Software Engineering Teams

Group 3 presents:

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. ~Andrew Carnegie

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The items we are going to talk about:

1. The Problem

2. The Answer

3. How is it any better?

Topic 1

The Problem

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The Problem

Sackman, Erikson, and Grant

•7 years experience

•Coding time was 20 to 1

•Debugging time was 25 to 1

•Program size was 5 to 1

•Program execution speed was about 10 to 1

•The study found no correlation between experience and performance.

Productivity variation between good and poor programmers

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The Problem

Critics find some flaws in their study -

low level and high level programming languages

Still a 10 to 1 differenceThere’s ALWAYS a critic!

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The ProblemFurther support since the original study -

Curtis 1981

•Mills 1983

•DeMarco and Lister 1985

•Curtis et al. 1986

•Card 1987

•Boehm and Papaccio 1988

•Valett and McGarry 1989

•Boehm et al 2000

I told you so!

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The Problem

An anecdotal fact

Project at Boeing

80 programmers on the project

Replace all 80 programmers with 1 guy

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The Problem

The question is - Small team or large team??

What's a programming manager to do?

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The ProblemThe Large Team

Can managers pull off an amazing coordination of hundred of programmers like the Beijing Opening Ceremony?

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The Problem

The Small Team

Managers usually prefer a smaller elite group to get the job done.

Topic 2

The Answer

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The Answer Dr. Harlan Mills proposed answer

Surgical Teams

Mill’s proposal

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The Answer

Each team has 10 people in the Surgeon Co-pilot method -•The surgeon•The copilot•The administrator•The editor•Two secretaries•The program clerk•The toolsmith•The tester•The language lawyer

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The Answer

The surgeon - Chief programmer

- Designs the program

- Codes it

- Tests it

- Writes the documentation

- Highly talented, 10 + years experience

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The Answer

The copilot - Alter ego of the surgeon

- Able to do any part of the job

- less experienced

- Researches alternative designs

- Insurance against disaster to the surgeon

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The Answer

The administrator

The editor

Two secretaries

The program clerk

The toolsmith

The tester

The language lawyer

Topic 3

How is it any better?

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How is it any better?

In a surgical team…

Scalability…

In a conventional team…

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What we have learned

1. The issues surrounding a small vs large group

2. The different roles in Mill’s proposal

3. How Mill’s proposal compares to a conventional method

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The End