Cliff Diving Into TSP℠: How Watts Humphrey saved a third-year software engineering lab course in Rajasthan’s LNMIIT

July, 2020

The July 2020 Tech Talk was presented by Dr. Philip Miller

Abstract:

With no more than a university course information form and list of the names of software projects from a previous course offering, the author, a Visiting Professor at LNMIIT, decided that TSP was his best chance at giving students a useful experience in teaming software development.  Students had no prior training in TSP℠, PSP℠, or software engineering.  There was no coordination with a concurrent software engineering theory course. There were 215 students. Prior work with 200 of the university’s students in an intermediate C programming course indicated serious gaps in knowledge and skill sets. The author was the only faculty member involved. There were no teaching assistants. This had all the ingredients necessary for an educational disaster.  Surprisingly the course was judged a great success by the students, the author, most of the faculty who paid attention to the course, and the University Director, a very high quality tenured professor of computer science on loan from BITS Pilani. 

How can we account for such an unlikely outcome? Watts Humphrey was a genius. Students worked harder, with more cohesion and to greater effect than anyone expected. Support from the top was excellent. Requiring all 21 of the student software teams to adhere to TSP orthodoxy on open source projects of their own choosing were good ideas, really good ideas. Treating the students as young professionals was rewarded with them behaving exactly like that – young, sincere professionals. The course was a joy. Watts would have loved it even though the author broke rule after rule after rule. Data and details will be presented.

About the Presenter 

Dr. Philip Miller has been working on one, and only one thing since entering the field of computer science as special faculty in the Computer Science Department of Carnegie Mellon University in 1979. That thing is to extend the excitement, benefits and blessings of knowledge, skills and careers in computing to people who could use some help. In the 1980s pursuit of that objective led to leadership in creating Advanced Placement Computer Science for the College Board and leveraging money from Steve Jobs and the National Science Foundation into novice programming environments that dominated American university freshman programming courses for a half decade or so. In the 1990s the pursuit was manifest in iCarnegie, a CMU backed startup that used blended learning to bring high quality curriculum and superb instructor preparation and support to hundreds of thousands of learners around the globe at prices more than an order of magnitude lower than a CMU education.

Being a slow learner it was well into the 2000s before Dr. Miller figured out that even very well trained people weren’t going to get jobs so long as the software companies proudly spouted things like, “We only hire from the top 20 universities!” It was another year or two before he realized that “authentic examination”, certifying personal software skills in the context of working on real systems was the key to leveling the playing field while at the same time identifying qualified developers for a global industry that was chronically starved for human capital. The World Bank loved the idea. As Dr. Miller waited for the several years that it took Carnegie Mellon and the World Bank to work out the details that made it possible for the former to accept money from the latter, Dr. Miller became a TSP Coach. Breathtaking is the only way that Dr. Miller describes the success of TSP in his coaching experiences. The confluence of authentic examination and disciplined, empirically based software development has Dr. Miller on his current quest to remove the inefficiencies in both training and hiring.

His PhD thesis (Political Science, Ohio State, 1976 ) used Lebesgue measure theory and Alfred Tarski’s notion of models of formal theory to analyze and extend the existing body of spatial theories of voter choice.

℠ Personal Software Process, PSP, Team Software Process, and TSP are service marks of Carnegie Mellon University. The Software Excellence Alliance is not affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University.

Past Presentations

The Real Cost of Bad Software Quality in the U.S. in 2022

The July 2023 tech talk was presented by Herb KrasnerAbstractThis presentation will introduce The Cost of Poor Software Quality in the US: A 2022 Report, published in December 2022 by CISQ. We highlight the rapidly growing costs of cybersecurity failures and software...

10 Key Things to be a Rocking Product Manager in an Agile World

The June 2023 tech talk was presented by César DuarteAbstractAre you ready to know more about the challenge of being a product manager? This talk will cover challenges you will need to master to excel and become a product management superstar in an Agile world. From...

Personal Reviews: How Fencing Helped Me Write Better Software

The May 2023 tech talk was presented by Dr. Bradley HodginsAbstractNAVAIR has hundreds of engineers/professionals using Team Software Process (TSP) and Team Process Integration (TPI) methodologies to plan and track their projects. One especially valuable activity in...

Application of Statistical and Other Quantitative Techniques in Software

The February 2023 tech talk was presented by Stephen ShookAbstractThe CMMI has long emphasized use of “statistical and other quantitative techniques” as a best practice for software work. Many organizations struggle with how to apply those techniques. (The ISHPI AIS...

Implementing a Strategy for Excellence

The January 2023 tech talk was presented by Seemin SuleriAbstractIn our pursuit of excellence, we built a strategy that matched the ambition of a competitive e-commerce business. The problem was, where do we start the work: A struggling software department with high...

NAVAIR Process Dashboard Introduction Workshop

Abstract: NAVAIR has hundreds of engineers/professionals using Team Software Process (TSP) or Team Integration Process (TPI) methodologies to plan and track their projects. NAVAIR teams following TSP/TPI use the Process Dashboard tool to implement the methodologies....

Why Can’t Johnny Program Securely?

The October 2022 tech talk was presented by Robert SeacordAbstractSecure coding (unsurprisingly) is hard. Our educational systems have failed to properly prepare students, and our assessments have overestimated their abilities. Analysis and testing is useful but...

Team Process Integration: Half-Day Course

Abstract: This half-day course covers all aspects of the Team Process Integration (TPI) framework. The TPI methodology integrates disciplined project practices that can be applied by many product teams (e.g., software, systems, and test). It is a framework that...

How to Increase Team Performance : A Tale of Two Teams

The June 2022 tech talk was presented by Seemin SuleriAbstract:This is a story of two software teams: one in a large blue-chip corporate environment and another in a small company. This is a tale of how people came together to face challenges and show incredible...

Rules and Submissions for the Watts Humphrey Process Achievement Award

The August 2022 tech talk was presented by Isabel Margarido.AbstractWatts Humphrey was a practitioner and advocate of Software Engineering good practices, also known as the “Father of Software Quality”. His work “laid ground for” CMM, CMMI and he proved the entire...

SEA 2022 Virtual Summit

Software Excellence Alliance professionals from around the world met to celebrate our accomplishments from 2021 and to set the Alliance's 2022 direction for changing the world of software engineering.Jim Over delivered the keynote presentation, sharing his personal...

The Digital Transformation Spiral Model

The March 2022 tech talk was presented by Dr. Barry DwolatzkyAbstract:Digital transformation has become an imperative for organisations in the 21st Century irrespective of size, sector, or geographic location. Studies have shown that a very high percentage of digital...

Changing the Engines without Landing the Plane

The January 2022 tech talk was presented by Robert BentallAbstract:Technical debt is like adding useless ballast to a speeding jet. It just slows everything down. Yet, in most environments, technical debt reduction, infrastructure upgrades, and process improvement...

Being a Leader and Coder – A Survival Guide

The December 2021 tech talk was presented by Dylan GreinerAbstract:Being both a technical leader and an active software engineer at the same time raises many challenges. I present the various techniques and approaches I have both learned and gathered from various...

Share This