Software development process benchmarking

Software process assessments are used within AT&T to develop an organizational baseline and drive continuous process improvement. A process has evolved within AT&T that is based on the Software Productivity Research Incorporated CHECKPOINT model and the Software Engineering Institute´s process maturity model. The history of software process assessments with AT&T, the methodology used in conducting an assessment, and the types of data collected are described. To identify corporate trends, as well as potential best current practices, a corporate database has been established to facilitate extensive data analyses. One can use this database to compare a project to a broad AT&T profile or to profiles of other projects of a similar type. Also, as projects are reassessed as part of their continuous process improvement cycle, one can do trend analysis on the data. Also discussed are the techniques being implemented to ensure that the assessment findings and recommendations are linked to the ongoing process improvement cycle