Chapter 2: Software Process Improvement


Overview

Software process improvement (SPI) is an approach to designing and defining a new and improved software process to achieve basic business goals and objectives. Examples include increased revenues and profitability and decreased operating costs. The benefits of SPI are numerous . Major benefits include increased customer satisfaction, productivity, quality, cost savings, and cycle time reduction.

SPI is used to increase revenues or profits and decrease operating costs by manipulating or changing software processes. SPI is accomplished by measuring the performance of an old software process, improving the process, and then trying it out. SPI also consists of measuring the performance of new software processes and institutionalizing them if they have improved.

Key methods for SPI consist of process improvement cycles, process improvement criteria, and software process notations. Key methods also include software standards, software life cycles, software methodologies, and software notations. Software processes, software tools, software metrics, and programming languages are also key methods for SPI.

SPI is often performed to improve effort, cost, cycle time, productivity, quality, reliability, precision, and predictability. Goals also include improving efficiency, simplicity, customer satisfaction, degree of automation, consistency, and repeatability . Improving measurability, variety, and innovation are also popular goals.

SPI is the means by which software organizations can achieve significant increases in profitability and peak operating efficiency. The benefits of SPI form the basis for calculating the return on investment (ROI) of SPI. Thus, SPI and the ROI of SPI are intimately, intricately, and inseparably linked by basic origin, purpose, and function.




ROI of Software Process Improvement. Metrics for Project Managers and Software Engineers
ROI of Software Process Improvement: Metrics for Project Managers and Software Engineers
ISBN: 193215924X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 145

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