Artifact-based software process improvement and management: a method proposal

When it comes to software process improvement (SPI), process engineers look for SPI methods to support process analysis, design, realization, deployment, and management. Although a number of di erent SPI methods and models exist, process engineers tend to view these as too generic, too large, or a poor t for the organization in which SPI is conducted. A strategy to overcome these shortcomings is to concentrate on the artifacts, which precisely de ne the desired outcomes, rather than on speci c methods. In this paper, we present the Artifact-based Software Process Improvement & Management (ArSPI) model that provides a uni ed perspective on SPI and company-wide software process management (SPM), the required key artifacts, and the life cycle models. ArSPI is shown to be of practical support to industry who called for a practical way to de ne the interfaces between SPI projects. This paper concludes with an example of how ArSPI paved the way for several organizations through applying the model in real-world SPI projects.