Please forgive the early post…

When developing a control system feedback is critical; in creating a company wide software proces feedback (from your employees) is even more importaint.  What is the best way to gather that information and what is the information that you should be collecting?

What did your bug reports tell you?

Bug tracking systems serves as the “first pass” for information reference.  When developing the software process a category of “workflow issues” should be included in the tracking software.  These workflow bugs will show problems related to

• Poor documentation: The primary way users learn about the Model-Based Design workflow is through the documentation.
• Architecture interfaces: Poor interfaces, either for model or data integration will emerge as new design patters are exploreed by new groups.  The process adoption team must determine if the interface should be extended or a new interface defined for the group specific requirements.
• Test failures:
  • Modeling guidelines: Failures in modeling guidelines will show where users have difficulty in conforming to modeling standards.
  • Regression tests failures: These can indicate an improperly defined regression test system.  During the inital development of the test environent it is common for there to be errors in the system.

Direct feedback / viewing

At the one, two and six month marks groups new to the process should be brought in for a formal process review meeting.  During the meeting the following activities should take place.

• Design reviews:  The models, tests and data managment files should be reviewed to ensure that best practices are followed.
• Pain points: Request feedback from the teams to capture existing pain points.

Final thoughts

Collecting feedback from new teams is critical understanding where processes can be improved.  The development is as always an iterative process requiring input from teams outside the inital “core” team.