Improving the Software Process Through Process Definition and Modeling

This guidebook provides software professionals with the tools, techniques, guidelines and examples the need to become more proficient in performing process improvement. Improving the Software Process Through Process Definition and Modeling covers the context, concepts and activities of process definition, supporting the notion that defining and modeling your process is absolutely critical to the success of your improvement effort. Whether the goal is to increase productivity, reduce rework, minimize development costs, maintain budgets and schedules, improve tool usage, facilitate faster project start-up, or boost quality, this book will help you reap the benefits of process definition and modeling.
With this guidebook, software engineers, process engineers and modelers, project managers, line engineers, and anyone interested or working in the areas of process analysis, design, improvement or management will learn how to efficiently create and evolve a quality set of process definitions that will direct and improve the ways in which their organization's software is developed. This guidebook covers all of the issues and aspects of process definition including representation and modeling, as well as the motivation and rationale behind each of the recommended techniques. Illustrated by real-world applications and with technical and managerial advice throughout, this book will enable you to create and implement effective software development processes throughout your organization.
Important features: assists you in building a common foundation for process engineering, training and documentation; helps you to develop process-oriented guidebooks, improve their usability, or reduce their cost; demonstrates how to develop process training and education; guides you in improving your process for assessment pursuant to CMM Level 2 or 3 or for ISO 9000 certification; shows how to construct process representations either generally or based upon SADT, ETVX, or another process representation paradigm; instructs how to model your processes in a way that facilitates process reverse engineering or process reengineering.
This book is essential for professionals and organizations in the software-intensive high-technology industry who are charged with developing a process improvement action plan, and need to define parts or all of their processes.