BOOTSTRAP

The BOOTSTRAP Institute

After the completion of the ESPRIT project, some of the participating partners, decided to exploit the results by establishing a non-profit organisation, the BOOTSTRAP Institute, with the main objectives of the continuous development and promotion of the BOOTSTRAP methodology. A new release (Release 3.0) of the BOOTSTRAP methodology has been developed to assure conformance with the emerging ISO standard for software process assessment and improvement (SPICE) and to align the methodology with ISO 12207 "Information Technology - Software Life Cycle Processes". The BOOTSTRAP methodology can be applied to small and medium size software companies or software departments within a large organisation.

The objectives of the method

The BOOTSTRAP methodology has the following objectives:

• to provide support for the evaluation of process capability against a set of recognised software engineering best practices;
• to include internationally recognised software engineering standards as sources for identification of best practices;
• to support the evaluation of how the reference standard has been implemented in the assessed organisation;
• to assure the reliability and repeatability of the evaluation;
• to identify, in the assessed organisation, process strengths and weaknesses;
• to support improvement planning with suitable and reliable results
• to support the achievement of the organisation’s goals by planning improvement actions;
• to help increase process effectiveness while implementing standard requirements in the organisation.

The main features of the method

• the assessment process: the assessment process is part of the improvement. Assessment results provide the main input for the improvement action plan and provide feedback from the improvement activities implemented. During a BOOTSTRAP assessment the organisational processes are evaluated to define each process. The process capability evaluation is based on the BOOTSTRAP process model.
• the process model: the BOOTSTRAP process model defines processes and capability levels. Process capability is measured based on the following capability levels:
  • Level 0 : Incomplete Process
  • Level 1 : Performed Process
  • Level 2 : Managed Process
  • Level 3 : Established Process
  • Level 4 : Predictable Process
  • Level 5 : Optimising Process
  The figure below represents the tree structure of the BOOTSTRAP process model:
  
  
• questionnaires: a major part of the assessment is gathering data. The BOOTSTRAP methodology provides two questionnaires, one to gather data about the software development organisation and the other to gather data on projects.

• scoring, rating and result presentation: assessment results are the basis for process improvement planning, but this role can take place only if assessment data is reliable and provides a good representation of the assessed organisation’s capability. Reliability and repeatability are obtained by:
  • assuring that assessors have the same background and use the same approach (this is guaranteed by the BOOTSTRAP assessor accreditation process), and
  • by applying precise scoring and rating rules.

  BOOTSTRAP evaluates each practice based on a four value scale (not , partially , largely and fully adequate). The capability level is then counted in two ways:

  • on an algorithmic basis showing quartiles within each level;
  • by applying the SPICE rules for deriving the capability level rating.

  Final assessment results are prepared with a tool and presented as capability profiles with quartiles and a SPICE profile. The capability profile is produced at organisational and project level.

• process improvement guidelines: these guidelines support the identification of processes that have the greatest impact on the achievement of the organisational goals; then improvement priorities are assigned to processes with low capability and high impact. Improvement targets and priorities are evaluated in light of the potential risks to the organisation in not achieving its goals. This helps provide a rationale for management to undertake the improvement effort.

• the BOOTSTRAP database: the assessment data from all BOOTSTRAP assessments are automatically collected into a central database. The BOOTSTRAP database has the following important role in the BOOTSTRAP assessment:
  • to collect data on assessment results performed within Europe, in order to provide a picture of the maturity of the European software industry, and
  • to position each assessed organisation within the applicable software industry sector.

NOTE : The BOOTSTRAP methodology is NOT fully published and is available only by licence.

References

For more information about BOOTSTRAP we recommend the following books, papers and internet web sites:

BOOKS

Kuvaja, P., J. Simila, L. Krzanik, A. Bicego, G. Koch and S. Saukonen,Software Process Assessment and Improvement: the BOOTSTRAP approach, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK, 1994

PAPERS

Haase, W., R. Messnarz, G. Koch, H.J. Kugler and P. Decrinis, BOOTSTRAP: Fine tuning process assessment, in: IEEE Software, July 1994

BOOTSTRAP team (1993), BOOTSTRAP: Europe’s assessment method, in: IEEE Software, May 1993

WEB SITES

http://www.etnoteam.it/bootstrap/brochure.html

http://www.esi.es/Training/Bootstrap/methodology.html