Strategic Issues on Implementing a Software Process Improvement Program
This work targets software development organizations seeking to institutionalize process improvement, but it is incremental as it builds on existing models and standards.
The paper addresses the strategic planning needed for implementing a Software Process Improvement (SPI) Program to enhance software quality, proposing a set of strategic drivers to assist organizations in this process.
Software technology has high impact on the global economy as in many sectors of contemporary society. As a product enabling the most varied daily activities, the software product has to be produced reflecting high quality. Software quality is dependent on its development that is based in a large set of software development processes. However, the implementation and continuous improvement of software process aimed at software product should be carefully institutionalized by software development organizations such as software factories, testing factories, V&V organizations, among others. The institutionalization of programs such as a Software Process Improvement Program, or SPI Program, require a strategic planning, which is addressed in this article from the perspective of specific models and frameworks, as well as reflections based on software process engineering models and standards. In addition, a set of strategic drivers is proposed to assist the implementation of a Strategic Plan for a SPI Program which can be considered by the organizations before starting this kind of Program.