Karen Smiley

Hi and welcome to my WikiHomePage! (Yes, GirlsDoWiki :)

I have over 20 years experience in the full software development life cycle, including real-time software development; graphical, analytical, and database software systems; configuration management; people and project management; sustaining software and hardware; integration and test; and CMM-based process improvement. I've worked in a variety of industries, and am now a Senior Consultant in Corporate Research at ABB (http://www.abb.com) in the NorthCarolinaTriangleArea. My group's purpose is to provide business-goal-driven improvement guidance to ABB business units in the Americas who develop software systems.

My personal focus is on supporting AgileTeams, and I've created a website dedicated to them (http://www.agileteams.com). As far as I know, I was the first person ever to become both a PSP (PersonalSoftwareProcess) Instructor (see PspInstructor?)/ TSP (TeamSoftwareProcess) Launch Coach (see TspLaunchCoach) and a Certified ScrumMaster (see ScrumMasterCertification.) I attend AgileRTP meeting whenever my travel schedule permits.

I believe in MethodologicalPluralism over MethodologicalPurity: there is NoSilverBullet. If I were still primarily a developer (like my brother, PaulSmiley?, and my brother-in-law, Jim), I would want to have a broad collection of good tools in my toolbox; and I consider methodologies and processes such as PSP/TSP and agile to be 'tools' in the same way that {programming languages, design methods, databases ...} are.

I would love to hear from people with similar interests - please visit the AgileAndTspDiscussion or SixSigmaDiscussion pages and share your thoughts! (Thanks to AlexChapman for his early encouraging feedback on one of my abstracts.) Also, see discussion group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agileteams .

My detailed biography, with a list of active research projects, is now maintained online at http://karen.agileteams.com. A quick reference to my web identity can be found via http://claimid.com/karen-smiley .

I can be reached at: karen at agileteams dot com

KarenSmiley -- August 14, 2003 (refactored to http://www.agileteams.com/aboutKJS.html on Nov. 30, 2003; claimID reference added 31 Jan 2007; substituted new blog URL Nov. 11, 2008)

And yes, "Smiley" is my RealName. I use SmileyFaces for both fun and signature purposes.

You've got mail!

Karen, I tracked you down as I am trying to develop an understanding of InformationTechnologyGovernance and see that you created the changes in SoftwareEngineeringInstitute. I have two short questions:

1) is it fair to say CMM/CMMI has no relationship to CapabilitySecurityModel ?
2) do you know of good portals / wikis etc where practioners in ChangeManagement, StrategicManagement, IT alignment, etc get together?

BTW if you cannot edit on this site suggest you visit MeatBall and temporarily use http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WikiWikiWeb -- DavidLiu 31Mar05

Hi David - sorry for the delay in responding to your questions:

1) I was/am unfamiliar with CapabilitySecurityModel and would have to learn more about it to have a lot of confidence in my answer, but for now I would guess no, there is probably no connection with the CMM/CMMI
2) For ChangeManagement, you could try out CM Crossroads. At SEPG this year, there was some vendor activity around creation of a BusinessDevelopmentMaturityModel? - a Google search might find you something of interest on StrategicManagement. (I'm assuming you've already searched groups.yahoo.com for those topics.)

Good luck! -- Karen :) 14Dec05

9/30/2003: New discussion group created - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agileteams Just send email to mailto:agileteams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to join!

10/25/2003: Preliminary draft of http://www.agileteams.com put online. Check out our Publications area for updated postings of research papers and presentations.

11/19/2003: Updated to reflect ScrumMaster certification and related activities.

11/30/2003: Refactored to reference my CV at http://www.agileteams.com/aboutKJS.html.

08/17/2004: I'm now a PhD student in Computer Science at NorthCarolinaStateUniversity, exploring thesis ideas relating to MeasuringAgileTeams? and CoachingAgileTeams?. Suggestions welcome!!

11/11/2008: PhD on hold; partial shift in focus towards requirements engineering and software architecture; still highly interested in agile and lean.

CategoryHomePage