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Software process improvement in Canada

"Success builds confidence. Failure teaches." 
Software developers in Canada are among the most prolific in the world but are also the most likely to produce flawed software, according to a 1994 study commissioned by Industry Canada.
 
The 1994 study involved 210 organizations (57 in Canada, 80 in United States). It concluded Canada is highly productive with the worst defect rate--Canada's average defects per KLOC was 5.13 while United States was 2.3.  The study also stated that Canadian companies offered their employees little training which is not the case in the United States and the rest of the world.
 
When comparing where effort was exerted (see figure below), the study discovered that North American software organizations exerted most effort in the Coding and the System/Integration Test phases of the software life cycle.
 
Software Effort (Line Chart)
Figure: Distribution of Effort (click figure for expanded view)
 ISO 9000 impact on the software industry:
This same 1994 study indicated 31% of Canada's software organizations were planning to correct this poor software quality problem through the achievement of ISO 9001 registration. Today, most provinces have many ISO 9001 registrations that are software related. For example, in Alberta there are organizations such as Nortel's Wireless Development Centre (Calgary) and Total Control Products Canada Inc. (Edmonton).
 
At a world perspective, the pace of ISO 9000 registration is definitely increasing:
 
The Dec'99 ISO Survey indicated the most aggressive region to be Australia (with 8663 new certificates), then United States (with 8067 new certificates), then China (with 6864 new certificates), Germany (with 6095 new certificates), Japan (with 5951 new certificates), and United Kingdom (with 4737 new certificates)  -- Canada retained eighth place with 2971 new certificates.
The Dec'98 ISO Survey indicated the most aggressive region to be United States (with 6406 new certificates), then Italy (with 5961 new certificates), Australia (with 2623 new certificates), Germany (with 3399 new certificates), and China (with 3841 new certificates)  -- Canada tied with France for eighth place with 1733 new certificates.
The Dec'97 ISO Survey indicated the most aggressive region to be Germany (with 7677 new certificates), then United States (with 4968 new certificates), Korea (with 4914 new certificates), Italy (with 4813 new certificates), and France (with 3841 new certificates)  -- Canada has reduced to the ninth most aggressive region with 1897 new certificates.
The Dec'96 Mobil Survey (subsequently referred as the ISO Survey of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 Certificates) indicated the most aggressive region was United States (with 3851 new certificates), then it was Japan (with 3485 new certificates), China (with 2894 new certificates), and Germany (with 2743 new certificates) -- Canada was the sixth most aggressive region with 2558 new certificates.
The Dec'95 Mobil Survey indicated the most aggressive region was Australia/NZ at an annual pace of 83 percent, then it was the Far East at 72 percent, Europe at 58 percent, and North America at 54 percent.
 
In 1999, the pace of ISO 9000 registration continued to climb throughout the world.  Europe still retains 55% of the registrations with Far East countries, in second place, retaining 16% and North America, in third place, retaining 13%.
 
The Dec'98 survey reported over 270,000 registrations in the world of which 59,000 of these were in the United Kingdom. At that time, North America had near 34,000 registrations and Canada had near 7500--over 80% of the North American Fortune 500 companies were ISO 9000 registered.
 
In 1997, a Tantara study discovered 3 to 5 percent of Calgary's ISO 9000 registrations were software related. Thus, if extrapolated (for simplicity), that means there are approximately 1000 to 1,700 software-related ISO 9000 registrations in North America (225 to 375 in Canada).
SEI SW-CMM and ISO 15504 (SPICE) impact:
In the canadian software industry, other models and standards are being promoted for software process improvement, such as the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (SEI SW-CMM) and the ISO 15504 model -- note: the ISO 15504 model is the model currently being piloted through the SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) project.
 
As of June 2000, the SEI SW-CMM Process Maturity Profile report (released in August 2000) indicated there were 1269 software organizations (290 involving 40 countries outside United States) assessed involving 342 companies. Only 686 organizations (54%) were assessed to be at Level 2 or greater. (The report does not indicate the number of organizations in Canada but with simple arithmetic, one can safely assume only a few Canadian software organizations are at Level 2 or greater.)
 
Note: Regarding ISO 15504, the model is still under trial (re: SPICE project); hence, 
it is too early to indicate its degree of impact -- since January 2000,
there's been 322 expressions of interest in the ISO 15504's SPICE trial:
Some software organizations are confused:
The promotion of multiple models and standards is causing some confusion in the software industry. For example, software organizations are asking: Do the models and standards contradict each other? Which standard/model should an organization first start with? Is there too many standards/models?
 
There is good news. All these models and standards are compatible and complementary, with substantial overlap. They are, however, independent with different goals/objectives and different improvement philosophy/strategy.
 
Complying to one standard/model does not achieve compliance with the others. That means an organization assessed at the highest SEI SW-CMM Level 5 may not fully achieve ISO 9001 registration without extra effort and an organization registered to ISO 9001 may be assessed as only SEI SW-CMM Level 1.
    Note: It is the author's belief that an ISO 9001/9000-3 registered organization and an SEI/CMM Level 3 organization are near equivalent in their degree of discipline/predictability and thus, capability.
As to the question "is there too many standards/models?", Tantara's response is two-fold:
there are sufficient standards/models that focus on what needs to be done
there are insufficient standards/models that focus on how best to assess, define and continuously improve the software process--this is the most difficult to accomplish due to the varying market/business needs and is often where consultants with a proven record (like Tantara) can help
Recommended improvement approach:
Tantara recommends you select only one model or standard to implement at a time.
 
The model or standard you select is dependent on your preferred business strategy and your market demands.  Most often, in Canada, the ISO 9001 standard is selected first mainly because it is internationally recognized and, more importantly, it is proven to create a solid business foundation by strengthening the organization's management processes. After achieving ISO 9001 registration, the SEI SW-CMM or ISO 15504 (SPICE) models can then be reconsidered as a continuing software process improvement initiative.
Over ten years of experience is now available:
Both the ISO 9001 standard and SEI SW-CMM model were initially released in the late-1980s. With their influence over 10 years, the software industry is maturing. The industry now has a history of success stories and lessons learned. The industry no longer claims success through ad hoc approaches. Today, the preferred software development approach is a repeatable predictable approach that is flexible to market needs, guides staff and management, minimizes risks, prevents costly mistakes, expedites efforts, and encourages creativity.
In conclusion:
In conclusion, it is now obvious that to succeed, software organizations need to do their homework, seek help when necessary, plan business improvement as a critical strategic objective and then apply the plan with the intent of obtaining a competitive advantage.
 
 
Article written by Tantara Inc., a business consulting firm
specialized in software best practices and the improvement of
process effectiveness and software product/service potential.

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( Revised: May 20, 2001 )