Authors: Watts S. Humphrey and James W. Over
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (http://informit.com/aw)
Published: December 2010
ISBN-10: 0-321-62450-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-62450-5
Format: Soft cover, 368 pages (Ebook version also available)
Prices
Ebook: $11.20 (Formats: PDF and EPUB)
Print only: $35.99
Print and Ebook: $47.19

Building a Competitive Software Capability

Not so very long ago, an IT department was regarded as a somewhat stand-alone part of a company, and a part, albeit an important one, that more or less was responsible for its own management. But not so anymore. Today's modern businesses are "technology-intensive", a phrase coined in the opening pages of the new book "Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust: Building a Competitive Software Capability.” And as such, newer and more effective software quality management techniques are required by senior executives and managers running businesses of that nature.

According to Watts S. Humphrey and James W. Over, the authors of "Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust: Building a Competitive Software Capability", they had three major objectives in mind when researching and writing their book, namely, to explain:

1. "why software work has always been hard to manage";
2. "why more and more work will soon be as hard to manage as software"; and most importantly,
3. "what you can do about it.”

Together, Humphrey and Over have in excess of 70 years of technical and management experience in the software engineering industry – their individual technological accomplishments are far too many to list here but are listed in the "About the Authors" section of their book.

Such a wealth of experience means it would be wise for IT professionals to take heed of the practical advice about, and insights into, the management methods they describe in their book. For example, they make the claim that the "fundamental reason that software has been hard to manage is that it is a new and different kind of work. The management principles of the past are not suitable for software development. Software engineering is knowledge work, which is nothing like the traditional kinds of labor for which today's traditional management methods were developed. This book describes the knowledge-based management system that this kind of work requires, the principles upon which it is based, how this new management system works, and how to introduce it into your organization."

The software quality management system introduced and explained in Humphrey's and Over's book is the Team Software Process (TSP). Humphrey and Over point out that they "first tried using the management methods described in this book in 1996. Since then, we have introduced them to hundreds of organizations with thousands of managers and developers. During this time, we have learned a great deal about how these methods can be used to address the many situations that arise in modern technology-intensive businesses. We have worked with organizations of every imaginable variety." Just some examples of organizations that have achieved success with TSP are Microsoft, Intuit, Adobe, and Oracle. It is stated in the book that "within Microsoft, several IT groups for different business units reported a tenfold reduction in mean schedule error and the elimination of the 'death march ending' that so often accompanies software development projects. Intuit reported reduced test schedules and a 30% increase in functionality delivered in each release. Adobe and Oracle have reported similar results, citing improvements in predictability, productivity, and quality."

There are a total of nine chapters and five appendices in "Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust: Building a Competitive Software Capability.” The book has been structured in such a way that the chapters cover, in detail, the new knowledge working management methods. Examples of the sorts of the topics covered include:

• The need for even very successful organizations to acknowledge that change is urgently required to remain competitive in the global marketplace.
• Managing and capitalizing on the different aspects of the bureaucratic nature of all large organizations and corporations to ensure success. For example, Humphrey and Over report that "the parts of the bureaucracy that run such routine activities as the cafeteria, payroll, or building maintenance are rarely a problem."
• The issues that need to be addressed in order to make "knowledge work productive."
• The five principles that apply specifically to managing knowledge workers.
• Humphrey and Over believe a major challenge facing organizations is learning "how to motivate knowledge workers to manage themselves and to align their objectives with those of their management."
• An in-depth look at the team building process, along with examples of problems that typically arise. When it comes to building knowledge working teams, Humphrey and Over reassure their readers that "the TSP provides a launch process that guides teams in making plans to do the jobs they have been assigned."
• The issues and challenges that organizations must successfully address to produce high quality in knowledge work.
• And last but not least, the importance of leadership. Humphrey and Over stress that "making your knowledge workers productive requires a change in the culture and management system of your organization." They also strongly believe that "knowledge work is likely to be the decisive factor for business success in the twenty first century."

By reading these nine chapters, you will not only gain an appreciation of the theory underlying this particular approach, but also where the different management methods are needed and how they can be used effectively.

In turn, the five appendices are there to help readers of the book with the practical implementation of the methodology into their work place. The contents of each of those appendices are as follows:

1. Answers to questions such as: Will the TSP work in my organization? Who is currently using the TSP? What types of applications have been developed with the TSP? Will the TSP support our projects and teams? What will it cost to implement the TSP? and How long will it take to implement the TSP?
2. Advice about getting started. The book's authors suggest beginning with a "trial use of the TSP on a few pilot projects. Next, the managers, developers, and other involved participants are trained, and the project teams begin using the TSP, starting with the TSP launch. The teams are then coached and supported until the projects are concluded. While the plan is being executed, performance data, project results, improvement suggestions, and other information are gathered and evaluated. The implementation approach is then assessed and refined and then repeated on the next project."
3. Broadening the use of the TSP across your company. Humphrey and Over cite three major issues that must be fully addressed if the ongoing rollout of the TSP is to be successful. Those three issues are overcoming resistance to change; building the necessary internal capability; and ensuring that priority is maintained, that is, not losing momentum or getting sidetracked by other concerns.
4. Explanations of how managers and executives can take advantage of the TSP to more effectively manage both their programs and organizations.
5. The next stage of the deployment. Once the TSP has been implemented and bedded down, the focus must switch to sustaining it. Judicial use of the TSP and associated data can result in the company or organization experiencing a continuous improvement effort.

It is recommended by the book's authors themselves that the content of their book be read from start to finish in sequential order. They believe reading in this manner provides "a logical sequence of concepts that builds a complete high level overview of these new management methods. Building on this conceptual background, the appendices provide a deeper level of information. They can be used as a reference or guideline for introducing and using the methods."

"Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust: Building a Competitive Software Capability" is one of the titles in the SEI Series in Software Engineering (http://informit.com/seiseries). The SEI acronym refers to the "Software Engineering Institute" of Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to the Team Software Process, other practices promoted by the SEI include the Capability Maturity Model Integration and the Personal Software Process. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Software Engineering Institute, details are available at www.sei.cmu.edu/membership. It is worth noting here too that "Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust: Building a Competitive Software Capability" is the sequel to Humphrey's other book "Winning with Software.”

In summing up, the potential of the Team Software Process approach to deliver a competitive software capability, Humphrey and Over themselves readily acknowledge that "while no single book could cover all of the issues of introducing and using these methods, we were able to encapsulate the most frequently encountered issues into a single moderate-size volume." I agree with them that their book is indeed that volume.