Software Process Improvement: The Route ToSoftware Quality?
W.L. Smith, Rohan Fletcher, Edwin Gray, Robin B. Hunter · WIT transactions on information and communication technologies · 1970
The purpose of this paper is to provide a balanced view of software process improvement and its relationship to software quality. The paper looks at the historical background to software development and explores the importance of correct management practices including sufficiency (to lead to rep eatable high levels of software quality). It also discusses leading initiatives in complementary software process engineering and offers an assessment of the value and applicability of current approaches to software process improvement. In particular the discipline of software process assessment is evaluated. The import of utilising software process models and related measurement is also briefly discussed. It is shown that software process improvement approaches considered are not yet mature sciences, in particular there are significant unresolved research issues and possible inadequacies associated with software process assessment. In conclusion, although software process improvement is not yet proved to be the route to software quality, it remains a possible route. The question of the readiness of software producers in terms of knowledge and current capability of their software production practices to make effective use of process improvement techniques is also addressed. It is shown that a very high percentage of software developers have poor knowledge of software process issues and no visible software process. This paper concludes that their best action is to seek to install appropriate elementary management practices thereby achieving a state where software process improvement may become applicable to a visible process, should provable benefits be forthcoming. Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 8, © 1994 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517