Course Code: 4_8_Productivity Improvement

TOPIC AREA: Software Engineering

PRESENTER: Dr. Dennis J. Frailey is a Senior Fellow at Raytheon Systems Company and an Adjunct Professor at Southern Methodist University. Author of over 50 technical publications, he has worked in the field of software engineering since 1962, with a broad range of experience including real-time operating system development, scientific applications, user interface design, and computer architecture. He has also taught computer science since 1968 and was one of the first faculty members to teach in the software engineering masters program at SMU. Since the late 1980's his specialty has been software project management, with emphasis on software metrics and software process improvement. Dr. Frailey introduced a series of software project management courses at SMU in 1992, based on experience at Texas Instruments and Raytheon. This course is derived from the most recent edition of these courses as well as a highly successful series of short courses taught for the University of Texas Software Quality Institute. Frailey holds an MS and PhD in computer science from Purdue University and a BS in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. He is currently active in establishing software engineering as a profession, serving on various committees established by the ACM and IEEE-Computer Society and as an advisor to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers on the subject of software engineering.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This is the seventh course in the Software Productivity and Quality Engineering series, part of the Software Project Management Program. The course provides an overview of cycle time improvement principles and how they can be applied to software projects. Although the examples are specific to software, the principles discussed apply to any product development application. Several specific examples of cycle time improvements are discussed, along with a review of the reasons why cycle time improvement is important. The course shows how cycle time analysis often leads to the same recommendations that would be made in a productivity or quality improvement effort. It also shows that many of the most effective methods of cycle time improvement are counter-intuitive, thus hard to achieve until the affected individuals and managers are informed and motivated.

BENEFITS:

After taking this course, you will understand what productivity is and is not and will see how to apply several techniques to identify improvement opportunities and make effective productivity improvements.

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

The target audience includes current and prospective software development leads and managers. It will also be of interest to system engineers, software process specialists, managers of disciplines related to software engineering (such as software configuration management), and program managers whose programs have a significant software component.

PREREQUISITES:

Basic college level mathematics. In addition, the previous courses in this series are recommended. The course on cost-of-quality and value-added analysis is highly recommended.

SCHEDULE: The course will be broadcast on 8/18/2000: