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P. Weinhofer:
"A Light-Weight Assessment Framework for Process Maturity Evaluation: Case Study at a Large IT Service Provider";
Betreuer/in(nen): S. Biffl, D. Winkler, K. John; Institut für Softwaretechnik und Interaktive Systeme, 2008; Abschlussprüfung: 28.04.2008.

Managers of software development companies use software process maturity frameworks
to document the maturity of their company´s software development processes in order to
attract potential customers. Quality management systems (QMSs), e.g. SPICE, CMMI, and
Bootstrap represent such frameworks and accepted common practice. However, frequent
points of criticism on well-accepted frameworks like SPICE are that they can be expensive
and take considerable effort to apply, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Also the immediate benefit is often not clearly visible to the employees involved. Thus
there is a need for a light-weight process maturity evaluation model that allows keeping the
advantages of QMSs while eliminating their disadvantages. Moreover large companies
could get a systematic first impression on the completeness, effectiveness and efficiency of
their development processes with a light-weight process maturity evaluation framework.
This thesis proposes a light-weight assessment framework for process maturity evaluation
based on the processes defined at a case study company. The light-weight framework aims
at satisfying the following criteria: (a) actually measure process maturity, (b) support
process improvement analysis, (c) extensibility, and compatibility to a common software
process model, e.g. SPICE, and (d) usefulness and usability for employees.
The need for more mature processes is often higher in larger projects while smaller
projects often apply more informal development and project management approaches.
Therefore project size should be a factor in maturity assessment. We analysed the
processes defined in the case study company with process experts and identified groups of
activities associated which small, medium, and large projects.
Target audience of this thesis are quality and project managers who need to determine the
level of maturity of selected processes. We report on a case study of the application of the
proposed light-weight process maturity assessment framework at a large IT service
provider to evaluate the usefulness and ease of use of the framework, specifically for the
SPICE process set: Engineering, Quality assurance, Configuration management, Project
management, and Change management process. Investigation was done, how well the
above stated processes were used in a range of small to large software development
projects.
Major results of the case study were that the constructed framework to measure process
maturity was well accepted by project managers and team members. The opinion was
given that it was easily applicable, and provided a fast overview on how well the processes
are used in an environment.