ISO 9001:2008 and AgileOur Experience

Contents

1. About Us

2. Why ISO 9001

3. What is ISO 9001?

4. What is Agile?

5. Strategies

6. Design

7. Lessons Learned

About Us

Taller Technologies Argentina is a company which provides customized high-quality software development services.

We support our international clients with the following services:

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Development of embedded and real-time software for

mission-critical and high-availability systems

Mobile application development for both Apple iOS

and Android operating systems

Development of web applications and services

About Us

We have achieved successful results both in demanding high-quality environments applying rigorous engineering practices, and in high-volatility businesses where flexibility and time to market are crucial.

These are some of our clients: Intel (USA), Manpower (USA), INVAP (Argentina), MercadoLibre (Argentina), CONAE (Argentina Space Agency), Kohl's (USA) and Harley-Davidson (USA).

More than 60 employees work at our offices in Córdoba (Argentina).

¿Quiénes somos?About Us

We adopt a working model in which we prioritize:

Transparency, so that customers know who they are working with, how the job is carried out and the actual progress of the project.

Regular delivery of a working product to obtain feedback in a fast way, validate ideas and determine whether the chosen course of action is appropriate for that project or product,making decision based on actual results.

The customer and our teams work together collaboratively with fluid communication in order to make the biggest impact on the business.

We have experience working with the following technologies:

About Us

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C and C++ for Linux RTEMS (real-time operating

systems) operating systems, and X86 and ARM

platforms.

Objective-C for iOS and Java for Android.

J2EE with Spring, Hibernate and other frameworks for

the development of web applications and services.

Why ISO 9001

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Meet customer requirements

New customers

Understand and communicate our processes

Meet Software Regulations

Working culture

Consistency in operations

Improvement in efficiency

Worldwide reputation

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Why ISO 9001

+ quality Quality: the totality of features of a product or service

that bear on its ability to meet a stated or implied need.

ISO/IEC 8402

Why ISO 9001

What is ISO 9001?

What is ISO 9001?

ISO 9001:2008 is an international standard which sets out the requirements to implement a quality management system of the processes in an organization.

It sets out all the elements that the management system needs to have in order to ensure an effective system to manage and improve the quality of the products or services.

Product Realization

Quality Management System

product

customercustomer

requirements

satisfaction

complaint

▪ Quality policy

▪ Quality objectives

▪ Plan

▪ Metrics▪ Continuous improvement

Resources

Purchasing

▪ Review

▪ Infrastructure▪ Training▪ Workplace

Quality Management System

requirements

Product Realization

Requirements Design Development Provision

Plan

V&V

▪ Continuous improvement▪ Metrics▪ Records

AUDIT

Quality Management System

Resources

Purchasing

▪ Review

▪ Infrastructure▪ Training▪ Workplace

The characteristics of product and process conformity are outlined, and corrective actions are taken to eliminate nonconformities.

Preventive actions are taken to avoid potential nonconformities.

Product Realization

requirements

AUDIT

AUDIT

Quality Management System

Management review. Quality of processes and products, compliance with objectives, customer satisfaction, results of audits, continuous improvement, complaints are reviewed with the metrics analysis of process and product.

Process B

Process

requirements

Process A

Process B1 Process B2Preventive Action

Corrective Action

Nonconforming Product

Nonconforming Process

Sub-process

Corrective Action

What is Agile?

Requirements

TRADITIONAL AGILE

BASED ON ADDED VALUEBASED ON

PLAN

Resources CalendarFIXED

FunctionalityResourcesESTIMATED Calendar

Agile is, chiefly, a paradigm shift. In the traditional paradigm, the customer's requirements are comprehensively determined at the beginning of the project. Then, the necessary effort and calendar for the project are estimated based on a plan and taking into account the size of those requirements. Problems in projects arising from wrong estimations are not uncommon.

A project team is set up and the spans of work times are defined, estimating which functionality can be delivered, based on the added value that said functionality provides to the customer.

What is Agile?

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value...

Manifiesto

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Individuals and interactionsover processes and tools

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Manifiesto

Working softwareover comprehensive documentation

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Manifiesto

Customer collaborationover contract negotiation

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Manifiesto

Responding to changeover following a plan

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Manifiesto

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Changing requirements are welcomed

Fast deliveries

Ongoing customer feedback

Software working soon

Early testing

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Manifiesto

Strategies

Strategies

Bottom-up:

Processes show what is being done

Take advantage of what we have

First version to test

We set out to design the management system bottom-up, taking advantage of the processes that were in place.

The main processes arose from the analysis of what was being done.

