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In this book, Improving Software Organizations, we discuss ways to understand and develop the core competencies required to succeed with SPI. Our approach is pragmatic and action-oriented. We examine SPI experiences from real-world situations and distill from them essential lessons for planning, implementing, and managing SPI initiatives to successful completion.
Our book is a result of a collaboration between four Danish companies—Danske Data, Brüel & Kjær, Ericsson Denmark, and Systematic Software Engineering—three universities—Aalborg University, Copenhagen Business School, and Technical University, Denmark—and an R&D organization, Delta. The project was part of the Danish National SPI Initiative and lasted from January 1997 to December 1999. It was funded in part by the government of Denmark through the Danish National Center for IT Research. During the three-year project, scientists and engineers from the companies and universities worked together on SPI projects within the companies. A primary objective of our collaboration was not only to successfully implement SPI in the companies but also to develop principles and strategies for effectively executing SPI initiatives. From the beginning, we set out to examine and develop solutions for difficult practical problems reported by other SPI experts. In these pages, we present our findings and reflections based on our experiences practicing SPI. We hope that you find our book informative and that the information in it supports your own efforts to solve the practical problems involved with planning and implementing your own SPI programs.
THE FOUR COMPANIES
Following is general information about each company. As you’ll see, the companies vary in size and in the products they make. They also have various objectives and approaches to SPI. Such variety offers us a unique opportunity to examine a broad range of SPI issues of interest to both software managers and engineers. You are thus likely to find many issues and problems presented in this book that are similar to those facing your own organization, as well as solutions that you can adapt and implement.Brüel & Kjær A/S
Brüel & Kjær is a leading manufacturer of high-precision measuring instruments. These technically advanced instruments are used in many industries—including automotive, telecommunications, electricity, and aerospace—as well as in environmental measuring and university and industrial research. Brüel & Kjær’s measuring instruments are based on both embedded real-time software and Windows NT applications. The Brüel & Kjær product line covers the entire range of measurement equipment, from simple transducers to highly advanced software for calculating and presenting measurement results.Brüel & Kjær’s main office is in Nærum (just north of Copenhagen), and the company operates more than 50 sales offices and agencies worldwide. In 1998, Brüel & Kjær was divided into two separate companies:
Sound and Vibration is the larger of the two companies, with 550 employees. Approximately 80 of these employees are development engineers, of whom 40 are software developers. Annually, 10 to 15 development projects are carried out, with 4 to 8 people in each project group. Condition Monitoring Systems has some 50 employees, of whom 10 are software developers. Over the past 10 to 15 years, Brüel & Kjær has been transformed from a company focused on hardware, mechanics, and electronics to a company focused on software. Today, two out of three engineers at Brüel & Kjær are software engineers. Most Brüel & Kjær employees have an engineering education; a few have backgrounds in business or computer science.
In the mid-1990s, Brüel & Kjær transformed itself from a departmental organization to a project-oriented organization. As part of this process, the entire middle management layer was replaced. Several other employees were trained in project management and given responsibility for managing development projects in the new organization. During the 1990s, Brüel & Kjær carried out several other organizational change initiatives. In 1994, the company successfully completed ISO 9000 certification.
When assessed in October 1996, Brüel & Kjær was measured at level 2.25 on the Bootstrap scale. It was the only one of the four collaborating companies that started the SPI project at maturity level 2. In the fall of 1999, Brüel & Kjær was again assessed using the Bootstrap model, and the result showed an increase of maturity to 2.5.
Danske Data A/S
Danske Data is a subsidiary of Danske Bank Group, a financial institution that provides all types of financial services (banking, mortgaging, insurance, and so on). The primary business function of Danske Data is the development of information technology (IT) systems for Danske Bank Group, including Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark. Danske Data was originally the IT department within the bank, but on July 1, 1996, it was spun off as an independent company.1 The company has approximately 900 employees located at four development centers and is one of Scandinavia’s largest IT companies.Software development projects at Danske Data vary widely in size; most are small and short-term, but there are also some major projects that have strategic implications for the entire corporation. Project teams of 3 to 5 people typically handle the smaller projects, which usually take 6 to 12 months. Large projects, such as the Year 2000 compliance project, typically involve as many as 150 people and last 6 months to 3 years. Danske Data has four development divisions, each headed by a senior vice president. Each individual division is led by a vice president and organized into departments, typically with 20 to 50 people divided among five or so projects. Project managers oversee regular projects, and the vice president manages high-profile projects. Software developers at Danske Data typically have a bachelor’s degree in either an IT-related field or banking.
Danske Data develops software mainly for mainframe computers but also develops some applications for client/server environments, such as Internet banking. Danske Data mainframe applications run 24 hours a day and process a daily average of nine million transactions from about 11,000 workstations. The company’s mainframe installation is the largest in Northern Europe and is divided between two operation centers. Systems developed for this platform are based on an advanced event-oriented database principle, something that increases data processing flexibility. Security and reliability are the two main system requirements because data are mirrored in real time between the two operation centers in Århus and Copenhagen. Modern methods for modeling data, functions, and workflow are used along with the all-important business model—information framework—which is crucial to getting stakeholders from the user organization involved in the development process.
In May 1997, Danske Data conducted it
