Managing TSP Teams Course

Would you like your teams to be able to meet their commitments and produce quality software?

Course Description

Managing TSP Teams is a three-day course for first-line managers or team leaders of TSP software development teams that covers the key concepts and principles of the TSP and the Personal Software Process (PSP). The purpose of the course is to provide managers and team leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to effectively lead and coach TSP development teams.

Organizations that develop software recognize that controlling their software development processes significantly affects their ability to be successful in business. However, organizations still struggle when trying to apply disciplined methods in the software process. Historically, this struggle has resulted from a lack of operational procedures for use by teams and individuals in developing software in a disciplined fashion. Organizations seem to know what they want their teams to be doing, but they struggle with how to do it.

The Team Software Process (TSP) is designed to provide both a strategy and a set of operational procedures for using disciplined software process methods at the individual and team levels.

At the individual level, the PSP

	shows team leaders and engineers how and why to plan and track their projects
	demonstrates the principles and benefits of effective quality management
	involves the engineers in process measurement, management, and improvement

At the team level, the TSP

	provides a formal team-building process
	builds achievable project plans that teams are committed to
	provides the mechanism for teams to track progress against their plans and to manage their work to meet their commitments

The Team Software Process describes the disciplined methods that engineers and teams use when applying the PSP and TSP technologies. The course provides team leaders and first level managers with the knowledge and skills needed to adopt and effectively use the TSP.

Audience

This course is for first-level software managers who directly manage software development.

	Software project managers
	Software team leaders
	Supervisors

This course is not appropriate for software developers. They should take the PSP for Engineers course.

Objectives

Successful completion of this course enables participants to

	describe the basic concepts on which the TSP is built
	describe how the TSP can effectively improve software development activities and provide positive motivation for engineers and project teams
	provide a working level understanding of how individuals and teams apply the TSP
	show key behaviors to successfully leading and coaching TSP teams

Topics

	A strategic perspective of software development, its problems and possible solutions to those problems
	An overview of the PSP and how it provides a means for introducing sound engineering practices into software engineering work
	An overview of the TSP and how it works to build self-directed high-performance teams
	Rational management (managing with facts and data) and why this type of management is required to maintain successful TSP teams
	Quality during software development, how TSP teams measure and manage development quality, and produce quality products
	Introducing TSP into an organization
	The TSP launch process, how the team builds their work plan and negotiates their commitment with management
	The TSP team working process
	Elements of a disciplined process, the PSP initial process
	Disciplined planning at the individual level, the PSP planning process
	Understanding process data at the individual level, coaching an engineer based on process data
	Team management in a TSP team, the role of the team leader
	Understanding process data at the team level, coaching the team based on process data

Course Pre-Work

After registering for the Managing TSP Teams course, attendees receive a copy of two books by Watts S. Humphrey:

Winning with Software: An Executive Strategy by Watts Humphrey, ISBN 0-201-77639-1, 2001.

A Discipline for Software Engineering by Watts Humphrey, ISBN: 0-201-54610-8, 2003.

A letter detailing the pre-course reading assignments is provided. It is important that the assigned chapters are read before coming to the course.

Class Schedule

Managing TSP Teams is a three-day course.

Days one and two: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Day three: 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Availability

Courses are typically offered by special arrangement at customer sites.

Cost

This class is generally taught as part of a comprehensive introduction program at the customer site.

When taught at the Northern Horizons facilities, the cost is:

Industry: $1200 per person

Government: $1200 per person

Academic: $1000 per person

Course Registration

To register for this course, contact by

Mail: Northern Horizons Inc., 61 Russell Hill Road, Brookline, NH 03033

Phone: (603) 673-2808

E-mail: rtonneberger@NorthHorizons.com

Questions about this course?

If you need more information, contact us via e-mail at rtonneberger@NorthHorizons.com or telephone at (603) 673-2808.