Software Process Improvement

This textbook is a systematic guide to the steps in setting up a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) improvement initiative. Readers will learn the project management practices necessary to deliver high-quality software solutions to the customer on time and on budget. The text also highlights how software process improvement can achieve specific business goals to provide a tangible return on investment. Topics and features: supplies review questions, summaries and key topics for each chapter, as well as a glossary of acronyms; describes the CMMI model thoroughly, detailing the five maturity levels; provides a broad overview of software engineering; reviews the activities and teams required to set up a CMMI improvement initiative; examines in detail the implementation of CMMI in a typical organization at each of the maturity levels; investigates the various tools that support organizations in improving their software engineering maturity; discusses the SCAMPI appraisal methodology.

This textbook is intended for SPI (software process improvement) managers and - searchers, quality managers, and experienced project and research managers. The papers constitute the research proceedings of the 16th EuroSPI (European Software Process Improvement, www.eurospi.net) conference held in Alcala (Madrid region), September 2–4, 2009, Spain. Conferences have been held since 1994 in Dublin, 1995 in Vienna (Austria), 1997 in Budapest (Hungary), 1998 in Gothenburg (Sweden), 1999 in Pori (Finland), 2000 in Copenhagen (Denmark), 2001 in Limerick (Ireland), 2002 in Nuremberg (G- many), 2003 in Graz (Austria), 2004 in Trondheim (Norway), 2005 in Budapest (Hungary), 2006 in Joensuu (Finland), 2007 in Potsdam (Germany), 2008 in Dublin (Ireland), and 2009 in Alcala (Spain). EuroSPI established an experience library (library.eurospi.net) which will be conti- ously extended over the next few years and will be made available to all attendees. EuroSPI also created an umbrella initiative for establishing a European Qualification Network in which different SPINs and national initiatives join mutually beneficial collaborations (ECQA – European Certification and Qualification Association, www.ecqa.org). With a general assembly during October 15–16, 2007 through Euro-SPI partners and networks, in collaboration with the European Union (supported by the EU L- nardo da Vinci Programme) a European certification association has been created (www.eu-certificates.org, www.ecqa.org) for the IT and services sector to offer SPI knowledge and certificates to industry, establishing close knowledge transfer links between research and industry.

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in attention and focus on the discipline of software engineering. Software engineering tools and techniques have been developed to gain more predictable quality improvement results. Process standards such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO 9000, Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (SPICE), Agile Methodologies, and others have been proposed to assist organizations to achieve more predictable results by incorporating these proven standards and procedures into their software process. Software Process Improvement and Management: Approaches and Tools for Practical Development offers the latest research and case studies on software engineering and development. The production of new process standards assist organizations and software engineers in adding a measure of predictability to the software process. Companies can gain a decisive competitive advantage by applying these new and theoretical methodologies in real-world scenarios. Researchers, scholars, practitioners, students, and anyone interested in the field of software development and design should access this book as a major compendium of the latest research in the field.

An indispensable addition to any project manager, software engineering or computer science bookshelf, this book presents the only broad-ranging economic analysis of major international SPI methods and the first large-scale economic analysis of mandatory U.S. government standards.

Provides common-sense, proven techniques and approaches that software managers and developers can use to deliver significant process improvements.This book organizes software process improvement into four proven stages: Plan, Do, Check, and Act. It then thoroughly reviews the steps that managers and developers can take in each stage. It shows how to assess current software processes more effectively, and plan and invest to make software development a core competency of your organization. It presents a thoughtful recommendations for making sure that management stays committed to process improvement for the long-haul. Finally, it describes specific techniques organizations can use to track, validate and place a value upon software process improvements.All software developers, project managers, process improvement managers, senior IT managers, and customers for custom software development.

"While it is usually helpful to launch improvement programs, many such programs soon get bogged down in detail. They either address the wrong problems, or they keep beating on the same solutions, wondering why things don't improve. This is when you need an objective way to look at the problems. This is the time to get some data." Watts S. Humphrey, from the Foreword This book, drawing on work done at the Software Engineering Institute and other organizations, shows how to use measurements to manage and improve software processes. The authors explain specifically how quality characteristics of software products and processes can be quantified, plotted, and analyzed so the performance of software development activities can be predicted, controlled, and guided to achieve both business and technical goals. The measurement methods presented, based on the principles of statistical quality control, are illuminated by application examples taken from industry. Although many of the methods discussed are applicable to individual projects, the book's primary focus is on the steps software development organizations can take toward broad-reaching, long-term success. The book particularly addresses the needs of software managers and practitioners who have already set up some kind of basic measurement process and are ready to take the next step by collecting and analyzing software data as a basis for making process decisions and predicting process performance. Highlights of the book include: Insight into developing a clear framework for measuring process behavior Discussions of process performance, stability, compliance, capability, and improvement Explanations of what you want to measure (and why) and instructions on how to collect your data Step-by-step guidance on how to get started using statistical process control If you have responsibilities for product quality or process performance and you are ready to use measurements to manage, control, and predict your software processes, this book will be an invaluable resource.

This book will help you to manage and control the quality of your organization's software products. Continually dealing with the problems caused by software defects can be both time-consuming and demanding but Sami Zahran's pragmatic approach will take you from reactive fire-fighting to a preventative culture of disciplined and continuous process improvement. This book will help you: establish a process-focused software development organizatio design and implement procedures for developing quality software in time and within budge benchmark your organization against the industry standards for the software process, including the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), ISO 9001, the new standard ISO/IEC 15504 (originally known as SPICE) and Bootstrap.

On behalf of the PROFES organizing committee we would like to welcome you to the 4th International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Impro- ment (PROFES 2002) in Rovaniemi, Finland. The conference was held on the Arctic Circle in exotic Lapland under the Northern Lights just before Christmas time, when Kaamos (the polar night is known in Finnish as ”Kaamos”) shows its best characteristics. PROFES has established itself as one of the recognized international process improvement conferences. Despite the current economic downturn, PROFES has attracted a record number of submissions. A total of 70 full papers were subm- ted and the program committee had a di?cult task in selecting the best papers to be presented at the conference. The main theme of PROFES is professional software process improvement (SPI) motivated by product and service quality needs. SPI is facilitated by so- ware process assessment, software measurement, process modeling, and techn- ogy transfer. It has become a practical tool for quality software engineering and management. The conference addresses both the solutions found in practice and the relevant research results from academia.