Why Documenting Information Is Important

Slide 1: Facilitating your process journey … Why Documenting Information is Important by Henry Schneider Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC March 25, 2008

Slide 2: Facilitating your process journey … Agenda  Information That Should Be Documented  Problems Encountered In the Absence of Documentation  Suggested Approach 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 2

Slide 4: Facilitating your process journey … Crisis-Driven Organizations  Processes  ad hoc — improvised  continually reinvented  curtailed under stress  reactionary  Schedules and budgets  unpredictable  usually exceeded  Success factors  heroes  overtime  firefighting 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 4

Slide 5: Facilitating your process journey … Sources of Crisis  Inaccurate estimates  under scoped requirements  explosive code growth  schedule and resource shortfalls  Unmanaged work  no corrective action  unruly subcontractors  Volatile baselines  changing requirements  uncontrolled versions 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 5

Slide 6: Facilitating your process journey … Why Isn’t Product Development More Fun?  Managers  few institutionalized management processes to help them  the management tests come before the learning and the practice  Developers  no understanding or agreement on the requirements and priorities  inadequate time to do the work right 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 6

Slide 7: Facilitating your process journey … Is Anyone In Charge?  Senior managers  management of the organization is at the mercy of the projects  customers are constantly complaining  Customers  product is not ready when needed  spiraling costs that exceed expectations  functions are missing or do not work correctly  quality problems after delivery 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 7

Slide 8: Facilitating your process journey … Lack of Documentation Leads To  Weak management practices  Unachievable commitments  Ad hoc processes  Practices sacrificed for schedule  Practitioners resist discipline  Unpredictable results 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 8

Slide 9: Facilitating your process journey … Categories of Information Engineering Project Process Support Supplier/Vendor Information Management Management Information Information •Requirements Information Information •Historical Data •Supplier quality •Agreements •Plans •Policies •Configuration assurance reports •Assumptions •Estimation Models •Processes Management Reports •Supplier status reports •Key e-mail •Basis of Estimates •Procedures •Quality Assurance audit •Invoices •Key design decisions reports, trends, and •Contracts •Risks •Work instructions recommendations •Agreements •Specifications •Assumptions •Training Records •Quality Records •Requirements •Etc. •Key e-mail •Etc. •Meeting Minutes •Etc. •Key management •Key Decisions decisions •Etc. •Issues •Action items •Etc. 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 9

Slide 11: Facilitating your process journey … Engineering Involves  Establishing and maintaining sets of requirements  customer requirements  product requirements  product component requirements  managing the requirements as the product evolves  Designing the product and its components  Managing the interfaces among the components and between the product and other products  Building the components  Integrating the components to form the product  Ensuring the requirements are satisfied  Ensuring the product will perform as intended  Delivering the product 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 11

Slide 12: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when requirements are not written down?  Unstated requirements or poorly stated requirements lead to confusion among staff and customers  People designing, implementing, and testing the work products inconsistently interpret the requirements  It takes an inordinately long time to get agreement on product design  There is an increased potential for higher costs to meet customer expectations  Requirements are accepted by staff from any source they deem to be authoritative  The project experiences a high level of requirements change  There are high levels of rework throughout the project  There is an inability to prove that the product meets the approved requirements  Lack of requirements traceability often results in incomplete or incorrect testing of the product 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 12

Slide 13: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when technical designs are not written down?  An ineffective solution is chosen  Products may not meet technical performance requirements or user needs  Increased testing and rework is required to resolve design issues  The product may not be able to accommodate technology upgrades and future growth if the technical solution is not well conceived 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 13

Slide 14: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when product integration and delivery is not written down?  Subsystems do not operate together  There is increased integration test time  The integration environment is inadequate to support the integration activities  A product is released without all the component integration fully tested 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 14

Slide 15: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when peer review and testing approaches/results are not written down?  There is disagreement among technical staff as to whether the different components meet the requirements  The product being tested does not meet design requirements  Product reliability suffers because defects are not detected or corrected prior to customer release  Added rework occurs because defects that could have been caught early escape into later lifecycle phases  There are arguments among the technical staff as to what the user really wants  The released product does not meet user expectations  Customers do not pay for products that do not meet their needs  End users refuse to use the product as delivered 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 15

Slide 17: Facilitating your process journey … Managing a Project Involves:  Estimating the scope and work that needs to be performed  Developing mechanisms to acquire identified products  Developing a project plan  Getting commitments to the plan  Monitoring progress against the plan  Identifying and analyzing risks  Taking action to address significant deviations from the plan  Taking action to appropriately mitigate risks 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 17

Slide 18: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when project planning information is not written down?  Project estimates are inaccurate  It is difficult to identify deviations from poorly documented plans  Resources are not available/applied when needed  Future projects cannot learn from completed projects because there are no lessons learned  There are unclear responsibilities across groups  Information to support future similar projects is not made available  Too much time is spent trying to determine project status  Data needed for management decisions are not available when needed  Corrective action is not taken early when it is least expensive  Lack of management insight makes project results highly unpredictable  The customer does not have confidence in the project status reporting 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 18

Slide 19: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when risks are not written down?  It is easy to ignore risks when they are not documented or tracked  Risks that are known to project staff are often not known to management  Repeated project failures due to unforeseen (but predictable) risks can cost you business 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 19

Slide 21: Facilitating your process journey … Managing and Improving Processes Involves:  Establishing the infrastructure for continuous process improvement  Establishing organizational assets and guidelines for using the assets  Establishing ways for projects to take advantage of the advances of others  Training people to help them perform 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 21

