Process Improvement

Updated 22 Jul 2026

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def
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  the set of activities aimed at understanding, analyzing, and changing existing software processes to increase product quality, reduce costs, or accelerate development
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approaches
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  process maturity approach — focuses on improving process and project management and introducing good software engineering practice; level of maturity reflects how well good practice has been adopted
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  agile approach — focuses on iterative development and reduction of process overhead; primary characteristics are rapid delivery and responsiveness to change
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the process improvement cycle
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  measure → analyze → change → repeat
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process improvement activities
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  process measurement — quantitatively measure attributes of process or product to form a baseline
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  process analysis — assess the current process; identify weaknesses and bottlenecks
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  process change — propose and introduce changes to address identified weaknesses
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process metrics
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  time taken for process activities to be completed
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  resources required (e.g., total effort in person-days)
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  number of occurrences of events (e.g., defects discovered)
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SEI Capability Maturity Model (CMM) levels
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  1 — Initial: essentially uncontrolled
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  2 — Repeatable: product management procedures defined and used
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  3 — Defined: process management procedures and strategies defined and used
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  4 — Managed: quality management strategies defined and used
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  5 — Optimizing: process improvement strategies defined and used
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related

Linked references 3

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