Software Process Improvement in Small and Medium Sized Software Enterprises in Eastern Finland: A State-of-the-Practice Study

Software Process Improvement (SPI) has been proven to increase product and service quality as organizations apply it to achieve their business objectives. Improvement needs of small organizations are same as larger organizations, i.e. they want to achieve better results in software projects, product quality, and customer satisfaction and put an end to the project overruns and failures. However the resources of the small company for SPI-work are often limited and external support seems to be essential. Companies are lacking experience and knowledge how to define and implement appropriate improvement plans and actions. The paper presents current results of software process assessment and improvement work done at University of Joensuu in cooperation with small and medium-sized software companies.