An Evaluation of Software Process Performance Analysis Activities: Insights from Different Viewpoints

Process performance analysis (PPA) is a key step for implementing continuous software process improvement in organizations. The person responsible for executing PPA must have specific knowledge to execute it properly. Most of this knowledge is spread in books, papers, journals and academic theses, or in expert´s minds. In order to support organizations in executing PPA, we are proposing a body of knowledge, as well as the definition of a knowledge-based system to manage and make such knowledge available. In this paper, we present an evaluation of the proposed activities and tasks for executing PPA, by means of a peer review carried out with some stakeholders with different backgrounds. Results of this peer review allowed us to improve the description of the organized knowledge and also revealed under explored support for some activities in software companies, especially regarding the establishing of performance models.