PIPSI is a European Commission funded initiative which provides a process improvement framework for use by individual software engineers working in European SMEs.The focus of PIPSI is on bottom-up process improvement using the three elements of personal software engineering: defining a personal process, personal project management and personal quality management.
Methods for improving the quality of software through management of the software development process have become important in the software industry over the past 10 years. Many companies are now being assessed according to the Capability Maturity Model® (CMM), ISO 15504 and Bootstrap. These methods, collectively known as Software Process Improvement (SPI) have brought considerable benefits to the companies that use them and improvements in the quality of software.
It is increasingly being recognised, however, that management methods in themselves are not enough. Ultimately the quality of software depends on the professional competence of the software developer, and the discipline he or she applies to the task of writing and testing programs. Quality is written into the programs at development time, and cannot be tested into them later. In his seminal book, "A Discipline for Software Engineering" Watts Humphrey of the Software Engineering Institute identified a set of techniques used by programmers to manage their time and the quality of their product. He brought these together, underpinned by a set of metrics and statistical analyses, as the Personal Software Processs (PSP)sm.
The PSP has been successfully used within organisations already using SPI methods, where the culture of quality and process discipline is strong. It has not been so successful in smaller or less disciplined organisations. The aim of PIPSI is to present the techniques in a way that makes them more attractive and more easily used in small and medium-sized organisations and development teams.
PIPSI focusses on two areas of concern to the software engineer – Personal Project Management and Personal Quality Management. Both of these are supported by an estimating process and the use of appropriate metrics for measuring past success in estimating and providing a basis for future planning. Each program worked on is treated as a 'project' by the software engineer, who starts with a planning and estimating phase before starting work on the program. As the work progresses detailed metrics are kept, which are used both to monitor progress and to build up a history. These metrics are personal to the programmer at all times, and are not available to management for productivity assessment or similar purposes.
The entire personal process is cyclical, success in one personal project building on success in previous projects. As software engineers become comfortable with the concepts, new and more sophisticated techniques can be introduced to improve both Project Management and Quality Management. However, PIPSI is configurable to the needs of the engineer. Techniques that suit the person and the organisation can be used, and others discarded. The benefits will still accrue.
PIPSI is designed to be introduced by means of a specially prepared training course. None of the techniques involved in PIPSI are new or revolutionary, and most software engineers would approve of them, yet few apply them. The course is designed to introduce the techniques in a progressive fashion, and uses hands-on classroom exercises to allow engineers to become familiar with them, and to demonstrate their effectiveness. In recognition of the difficulty of releasing software professionals for long periods of time, the training is broken down into modules. The PIPSI Practitioners course teaches all the concepts and the basic techniques, and is enough to allow engineers to start using the method. Follow-up in-house training is also available which focuses on more advanced techniques for Personal Project Management and Personal Quality Management.
The delivery of the PIPSI training courses is divided into two distinct elements
This one-day course presents a management view of the need for and justification of having a defined and established software process. In addition it outlines the PIPSI structure and the PIPSI approach to process improvement at the individual level.
Who should attend?
Executives, managers and potential sponsors of software process
improvement initiatives. Managers or software engineers who are
responsible for software support areas such as: quality
assurance, quality control and project management.
Two-day intensive training course aimed at the software developer. It establishes the need for having a defined software process at the individual level and concentrates on two main areas: personal project management and personal quality management.
Who should attend?
Software engineers and software quality managers who want to
learn how to integrate PIPSI into their software development and
maintenance practices.
To assist organisations in building on the success of using PIPSI, a series of advanced modules and specialist advice is available on an in-house training basis. These modules cover similar topics at a more detailed level and additional topics such as diversified process models and team related issues at the individual process level.
For more information about PIPSI public courses and on-site training, contact your nearest PIPSI co-ordinator
| Ireland | Spain |
| Howard Duncan School of Computing Dublin City University Glasnevin Dublin 9 email: pipsi@computing.dcu.ie Phone: +353 - 1 - 700 5237 Fax: +353 - 1 - 700 5442 Web: www.computing.dcu.ie |
Marisa Escalante European Software Institute Parque Tecnológico #204 E-48170 Zamudio Bizkaia email: marisa@esi.es Phone: +34-94-420 9519 Fax: +34-94-420 9420 Web: www.esi.es |
| Sweden | Italy |
| Minna Lindqvist IVF Argongatan 30 SE-431 53 Mölndal email: minna.lindqvist@ivf.se Phone: +46 31 706 6174 Fax: +46 31 27 61 30 Web: www.ivf.se |
Maurizio Morisio Politecnico di Torino email: morisio@polito.it Phone: +39 11 3095825 Fax: +39 11 5647099 Web: http://morserv.polito.it/ipssi |
For more information about the PIPSI project or any other aspect of PIPSI training, contact the PIPSI co-ordinator Howard Duncan at:
email: pipsi@computing.dcu.ie Phone: +353 - 1 - 700 5237 Fax: +353 - 1 - 700 5442 Web: www.computing.dcu.ie/pipsi
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