Software Technology, Process & People, Inc.

                            20 Forest Rd. Bradford Woods, PA 15015

                            (724) 934 0943

 

PSP for engineers

 

 

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The official SEI PSP for engineers course is composed of a one week introduction and a one week advanced class. For both levels, the concepts are first introduced in short morning lectures followed by application in the classroom on job relevant examples. Individual progress are monitored by one on one tutoring sessions with the instructor and a technical representative from the client (to make sure the organization standard process is understood and correctly incorporated in daily practice).

Introduction to PSP: Planning

This course is intended for all practitioners and covers the following concepts:

time management

defect recording

baselining of current practices

basic metrics

personal project planning and tracking (time and size estimation)

basic defect analysis

individual software engineering improvement paradigm

basic process enactment

The course consists of 6 lectures. Each lecture of 90 minutes is followed by 30 minutes of job related classroom exercises to reinforce the application of the concept. Students must produce four reports and make one oral presentation on their progress.

Advanced PSP: Quality techniques

This course is intended for software engineers. Successful completion of “Introduction to the PSP” is a prerequisite and the student must show evidence of having applied the PSP concepts in day to day practice. The following concepts are introduced:

personal reviews

design concepts and methodologies

defect prevention

benchmarking and baselining of best practices

process  metrics

advanced planning and tracking (accurate time estimation)

generalized process definition and enactment for sw and other activities

quantitative process management techniques

techniques to scale the PSP up toward effective team and organization processes

The course consists of 8 lectures. Each lecture of 90 minutes is followed by 30 minutes of job related classroom exercises to reinforce the application of the concept. Students must also produce one report and make one oral final presentation on their progress.

Course formats

Typically, the course is offered on-site as the one week introduction to PSP, followed by a one week advanced PSP, one month later. The 4 weeks period between the introduction and the advanced courses allow the student to catch up and to start practicing the PSP on the job. However, STPP offers the course in one of the three following formats:

Introduction to PSP followed by advanced PSP one month later

Two weeks straight (highly challenging, require week end work)

Three weeks straight (more comfortable, typically done in-between projects)

During the instruction, each student is expected to attend all the lectures and to participate in the planned one on one tutoring sessions. The rest of the time the student works on the PSP assignments.

There seems to be a consensus among PSP teachers and students alike that individual feedback, advice and availability for questions are important to successfully transitioning PSP into day to day practice. Furthermore, in an industrial environment, it is imperative that the organization's standard practices be incorporated in the PSP instruction. The majority of instructor’s time for each on site visit is therefore reserved for one on one consultation and coaching with the students and the organization’s process experts.

Ideally, course attendance should be 10 to 15 students (for better team work and to obtain statistically significant data).

Prerequisites

  The course prerequisites are as follows:

Strong determination to learn by doing

Capacity to experiment and measure before forging an opinion

Knowledge of at least one high level programming language

Access to and familiarity with computer and compilation system

Ability to use spreadsheet and word processor

Understanding of college level math and statistics

A warning. The PSP is hard work. Students should expect to spend 50 to 70 h on the assignments, readings and other related educational activities for each course (this estimate includes all lectures and one on one feedback sessions with the instructor).

Course material

Each student will receive a copy of Watts Humphrey’s book “A Discipline for Software Engineering”, a copy of the SEI latest version of the support diskette for Windows, and a binder with the SEI official PSP course (speaker foils, process forms, assignment package, etc.)

 
(R)CMM and Capability Maturity Model are registered in the U.S. patent and trademark office
(SM) PSP, TSP, Team Software Process and Personal Software process are service marks of Carnegie Mellon University
(C) MBTI and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are registered trademarks of Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.
Copyright © 2003 Software Technology, Process & People, Inc.
Last modified: October 23, 2001