MIS Research Center Seminar Series
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM
1st Floor Auditorium, Carlson School of Management

Abstract

Today, software-intensive projects are typically late and over budget and deliver poor-quality products. Large-scale systems are now so important to national security, business, and the public that change is required. In this talk, Watts Humphrey describes the knowledge, skill, and support engineers must have to meet future demands and he explains why these capabilities are needed. To do superior development work, engineering teams must manage and control their own work. These are called self-directed teams. To build and lead such teams, the developers must have the proper training, support, and leadership. When they do, these teams produce extraordinary results.

Well functioning teams provide important benefits: needed resources, a mix of talents and skills, a working structure, technical and task support, and emotional support. Teams also provide the power base required for commitment negotiation. Team building is an essential first step in initiating engineering projects. There are proven techniques for building teams, but they are not well known or widely practiced. This is unfortunate since a properly formed team is much more effective than other groups, particularly, for creative engineering work. The key problems are missing development skills, inadequate management commitment, and lack of competent team coaching. While development skills and management priority are essential, they are not enough. Without competent coaching, it is hard to get started and teambuilding efforts will not be sustainable. With effective coaching, team-member skills can be quickly taught and management support can be sustained. The coach forms, energizes, and sustains the team. A poor coach ALWAYS fields a poor team. But few development teams even have coaches!!

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has developed the Team Software Process (TSP) sm to build and guide self-directed teams, to train developers and managers in these methods, and to build the coaching capability required for consistently superior performance. TSP teams own their own processes, make their own plans and commitments, and consistently deliver quality products on schedule and for their planned costs. The TSP has now been used by many organizations to guide teams doing hardware, software, and systems engineering work. The results show that, with the TSP, team productivity is more than doubled, testing time is reduced from months to weeks, and finished products are essentially defect free. Furthermore, when developers use the TSP, they find the work more enjoyable and personally rewarding.

Biography

Watts S. Humphrey founded the Software Process Program of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Fellow of the Institute and is a research scientist on its staff. From 1959 to 1986, he was associated with IBM Corporation, where he was director of programming and VP of Technical Development. His publications include many technical papers and eleven books. Some of his recent books are Winning With Software: An Executive Strategy, PSP: A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers, TSP: Leading a Development Team , and TSP: Coaching Development Teams . He holds five US . Patents. In 1991 he served on the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in physics and a master's degree in business administration. Mr. Humphrey was awarded the 1993 Aerospace Software Engineering Award presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. degree in software engineering by Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1998. In 2000, the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute in Chennai , India was named in his honor and the Boeing Corporation presented him with an award for innovation and leadership in software process improvement. In 2005, at the White House, the President of the United States awarded Mr. Humphrey the National Medal of Technology.