Slide 22: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when process information is not written down?  There is little visible senior management support for process improvement  Improvement activities are not aligned with business priorities  Improvement efforts often result in false starts and difficult implementations  There are no documented processes for staff members to follow in performing their job roles  Project managers and staff do not use information collected from previous projects to improve their project 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 22

Slide 23: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when training information is not written down?  Staff members attend training courses they do not need  Staff members avoid training that is provided  Staff members are not released to attend training they need  Staff members are not appropriately skilled for tasks required to maintain a competitive edge 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 23

Slide 25: Facilitating your process journey … Supporting Projects and the Organization Involves:  Establishing and maintaining the integrity of work products  Providing objective visibility into, and feedback on, processes and associated work products throughout the life of the project to support delivering high-quality products and services  Establishing a measurement system to address the many information needs of projects and the organization  Determining which decisions should use a formal evaluation process and then applying formal evaluation processes to make good decisions  Getting to the root cause of problems and addressing the problems to prevent their occurrence in the future 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 25

Slide 26: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when configuration information is not written down?  A product baseline cannot be produced when needed  Rework is performed during testing because components are not what were expected  A complete inventory of system components is unavailable when needed  A previous baseline cannot be rebuilt, and this wastes money and resources during maintenance 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 26

Slide 27: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when quality information is not written down?  No assurance is available that quality standards and processes are followed or achieved  Poor quality work products may be produced  There may be processes that staff avoid  Significant project issues are not escalated for management attention 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 27

Slide 28: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when measurement information is not written down?  Measurements are used inappropriately  Inappropriate measures can cause unintended behavior  Management is based on perception rather than fact  Measurement presentations may confuse rather than enlighten  Useless measures are collected 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 28

Slide 29: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when decision information is not written down?  It is unclear who is authorized to make what decisions  Decisions are made subjectively  Rationale is unavailable when needed to understand an earlier decision  Too few choices are considered for major decisions 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 29

Slide 30: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when causal analysis information is not written down?  The same problem occurs again and again  Missing a more optimal solution costs time, money, credibility, and perhaps even the whole project  Symptoms of problems are addressed rather than the root cause 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 30

Slide 32: Facilitating your process journey … Managing Suppliers and Vendors Involves:  Managing the contract  Communicating with suppliers and vendors  Overseeing contractor processes  Setting requirements for acquired systems and products  Accepting acquired products and services 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 32

Slide 33: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when outsourcing information is not written down?  Supplier selection is not based on the right criteria  Management and technical staff do not have insight into supplier activities  Supplier products are accepted even when they do not meet the product requirements.  Integration of supplier products into a product baseline is problematic 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 33

Slide 34: Facilitating your process journey … What happens when supplier/vendor information is not written down?  Unstated or poorly stated requirements lead to confusion among staff, customers, and suppliers  Suppliers inconsistently interpret the requirements  Supplier proposals are not consistent  Negotiations are ineffective  There is confusion about the responsibilities of the supplier and the acquirer 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 34

Slide 35: Facilitating your process journey … Suggested Approach  Use a process improvement cycle to address the documentation problem  Analyze what has worked and not worked on past projects  Document processes first and reference existing process assets  Once documented, you will have better insight into additional required process assets 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 35

Slide 36: Facilitating your process journey … Critical Process Attributes  Process roles  Applicable standards  Applicable procedures, methods, tools, and resources  Process-performance objectives  Entry/Exit criteria  Inputs/Outputs  Product and process measures to be collected and used  Verification points  Interfaces 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 36

Slide 37: Facilitating your process journey … IDEAL Model for Process Improvement Learning Initiating Acting Diagnosing Establishing 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 37

Slide 38: Facilitating your process journey … Diagnosing  Characterize current and desired states  Perform a gap analysis  Develop recommendations  Based on the gap analysis, determine current documentation needs and suggested path forward 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 38

Slide 39: Facilitating your process journey … Establishing  Set priorities  Don’t try to do it all at once  Develop an approach  Start documenting the key information that is causing issues due to not being documented, then expand to other areas  Plan actions  Write an implementation plan for the documentation effort and track progress against the plan 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 39

Slide 40: Facilitating your process journey … Acting  Create Solution  Decide the format and content for each type of document  Assign a “book boss” for each document (could be the same person)  Pilot/Test Solution  Try the new documents out first before rolling out to everyone  Refine Solution  Make adjustments base on the pilot  Implement Solution  Provide necessary training on how to properly document the information 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 40

Slide 41: Facilitating your process journey … Learning  Analyze and validate  Allow 3 – 6 months of use  Collect information on what works and what doesn’t with the new documentation process  Propose future actions  Make appropriate improvements to the process and repeat this cycle 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 41

Slide 43: Facilitating your process journey … PPQC Services Consulting • CMMI • Software Engineering • Systems Engineering • Process Improvement Appraising • SCAMPI A, B, C • Gap Analysis Training • CMMI/Process Improvement • Action Planning Workshops • Measurement and Analysis • Process Area Specific Training 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 43

Slide 44: Facilitating your process journey … Contact Information Address: Henry Schneider President/Senior Principal Consultant Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 2111 Heather Green Houston, TX USA 77062 Phone: 281-218-6682 E-mail: henry@ppqc.net Web Site: www.ppqc.net 5/4/2008 ®2008 ***Proprietary*** All Rights Reserved - Process and Product Quality Consulting, LLC 44

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