TEAM Zarate Tarrani Notes From the Field

Manisha Saboo of eRUNWAY is a friend with whom I exchange technical ideas and discuss various SQA topics. She recently asked me if I had any ready references on organizational communications plans. I fear that my response may have been overwhelming. I rapidly sent off three e-mails with large attachments that would have taken a team a week to sort through. I tend to do that sometimes.

A bit of digging in my usual haunts yielded resources that are focused on what Manisha wanted:

• When I'm looking for software engineering processes the first place I go is SPARWAR's Systems Engineering Process Office (SEPO) Process Asset Library. This site has an overwhelming array of artifacts, including process documents, presentations, guidelines and procedures. Within a few minutes I found the following procedures: Software Process Improvement Tracking and Oversight and Software Quality Assurance, both of which were in MS Word format. I also found a PowerPoint presentation on the Integrated Product Team Process.
• The Software Technology and Support Center (home of CrossTalk Magazine) had a Word document titled Process Tailoring for Software Project Plans that fits within organizational communications plans. The site has a library of documents that anyone serious about software engineering process improvement should bookmark.
• Concurrent Engineering and Software Development (PowerPoint format) ties integrated teams and software engineering together.
• Strategic marketing and integrated product and process management is an interesting presentation on the integration of technical teams and business strategies. This type of material should be more widely read among the technical folks because marketing generates the revenue. It goes without saying that without revenue we would not get paychecks.
• An Assurance Framework: Can Process Replace Evaluation? doesn't completely fit the theme of this entry, but I found it to be interesting. I included it because it addresses aspects of organizational communications plans.
• I also included The CMM Integration Project presentation because it directly supports organizational communications. Indeed, CMMI requires a coherent organizational communications plan.