SECTION 2

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

Wow! Based on you and your team’s work on the ADSS-SVC software project, you have been promoted to a new position with more responsibility in the Global International Performance Systems (GIPS) Inc in their Medical Division organization. You are part of their internal Information Resource Management/Total Quality Management program. The Medical Division has an on-going set of software intensive projects. Their intensive software efforts provide support across all Global Health divisions. They use CMMI, Dev/Sec/Ops, and EVMS techniques on almost all their projects.

The Medical Division has just conducted a Software Process Assessment and determined that they have a CMMI Maturity rating of Level 2. During CMMI maturity level 2 assessments, the Medical Division was striving to produce a product with zero defects and wanted to ensure any processes developed or improved would be effective and efficient across the organization. With the achievement of earning a CMMI maturity level 2 rating, Medical Division’s process capability improvement foundation is well established. As a result of business pressure, Medical Division decided to earn a higher maturity level to have better control and predictability in its processes and projects.

The senior vice-president of Engineering has given you and your process improvement team $500,000 to improve the processes they are using to develop software. The vice president’s objective is to move the Medical Division organization from CMMI Maturity Level 2 to CMMI Maturity Level 3 within one year. You have also been provided three additional full-time staff for this improvement opportunity. With the increase, your process improvement team now has a total of six FTE staff members. The total labor force for the Medical Division is 1000 FTE staff members. You will be interfacing with vice presidents of GPIS’ Medical Division. You are currently a Principal Software Engineer (a respected individual technical contributor versus a manager).

QUESTIONS:

1. Do you think, based on what you are being asked to accomplish, your job title as a Principal Software Engineer is appropriate? If not, why not and what job title would you recommend?
2. Is the Medical Division goal to produce a product with zero defects realistic? If not, why not?
3. What are the definitions of: (1) a defect,(2) a failure and (3) a security vulnerability?
4. How and when would you assess Medical Division products to see if they had defects?
5. Since correction of defects are a significant cost, especially in maintenance and sustainment, some firms have initiatives called “Shift Left” to reduce the number of defects being released into the operational phase. How does the CBI3 lifecycle process model support the “Shift Left” initiative?
6. What is the difference between Specific Goals and Practices; and Generic Goals and Practices in CMMI-DEV Version 1.3?
7. What is the difference between a Process Area and a Process as discussed in CMMI-DEV Version 1.3?
8. Does CMMI-DEV Version 1.3 contain processes? If not, why not?
9. Provide an example of the project planning process.
10. Your senior vice president’s goal to reach CMMI Level 3 in one year does not appear reasonable given most organizations take at least two years. How would you go about educating your senior vice president on how unrealistic this goal is to achieve given you want to keep this job?
11. Discuss your process improvement plan with respect to improving the organization’s assessment maturity level. (Note: The initial phase of the Software Process Assessment ends with a report entitled "Recommendations and Findings"). The next step is for the Medical Division to develop a Software Engineering/Enterprise Improvement Plan (SIP/EIP) Action Plan which provides a set of actions in priority order to move the corporation to the next level of maturity (i.e., to CMMI Maturity Level 3). Provide your approach to develop the Medical Division’s SIP/EIP and provide a rough cut of the schedule of activities. You can assume that the major weaknesses that you are going to encounter are in the Process Areas entitled: Requirements Development; Requirements Management; Planning; and Risk Management.
12. List several different ways you might spend the allocated money to improve the progress areas and associated processes.
13. Of the various ways listed in the above response, what percent of the $500,000 would you spend on each?
14. What does the term "Kaizen" mean and how is the meaning related to "continuous improvement"? Do you agree with the idea of continuous improvement? Please Comment.
15. What is the fundamental purpose and or objectives of the following? Please address five (5) of the items listed below:a. Commercial industry
    b. End User
    c. Acquisition Agency
    d. Customer
    e. Significant Stakeholder
    f. Information Need
    g. Special Cause of Variation
    h. Traversing the Valley of Death
    i. IEEE Standard
    j. Project Management
    k. Project Management Plan
    l. Gartner® Magic Quadrant™
    m. Common Cause of Variation
    n. Measurement
    o. Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification
16. What does the acronym “GQM” mean and what is the purpose of the GQM methodology approach?
17. Discuss the following quote: “It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It is about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.” Source: Randy Pauch, Carnegie Mellon University
18. What is the main role of the Chief Financial Officer relative to your project?
19. What is the main role of the Procurement Office relative to your project?
20. What is the main role of the Total Quality Office relative to your project?
21. The following 10 people have made contributions to the field of computer science and/or software engineering. Which one do you think you would “respect” the most and which one do you think you would “trust” the most? Discuss your results and define the terms trust and respect.a. Elon Musk
    b. Linus Torvalds
    c. David Axmark
    d. John D. Carmack
    e. Bill Gates
    f. Mark Zuckerberg
    g. Larry Page
    h. Sergey Brin
    i. Tim Berners-Lee
    j. Grady Booch
22. Discuss each of the four essential properties of software:a. Complexity
    b. Invisibility
    c. Conformity
    d. Changeability
23. Other people who have contributed to the field of software engineering and computer science are listed below. Please respond to three (3} questions presented below.a. Who was Watts Humphrey and what area of software engineering did he work?
    b. Who was Ada Lovelace and what was her famous technology contribution?
    c. Who is Elissa Murphy and what are her contributions in the field of software and business?

    

24. Why is it difficult to successfully manage and lead a large software intensive project?