Problem Diagnosis in Software Process Improvement

This paper addresses software process improvement. In particular it reports on action research undertaken to understand the problems with software processes of a large Danish company. It is argued that in order to understand what the specific problems are we may, on the one hand, rely on process models like CMM or Bootstrap. On the other hand, we may also see the specific and unique features of software processes in this company through what we call problem diagnosis. Problem diagnosis deals with eliciting problems perceived by software project managers and with forming commitment structures to enable process improvement to effectively take place. It is argued that problem diagnosis a useful approach and that it has advantages over model-based assessment.