Software process improvement models aim at continuous improvement. Models were adapted to develop a framework that meets the needs of small organizations. Experiences in the management of process improvement yielded to a set of key issues that contribute in achieving successful continuous improvement. The results can be used as guidance in management of continuous improvement, but also in development of future improvement methods.

Summary form only given. In a small software organization, a close and intense relationship with its customers is often a substitute for documentation along the software processes. Nevertheless, according to the quality standards, the inadequacy of the required documentation will retain the assessed capability of software processes on the lowest level. This article describes the interconnections between software process documentation and the maturity of the organization. The data is collected from the SPICE assessment results of small and medium sized software organizations in Finland. The aim of the article is to visualise the necessity of documentation throughout the software engineering processes in order to achieve a higher capability level. In addition we point out that processes with insufficient documentation decrease the chance to improve the quality of the processes, as it is impossible to track and analyse them.

Summary form only given. Small organizations require external support to initiate software process improvement (SPI). Obstacles in using international SPI models could be lowered with a collection of appropriate means. The described support and learning environment covers steps, tools and roles needed to rapidly achieve effective improvement of software processes. To enable efficient use of the SPI models, appropriate processes, roles, methods and tools are needed, too. The SPI related needs for technology transfer are remarkable, especially in small organizations. The SPI itself requires supportive training and consultation, but also the needs for knowledge, skills, methods and tools in the software engineering and management areas should be addressed. A baseline of the required features for a supporting environment is derived from the improvement process models and experiences of software organizations' needs. Extended features increase the functionality of the environment. The outcomes of the improvement process provide a complementary list of requirements for the environment. The SPI environment consists of the SPI process, related views and information. The SPI process is a collection of process steps defined in SPI models. Different views for different situations provide the flexibility needed in everyday SPI work. SPI related information is accessible through the environment's repositories. A tentative outline of an effective support environment enabling rapid software process improvement is presented

Summary form only given. The process of software process assessment presented in this paper is based on the software process assessment standard of ISO/IEC and practices applied in a software process improvement project with small software developing organizations. A project to establish a software process improvement network in the Satakunta region (SataSPIN) in Western Finland was started in August 1998. The ultimate objective of the project is to help ten small enterprises in the software business to develop their operations using international software process models. The project uses ISO/IEC 15504 TR (SPICE) as the software process assessment and improvement framework. The project is now moving on to its second phase, in which more software companies in the Satakunta region and more external advisors will be involved. The experiences of the first phase will be used to assist the SPI efforts of the whole software industry in the region. During the SataSPIN project a framework for software process improvement initiation was developed. The framework consists of three phases. The first phase aims at understanding the company needs and, on the other hand, the possibilities of SPI in achieving the business goals of the company. In the second phase the selected processes are assessed by using the SPICE Part 5 compatible model to provide detailed ideas for software process improvement. In the third phase of the framework the ideas are developed into actions

Summary form only given. Software process improvement (SPI) leads to changes in existing practices. The changes are first adopted by the organization to form goals for individuals. The individual employee adopts the generally guided habits and processes as a member of the, organization. Thus, the adoption process happens both on the organizational level and on the level of individuals. In addition, we can see both diffusion and infusion as part of the adoption. This paper reports the experiences of SPI of Pori School of Technology and Economics and the participating small and medium sized software companies. The experiences show, that the University itself, as an independent organization, is well suited to organize an activity like SPIN, which in addition to the service structure expects the best practice transfer between companies, i.e. the activity tends also to create unofficial communication between companies. Sometimes the benefits of this unofficial process improvement are even more considerable than the benefits of an organized, official improvement

This article views the situation of software process improvement (SPI) activities in two neighbouring European countries, Estonia and Finland, with the aim to point out the prerequisites of a country prior to implementing the SPI activities. The authors compare SPI activities in Finland and Estonia and analyse the reasons for the differences in the two countries. Through a comparison of the SPICE related SPI activities, the necessary prerequisites are derived which a country should fulfil prior to the implementation of SPI. After reading this article, the reader should have an idea about what needs to be done before successful implementation of a software process improvement programme

Summary form only given. A new work item for a software process assessment standard was approved by the International Standardization Organization in January 1993. The SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) project was established in June 1993 to assist the standardization project in its preparatory stage, to undertake user trials and, to create market awareness and take-up of the evolving standard. As a result of the projects the technical report of type 2 ISO/IEC 15504 was published in 1998 to provide a framework for the assessment of software processes. The technical report is composed of nine parts. Part 2 defines a two-dimensional reference model for describing processes and process capability used in a process assessment while Part 5 is an exemplar assessment model compatible with the reference model. In this paper we present a conceptual model of the reference model (part 2) and its compatible assessment model (part 5) of the technical report ISO/IEC 15504. We also show how the model can be implemented as a relational database

Summary form only given. Software process improvement (SPI) in small enterprises or business units requires special attention when applying models and standards which usually have been designed from the viewpoint of large organizations. Both the Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM) and the ISO/IEC 15504 TR-Software Process Assessment (SPICE) can be applied to small organizations. The key issue is what kind of priorities and preferences smaller organizations set for their SPI. The background of this work is a project, which supports small and medium sized software enterprises in software process improvement (SPI). Business needs are examined using SPICE as the framework for software processes and continuous process improvement. "A small company" means any software-producing organization with less than 100 employees. The most common starting point for SPI in a small company is that they have realized the need for process improvement, and have understanding and experience of good practices. On the other hand they do not have an overall view of the company situation and do not know any process models.

How are software process improvement outcomes related to targeted capability levels? The answer can serve as a feasible path forward for the improvement work in a software organization. The article provides guidance on what to include in the improvement effort at different levels of process capability. The reduction of premature documentation and practices reveals the essential work products needed to support the achievement of the desired capability level. This results in increased effectiveness of the improvement process even in the very beginning of the improvement work. The article opens up the process improvement process by presenting the relevant work products for each capability level. The key outcome is a step-wise approach to process improvement work products to lower the threshold for initiating the software process improvement work