A design of configuration management practices and CMPET in common criteria based on software process improvement activity

Abstract

Recently several approaches have been attempted to improve software quality as well as the process capability of an organization through software process improvement (SPI). As one effort of such SPI activities, many organizations have assessed their software processes to find ways to improve their software process capability. For an organization to be successful in process improvement, the integrity of configuration items in configuration management process is assured by identifying the configuration items and controlling the items' changes. With configuration management process in place, we can expect reduction of cost and delivery time, the ultimate objectives in software development. Based on analysis of related configuration management standards such as CMM/CMMI, ISO/IEC TR 15504, IEEE Std 828, and Common Criteria (ISO/IEC 15408), this paper has refined a new procedure for configuration management practice using checklist, and we have implemented a tool, CMPET that can evaluate configuration management practices quantitatively. Our present implementation focuses on providing standard procedures and templates so that software developer or evaluator can perform their configuration management activities systematically. © Springer-Verlag 2004.