Software Engineering Institute

To help organizations in small settings pursue process improvement, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is developing this document, A Field Guide for Improving Processes in Small Settings, with how-to guidance, examples, templates, checklists and other information. This incomplete, prototype version of the field guide represents the work completed in phase one of the IPSS (Improving Processes in Small Settings) project.

The field guide is not constructed like CMMI or any other process improvement model or framework. The field guide is a collection of how-to guidance for process improvement in small settings, independent of the process model or standard used. We intend it to help fast-track the improvement effort and convey the scope of effort and skills involved at each step so that the small-setting practitioner may be a smarter consumer of process improvement products and services or be better at doing it themselves, whichever they choose.