An Experience Report on the Personal Software Process

project was an interesting experience. I completed enough of the course to appreciate the data collection regimen and saw some of the benefits of enhanced predictability. (The sidebar on PSP training provides more background). Figure 1 shows the sequence of events from the start of training through the first two projects on which I used the PSP. Each diamond in the figure represents a milestone where a code module was complete and ready for integration (the figure does not show other project milestones). In all, I built 26 components (across two projects) during a three-year period. Looking back, I would have benefited from the second week of training before getting so far into project work. I completed the second week before my first project was finished, but changing my approach in mid-stream did not seem feasible. Therefore, I did not apply the new ideas I learned from the latter half of the course until the second project came along. My performance on the class assignments was typical of the experience reported by the Software Engineering Institute. 1 My estimation accuracy improved, my ability to eliminate defects early improved, the defect density (defects per 1,000 lines of code) of the programs I wrote declined, and my productivity fluctuated between 17 and 32 lines of code per hour during the training. On the final programming assignment, I underestimated the size by only 4% and overestimated the effort by only 6%. On the last Individual developers can use quality analysis and management techniques that many consider applicable only to projects and organizations. One software practitioner explains how the Personal Software Process gave him the training he needed. I began my Personal Software Process training in July 1995 but didn't complete the two-week course until May 1996. After the first week, I was assigned to a project; four weeks later, when the second week of PSP training was scheduled, my project responsibilities took priority. So, I decided to wait until the next offering of the course to complete the training.