Spice software process improvement. and capability

Established : This means that the processes defined during level-2 have been established over time. Therefore, there will be constant evaluation of the process, and the outcomes are studied to improve further.

Level 4. Predictable : Along with establishing and meeting the required performance standards, outcomes are constantly measured, documented, and analyzed to enable evaluation. The process and outcomes are established so well that outcome prediction becomes possible and easy. Level 5. Innovating : At the innovation level, the software developer understands and controls their processes very well and can push boundaries by continuously optimizing the process and making them better.

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He has over 10 years of experience into customer service and marketing. International standards are created by dozens of organizations and hundreds of professionals, academics etc. With more and more organizations moving towards global software development, many conflicts arise due to geographical, technological and cultural differences [2]. International standards are considered as an adaptable way to prevent or overcome barriers and incompatibility issues caused by such differences.

In this section the authors will give a description of three widely used international standards and models in the world. CMMI Capability Maturity Model-Integrated is a well-known, widely used and standardized model which primarily focuses on process assessment and process improvement of software and systems [3].

CMMI offers continuous and staged improvement through maturity levels and capability levels [4]. These levels assist in indentifying and evaluating the progress and status of the improvement.

By providing guidelines, systematic implementation of process improvement is made possible by CMMI [5]. ISO International Organization for Standardization is a global standard organization that identifies and develops standards for business, government and society [6]. According to the updated list of all ISO standards, it has developed over 18 International Standards over a variety of subjects.

Almost new ISO standards are published every year [7]. The purpose of ISO is to facilitate global consensus agreements on international quality standards, and make international coordination and unification among organizations.

It has resulted in a system for certifying suppliers to make sure they meet internationally accepted standards for quality management. These standards contribute and influence everywhere of our life, because they assist in ensuring and enhancing essential features, such as quality, safety, economy, reliability, compatibility, efficiency and effectiveness. As a result, spread knowledge, shared technological advances and skilled management practices are achieved [6].

Every standard of ISO has specific focus. For example, ISO family focuses on quality management which ensures the product or service meet the expectation and need of customers or other stakeholders. ISO focuses on process improvement and capability evaluation assessment. The project was to support the development, validation of a practical international standard for software process improvement. This framework helps the organizations in terms of controlling planning, managing, monitoring and improving the acquisition, supply, development, operation, evolution and support of software [12].

The first versions of ISO focused exclusively on software development processes. Later, it was extended to cover all processes related to software life cycle, for example, project management, configuration management, quality assurance etc.

As part of this standard, framework for software process assessment, a model about how to perform an assessment, a description of tools that can be used as part of the assessment process and a discussion of factors that can lead to a successful assessment are provided [13].

It is considered as to complement other International Standards and models for assessing the capability, effectiveness and quality of processes and organizations [12]. The article is organized in the following way. However, in , after a major revision, to the draft standard, the 9 parts were reduced to 5. Another part, part eight, is currently under development. These parts are stated as under [13]. This part is the most important part of the standard as it defines the terms, twin contexts of process improvement and process capability determination and the concepts of process assessment [18].

The actual requirements for performing process assessment are described in this part. These requirements should be used as a basis for use in process improvement and capability determination [13]. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Guidance is provided in this part on the nature and structure of process assessment models PAM , and on the function of process performance and capability indicators.

This guidance is provided by example [21]. Part 6. Apart from this, this part also provides detailed descriptions of work products and steps for defining additional assessment indicators [22]. Part 7. Organizational maturity relates to the degree the organization implements processes, in order to achieve its business goals, within a defined scope. In order to conduct the assessment, it is necessary to know how the processes are divided and identified. It also assigns process attributes to each level.

At level 0, no attributes are assigned [14][12][13]. Figure 1 shows the six capability levels of the standard. Figure 2 shows the capability levels with their attributes assigned.

He ensures that the data collected is accurate and covers the assessment scope completely. After careful review rating is provided. The results are sent to the sponsor. The driving force behind process assessment was not from software industry but from the large critical software intensive systems particularly defense and telecom sectors. As a result many process assessment methods and models were developed by some major organizations like the most widely known model is Capability Maturity Model CMM was developed for the need of US Defense Department as a technique to select their contractors.

Similarly, from telecom sector, British telecom, Bell Canada and Bellcore developed process assessment methods [12]. Nowadays the software process assessment has been recognized as successful factor in improvement of both quality and productivity [4].

This increase in number of process assessment approaches and the use of these approaches motivated the focus towards an international standard for process assessment [12]. Initially it focused on software development processes but later this focus was expanded to all processes related to software business for example project management, configuration management. The project aims to build on the best features of existing software assessment methods. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

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