Process improvement for small organizations

Software process improvement has been a hot topic within the software industry for numerous years. Its high profile has been partly due to the introduction and industry acceptance of standard improvement models, most notably the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. To this end, a small organization must minimize the limitations of its smaller size and maximize the benefits inherent in its culture. The authors describe an approach to SPI that has been used successfully in an organization of approximately 150 software engineers. The authors believe their approach to process improvement has produced a noticeable shift in attitudes toward the quality system. They claim that process improvement is now seen as a living thing that constantly evolves. Thus, although not everyone agrees with all aspects of the quality system, people now are far more willing than in the past to make constructive suggestions.