Assessing PSP effect in training disciplined software development: A Plan–Track–Review model Wen-Hsiang Shen a , Nien-Lin Hsueh a , Wei-Mann Lee b,⇑ a Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, Feng Chia University, 100 Wenhwa Road, Taichung 40724, Taiwan, ROC b Department of Information Technology, The Overseas Chinese University, 100 Chiaokwong Road, Taichung 40721, Taiwan, ROC article info Article history: Received 17 November 2009 Received in revised form 2 August 2010 Accepted 28 September 2010 Available online xxxx Keywords: Personal software process (PSP) Software process improvement (SPI) Effect assessment Plan–Track–Review abstract Context: In training disciplined software development, the PSP is said to result in such effect as increased estimation accuracy, better software quality, earlier defect detection, and improved productivity. But a systematic mechanism that can be easily adopted to assess and interpret PSP effect is scarce within the existing literature. Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of devising a feasible assessment model that ties up critical software engineering values with the pertinent PSP metrics. Method: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to establish such an assessment model (we called a Plan–Track–Review model). Both mean and median approaches along with a set of simplified procedures were used to assess the commonly accepted PSP training effects. A set of statistical analyses further followed to increase understanding of the relationships among the PSP metrics and to help inter- pret the application results. Results: Based on the results of this study, PSP training effect on the controllability, manageability, and reliability of a software engineer is quite positive and largely consistent with the literature. However, its effect on one’s predictability on project in general (and on project size in particular) is not implied as said in the literature. As for one’s overall project efficiency, our results show a moderate improvement. Our initial finding also suggests that a prior stage PSP effect could have an impact on later stage training outcomes. Conclusion: It is concluded that this Plan–Track–Review model with the associated framework can be used to assess PSP effect regarding a disciplined software development. The generated summary report serves to provide useful feedback for both PSP instructors and students based on internal as well as exter- nal standards. Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Ever since its introduction by Humphrey at the Software Engi- neering Institute (SEI) in 1995, the personal software process (PSP) has been adopted and proven effective in software engineer- ing training in both academic and industrial environments [1]. Its effects, in terms of software process improvement (SPI), include better project estimation accuracy, fewer defects, defects caught earlier, and improved productivity [2–4]. When PSP is used on campus, it can not only motivate students, benefit instructors, but also be adopted in both undergraduate and graduate software engineering courses [4–7]. Some even argue that with a modest disciplined SPI, a substantial effect can be generated from PSP training [8–10]. Regardless of these positive effects, however, earlier PSP studies also suggest that the PSP has such drawbacks as tedious logging tasks, data being error-prone, and a need for tailored adaptation. For example, as students must record their estimated program size, time, and number of defects for each program assignment, the motivation tends to be lowered, and thus leading to a loss of data integrity and authenticity. Besides, a full 2-week training period would be either infeasible or less cost-effective in the industrial arena. Although tailored PSP adaptation may be reinforced, still other consequences like ease of use, discounted effectiveness, instructor loading, and student privacy issues can arise and thus hinder its widespread diffusion [11–14]. While this diffusion puzzle remains unresolved, the more recent PSP studies were also interested in the investigation of disciplined software engineering values and how they might be developed via PSP training [15,16]. Needless to say, these efforts are not easy. Since the PSP is involved with numerous measures and each one of them may occur in only certain phases or aspects, the researchers’ 0950-5849/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2010.09.004 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 4 2701 6855; fax: +886 2707 5420. E-mail addresses: shen@ocu.edu.tw (W.-H. Shen), nlhsueh@fcu.edu.tw (N.-L. Hsueh), dwl@ocu.edu.tw (W.-M. Lee). Information and Software Technology xxx (2010) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Information and Software Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infsof Please cite this article in press as: W.-H. Shen et al., Assessing PSP effect in training disciplined software development: A Plan–Track–Review model, In- form. Softw. Technol. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2010.09.004