Results of the Software Process Improvement Efforts of the Early Adopters in NAVAIR 4.0; Progress rept. for 1990-2007

摘要

This paper is an overview of the process improvement efforts of the Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Air 4.0, Research and Engineering Competency. It focuses on 24 software engineering teams within the U.S., and specifically on the six teams that were early adopters: the AV-8B Joint System Support Activity; the E-2C, EA-6B, P-3C, and Tactical Aircraft Electronic Warfare Software Support Activities; and the F/A-18 Software Development Task Team. These teams ranged in size from less than 10, to more than 70 NAVAIR software engineers and support contractors. The process improvement efforts described in this paper began in the 1990s and early 2000s. Their process improvement tool sets included the Capability Maturity Model, the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Integration, the Personal Software Process (PSP), the Team Software Process (TSP), the Earned Value Management System (EVMS), the High Performance Organization, and the Team Software Process for Multiple Teams (TSPm)SM. (U) By 2005, the early adopters had achieved impressive results: the first CMM Level 5 rating in the Navy, the second EVMS certification in the Federal Government, two teams achieving CMM Level 4 in less than half the normal time, reductions in software defect densities between 22 and 48%, reductions in the variances of the actual cost and schedule to within 10% of the estimates, and two TSP software teams realizing a net combined savings of $2.746 million with the conclusion of their first TSP software development projects. These cost savings were six times the cost of AV-8B's and P-3C's investment in training and startup of PSP and TSP. The successes that NAVAIR's Air 4.0, Research and Engineering Competency, enjoyed helped to create a culture that is both interested in the continued pursuit and advancement of process improvement within its ranks, and desiring to spread process improvement to the larger organization.