Managing the software process in the middle of rapid growth: A metrics based experiment report from Nokia

Abstract

Software Process Improvement is a well known approach in software organisations these days. Process assessments or audits have been experienced in one form or another by 'almost everybody' in the business. What are the benefits that have been reached through these efforts? An assessment or an audit is often planned and carried out by people who are outsiders in the organisation and the result of these approaches is normally an improvement plan or a set of process improvement ideas. What happens after an assessment? Who takes the responsibility to take care that the improvement plan is really implemented in an organisation? More and more organisations take this challenge seriously and have allocated a remarkable amount of resources to develop their process improvement a continuous activity. This paper presents one approach for organising process management activity in an organisation and also practical experiences collected in using the approach.