Making SPI happen: the IDEAL distribution of effort

Software process improvement (SPI) has become one of the most widely used approaches to increase the capability of software organisations. Many organisations experience a successful start on their SPI initiatives only to realise that the commitment to change weakens significantly after a first phase of initial excitement. This paper explores this problem based on experiences from Ericsson. Two quite similar SPI initiatives situated within the same organisational context are compared and contrasted. Both initiatives were carefully planned and managed following the IDEAL process; they got of to a successful start; and they both developed new or improved processes. But only one of the initiatives led to improvements of engineering practices while the other had little or no effect on the software operation at Ericsson. Our research shows that the effort of the two SPI initiatives is distributed quite differently between the phases of the IDEAL model and between generic actions and actions dedicated to particular software projects. The paper explores this phenomenon both as an indicator and possible explanation of differences in implementation success. Interpretations relating to key issues in SPI are offered together with a discussion of implications for research and practice.