Technology Change Management
a key process area for level 5: Optimizing
The purpose of Technology Change Management is to identify new technologies
(i.e., tools, methods, and processes) and track them into the organization in
an orderly manner.
Technology Change Management involves identifying, selecting, and evaluating
new technologies, and incorporating effective technologies into the
organization. The objective is to improve software quality, increase
productivity, and decrease the cycle time for product development.
The organization establishes a group (such as a software engineering process
group or a technology support group) that works with the software projects to
introduce and evaluate new technologies and manage changes to existing
technologies. Particular emphasis is placed on technology changes that are
likely to improve the capability of the organization's standard software
process (as described in the Organization Process Definition key process
area).
By maintaining an awareness of software-related technology innovations and
systematically evaluating and experimenting with them, the organization selects
appropriate technologies to improve the quality of its software and the
productivity of its software activities. Pilot efforts are performed to assess
new and unproven technologies before they are incorporated into normal
practice. With appropriate sponsorship of the organization's management, the
selected technologies are incorporated into the organization's standard
software process and current projects, as appropriate.
Changes to the organization's standard software process (as described in the
Organization Process Definition key process area) and the projects' defined
software processes (as described in the Integrated Software Management key
process area) resulting from these technology changes are handled as described
in the Process Change Management key process area.
Goals
Goal 1
Incorporation of technology changes are planned.
Goal 2
New technologies are evaluated to determine their effect on quality and
productivity.
Goal 3
Appropriate new technologies are transferred into normal practice across the
organization.
Commitment to perform
Commitment 1 -- The organization follows a written policy for improving its technology
capability.
This policy typically specifies that:
- Objectives for technology change management are established and
documented.
- A documented plan addresses the objectives for technology
change management.
Commitment 2 -- Senior management sponsors the organization's activities
for technology change management.
Senior management:
- Helps to define a strategy that addresses the organization's goals for
product quality, productivity, and cycle time for product development.
- Helps to define a strategy that addresses the customer's and end users'
needs and desires, as appropriate.
The end users referred to in these practices are the customer-designated end
users or representatives of the end users.
- Coordinates with the organization's managers in defining their goals and
approaches for accomplishing the organization's strategy.
- Makes a commitment to the effort for technology change management that is
visible throughout the organization.
- Establishes long-term plans and commitments for funding, staffing, and
other resources.
Commitment 3 -- Senior management oversees the organization's technology
change management activities.
Senior management:
- Helps to establish policies for technology change management and reviews
and approves these policies.
- Allocates resources for technology change management
activities.
- Helps relate organizational strategies and objectives to strategies
for technology change management.
- Participates in establishing the plans for technology change
management.
- Senior management coordinates requirements and issues for technology
change management at all appropriate levels of the organization.
- Senior management coordinates with the organization's managers to secure
the managers' and staff's support and participation.
Ability to perform
Ability 1 -- A group responsible for the organization's technology change management
activities exists.
A group is the collection of departments, managers, and individuals who have
responsibility for a set of tasks or activities. A group could vary from a
single individual assigned part time, to several part-time individuals assigned
from different departments, to several individuals dedicated full time.
Considerations when implementing a group include assigned tasks or activities,
the size of the project, the organizational structure, and the organizational
culture. Some groups, such as the software quality assurance group, are
focused on project activities, and others, such as the software engineering
process group, are focused on organization-wide activities.
- The group is either part of the group responsible for the organization's
software process activities (e.g., software engineering process group) or its
activities are closely coordinated with that group.
- The group coordinates and helps to:
- explore potential areas for applying new technology;
- select and plan for new technologies;
- acquire, install, and customize new technologies;
- communicate and coordinate with related research and development
activities within the organization; and
- communicate with the technology suppliers on problems and
enhancements.
Ability 2 -- Adequate resources and funding are provided to establish and
staff a group responsible for the organization's technology change management
activities.
- Experienced staff members with expertise in specialized areas are
available to this group to help in evaluating, planning, and supporting
initiatives for technology change management.