We also decided to design a simplified version of the processes, and to start using -and reviewing them- as soon as possible, even if not all of them had been defined yet.

One of the first processes was Recruitment.

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Avoid recipes:

One of the most frequent problems encountered in the implementation of a quality management system is the use of predefined recipes.

If a design was successful in a company, others attempt to copy the processes because they were "successful" in the certification.

It has been decided to outline the process to improve what was being done, and, even though recommendations were adopted, "packaged" implementations were not copied.

Strategies

C1

p1

p2

p3

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C2

p1

p2

p3

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Avoid common mistakes:

Not all companies are the same

Not all projects are the same

Besides avoiding copying what other companies used, we made emphasis in the need to be able to design a process of "product realization" which would be flexible enough to be used in most cases.

Another common mistake is to implement a unique, and generally inflexible process for all the projects, regardless of their size, type, and complexity.

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Strategies

Strategies

Simplicity:

Processes were designed to be as simple as possible.

The idea was: to build a first fast version and make it evolve through continuous improvement.

Estrategias

Not step by step:

In creative, innovative activities which need abstraction, design and interaction between people, it is not possible to determine, step by step, what has to be done in order to obtain a product.

It is a traditional mistake in software development processes to outline, in great detail, all the tasks that need to be done. This, along with the "recipe" idea tends to lead to failure.

Processes are defined by setting guidelines, mandatory elements and focus is placed on the outputs which should be obtained in each process.

Estrategias

Strategies

Peer review for audits:

In order to implement audits, a peer review outline was designed, in which some reviewers carry out the review from the point of view of the management system, and, hence, of ISO 9001.

This is based on the peer review concept with different perspectives or viewpoints.

The other peers review from another point of view. For example: design, person in charge of processes, internal customer of a process, etc.

Strategies

Paperless

In many of the solutions of the "packaged" type, papers are misused to show evidence.

Besides being a myth, this is inefficient, unnecessary, and environmentally-unfriendly.

Strategies

Improvement:

We want to improve

Flexible milestones based on actual improvement

Review early

As one of the objectives was to improve operations, a road map with flexible milestones was outlined in order to quickly show improvements and to review the continuous improvement.

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▪ Plan

Do

Act

Check

Design

Design

Simple processes:

Pre- and post-condition

Guideline; it is not step by step

Flexible definition for product realization

Agile

The definition of processes outlines the elements that need to be ready at the beginning, those which will be finished at the end, and a process execution guide which does not dictate the steps in detail.

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Design

Unconventional:

Very few minutes

Project defines how to work

Agile mindset

Peer review for audits

Avoid redundancy

The (mandatory) elements which must be defined were determined. However, each project has to specify how this will be carried out.

The use of minutes was kept to a minimum.

Redundancy of information was kept to a minimum.

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Design

Continuous improvement:

It is not a specific process

It is carried out in all processes

Agile mindset

There is not a specified process for improvement

Continuous improvement of processes and products is embedded in all the processes of the quality management system.

Quoting the agile philosophy, “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.”

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▪ Plan

Do

Act

Check

Design

Kanban:

Human resources

Management

Quality

IT & Facilities

Projects

Many process flows are implemented with Kanban boards

Most of the projects use Scrum and/or Kanban▪

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Lessons Learned

Product Realization

Lessons Learned

product

customercustomer

requirements

satisfaction

complaint

▪ Quality policy

▪ Quality objectives

▪ Plan

▪ Metrics▪ Continuous improvement

Resources

Purchasing

▪ Review

▪ Infrastructure▪ Training▪ Workplace

SYSTEMIC VISION

Projects:

Not all projects are the same

Designing flexible processes in which the project has to define how to work was the right choice

Lessons Learned

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Do the basics:

Software engineering

Configuration management

Peer review

Automation

V&V

Architecture

Good practices

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Lessons Learned

The maturity of the engineering practices was key for the strategy we chose.

Lessons Learned

Simplicity:

The current versions of the processes are simpler than the first ones.

Lessons Learned

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Reviews:

Peer review instead of audits

Participation in meetings

Participation in reviews

QMS viewpoint

Agreement and discussion

Established criteria

Continuous improvement

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It was very important to have an external review before the certification

Lessons Learned

In God we trust; all others must bring data”

EDWARD DEMING

“

Review plan applying Kanban implemented in Trello.

It features plan, calendar, criteria, results, actions, report, etc.

Development and maintenance of the quality management system applying Kanban implemented in Trello.

Version Author Date Description

1.0 Alvaro Ruiz de Mendarozqueta Jul-06-2015 First version

Version