| Discussion
Date |
Title |
Instructor |
MS
Office Version |
PDF
Version |
| Feb 26, 2009 |
Team Communication Foundations
|
Ella Page |
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Communicating with your team and other stakeholders is fundamental to achieving success. The "Team Communication Foundations" session presents four ways to promote communication within a Team: keeping meeting minutes, logging and tracking action items, identifying and tracking issues, and keeping track of e-mails. Come and learn why these activities are so important and what tools are available to help you succeed in this area.
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| Feb 12, 2009 |
Data Management (or How Do I Handle All of That Stuff?)
|
Sally Godfrey |
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Have you been hearing the terms Data Management and DML lately? Do you know what these are and why they're important? Managing and organizing your data can make your project more efficient, and it's required if you work on Class B software. Come and learn how to do it and what tools are there to help you.
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| Jan 22, 2009 |
Managing Relationships With Project Stakeholders
|
Sue Sekira |
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Dealing with people can be one of the most challenging parts of working on a team. Come join us and get some tips on defining and managing stakeholders, maintaining accountability among players on your project, and dealing with different types of people.
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| Jan 08, 2009 |
Creating a Branch Status Review
|
Sally Godfrey |
|
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If you're developing Class B software, your Branch Manager probably requires that you do a monthly Branch Status Review (BSR). If not, you may have to do one on a future project. Come and learn about the SPI BSR template. This template can shorten the time it takes to create the slides while helping you get all of the required content.
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| Dec 04, 2008 |
An Overview of Tools Available on the SPI Website
|
Ella Page |
|
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The Software Process Improvement (SPI) team has developed many tools that can help you meet the requirements of NPR 7150.2. Come and hear about the tools that are available to you right from our website. You might find something that saves you time and makes your life a little easier.
|
| Nov 20, 2008 |
Exploring GSFC's SPI Website
|
Ella Page |
|
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Did you know there's a repository for all of GSFC's software process assets -- tools, checklists, document templates, guidelines, and process descriptions? Have you ever used our colorful "point-and-click" diagrams to view or download the assets you need? Know where to find software measurement info or the schedules for software conferences and training? All this and much more is available on the Software Process Improvement (SPI) website. Come take a tour with us!
|
| Nov 06, 2008 |
Introduction to NPR 7150.2
|
Al Glass |
|
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If you work on software, it's important to know what's in NPR 7150.2, "NASA Software Engineering Requirements." If you haven't read the document yet, or if you have questions, come listen to a summary of the requirements and what they mean to your software effort.
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| Jul 09, 2008 |
Conducting Peer Reviews
|
Ella Page |
|
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Peer reviews provide a structured, well-defined review process for finding and fixing defects. Peer reviews help remove defects as early as possible in the development process -- and early correction saves both time and money. Come learn about the different types of peer reviews. Find out how to implement them and what tools can help you.
|
| Jun 25, 2008 |
Implementing Process and Product Quality Assurance
|
Sue Sekira |
|
|
|
Are audits of your project's processes and products being conducted? Do you have staff responsible for these activities? Come join us
to learn about implementing process and product quality assurance on your project and how to get started. We'll cover the basic planning aspects, including options for audit resources, tools for conducting and tracking audits, and how to monitor your activities and progress.
|
| Jun 18, 2008 |
Planning and Tracking Team Training
|
Ella Page |
|
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These Engineering Discussions keep telling you to plan for training on your team, but how do you go about doing that? Once you've planned for the training what do you do? Come join us and learn what kind of planning you should do, what tools are available to help you, and how to track progress against the plan.
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| Jun 04, 2008 |
Executing Your Measurement and Analysis Plans
|
Ella Page |
|
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It's great to collect all of those required measures, but what benefit can you get from them after you collect them? In this second measurement and analysis session, you'll find out how to analyze the data so it can help you predict potential problems and take corrective actions early.
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| May 28, 2008 |
Planning for Measurement and Analysis
|
Ella Page |
|
|
|
Did you know that all software development and maintenance projects are required to collect certain measures? In this first of two measurement and analysis sessions you'll learn how to plan for the collection of metric data. Come find out how to decide what your measurement objectives should be, what measures you should collect to meet those objectives, and when to collect the data.
