IMPROVING IT EFFECTIVENESS THROUGH SOFTWARE PROCESS ASSESSMENT

This paper provides some answers to the frequently asked question: what proof is there that process management gives measurable benefit in practice? We report the results of an improvement programme that is helping to improve the effectiveness of Scotland's IT community. This programme is currently operating in over 20 organizations and uses software process assessment as a kev element. The majority of organizations have been on the programme for over a year and we have found that benefits can be obtained as early as six months from.the outset of an assessment-based improvement programme. Using the experience of working with these organizations, we discuss how to set up an improvement programme and define the roles, responsibilities and critical factors that we have found successful.