Introduction

This article is dedicated to SyrianSoft software engineers in order to provide them a general view on the Software Engineering Process Group, their mission and functionality.

EPG

Each process needs to be developed, maintained and improved after it has been published and focused in order to discover its findings. These big missions require Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG or EPG).
EPG is a group of internal consultants established to help their colleague software engineers and managers improve.

Characteristics of Good EPG

When EPG is established, many issues ought to be considered:

  • EPG mission is to focus on organization process.
  • EPG ought to make the process serve the organization.
  • Each EPG member should specialize in few areas and contribute in other areas.
  • EPG must pilots the new activities (practices) to ensure they are applicable and effective.
  • EPG ought to train people on the new activities and support them.
  • EPG spends some time developing processes and more time getting them used to gain lessons..
  • They must pay a big attention to issues facing the organization such as insufficient alignment of schedules between senior management and the project team.
  • EPG ought to give public praise and credit to engineers and managers who are improving, to ensure their elaboration.
  • The big success of EPG mission when the whole organization is involved in process improvement.
  • Good EPG never develops a process or standard when it does not solve an important problem.
  • A good considered point is to keep all standards and process documentation to a few useful pages.
  • And don’t forget to measure success based upon the perceived usefulness of the services determined by a survey of the engineers and managers being served.

In summary, a good EPG is one that is highly customer-focused, flexible and able to help the organization address its key issues.

SyrianSoft Process© and EPGs

Since SyrianSoft© has depended CMMI as a software process improvement model, it started to develop its own process. The senior management established EPG consists of seven members. The group consisted people from multi areas (engineering, management, IT, communication, etc). That team tried to develop the first SyrianSoft process© that satisfies the CMMI®-DEV v1.2 ML2 standards and requirements. A pilot project was examines the project as long as the process was developed and finally the SyrianSoft Process© V1.0 was announced.
After that, a new EPG (6 members) was established with a mission to improve Syrian Soft Process© to meet CMMI®-DEV v1.2 ML3 standards, which mean that a new process areas need to be covered to serve the organization process. EPG worked hardly again to develop the process and the gladness was when the SEI Authorized Lead Appraiser decides that this version of process meets the ML3, then we announced the version 2.0 of SyrianSoft Process©.
A new challenge faced by the last EPG (4 members) was to develop a suitable life cycle for maintenance projects with some modifications on some areas. Finally the SyrianSoft Process© v2.1 was announced.
Nowadays, senior management is preparing to establish a new EPG to meet CMMI®-DEV v1.2 ML3 requirements.