Process Improvement in a Research Environment: an Experiment ...

Process Improvement in a
Research Environment: an
Experiment Using an ISO/IEC
15504 Based Process
Improvement Approach
J. Castellan, W. Chalabi, A. Dézétrée,
CC. Lassudrie, L d i T. T Lefèvre L fè
SPICE 2009, 2-4 June 2009

page 1
Agenda
CContext t t
• Overview of LaTIM laboratory
• Motivation and objectives
Improvement Approach
• State of the art review
• Interviews
• Process modelling
• Process assesment
• Improvement actions
Conclusion and future trends
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 2
Context of the study
St Study d conducted d t d iin 2008 for f LaTIM L TIM laboratory l b t
(Medical Information Processing Laboratory)
This study was conducted as a student project by
a team of 6 students from Telecom Bretagne
Objective : to provide a quality improvement
approach for LaTIM projects
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 3
Overview of LaTIM laboratory
MMedical di l Information I f ti Processing
P i
Laboratory
Two main research topics
bbased d on information i f ti and d
knowledge:
• Dynamic shapes in medical
imaging
• Medical image indexing and
similarity studies
Application fields
• Osteology, arthrology, imaging
and exploration p of the venous
system, ophtalmology and
gastro-entorology image
information integrity g y
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 4
Overview of LaTIM laboratory
BBelongs l tto INSERM – NNational ti l Institute I tit t of f Health H lth
and Medical Research-Unit 650
Located in Brest (Brittany)
About 58 persons (18 researchers, 20 PhD
students)
Mixed teams (physicians, IT engineers, PhD
students) from University Hospital Hospital, University of
Western Brittany and Telecom Bretagne
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 5
Motivations
LLaTIM TIM is i a young applied li d research h laboratory l b t with ith
important and fast turn-over (PhD students)
Can be compared to a SME
Difficulties in project and human resources
management g
Strong constraints (CAV : Clinical Added Value),
limited human and financial resources,
requirements i t for f (pre) ( ) industrial i d t i l quality lit of f
products
Lack of knowledge transmission, transmission of standard
practices (project and documentation
management, software development)
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 6
Objectives of the study
TTo propose a process improvement i t approach h
applicable to LaTIM projects
Expected outputs :
• Map of processes involved in a typical research
project
• Capability assessment of processes involved in a
project
• Proposal of an improvement plan
Follows a preliminary study conducted in 2007
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 7
Overall Approach
CConstraints t i t and d requirements: i t
• Lightweight approach
• Rely if f possible on national or international
standards
• IInvolve l researchers h iin th the iinitiative iti ti ffrom th the
beginning
• Get rapidly visible results
Progressive and continuous approach
• Bottom Bottom-up up approach : First focussed on a pilot
project, then enlarged to other projects
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 8
The pilot project MorPHA
MMorPHA PHA : MMorpho-Functional h F ti l Hip Hi Assessment
A t
New technique for dynamically measuring the
Anterior Pelvic Plane
4 persons involved
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 9
Different stages of the study
St State t of f th the AArt t review i : selection l ti of f appropriate i t
standards
Audit of current practices in MorPHA project
Elaboration of a process map and of an actors
map
Elaboration of a Process Assessment Model
Assessment of MorPHA processes
Process improvement recommendations
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 10
State of the art review : quality
management standards
ISO 9001
AFNOR Standards :
• AFNOR O FD X 50-550 , Research quality approach-
General principles and recommendations
• AFNOR FD X 50 50-551, 551 RRecommendations d ti ffor th the
organization in project mode of research activity
in a network
• AFNOR FD X 50-552, Guidelines for the application
of ISO 9001 in a research organization g
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 11
Project life cycle as defined in AFNOR FD X
50 551
PPreliminary li i draft d ft in i which hi h objectives, bj ti schedule h d l
and organization of the project are defined.
Project realization realization, which corresponds to product
development (hardware or software) following
development techniques, project management
techniques and continuous improvement in the
context of quality assurance.
Project closure : Assessment and evaluation of
scientific and organizational results.
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 12
Main items covered by AFNOR FD X 50 551
DDefinition fi iti of f initial i iti l objectives bj ti of f the th project j t
Feasibility study
Project organization and planning
Intellectual property rights
Product development
Documentary system
Storage
PProject j t managementt
Continuous improvement
Results valuation
Scientific and organizational assessment and performance
appraisal
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 13
Audit of current practices in MorPHA
project
Interviews of members of the project team
• Two periods of two weeks
• 6 interviews involving 4 interviewees
Each interview is focused on 3 activities maximum among
:
• Project preparation
• Valuation
• Valorization
• Project Management
• Quality methods
Survey questionnaire is mainly based on AFNOR X50‐551
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 14
Elaboration of a process map and an
actors map
PPreliminary li i step : representation i of f relationships l i hi
between project parties in a map :
• A global view of roles and responsibilities
• Identification of the weakest communication links
• Hl Help tto prepare second d iinterviews t i
Modelling :
• BBreaking ki down d approach h using i SADT tto bbuild ild th the process
map
• Focused on improvement of project research activities
and not of organizational processes.
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 15
Elaboration of a process map and an
actors map
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment
First level SADT diagram

page 16
Elaboration of a process map and an
actors map
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment
Second level SADT diagram

page 17
Elaboration of a process map and an
actors map
This breaking down process was iterated three times
resulting in identification of 14 detailed processes.
Each process is described in details in a form
In order to assess process capability, we developed then an
upper level process model, generic enough to be applicable
in any y other LaTIM project. j
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

Elaboration of a Process Assessment
Model
PProcess capability bilit llevels l bbased d on ISO 15504 15504-part t22
Best practices reference guides for each process
Project management CNRS document
AFNOR FD X 50-551
Documentation management CNRS document
AFNOR FD X50-551
Logistic process AFNOR FD X50-551
Valuation process AFNOR FD X50-551
Engineering process (mainly software
development)
page 18
ISO/IEC 15504-5 and CMMI
Once defined, assessment criteria were discussed and
validated by LaTIM project team.
Then, criteria and matching process attributes for each
criterion were defined
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 19
Elaboration of a Process Assessment
Model
An instance of an assessment form (Documentation and
Data management process)
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

Assessment of MorPHA processes
WWe used d as inputs i t reports, t observations b ti and d
documents collected during interviews.
Each process was assessed up to level three according
to the defined criteria.
An instance of process profile Global view of Process profiles
page 20
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 21
Some Improvement themes resulting from
the assessment
DDefinition fi iti and d adaptation d t ti of f a standard t d d project j t life lif
cycle
Definition of standard project documents
Systematic algorithms formalization
UUse of f a common ddocumentation t ti management t
tool
Monthly improvement planning meetings
Most of these actions have already been
implemented
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment

page 22
Conclusion and future trends
Thi This approach h was a success as valuable l bl results lt
were obtained at a very low cost
Integration of newcomers is much more easy
How to go on the improvement project ?
• LLack k of f ddedicated di t d “quality “ lit resources” ” iin th the
laboratory
• Need of quality indicators definition (level 4)
The approach was limited to project-level
processes
Strategic, human resource, knowledge
management processes are also to be considered
Process Improvement in a Research
Environment