CMII in an R&D Environment
by Jim Grissom
"Opportunity is often missed because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
Thomas Edison
In November, 1994, I asked Evans & Sutherland for an opportunity to help them improve through process reengineering and CM initiatives. As the old saying goes, "you better watch out what you ask for, because you just might get it."Our Starting Point
Configuration and status information was tracked in many different databases or spread sheets. We had numerous electronic document control mechanisms including Sherpa's PDM system. Data and documents were rarely visible to those who needed them. There were many redundancies which caused inaccuracies and compromised efficiency.
A change management system was in place. Although it worked and was well managed in the way it worked, improvements were needed. It was limited to design documentation for hardware. Changes were tracked in a database to which access was limited. Requestors had no input to the change process and perceived it to be slow.
Since the CM/document control processes existed, we focused on the tools first. We picked the best of what we had and abandoned everything else.
We chose Sherpa as our tool to control all electronic files. All design files, technical publications, released software and deliverable databases are being checked-in to Sherpa.
We required that every public-use document be checked into Sherpa in both the native and post-script versions, thus enabling all documents to be viewed on-line and printed anywhere.
For high use documents such as ISO procedures, we created HTML versions and posted them on our internal WWW home page. This allows personnel instant access to the files without going through Sherpa or document control personnel. The on-line information includes the status of individual documents to help assure that those which are invalid or obsolete are not used.
In quick succession, we were presented with a few more opportunities than expected which included a change in senior management, a merger of different divisions, a major reduction in staff, elimination of capital expenditures and an expectation to become ISO 9001 compliant by February, 1996.
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.
E&S, founded in 1968 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, manufactures highly realistic visual systems that produce high-quality 3D graphics and synthetic environments for a variety of simulation and virtual reality applications. Products are delivered to worldwide civil aviation and defense industries, NASA, museums, planetariums and entertainment centers.
Registration was approached in 3 phases. R&D was to be first as we chose to focus on our future rather than our past. It included the design of software in accordance with TickIT. The corporate functions of document control/CM and contract review were included. Registration was received with no document control or CM-related findings.
Product development plans in our R&D activities were not even being created in some cases. Would we dare try to impose the review and approval requirements of ISO 9001 on development?
Why should this be so difficult? To quote the ISO auditor (an ex-software person); "trying to discipline software engineers is like trying to herd cats."
With the stigma of a slow and cumbersome change control process gone, and the integrity and accessibility of information greatly improved, others recognized the value in supporting the new processes. The return on investment was immediate.
Dual goals were kept in focus as we proceeded to improve our document and change control processes. One was the tools. The other was the CMII principles. Examples of CMII principles in which their application was improved:The "Controlled Copy"
Document control was also improved by instilling in employees that the "controlled copy" is the electronic copy and that printed versions are "information only" copies. The current version of high usage documents is on the internal WWW home page. Previous and future versions are in Sherpa.
Our most significant improvement in this area was to take an action-tracking system (called Issues) which was being used by one of our smaller business units, and implement it company-wide. They were already using Issues to control changes.
We integrated the change control process with the action tracking system and gained acceptance for it to be the standard for the entire corporation. It is 100% electronic.
Change Process Benefits
Some key benefits of our change process improvements are high-lighted as follow:The entire status of a change, from its request to its complete implementation, is in one very visible place. (It was not visible before).
Consistency improved (due to reluctance to bend a rule when others can see it being bent).
While there are now over four times as many ECO's due to expansion in the scope of CM, the total change cycle time and the change backlog have both been reduced tremendously.
Fast track changes got faster and high priority changes are easier to expedite. Established ownership for each document as part of the change process.
Reduced approval signatures for non-R&D documents from many to two; increased those for R&D documents from none to one (so far).
Use a CRB and a CIB rather than a single CCB and standardized the CM rules.In summary, it was through significant improvement in our corporate-wide systems and how they are used that we were able to gain the support of our R&D activities and their willingness to utilize the same systems and apply the CMII principles.
Institute of Configuration Management Scottsdale, AZ 85261-5656 Tel: (480) 998-8600 Fax: (480) 998-8923 Email: info@icmhq.com