Using Cost Benefit Analyses to Develop Software Process Improvement (SPI) Strategies

The purpose of this State of the Art Report (SOAR) is to organize the costs and benefits of Software Process Improvement (SPI) strategies, methods, approaches, and alternatives into a form and methodology that enables software managers to identify and select the SPI strategies that are most closely aligned with their business, organizational, and technical goals and objectives. This report examines a cross-section of popular SPI methods and approaches, prioritizes them by their costs and benefits, classifies and groups them according to their characteristics, and guides software managers and developers toward a small collection of highly effective SPI strategies.