Software development projects tend to take longer than expected, cost more than expected and often don’t function as expected. Most companies experience this, and nobody is proud of it. Manufacturing giant ABB has realised that the solution lies in software engineering.
And action has been taken to ensure such leadership. Recently a corporate ABB contract was signed with Q-Labs, the DNV and Ericsson-owned software engineering company. Q-Labs is a supplier of professional services for large software organisations, and the concept of software engineering comprises the processes and tools a software development company needs to achieve its software quality, productivity and delivery objectives.
My acquaintance with Q-Labs started on a business flight, says Markus Bayegan. It turned out that DNVs Wiggo Smeby, who was sitting next to me, shared my interest in software quality matters. Their discussion resulted in several projects with Q-Labs, and now finally in a corporate contract.
ABB has almost 15,000 people working with software, out of a total of 170,000 employees worldwide. Markus Bayegan has been with the company since its genesis in 1988, and for the last two he has been head of Group R&D and Technology. With a PhD. in computer-aided design and a background as professor of electronics, software engineering is very close to his heart.
Process understanding is essential
Software quality has always been an issue for ABB, he says, seeing several challenges coming up. With respect to software products the problem of inherited systems has to be solved and migration to new platforms must be easy. Today, a large proportion of the software from ABB is sold as part of the hardware delivery. ABB must move into selling more of its software as separate products, and still make sure that the software is a part of the overall system.
Software costs, quality and productivity must be increased and need for maintenance reduced. Project schedules and costs are not predictable enough, in Bayegans view. For this reason the ABB Software Process Initiative ASPI was recently started. Its goal is to create a common understanding of software development throughout the whole company, define common development processes where applicable, and introduce a system for learning from mistakes.
The contract with Q-Labs aims for external support for software process improvement related to business goals. We want to profit from the experience Q-Labs has built up in recent years in software process consulting for large, geographically diversified companies, Bayegan says. Q-Labs staff work as a catalyst for us in transferring knowledge and contributing to lasting process improvements.
ABB had experience of Q-Labs services before the corporate contract was signed. For eight years Q-Labs has supported ABB with software services originating from the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1999 Q-Labs supported five software development projects in four pilot ABB organisations, comprising 400 software developers. These covered software inspections and reviews, configuration management and software quality assurance.
In 2000 my goal is that experience gained from the pilot projects is collected and packaged as best practice, and deployed to other software developing units in ABB, says Bayegan.
Software risk management
He adds that risk in the development of systems and software products will be substantially reduced as ABB works on a defined process level. This means that processes must be widely shared throughout the company to reach high quality software project execution and product delivery. Not only will predictable results be achieved, but the complexity of multi-site development will be reduced as modern concepts of software engineering are implemented.
Our software engineering people need to have a culture of continuous improvement and that is what were working on now. Bayegan is introducing an ABB-wide framework for supporting and creating a common understanding of software development. And we very much look forward to expanding our cooperation with Q-Labs.