Continuous Process Improvement

Nowadays, a variety of different processes for the development and maintenance of software-intensive systems exists, ranging from agile development processes to classical plan-based approaches. There is no ultimate process that can be applied in each and every situation. It depends on the project goals and environment as well as on the required characteristics of the system under development. Development processes support organizations in developing software-intensive systems with certain quality characteristics, within a certain time span, and requiring a certain amount of effort. Continuous process improvement deals with the establishment and maintenance of high-quality processes, with analyzing their performance and effectiveness, and with initiating corresponding improvement actions if needed. In this chapter, we will take a closer look at how to systematically define and continuously improve development processes based on documented best practices and the use of measurement data collected during the enactment of the development process. The chapter highlights current challenges and presents solution approaches for establishing continuous process improvement in practice.

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