Software Engineering Institute

The first International Research Workshop for Process Improvement in Small Settings was held October 19-20, 2005 at the Software Engineering Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attendees from Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Ireland, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Spain, and the United States discussed the challenges of process improvement in small and medium size enterprises, small organizations within large companies, and small projects. The presentations addressed starting and sustaining process improvement, qualitative and quantitative studies, and using Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), Agile, Modelo de Procesos para la Industria de Software (MoProSoft), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and Team Software Process (TSP) in small settings. The workshop also had working groups that discussed issues unique to small settings, such as regional support centers and process improvement “on a shoestring.” This report includes the papers from this workshop and presents conclusions and next steps for process improvement in small settings. This report also contains the workshop breakout session results.