Here we collect forms which can be used with SPI activities. Do you use a handy form or do you want to comment on a form presented here or elsewhere? Send an e-mail or respond by form.
Note for hardware developers: SPI activities are not limited to software only! You can use the methods and techniques in hardware development as well. How? Use you imagination, or respond!

Some forms are available as Acrobat files (.pdf). Get the Acrobat reader (about 5.2 MB!), or use the Acrobat Reader you may have on your system already.

TimeSheet2: New TimeLog form (2000-01-07)

Ease of use is of crucial importance for keeping to use of these forms. If there are even small obstacles, there is a risk of stopping its use. The first version of the TimeLog form has been used extensively and has been tested on efficiency. Based on this experience, a new version has been made. The following topics have been considered:

• Don't forget: Recording time is still as easy as it was: just write down the time at every transition of attention and describe the action (see description above).
• The category-table on top of the old form has been deleted. This table was not used and should go.
• The analysis of the data on the form was not structured. You had to find out for yourself how to do it, causing users to "forget" doing it. And without analysis, you don't need to use the form anyway!
• These two items are now taken care of in a calculation table, to make the analysis calculation as easy as possible. In this table, the times per type of activity are recorded. To distinguish between e.g. an activity and a review of the result of the activity, use different colums for both.
• At the bottom of the form the times per colums are added and the percentages compared with a full 8-hour working day are computed. The percentage for the project you are working on, should reflect the commitment you gave to your project leader. If not, you can do something about it.
• A histogram ordered according to the percentages (remember the Pareto priciple!) shows clearly the partitioning of your time and shows which activity needs adjustment. Note: If you don't like the looks of these results, do not abandon them: Do something about it! That is why you are using this form!
• The totals and the histogram should be made per week as well. Thus you get a better picture of your average time consumption.
• Don't forget: You are doing this all for yourself! The aim is to be able to organise your time in a way that you, yourself,  can be content about it. Without the form, you use your feeling only. You think that you use, or don't use, sufficient time for every task at hand. Or you have a feeling that you always are short of time. With the form, you see how you use your time and now you can do something about it. You see why you always are (or think you are) short of time and you can start doing something about it.

An example is more clear than a thousand words, so a filled in TimeLog2 form is made available as well.
Any comments?

Download TimeLog2 (.pdf, 28kb)
Download filled in example of TimeLog2 (.pdf, 60kb)
Download MSExcel file with both forms, to adapt to your own taste. (.xls, 36kb)

Task sheet

TaskSheet is designed to do a task First Time Right.
Before starting the actual execution of a task (like writing a document, making a design, writing code), first state what the requirements for the task are (to validate against). Then define what action you think you are supposed to do in this task. Then define the way you are going to do it (basic design idea), how you plan to organise it (planning, if the work is more than a few hours) and how you are going to verify that you did what you should do (not less and not more). Then you define anything that is not clear.
All this is written down and compulsorily reviewed by the project architect (who has overview of the project). This way, what you think you should do is checked against what you are supposed to do. Only if the reviewer agrees on your description and everything is really clear, then you may start doing the complete design and finally the realisation of the result of the task.
After that you verify as specified and use a checklist to make sure that when you think the task is ready, it is really done.

This TaskSheet has already prevented many people doing a perfect job on the wrong result! Even for very small tasks (like 1 hour) it always proved to save time and effort to use the TaskSheet first. It is actually a "Think before doing it" tool. Professionals who start using the TaskSheet keep doing it because they get better results in shorter time.

Download Tasksheet (.dot, MSWord template, 35kb)

The Tasksheet is also integrated in the Evo Task Administrator (ETA) tool.

Inspection reports

Formal Inspection was pioneered in the seventies by M.E. Fagan at IBM. He published about it in IBM Systems Journal in 1976. A reprint can be found in IBM Systems Journal Vol 38, nr. 2&3: "Turning Points in Computing 1962~1999". The reprint, "Design and code inspections to reduce errors in program development" is retrievable from internet (.pdf; 7,01 Mb). Since then, a lot of experience has been gained on the techniques of Inspections. NASA has a very useful "Software Formal Inspections Guidebook" and a "Software Formal Inspections Standard". You can find links to these documents on my books and literature page. A very useful guide for Inspections (with a big I) is the book by Tom Gilb en Dorothy Graham "Software Inspections". The word "Software" could have been omitted: Inspections are by no means limited to software. Without the "software" the book would however not sell as well and let's be frank, in the field of software Inspections are probably most needed. The authors cover in great detail all steps which make the Inspection process so valuable. Some chapters describe the experience of Inspection in various companies. After having read this book, you will ask yourself how you ever could have done without Inspections. The question is not any more whether Inspections should become a standard part of your development process, nor when. Only how. Answering this question with you is our job!

In the Gilb/Graham book you will find a complete set of forms for Inspections. You can order this book from Amazon.com.
We have built extensive experience with the Gilb Inspection method and the documents we are using are:

Newest versions of Inspection documents as used by N R Malotaux in Gilb Document Inspections:

Download Inspection Manual (Version 0.44, .pdf, 164kb)
Download Inspection Master Plan (.doc, 47kb)
Download Data Summary, logging sheet, brainstorm sheet (.xls, 72 kb)
Download Slides "Document Inspections" (.zip, 227 kb > .pdf), 2001 version

Download Two day Review course (.pdf, 2446 kb) as used at a client in October 2007