Research on Organizational-Level Software Process Improvement Model and Its Implementation

The development of software products is a complex activity with a large number of factors involved in defining success. Measurement is a necessary prerequisite, for software process improvement. However few guidelines exist for systematic planning of measurement programs within software projects and for multi-project selection. This paper discusses the major problems in software process measurement, presents an organizational-level software process improvement model (O-SPIM) to support software process improvement. Based on O-SPIM, software organizations can select suitable programs in those potential projects and establish adaptive measurement process and execute the measure just close-related the process goals, which focuses on their particular business environment. Subsequently, some methods of a comprehensive assessment of quality estimating to support higher level quantitative management are suggested. The implementation of O-SPIM and the related methods is introduced in the end. These works were integrated in a toolkit called SQMSP which was used in some medium-sized enterprises in China.