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Evaluation of Software Mediated Process Assessments for IT Service Management

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Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (SPICE 2015)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 526))

Abstract

IT service organisations are cognisant that continual service improvement can be achieved by conducting regular process assessments. However, such assessments are expensive and so we have developed a Decision Support System (DSS) tool which uses the international standard for process assessment ISO/IEC 15504 to offer a transparent and efficient approach. This paper provides evidence of evaluation of this software-mediated process assessment (SMPA) approach which was based on ISO/IEC 15504, ISO/IEC 20000 and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). In a usability evaluation of the online tool, participants reported largely positive experiences finding the online survey easy to use trustworthy, comfortable, generally effective, and more transparent and less costly to implement than a manual assessment. However, to engage in process improvement, human judgment, and possibly expert assessment facilitators are necessary for assessment validation and improvement, that is, a fully automated online survey that is strictly standard-based is not very useful. Further clarification of the survey questions with relevant examples, clearer answer options and having more visible goal statements on every question page were suggested.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Enterprise, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia

    Anup Shrestha, Aileen Cater-Steel, Mark Toleman & Terry Rout

Authors
  1. Anup Shrestha
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  2. Aileen Cater-Steel
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  3. Mark Toleman
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  4. Terry Rout
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aileen Cater-Steel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Terry Rout

  2. Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Rory V. O’Connor

  3. Impronova AB, Lindome, Sweden

    Alec Dorling

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Shrestha, A., Cater-Steel, A., Toleman, M., Rout, T. (2015). Evaluation of Software Mediated Process Assessments for IT Service Management. In: Rout, T., O’Connor, R., Dorling, A. (eds) Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination. SPICE 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 526. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19860-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19860-6_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19859-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19860-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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