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| May 21, 2008 |
GSFC Software Process Overview
|
Ella Page |
|
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This discussion provides a high-level overview of Goddard's software processes. Attendees will be presented with concepts such as project planning, project monitoring & control, risk management, and configuration management, and will learn how to apply these concepts to their projects. The processes being presented will help projects move towards compliance with the NASA software engineering requirement, NPR 7150.2. They are also the key processes for achieving Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) Level 2.
|
| May 07, 2008 |
Making Point Counting Work for You
|
Donna Szakal |
|
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Do you know what "Point Counting" is? Would you like to know how to objectively figure out how much of the development work is really complete? Come and discover a tool that can help you avoid guessing about how much work is done and how much still remains. It could make reporting progress a lot easier for you in the future.
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| Apr 23, 2008 |
Monitoring and Controlling Your Project
|
Ella Page |
|
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If you're the manager of a project you need to monitor more than just cost and schedule to make sure that everything is going according to plan. Come and learn about what you should be monitoring to keep your project on track and to meet the requirements of NPR 7150.2.
|
| Apr 09, 2008 |
Introduction to Earned Value
|
Ella Page |
|
|
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Earned Value can be a powerful tool to help managers understand the schedule, budget, and cost status of a project. Come and learn the basic concepts that make Earned Value so useful in understanding your project's current status and using trends to predict what might happen in the future.
|
| Apr 02, 2008 |
Managing Project Risks
|
Ella Page |
|
|
|
We always talk about the risks to our projects, but we don't always take the time to document those risks and track them. In this session we'll talk about how to manage risks by identifying them, tracking their status, and establishing mitigation plans to help minimize their impact. We'll also examine a tool that can simplify the risk management process.
|
| Mar 26, 2008 |
Creating and Tracking Your Staffing Plan
|
Al Glass |
|
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As part of your project planning process, you'll select roles that define responsibilities for ALL work to be performed. You'll organize your team and assign people to one or more roles. Over the life of the project, you'll report staffing levels in your status reviews. To plan and track these staffing levels, you'll need a tool. This session will familiarize you with the tools and techniques that are available to help you perform these functions.
|
| Mar 19, 2008 |
Managing Requirements (Without Those Expensive Tools)
|
Ella Page |
|
|
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After you define the requirements for the software you're building, you need to manage the requirements until the end of the effort. To manage the requirements most effectively you need to plan for requirements management, control the implementation of requirements, and maintain a bi-directional traceability of requirements (i.e., trace them back to their source and forward through the design, development, and test cases). Come and find out what to do and what tools to use as you manage your requirements.
|
| Mar 12, 2008 |
Scheduling Your Project
|
Ella Page |
|
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|
Someone put you in charge of a new effort and now you need to develop the schedule. How do you start and what do you need to do? Attend this engineering discussion and find out how to create a schedule based on the WBS and what different levels of schedules may be needed. Learn how staff resource allocation may result in schedule adjustments and how to avoid scheduling pitfalls.
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| Mar 05, 2008 |
Software Configuration Management
|
Sue Sekira |
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Software Configuration Management is an essential support discipline that helps to ensure product integrity throughout the software life cycle. To accomplish this objective, there are 4 major functions to configuration management: configuration identification, configuration change control, configuration status accounting, and configuration audits. Come spend an hour with us for an introduction to CM basics and how to successfully implement the functions of CM on your projects.
|
| Feb 27, 2008 |
Creating a Basis of Estimate
|
Al Glass |
|
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If you're asked to estimate the cost or staffing requirements for an effort, do you cringe and try to get someone else to do it? We can help you get started by defining and documenting the parameters that the estimate is (or should be) based on. Those parameters are part of the Basis of Estimate {BOE) that should be established and maintained for every effort. Come spend an hour with us and learn about what a BOE is, the elements of a BOE, and BOE tools and artifacts.
|
| Feb 13, 2008 |
Planning, Monitoring and Reporting Process Activities
|
Al Glass |
|
|
|
We all know how to report the status of the technical work we do, but new NASA requirements make it necessary for teams to report on "process activity" status as well. As numerous software team members have been introduced to this concept by the SPI, they have become aware that there's more to their jobs than just writing and testing code! Come and find out what "process activities" really are, why they're important, and how to report them.
