Defining a set of criteria for the assessment of tool support for CMM-based software process improvement

Researchers as well as practitioners agree that the quality of a software product relies to a high degree on the quality of the software process. Therefore recent research efforts in software engineering focus on software process assessment and improvement (SPAI). Numerous approaches like the CMM, Bootstrap, SPICE, AMI were developed. An important factor influencing success and progress of the implementation of a SPAI approach in an organization is its software engineering tools environment. The aim of the paper is to determine a set of criteria concerning the assessment of the suitability of a tools environment for the promotion of CMM-based SPAI. We base our investigations on the 316 CMM Key Practices. We structure them according to the issues they address. For each issues cluster we determine the functionality to be provided and artifacts to be managed by a tool as assessment criteria. The degree of fulfillment of a certain criteria depends on if and how the associated function or artifact is provided. Our investigations result in the definition of 12 evaluation criteria. Examples are the necessity to provide computerized process representations or to provide meta process support like process monitoring or process evolution. After defining the criteria we determine their importance for reaching the CMM Maturity Levels and for supporting the Key Practices associated to the CMM Common Features.