7.2 Improving the Software Development Process

The following sections address process assessment, improvement methods, and techniques specific to software development.

Chapter 3 introduced different software development processes. Each of the different process models defines a specific approach to software development that can be implemented in projects in many different ways. How good the approaches are implemented can be assessed, we talk about the maturity level of the (“practiced”) process.

The maturity level refers to the activities or processes defined in the development model compared to so-called “best practices” and their practical implementation. Best practices refer to activities that have, over many years, proven to be successful. The more accurately processes are defined in the development model and the higher the degree of completeness and accuracy of their implementation, the higher is their maturity level.