Project assessments: supporting commitment, participation, and learning in software process improvement

One of the most popular ways to improve the software development capability in organizations is to embark upon a Software Process Improvement (SPI) program often based on a normative model. Main concerns in such a SPI program includes creating commitment towards SPI, involving all parts of the organization in the SPI program, and creating opportunities for learning. We suggest the use of project assessments to support SPI programs in addressing these and other important concerns. In this paper we present two techniques to perform project assessments. The paper contains actual results from applying the two techniques in two longitudinal SPI projects in Danske Data and L.M. Ericsson Denmark. The techniques have proven to be effective tools to support the SPI process in terms of the three concerns; commitment participation, and learning.