Examples of specialized areas include:
- workstations,
- computer hardware,
- software reuse,
- computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology,
- software measurement,
- formal methods, and
- programming languages.
- Tools to support technology change management are made
available.
Examples of support tools include:
- workstations,
- database programs, and
- subscriptions to on-line technology databases.
Ability 3 -- Support exists for collecting and analyzing data needed to
evaluate technology changes.
This support includes the ability to:
- Record selected process and product data automatically.
- Support data analysis.
- Display selected data.
The results of data analysis are presented in formats that appropriately convey
the information content, e.g., graphical displays.
Ability 4 -- Appropriate data on the software processes and software work
products are available to support analyses performed to evaluate and select
technology changes.
Examples of process and product data include:
- resource expenditures and productivity by project, process stage, tools
and methods used, program category, degree of program modification, etc.;
- schedule time by project, process stage of each project, program category,
program size, degree of program modification, etc.;
- peer-review data, including defect data and review efficiencies;
- defect data showing stage introduced, stage removed, type, cause,
severity, and time and effort to fix;
- change activity, including amount of code produced, amount of
documentation produced, etc.;
- data on the activities to fix defects, including the identification of the
defects, the product version where the defect fix was implemented, and
identification of defects introduced in implementing each defect fix; and
- density of defects by project, product type, specific product, and
specific subproduct (e.g., program modules).
Ability 5 -- Members of the group responsible for the organization's
technology change management activities receive required training to
perform these activities.
Examples of training include:
- the organization's standard software process,
- technology transfer and change management,
- software process improvement,
- tools and methods used by the organization,
- analytical and support facilities available to the organization, and
- principles of statistical quality control.
Refer to the Training Program key process area.
Activities performed
Activity 1 -- The organization develops and maintains a plan for
technology change management.
This plan:
- Covers the assigned responsibilities and resources required, including
staff and tools.
- Defines the long-term technical strategy for automating and improving the
organization's standard software process and enhancing the organization's
market position.
- Identifies the procedures to be followed in performing the organization's
technology change management activities.
- Describes the approach for introducing new technologies to address specific needs of the
organization and projects.
- Process areas that are potential areas for technology changes are
identified.
- Approaches for identifying opportunities for technology changes are
identified.
- The specific planned or candidate technologies are identified.
- Where appropriate, the life span for the planned technologies is
estimated, from introduction to replacement.
- The make/buy tradeoff studies are documented.
- Approaches for assessing unproven candidate technologies are defined.
- The acquisition and installation procedures are defined.
- The initial training, continuing training, and consultation support are
defined.
- Undergoes peer review.
Refer to the Peer Reviews key process area.
- Is reviewed by the affected managers.
Activity 2 -- The group responsible for the organization's technology
change management activities works with the software projects in identifying
areas of technology change.
This group:
- Solicits suggestions for technology changes.
- Identifies available new technologies that may be appropriate to the
organization's and projects' needs.
- A periodic search is made to identify commercially available technologies
that meet identified and anticipated needs.
- Systematic efforts are made to maintain awareness of leading relevant technical
work and trends of new technologies.
- Systematic efforts are made to review the technologies used externally and
to compare these technologies to those used within the organization.
- Areas where new technologies have been used successfully are identified,
and data and documentation of experience with using them are collected and
reviewed.
- Evaluates new technologies to determine their applicability to the
organization's and projects' current and future needs.
Activity 3 -- Software managers and technical staff are kept informed of
new technologies.
- Information on new technologies is disseminated as appropriate.
- Information on advanced technologies already in use in parts of the
organization is disseminated as appropriate.
- Information on the status of technologies being transferred into the
organization is disseminated as appropriate.
Activity 4 -- The group responsible for the organization's technology
change management systematically analyzes the organization's standard
software process to identify areas that need or could benefit from new
technology.
This group:
- Analyzes the organization's standard software process to determine areas
where new technologies would be most helpful.
