Software process improvement: operations perspectives

Software has become one of the most integral parts of today´s corporations, and the efficiency and maintenance of business processes and organizations depend largely on the improvement and capability of their supporting software and related solutions. Despite their importance and recent advances in software engineering, software development processes have not yet been clearly understood. It is reported that one-third of software projects are canceled before completion, and more than half of the projects cost at least twice their original estimates. Building on Nambisan and Wilemon´s work on the cross-domain knowledge sharing between new product development and software development, this paper makes a further attempt to comprehend the software development process through examination of process improvements in related fields outside the software industry, such as new product development and operations management. Examining software process improvements from the perspective of new product development and operations management, the authors gain insights into future direction of software development process improvements