Leading the effort of software process improvement in SMEs

SMEs have known that software product quality depends heavily on the processes used for its development. However, even though many of them are motivated to implement software process improvement (SPI) initiatives, not all know the best way to do it, due to its special characteristics, such as limited budgets where the management is careful to ensure their survival in the market. As a result, implementing SPI in SMEs has become a challenge, especially since their work culture is undergoing a chaotic and changing environment. This paper presents a method for directing the efforts of software process improvement in SMEs. To achieve this, we have adapted the main activities of Goal Question Metric (GQM). Besides, it presents the experience of applying the proposed method to lead the effort to implement improvements in an SME.