How to welcome software process improvement and avoid resistance to change

Abstract

Pressures for more complex products, customer dissatisfaction and problems related to cost and schedule overruns increase the need for effective management response and for improvement of software development practices. In this context, cultural aspects can influence and interfere in a successful implementation of a software process improvement program. This paper explores cultural issues, discussing in a detailed way one de-motivator factor to implement successfully a software process improvement action. The analysis was carried out in a software development organization and provided some insights into how this organization would overcome it. We backed our studies conducting a process simulation. Our findings suggest that other than finance, technology and other issues, the cultural aspects should be among the first concerns to be taken into account when implementing a Software Process Improvement program. Our main contribution is to give evidences that a small change in the behavior of the software development team members can improve the quality of the product and reduce development rework. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.