MPS Model and TABA Workstation: Implementing Software Process Improvement Initiatives in Small Settings

Small and medium-size enterprises (SME) are usually hindered from improving their processes due to the complexity and costs involved in software process improvement (SPI). In this context, Brazilian software industries and research universities are working cooperatively to implement a strategy aiming to improve software processes of Brazilian SME. The main goal of this initiative is to develop and disseminate a Brazilian software process model (named MPS model) aligned to Brazilian software industry realities. In order to cope with factors that have influence on SPI success, we developed an approach to implement MPS model-based initiatives through the support of a process-centered software engineering environment named TABA Workstation. This paper presents the MPS Model components and the main functionalities of the TABA Workstation to support MPS model-based implementations in SME. We also discuss the achieved results of Brazilian SME that adopted the presented approach.