Process improvement: An alternative to BPR for software development organizations

Whereas BPR (Business Process Re-engineering or Business Process Re-design) is being offered as a means by which organizations may be able to respond to the challenge of increased competition, Process Improvement, on the other hand aims to improve productivity, product quality and competitive advantage. Fundamentally, both activities offer a means by which organizations may be able to deal with a rapidly changing business environment, through internal change. BPR extends the concept of process change (albeit rapid change through innovation) to include changes to the basic assumptions and principles of management. The results, however are not positive: estimates of between 50 and 70% of firms fail to achieve the expected dramatic gains from BPR. An alternative to BPR for software development organizations is Process Assessment and Process Improvement. This paper presents a Process/Product Quality Model which incorporates three separate evaluations: process conformance, process effectiveness and product quality as a means of evaluating 'what is', i.e. the current status of activities, within a software development organization. The model aims to identify possible areas for process improvement and to uncover all relevant issues which may affect attempts to implement improvement initiatives. Preliminary findings from a set of case studies conducted within software development organizations in Australia are presented in support of the usefulness of the model.