Abstract
After several years of using the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) software process maturity framework, preliminary data is now available. This paper provides an overview of the SEI methods, summarizes the current data, and discusses the trends and implications of this work. The paper opens with a brief summary of the importance of software to modern society. It then discusses the software process and software process maturity. The principles of software process assessments are next described along with the various assessment types introduced by the SEI. The general state of software practice is then covered, including data on U.S. and Japanese software organizations. The paper concludes with some observations on the state of software practice and comments on the rates of organizational improvement.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Curtis, B., H. Krasner, N. Iscoe, “A Field Study of the Software Design Process for Large Systems,” Communications of the ACM, 31 (11), November 1988, pp. 1268–1287.
Cusumano, M., “The Software Factory: A Historical Interpretation,” IEEE Software, March 1989, pp. 23–30.
Dion, R., “Qualifying the Benefit of Software Process Improvement,” Proceedings, 1989 SEPG Workshop, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.
Humphrey, W. S., W. Sweet, et al., A Method for Assessing the Software Engineering Capability of Contractors, Software Engineering Institute, CMU/SEI-87-TR-23, ADA187230, September 1987.
Humphrey, W. S., Managing the Software Process, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1989.
Humphrey, W. S., D. H. Kitson, T. K. Kasse, The State of Software Engineering Practice: A Preliminary Report, Technical Report CMU/SEI-89-TR-1, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, February 1989.
Humphrey, W. S., T. Snyder, and R. Willis, “Software Process Improvement at Hughes Aircraft Company,” IEEE Software, in press, 1991.
Humphrey, W. S., D. H. Kitson, and J. L. Gale, “A Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Software Process Maturity,” Proceedings 13th International Conference on Software Engineering, Austin, TX, May 1991.
Kolkhorst, B. G. and A. J. Macinea, “Developing Error-Free Software, Proceedings of Computer Assurance Congress '88, IEEE Washington Section on System Safety, 27 June 1–July 1988, pp. 99–107.
Olson, T. G., W. S. Humphrey, and D. H. Kitson, Conducting SEI-Assisted Software Process Assessments, Technical Report CMU/SEI-89-TR-7, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, February 1989.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Humphrey, W.S. (1991). Recent findings in software process maturity. In: Endres, A., Weber, H. (eds) Software Development Environments and CASE Technology. SDE 1991. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 509. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54194-2_39
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54194-2_39
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54194-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47485-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive