A practitioner experiment in understanding software process improvement using systems modular analysis

Abstract

Software process improvement (SPI) models can be difficult to understand, principally because they lack visual representations relating concepts to text. Some models do not provide guidelines to help us understand their properties: i.e., their modular structure, the control-regulation configuration of common features in a key process area, and the arrangement of key process areas at each level. We propose Systems Modular Analysis (SMA) as a graphical modelling approach to facilitate understanding of SPI models. Using SMA, we reveal the internal structure of a key process area (KPA) in CMM-SW as a non-redundant configuration of common features. When the Level 2 KPAs of CMM-SW are modelled using SMA, a normative structure which shows a modular and recursive arrangement of process areas is obtained. We conduct an experiment to show how SMA helps in understanding CMM-SW. We conclude that SMA significantly improves understanding of the properties and structure of CMM-SW Level 2. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.