What are PSP?

The Personal Software Process is a structured methodology developed by Watts Humphrey to help individual software engineers improve their work process through measurement, estimation, and continous self-improvement.

It provides a diciplined approach to software development, emphazing planning tracking, and quality control.

Why were these models created, and who developed them?

The Personal Software Process (PSP) was developed by Watts S. Humphrey at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1990s.

• Unreliable Estimations:

Many software projects suffered from inaccurate effort and schedule estimates.

• Poor Quality Control:

Defects were often found late in development, leading to costly rework.

• Lack of Personal Discipline

Many developers lacked structured methods to track and improve their performance.

• Inconsistent Productivity

Without a defined process, individual performance varied widely.

Main Elements of the Personal Software Process

It is structured into several key elements that help software engineers improve their estimation accuracy, quality control, and personal productivity. These elements are:

1. Planning
   • Estimating size, effort, and time based on historical data.
   • Using PROBE (Proxy-Based Estimating) for size and effort predictions
   • Defining a personal development plan before coding begins