Friday, November 07, 2003

Meeting Topic:

"Two good reasons why software processes are not adopted and what to do about it."

Presenter: Stan Rifkin

Abstract

Why do we often appear not to do what is best for us, or at least what someone else thinks is best? To what extent do the reasons have to do with what is being suggested vs. to how the implementation is planned and executed? Is there a way to accelerate the rate at which the implementation of process adoption can be achieved? These questions are addressed by

reviewing the considerable literature on implementations of software engineering, information systems, and quality improvement. The conclusions presented are not lightweight leadership models, but are two different practical models for what to do to accelerate implementation of process adoption.

Meeting Coordinator: Kim Caputo, Kim.Caputo@cox.net

Your Presenter: Mr. Rifkin was at the SEI for three years as a direct report to Watts Humphrey. His work has centered on implementation, deployment, and implementing 'best practices' . He addresses the Washington DC SPIN each year, speaking about creating a change agent's toolkit based on a theory of implementation, dramatically improving the effectiveness of inspections, the business case for process improvement (results from 1,300 projects), the personal software process, and the use of systems dynamics to understand projects.

Each year Wall Street & Technology magazine names two CIOs of the Year. Mr. Rifkin was the only consultant to win both awards in 1999. He is acknowledged in Strategic Organizational Diagnosis And Design: Developing Theory for Application , 2nd ed., by Burton and Obel. In addition, Mr. Rifkin chaired the special topics track for SEPG 2000 and shall for SEPG 2001. He was the project manager of the Project Management Institute's (PMI) Organizational Project Management Maturity Model.

Mr. Rifkin founded Master Systems Inc. at the request of the American Red Cross, where he was the head of systems development. Prior to the Red Cross, Mr. Rifkin had been the CIO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Mr. Rifkin has an abiding interest in charity and the non-profit sector: one of his clients is United Way of America , which he is helping usher into electronic commerce and electronic community-building. He holds a bachelor's in business (quantitative methods) from California State University , is working on his dissertation in computer science at UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and is finishing up a doctorate in education at George Washington University .

Mr. Rifkin is on the editorial board of Empirical Software Engineering , was a founder of the Foundation for the Empirical Study of Programmers, is a member of IEEE (Computer, engineering management, and system, man & cybernetics Societies), Association for Computing Machinery, Academy of Management, Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, Systems Dynamics Society, Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences, AAAS, and the PMI.

For more info about our speaker, please see the Master Systems website: http://www.mastersystems.com

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