Continuous Improvement

“Common Features,” a concept that was initially a cornerstone of the CMMI in version 1.1, was a set of minimalistic principles dedicated to continuous process improvement. Although abandoned since CMMI v. 1.2, the spirit of Common Features is still valid and deserves a second consideration. Read…

The job title “quality assurance manager”—in short “QA manager”—may suggest that the job is boring, ambiguous and uncreative. One particular species of QA manager, however, deserves particular attention: the “process quality manager”. Read…

Standards can be useful in software development. A “clean and well-defined” collection of Best Practices (only recently known as “good practices”) is potentially a useful idea. On the other hand, in the hands of an inexperienced person, powerful standards can lead to disastrous effects. Are they on the verge of extinction? Read…

How much process does a software project need? It turns out that may be the optimal degree of formalization is not a constant. The development process has to grow with his result. Read…

Is it possible to be agile in a complex, real-time, embedded environment? How does it jive with the heavily regulated, ISO 15504/CMMI, product safety-oriented processes increasingly demanded by the OEMs? In my presentation at the embedded world conference in February 2012, I have argued that the difference between ‘agile’ and ‘rational, controlled’ project organizations is in fact an age-old misunderstanding in terms. Read…