Software Process Assessment Based On The Technology Of Goal-Griven Metric And Estimation

Process improvement has become one of the hot topics in software process research. Software process assessment plays a very important role in software process improvement. Currently, the assessments based on CMM and ISO/IEC 15504 are accepted and used worldwide. However, this kind of assessment generally depends on expert-groups and the assessment process is too abstract, which makes it difficult to operate. Therefore, ordinary users cannot judge their process maturity according to certain standards by themselves. Although many approaches have clear criteria, the result of assessment is inevitably subjective. Researches on these topics are still on the way.In order to relieve above-mentioned problems, metric models and estimation techniques were applied to software process assessment. The current GQM metric model was reformed and applied to the intermediate steps of the process to support the metric of process interior. There remain some limitations in the reformed metric model, including low maneuverability, no prediction and analyses in advance. These drawbacks make it difficult to correctly recognize the current software process status of an organization, and thus, make it difficult to control the process. Therefore, estimation techniques were applied to software process assessment to obtain the metricable characteristics of the process.On the basis of investigation and comparison of various standards, models and methods for software process assessment, metric techniques and estimation models, we demonstrated a more practical and objective software process assessment method. The contents of this thesis are as following:1. The application of metric techniques in the assessment process was studied. Goal-driven software metric mode was studied and its drawbacks were analyzed. This metric mode was reformed and applied to intermediate steps of the process to support metric of process interior.2. Main techniques and models of software estimation were studied. Two software estimation models, COCOMO model and function point model, were compared. These two models were used jointly to obtain some metricable characteristics of the process, including information on organization of standard software process, such as software scope, laborconsumption and cost estimation. The aim of this combination is not only to perform statistics and metric after the process, but also to do estimation analyses when the program was established. Thus, management and control of the process can be achieved.3. The above introduced models and methods were used in integrity to practical software process assessment. That is to say, a software process assessment method based on goal-driven metric and estimation techniques was used to alleviate drawbacks in the current assessment methods, such as abstract, low maneuverability and difficulties in implementation.The aim of this study is to improve the maneuverability of assessment process, to make the data provided by the process assessment more solid and persuasive, to make the assessment result as objective as possible, to provide some applicable methods for "how to do", and to be helpful to improvement of process ability level. Investigations on these topics are helpful to better implement of software process assessment. It has great practical significance to accelerate software process improvement.