- Identifies helpful technology changes and determines the economics of
those changes.
- Defines the relationship of the identified technology to the
organization's standard software process.
- Defines the expected outcomes of the technology change qualitatively and
quantitatively, as appropriate.
- Determines the need for piloting each potential technology change.
- Determines the priority of the candidate new technologies.
- Documents results of the analysis activities.
Activity 5 -- Technologies are selected and acquired for the organization
and software projects according to a documented procedure.
This procedure typically specifies that:
- Requests for the acquisition of new technologies are documented.
- Management approval is required for technologies with projected expenses
above a predefined level.
- Preliminary cost/benefit analyses are performed for the potential
technology changes.
- Predefined and approved selection criteria are used to identify the
highest potential benefits.
- Requirements and plans for the selected technology changes are defined and
documented.
- Where practical, the expected life span and plans for replacement/upgrade
are estimated.
- Where appropriate, tradeoff studies are performed, reviewed, and
documented to determine whether the technology should be developed internally
or procured externally.
- Where appropriate, the plan provides for installing the new technology on
a pilot basis to determine its effectiveness and economic benefits.
- The requirements and plans are reviewed by the managers of the affected
groups and the group responsible for technology change management
activities.
Activity 6 -- Pilot efforts for improving technology are conducted, where
appropriate, before a new technology is introduced into normal practice.
- These pilot efforts are conducted to determine the feasibility and
economics of untried or advanced technologies.
- The plans for the pilot effort are documented.
- The plan covers the objectives, evaluation criteria, and activities for
the pilot effort.
- The plan for conducting the pilot effort is reviewed and approved by the
managers of the affected groups.
Examples of affected groups include:
- software engineering (including all subgroups),
- software estimating,
- system engineering,
- system test,
- software quality assurance,
- software configuration management,
- contract management, and
- documentation support.
- The group responsible for technology change management activities
provides consultation and assistance to the project implementing the pilot
effort.
- The pilot effort is performed in an environment that is relevant to the
development or maintenance environment.
- The results of the pilot effort are collected, analyzed, and
documented.
- Lessons learned and problems encountered during the effort are
documented.
- The benefits and impacts of broader use
in the organization are estimated. The uncertainty in these estimates is
assessed.
- A decision is made whether to terminate the effort, proceed with
broad-scale implementation of the technology, or replan and continue the pilot
effort.
Activity 7 -- Appropriate new technologies are incorporated into the organization's
standard software process according to a documented procedure.
Refer to Activity 1 of the Organization Process Definition key process area and
Activity 5 of the Process Change Management key process area for practices
covering changes to the organization's standard software process.
Activity 8 -- Appropriate new technologies are incorporated into the projects' defined
software processes according to a documented procedure.
Refer to Activity 2 of the Integrated Software Management key process area for
practices covering revision of the project's defined software process.
Measurement and analysis
Measurement 1 -- Measurements are made and used to determine the status of
the organization's activities for technology change management.
Examples of measurements include:
- the overall technology change activity, including number, type, and size
of changes; and
- the effect of implementing the technology change, compared to the
goals.
Verifying implementation
Verification 1 -- The organization's activities for technology change
management are reviewed with senior management on a periodic basis.
The primary purpose of periodic reviews by senior management is to provide
awareness of, and insight into, software process activities at an appropriate
level of abstraction and in a timely manner. The time between reviews should
meet the needs of the organization and may be lengthy, as long as adequate
mechanisms for exception reporting are available.
These reviews:
- Summarize the activities for technology change management.
- Identify needed strategy changes.
- Result in the resolution of issues.
- Result in the approval of revisions to the plans for technology change
management, as appropriate.
Verification 2 -- The software quality assurance group reviews and/or
audits the activities and work products for technology change management and
reports the results.
Refer to the Software Quality Assurance key process area.
At a minimum, the reviews and/or audits verify:
- The plans for technology change management.
- The process for selecting, procuring, and installing new
technologies.
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