The PSP also addresses design quality. Modern software design methods focus on producing designs but most do not specify what a design is, i.e., what it must contain when completed. Without a specification of what a design must contain, it is hard to answer this question. This makes it difficult to perform effective design reviews or to evaluate and improve design quality. With four design templates, the PSP shows engineers how to specify when they have a completed design, and how to improve design quality.
Engineers also learn how and when to use various design verification practices.
While the PSP is new, and as yet there is little industrial experience, there is a great deal of PSP course data. A substantial number of industry and government groups are also now introducing the PSP, so data on their experiences are now becoming available. In the PSP course, engineers learn to plan and track their work. Time estimating error for 104 engineers. This improvement, however, is for engineers who make plans.