A software process improvement support system: SPIS

The Capability Maturity Moder (CMM) proposed by the Software Engineering In stitute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is an effective framework for software process improvement (SPI) because it can increase development productivity and improve software quality for many software development co mpanies. However, the CMM only indicates 'what' needs to be improved, it do es not indicate 'how to' perform software process improvement activities (S PIA). In this paper we describe a Software Process Improvement support Syst em (SPIS) that does indicate 'how to' perform SPIA. It is designed to be us ed mainly for internal SPIA by software development companies and their pro ject teams. The SPIS is composed of seven support tools and promotes SPIA. The tools include a specific capability maturity model (SCMM), rules for as sessing a company's maturity level, and an assessor qualification system fo r organizing the assessment team. These tools were extracted deductively fr om our experience and have proved to be effective when used for the SPIA at our company. (R): CMM is registered trademarks in the U.S. Patent and Trad emark Office. SM: CMM is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University.