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Abstract:
Testing is a vital component of the software development process and provides strong
support for the production of quality software. Many organizations, because their
processes are often immature, have not realized the full potential of their testing
processes: Industry reports indicate that testing takes between 40 to 60 percent of
life cycle. To improve testing processes, one needs to have a way of gauging current
organization practices against industry best practices.
The Testing Capability Model (TCM) is an improvement model built to enable a
systematic approach to testing process improvement. TCM is based on industry testing
best practices as outlined by CMMI and Six Sigma, with strong emphasis on measurement
and objective assessment of process effectiveness.
TCM has an efficient assessment system that provides testing process capability
information at the management level as well as at the practitioner level. It has a
capability rating of 1 to 5, characterizing a maturity path of testing practices:
- 1. Ad hoc -- successes are dependent on individuals/heroes
- 2. Planned and Tracked -- testing activities are planned, measured and tracked
- 3. Integrated into SDLC -- testing is integrated into the software life cycle
- 4. Predictive Testing -- testing sub processes are statistically managed
- 5. Continuously Improving -- testing processes are continuously improved
This rating scale provides management with a high level view of organizational
testing capabilities. In addition, the assessment identifies current practices that
are well performed, as well as the ones that are candidates for improvement, in order
to achieve a desired capability level. The results of assessment provide a roadmap for
improving the testing process.
In this presentation, we will describe the structure and organization of TCM and
contrast it with those of CMMI. We will outline testing best practices for each
capability level and describe how to use the model to assess an organization's
testing capability and generate an improvement roadmap. TCM is a data driven
approach which will also allow an organization to objectively identify improvement
candidate within upstream phases (development, design, requirements) and other
areas (e.g., project management and configuration management) of the life cycle.
We will elaborate on how TCM can assist in the identification of improvement
opportunities in various phases of development life cycle.
Bio:
Iraj Hirmanpour is a software process improvement consultant with over thirty
years of experience in software engineering. His consulting activities have centered
around model based process improvement based on CMM, CMMI, TSP, and PSP. He is an
SEI-certified PSP practitioner and instructor and TSP launch coach. During past ten
years, Dr. Hirmanpour has served as a consultant/trainer on process improvement to
organizations such as Motorola Paging Products Group, Boeing Company, Naval
Oceanographic Office, Sandia National Lab, Microsoft, Scientific Atlanta and Sage
Software. In 1998, Iraj led a cross functional team to develop an Operation Maturity
Model (OMM) based on CMM for the Andersen Consulting firm (now called Accenture).
This model, still in use as an internal tool, is used to assess capabilities of IT
operation and identifying improvement opportunities.
Iraj has also served as a Visiting Scientist with the Software Engineering Institute
of Carnegie Mellon University responsible for the transition of PSP and TSP into
academic curricula. He was previously Professor and Chair of the Computer Science
Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where he championed process education
in both undergraduate and graduate software curricula. Iraj has both academic and
practical experience in software engineering subjects. As an academician, he has taught
graduate and undergraduate software engineering courses and has been involved in software
engineering research sponsored by FAA and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).
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