Software Process Improvement
Software Process Improvement
How software process can be improved
to produce better software?
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 1
Software Process Improvement
What it is really?
Process Improvement is a series of actions taken to
identify, analyze and improve existing processes within an
organization to meet new goals and objectives.
Software Process Improvement is about understanding the
existing software development processes and changing
these processes to improve software product quality
and/or reduce costs and development time.
As we know, there is a strong relationship between the
quality of the developed software product and the quality of
the software process used to create that product. By
improving the software process, it is hoped that the related
product quality is correspondingly enhanced.
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 2
Software Process Improvement
Process Attributes or Process Characteristics
Like product attributes, there are process attributes also.
These process attributes are also known as process
characteristics. A list of process characteristics and their
descriptions are given below.
1. Understandability : To what extent is the process
explicitly defined and how easy it is to understand the
process definition?
2. Visibility : Do the process activities culminate in clear
results so that the progress of the process is externally
visible?
3. Supportability : To what extent can the process
activities be supported by CASE tools?
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 3
Software Process Improvement
Process Attributes or Process Characteristics (contd.)
4. Acceptability : Is the defined process acceptable to and
usable by the engineers responsible for producing the
product?
5. Reliability : Is the process designed in such a way that
process errors are avoided and trapped before they result
in product errors?
6. Robustness : Can the process continue in spite of
unexpected problems?
7. Maintainability : Can the process evolve to reflect
changing organizational requirements or identified process
improvement?
8. Rapidity : How fast the process of delivering a system
from a given specification be completed?
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 4
Software Process Improvement
Process Attributes or Process Characteristics (contd.)
Once these process attributes ( some or all ) are improved
( optimized ), the corresponding process improvement
takes place. But it is not possible to make process
improvements that optimizes all process attributes
simultaneously. For example, it is not possible to optimize
both ‘Rapidity’ and the ‘Visibility’ at the same time. Making
a process visible means producing documents at regular
interval. This will slow down the process thus reducing
‘Rapidity’.
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 5
Software Process Improvement
The ‘Process Improvement’ Process
The process of ‘Process Improvement’ is a long term, iterative
process. Successful process improvement requires
organizational commitment from the top along with supported
budget. A diagram showing the ‘Process Improvement’ process
is shown below.
Introduce
Process Change
Analyze Identify Tune Process
Process Improvement Change
Train
Engineers
Process Process Training Feedbacks On Revised
Model Change Plan Plan Improvement Process Model
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 6
Software Process Improvement
The ‘Process Improvement’ Process (contd.)
In the previous diagram, the rounded rectangles are the
different phases of process improvement and the usual
rectangles are the resulted documentation out of that
phase. The dotted arrows are shown to show the usage
and the outcome of documentations related with different
phases. The description of various phases are given
below.
1. Process Analysis : The process analysis involves
examining the existing process and producing a Process
Model to document and understand the process.
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 7
Software Process Improvement
The ‘Process Improvement’ Process (contd.)
2. Improvement Identification : This phase is concerned
with the identification of the process improvement area.
The process attributes or the process characteristics,
which are in need of improvements, absolutely depends
upon the quality focus and organizational priorities.
The documentations which get generated in this phase are
Process Change Plan and the Training Plan. The process
change plan outlines, where all places the improvements
need to be done. The training plan outlines, what all
trainings need to be given and to whom it should be given.
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 8
Software Process Improvement
The ‘Process Improvement’ Process (contd.)
3. Process Change Introduction : This phase is
concerned with the introduction of new procedures,
methods and tools into place and integrating them with
other process activities. The feedbacks are also collected
as and when this change introduction is made operational.
4. Process Change Training : All the relevant
professional need to be trained on this new changes ( e.g.,
procedures, methods, tools etc. ). The feedbacks are also
collected from the relevant professional, when they are
being trained.
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 9
Software Process Improvement
The ‘Process Improvement’ Process (contd.)
5. Change Tuning : The proposed process change will
never be completely effective as soon as they are
introduced. There needs to be a tuning phase where minor
problems are discovered, modifications to the process are
proposed and are introduced.
The output of this phase is the revised process model
which, once again will be used as a base for process
analysis for further process improvement activity.
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 10
Software Process Improvement
Home Task
1. Describe the process improvement process.
15-May-24 Made by Dr. Pawan Kumar Singh 11
