State of the art and future of research in software process improvement

Software process improvement (SPI) is a relatively new area, developed in the last twenty years. Most ideas in SPI were adopted from the theories and methodologies for quality in manufacturing systems developed in the last few decades In the last years, we have seen an explosion in the number of methodologies, models, appraisal methods, and research in SPI, such as the ISO/IEC 15504, CMM, CMMI, Agile Methodologies, ISO 9000, Balbridge, Six Sigma, etc. to mention a few. Furthermore, each model and methodology is supported by different groups of people and research groups, which makes it difficult for practitioners, university teachers, and researchers to be able to understand, teach, adopt, and apply those best practices for the development and maintenance of software and systems