An application tool to support the implementation of integrated software process improvement for Malaysia's SME

Currently, a number of specific international standards are made available within software engineering discipline to support Software Process Improvement (SPI) such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO/IEC 15504, ISO/IEC 90003 and ISO/IEC 12207. However, different standards and practices may require substantial resources and cost, resulting in reluctance of adoption by software organizations especially those of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). Integrated Software Process Improvement Knowledge Base and Methodology is a proposed initiative being developed on the premise to harmonize and integrate a number of existing software process assessments and practices including improvement standards, models and benchmarks. This paper describes an application tool which was developed to implement the iSPA (Integrated Software Process Assessment) model. This tool was specially designed and formulated to support locally software development companies, especially of small scale enterprises to achieve some flexibility and choices in their self-assessment based on a customized SPI model for Malaysia SME which is iSPA.