|
| Feb 06, 2008 |
Creating Your Software Management Plan/Product Plan
|
Al Glass |
|
|
|
NASA requires that every software project create and maintain a plan that defines what work must be done and how it will be accomplished. At GSFC we use the Software Management Plan / Product Plan (SMP/PP) to meet this requirement. This session provides you with helpful information on what should be included in an SMP/PP and introduces you to a template provided by the SPI to make creating a compliant plan much easier.
|
| Jan 30, 2008 |
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure
|
Ella Page |
|
|
|
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for an effort is a fundamental management mechanism used to help define the work to be done, estimate the effort required for the work, and track progress as work proceeds. Join us to find out more about what a WBS is, how to complete your project WBS, and what tools are available from the SPI to assist you.
|
| Jan 16, 2008 |
An Overview of Project Planning Concepts
|
Ella Page |
|
|
|
Do you know how to put a project management plan together? Do you know where to start and how each piece builds on the next? In "An Overview of Project Planning Concepts" you'll see how to grow your plan from an initial set of project requirements into an organized work breakdown structure that defines the work you need to do, a schedule for doing the work, and an estimate of the resources it should take. Good planning is key to project success, so come and help make yourself successful by learning the building blocks of project planning.
|
| Aug 25, 2005 |
Basics of Point Counting
|
Ella Page |
|
|
|
As you try you define the status of your project have you had trouble determining what percentage of the planned work is actually complete? Point counting can help you objectively determine the percentage that has been completed and how much is left. It can also help you predict when the work will be completed based on your current schedule performance. By adding data on the staff hours used to date, Point Counting can help you predict how many additional staff hours will be needed to finish all of the work based on current productivity. This session on the Basics of Point Counting will help you to understand what Point Counting is, the data that you can get from point counting, and how that data can help you determine what's happening on your project. This session will be followed by the companion session, "Making Point Counting Work for You", which will show you how to apply the Point Counting concepts to your project.
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| Jul 25, 2005 |
Introduction to the ISD Measurement Program
|
Mike Stark |
|
|
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The ISD measurement program supports software projects through its products and services. The program also supports the ISD organization by assessing long-term trends in key indicators, such as productivity, and by assessing whether the introduction of new processes and technologies are having the desired effect. This introduction will cover:
1. Why software organizations measure
2. What the ISD measurement program intends to accomplish
3. How the ISD measurement program is organized, and
4. How ISD data is collected, stored, analyzed and used
|
| Jun 27, 2005 |
Software Assurance and the Practitioner
|
Sue Sekira |
|
|
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This discussion provides a high level overview of NASA Software Assurance, with special emphasis on the disciplines of Software Quality (SQ) and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V). Attendees will learn more about the role of Software Assurance Practitioners, who they are, the differences between Software Quality (SQ) and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), and how to start a Software Assurance Program. You're probably a Software Assurance Practitioner and don't even know it, so join us and find out more.
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| May 05, 2005 |
Getting to CMMI Level 2: What needs to change?
|
Sally Godfrey |
|
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This talk is intended to give the audience some background on what CMMI is and what it means to get to CMMI Maturity/Capability Level 2. This talk will answer some basic questions about CMMI and GSFC, including:
-Who needs to be CMMI Level 2? (Or is it Level 3?)
-Where are we now?
-Are there key areas that need improvement?
-How can I get help?
GSFC has had several CMMI pre-appraisals to determine what areas need improvement in order to achieve Maturity/Capability Level 2. Some of the key areas for improvement will be highlighted with some suggestions for beginning to address these areas.
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| Feb 14, 2005 |
10 Elements of Improved Software Development
|
Frank McGarry |
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Over the past 10 to 15 years, specific experiences from 12 major CSC improvement programs have been accumulated and analyzed by several of the principals participating in these improvement efforts. Detailed records, experiences, observations and empirical data have been archived from these programs in order to continually improve the approach to establishing new initiatives. Most of the improvement programs have been highly successful (as measured by attaining high levels of CMM(I) ratings as well as demonstrating improved product performance).
From all of these experiences, a series of key practices has been identified that seems to play the most significant role in enabling the success of the improvement efforts. This briefing will describe the 10 Elements of Improved Software Developmentí as derived from experiences of the 12 CSC improvement programs through 2004.
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