TABLE OF CONTENTS Initiating process improvement after an assessment is challenging. The methods selected may have far-reaching consequences for the success or failure of the process improvement efforts. Most improvement initiatives are based on a problemsolving approach that starts with an analysis of the present situation and continues with planning, execution of the plan, and evaluation of the obtained results. Because many such approaches are available with problem-or domain-specific guidelines, selecting one may be difficult. In this chapter we describe several of the most prominent process improvement approaches, outline their steps, compare them, and finally select one that we think is the most promising for successful process improvement.
It is hard to imagine an organization that cannot be improved. Structured approaches have been developed because they streamline improvement efforts, enable effective planning, logically order the steps to be performed, guide the organization from the initial state to completion, and measure actual performance improvement.
There is more than one approach to process improvement. Some are generic and others are domain specific, but all are based on fundamental problem-solving concepts that require the following:
Identification of goals;
Analysis of the present situation;
Development of an approach;
Construction of a plan;
Execution of the plan;
Measurement of results.
Since the introduction of CMM -SW, the approaches developed for software process improvement have been extended to cover system and enterprise level issues. The extensions cover the front-end activities of system analysis and design, the back-end system integration and testing activities, and systems...
