e-Talk Radio: Magee, Stan, and Peter Voldner, 22 March 2001

each other. And I think that's a very powerful thing for companies to be able to use. Now, before we went into the break, Peter was talking about the six steps in choosing a new, a software engineering standard for your company, a process standard. And Stan, could you elaborate? Just tell us briefly, what are these six steps? What are they all about?

Stan: These six steps is a common-sense approach for selecting the right set of standards for your organization. The first step is, make sure that everybody understands the business objectives and the type of software that your company is producing at all levels. Then, determine what processes of the 17 that you use today. Then do a quick assessment of those. You certainly can get in consultants that will charge you $20,000 to spend a week and say, "You're at this level, etc." But probably two or three smart people in your organization can say, you know, the configuration management process is good, or is excellent, or we don't have one. Once you've done this quick assessment, then determine where you're at in the processes that you think are critical to your organization. If you feel that your key processes are out of control and you do not have a good set of processes, then select some rudimentary standards, such as for configuration management, IEEE 828, or quality control. Install these standards. It'll take you anywhere from six months to eighteen months to have the rudimentary standards installed, and you can start to see some improvement in your key processes. Next, select the framework standards that we've been talking about. We recommend the three international ones, but any other standards that are akin to this are okay. Number one, you need one for your lifecycle processes. We recommend IEC ISO 12207. For your quality, ISO 9000. For your process improvement, ISO 15504. Once you've installed these standards, which will take you anywhere from 18 to 24 months, then determine which are the unique process standards for your business. You may need standards for safety plans, you may need, I'm certain that you will need standards for metrics. But put this as the last step. First, install your rudimentary standards if you do not have any. Then put in your framework standards, then select and put in the unique ones that will make your company a world-class developer and maintainer of software. Thank you.

Carol: And those are great steps. I think that it clarifies some of those things that people were wondering about. Where do they start? And by determining the business objectives and the type of software I think is very, very powerful. And we'll be back to take a look at some of the mistakes that people make in implementing standards and benefits of standards when we return from these short messages.

And welcome back to the show. We've been talking about software lifecycle processes. And software processes that you can use to improve your own way of developing better software, on time, on budget, better quality, and in the timeframe that you need to develop it. And we were talking about the six steps to choosing a process standard and implementing a process standard. And just before we went to break, I was mentioning that I think the number one thing that a lot of companies mistake is something that Peter and Stan have been advocating, which is determine the business objective and the type of software you're building. This sounds like it's absolutely fundamental, but yet I know people who say, "We're