Most problems in ICT development and maintenance are of human nature, not technological obstacles. The co-operation in teams and projects is key to success.

Process engineering facilitates co-operation by providing the chance to establish a common view on how the work should be done. ICT organizations face the challenge to have strong processes to reduce cost and keep the processes flexible so that the teams can quickly adapt their approach to the rapidly changing requirements. In addition to process capability is the attitude of continuous improvement very important. Only fast learning organisations are competitive and likely to survive.

Software Process Improvement (SPI) requires an effective assessment of the software process, leading to the identification of improvement challenges and opportunities. SPI also requires appropriate methodologies to achieve these improvements. In this Quality Aspects of Process Improvement and Assessment track, we seek contributions to a better understanding of how process improvement and assessment does work and how does it help ICT organizations.

Suggested topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

• Methods, models and tools for process assessment and improvement
• Interrelationship between process assessment models and process models
• Maturity models: where are we, where are we going
• Quantitative effects of process improvement using maturity models
• Process improvement and assessment in small to medium companies
• Agile approaches to process improvement and assessment
• The cohabitation of traditional and agile approaches in an organisation or even in a project
• Process improvement techniques in agile frameworks
• Process improvement and assessment in the “trenches” (aka case studies)
• Empirical studies concerning process improvement and assessment
• Metrics for process control in ICT
• Quantitative process improvement
• Approaches to process improvement without assessment
• Measurement frameworks for process assessment and improvement

Track Committee

Co-Chairs:

• Ana Cavalcanti Rocha, COPPE–Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and CNPq – Brazilian Research Council researcher, Brazil
• Karol Frühauf , INFOGEM AG, Switzerland

Program Committee:

• Isabel Lopes Margarido, University of Porto, Portugal
• Ralf Kneuper, Dr. Ralf Kneuper Consulting, Germany
• Marcello Thiry, Univali -Universidade do Vale do Itajaí, Brazil
• Michael Felderer, University of Innsbruck, Switzerland
• Gerhard Fessler, Consultant, Germany
• Amalia Alvarez, Qualy IT, Uruguay
• Srinath Vaidyanathan, SIX Financial Information Ltd
• Patricia Mcquaid, California Polytechnic State University, USA
• Eva Kisonova, Siemens program and System Engineering , Slovak Republic
• Andreas Nehfort, Nehfort IT-Consulting KG , Austria