Quality Improvement

1
Quality Improvement

• You have understood this if you can
• Identify problem situations
• Suggest sensible solutions

2
Charisma Web Site

• Current site
• Consistent with previous CDs graphic design.
• Information about
• Company formation
• Personnel
• Products
• Support for courses
• Designed by a graphics designer
• Keen to influence new site

3
New site

• Managing Director
• Goal support courses promote company
• Is working with graphic designer
• Sales Director
• Goal demonstrate products
• Can produce prototypes in FrontPage
• Working with young designer
• Used Macintosh with DreamWeaver.
• He wants to use Frames.

4
Other Interested Parties

• Manuel De Velopa lead developer
• Insists on layers CSS
• The modern way
• Complained noisily about Frames.

5
Issues for the Project Manager

• Business Goals Specification
• Resources
• Politics
• Change Control
• Standardisation
• Technology Efficiency
• Costs
• Training

6
Charisma Web Courses

• Compulsory because of customer pressure
• Converting improving CD courses
• Problems with video
• Prototype of most CD exercises
• Conversion by trainees mechanical error-prone
• Cut paste of text, but CD exercises
  inconsistent
• Image resizing renaming CD exercises
  inconsistent
• Different directory structures used by trainees
• Problems cutting compressing stills
• Problems cutting compressing sounds

7
Delight or Diversion?

• Demonstrated use of streaming video in IE
• Sometimes crashes in other browsers.
• Max Abelson wants it on Web to improve sales
• Simon wants it in the commercial courses.

8
Time Pressure

• Simon promised Netscape version in 3 months
• Manuel
• Converts courses to IE in about 2 weeks.
• The others are much slower
• Has modified exercises at tutors request
• Does not want to manage or develop trainees
• Says Netscape conversion takes 1-2 days a lesson
  type
• Harry has found many bugs in the conversions

9
Technology

• Manuel is using a library of open source objects
  that he found on the Internet.
• A new version of the library has been released in
  Beta version
• Manuel is keen to convert all the courses to the
  new library.

10
Project Managers Issues

• Improving Productivity
• Can the deadlines be met?
• Managing Senior Management
• Controlling unfeasible targets
• Competing requests
• Managing Expectations prototypes arent saleable
• Quality Issues
• Consistency
• Bug reduction
• Time to fix

11
Project Managers Issues

• Managing Developers
• Handling the prima donna
• Developing the trainees
• Standardisation
• Browsers
• External libraries
• Cost/Benefit of Web Courses

12
Norman Conquest?

• Difficult employee short temper and defensive
• HTML rendering engine
• Developed with personal copy of latest Visual C
• Supply as DLL to make compatible with Builder
• DLL version problems many bugs
• Problems with HTML from Word for Windows.
• Blames tutors demands precisely documented bugs
• Demands precise specification of changes

13
Spying

• Monitoring of Internet use auction sites
• Done in own time
• Purchased CD burner for Max. It will benefit
  production when teething problems solved.
• Monitoring private use of the Internet illegal.
• Jos previous use of System Spy, reporting
  unlicensed programs.
• Simon had insisted that the program be removed
  and had made Jo send an email to apologise to
  everyone.

14
Management Problems

• Non-standard PC not working
• Stream of emails about harassment.
• Each response generates more
• Silence generates complaints about being ignored
• Will report lack of licenses to BSA, FAST

15
Project Managers Issues

• Privacy
• RIPA
• Policies
• Technical Competence
• Consistency standards
• Managing difficult employees
• Task-oriented management
• The importance of consistent monitoring

16
Project Managers Issues

• Unlicensed Software
• Illegal
• Unethical
• Does it make business sense?
• Documentation
• Bugs
• Requirements

17
Case 1 AC/DC Ltd

• Business
• data ACquisition and Data Communications
• Write software to adapt systems to clients' needs
  
• Organisation
• Four programmers working in teams of two
• Scheduling is informal
• Little administrative overhead.

18
AC/DC Ltd Problems

• Scheduling
• Hostility between teams over access to test
  environment
• Errors in estimates of project duration
• Customers rejected system
• Did not meet their needs
• Not user-friendly
• Failure to book user training doubled change-over
  period
• Extensive analysis of the user's needs,
• but wrong assumptions during implementation.
• Concerned over quality
• Major companies only deal with accredited firms

19
Case 2 TopGr_at_de

• Educational Multimedia using CD Web
• Producing new package using some existing
  components
• Collaborating with local University
• Developing Web Site for University

20
TopGr_at_de Problems

• Improvements from discussion group University
• Changes lost
• One developer changed JavaScript, another HTML
• Problems with different browsers
• Problems estimating durations of new projects
• Failure to agree specification for University
  site.

21
Case 3 DEFCON

• High technology systems for military
• LAIRD system
• protects infantry against aircraft and tanks
• Organisation
• Department has several development teams

22
DEFCON Problems

• Delays in release for a NATO Exercise in 6 months
• No action on problems at monthly dept. meetings.
• e.g. failure of design code reviews to spot all
  faults
• The Department Manager
• Missed two of the last four meetings
• Told of problems by a verbal report at the next
  meeting.
• Disagreement about what actions had been agreed.
• System has performance problems
• Morale of the team affected by the problems
• Disputes at team meetings
• Staff leaving for other jobs
• Replacements brought in