM and CBA). Until the new edition is ready, I can send any reader of the book a copy of the drafts of the new chapters. Please write to me on the following email: sami_zahran@hotmail.com requesting the new chapters and I will send them to you as a compliment for reading my book.

I found this book to be pretty useful in terms of explaining SPI in totality. However, it is not very practical in nature.

This book describes clearly the concepts behind the most popular Software Process Improvement models and standards.

It is an useful book on an important subject-worth picking up. I am sure it will help as practical guidelines.