Trillium Model
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The Trillium Model, created by a collaborative team from
Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...
, Northern Telecom and Bell Northern Research (Northern Telecom and Bell Northern Research later merged into Nortel Networks) combines requirements from the
ISO 9000 The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 90 ...
series, the
Capability Maturity Model The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a development model created in 1986 after a study of data collected from organizations that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense, who funded the research. The term "maturity" relates to the degree of ...
(CMM) for software, and th
Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804122911/http://nist.gov/baldrige/publications/criteria.cfm , date=2016-08-04 , with software quality standards from the
IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
. Trillium has a
telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
s orientation and provides customer focus. The practices in the Trillium Model are derived from a
benchmarking Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. Benchmarking is used to measure performan ...
exercise which focused on all practices that would contribute to an organization's product development and support capability. The Trillium Model covers all aspects of the software development life-cycle, most system and product development and support activities, and a significant number of related marketing activities. Many of the practices described in the model can be applied directly to hardware development.


Objectives

The Trillium Model has been developed from a ''customer perspective'', as perceived in a competitive, commercial environment. The Model is used in a variety of ways: * In ''
benchmarking Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. Benchmarking is used to measure performan ...
'' an organization's product development and support process capability against best practices in the industry, * In ''self-assessment mode'', to help identify opportunities for improvement within a product development organization, and * In ''pre-contractual negotiations'', to assist in selecting a supplier. This Model and its accompanying tools are not in themselves a product development process or life-cycle model. Rather, the ''Trillium Model'' provides key industry
best practice A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing ...
s which can be used to improve an existing process or life-cycle


Scale

The Trillium scale spans levels 1 through 5. Levels can be characterized in the following way: # ''Unstructured'': The development process is
ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...
. Projects often cannot meet quality or schedule targets. Success, while possible, is based on individuals rather than on organizational infrastructure. ''(Risk – High)'' # ''Repeatable and Project Oriented'': Individual project success is achieved through strong project management planning and control, with emphasis on
requirements management Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project. A require ...
,
estimation Estimation (or estimating) is the process of finding an estimate or approximation, which is a value that is usable for some purpose even if input data may be incomplete, uncertain, or unstable. The value is nonetheless usable because it is der ...
techniques, and
configuration management Configuration management (CM) is a process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a product's performance, functional, and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. The CM proc ...
. ''(Risk – Medium)'' # ''Defined and Process Oriented'': Processes are defined and used at the organizational level, although project customization is still permitted. Processes are controlled and improved.
ISO 9001 The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 90 ...
requirements such as training and internal process
audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon.” Auditing ...
ing are incorporated. ''(Risk – Low)'' # ''Managed and Integrated'': Process instrumentation and analysis is used as a key mechanism for process improvement. Process change management and defect prevention programs are integrated into processes. CASE tools are integrated into processes. ''(Risk – Lower)'' # ''Fully Integrated'': Formal
methodologies In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...
are extensively used. Organizational repositories for development history and process are used and effective. ''(Risk – Lowest)''


Architecture

The Trillium Model consists of Capability Areas, Roadmaps and Practices. There are four different ways in which the Trillium Model is typically applied. The ''Capability Evaluation'' and ''Capability Joint-Assessment'' are two methods of evaluating an organization's product development and support process capability. A Capability Evaluation is the evaluation of a supplier by a second party, typically the customer. A Capability Joint Evaluation assumes an effective partnership relationship exists between the customer and supplier.


Benefits

For ''Customer organizations'', a higher capability means that: * the development organization is more responsive to customer and market demands, * the life-cycle cost of the product(s) is minimized, and * end-user satisfaction is maximized. For the ''Development organization'', achieving a higher capability can result in: * lower development and maintenance costs, * shorter cycle time and development intervals, * an increased ability to achieve content and schedule commitments due to effective project risk analysis and effort
estimation Estimation (or estimating) is the process of finding an estimate or approximation, which is a value that is usable for some purpose even if input data may be incomplete, uncertain, or unstable. The value is nonetheless usable because it is der ...
, and * an increasing ability to meet quantifiable design and quality objectives at all stages of the development process


Comparison with CMM

The ''Trillium Model'' covers all aspects of the software development life-cycle, most system and product development and support activities, and a significant number of related marketing activities. Although Trillium has been designed to be applied to embedded software systems such as telecommunications systems, much of the model can be applied to other segments of the software industry such as ''
management information system A management information system (MIS) is an information system used for decision-making, and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization. The study of the management information systems involves peop ...
s'' (MIS). The various differences between the Trillium Model and the
Capability Maturity Model The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a development model created in 1986 after a study of data collected from organizations that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense, who funded the research. The term "maturity" relates to the degree of ...
(CMM) as given as follow: # Trillium architecture is based on roadmaps, rather than ''key process areas (KPAs)'' present in CMM # Trillium has a wider product perspective rather than only based on software process improvement # Trillium claims a wider coverage of capability impacting issues. # Trillium has orientation towards customer focus, technological maturity and telecommunication industry.


External links


Trillium Model

Bell Canada
Bell Canada Software development process Maturity models Information technology management