Why SPI Initiative Failed: Contextual Factors and Changing Software Development Environment

For today´s software business and its productivity, software process improvement (SPI) plays a significant role. Organizations that produce software face challenges with the productivity and effectiveness of their operation. The literature lists numerous methods to make the operation better. Critical success factors are defined in order to make the successful improvement procedures more certain. However, these methodologies need to be adjusted to match the organizational context. All organizations and their environments are different, and thus the solution that is the most suitable for individual needs must be modified or localized to fit the case-specific contextual demands. This paper studies the importance of these contextual demands in SPI. In the paper, a framework is presented through which the software improvement process can be better under-stood and studied. The framework offers a view to understanding the change process describing eight change paths that may be observed when software process improvement is regarded.