The Software Process Capability Assessment Framework

Since the concept of TQM (Total Quality Management) is introduced into software, it has brought great change to software quality assurance. The focus of quality is no longer on testing software product; instead, people focus on the process which is used to produce the software. The hero of software production is no longer the fireman who is component of fixing bugs but the person who find the causes of the defects or who obey the process well. In recent years, CMM has become a standard for software process appraisal. In our country, it is just beginning. Only two organizations have passed the level 5 assessments. These two Motorola's organizations are located in Beijing and Nanjing. There is no organization which has passed level 4 assessment. And a few organizations have passed level 2 or 3 assessments. Most are just beginning.Now, CMM is just in fashion in China. However, most of organizations have abandoned the original purpose of CMM. The establishment and improvement of a theory in this field is in urgent demand. Taking the establishment of a complete set of theory as the long-term target, with CMM as the main subject, the thesis has made an in-depth research in the architecture of software process capability appraisal. The architecture has been constructed and the framework for implementation has been designed and implemented. Specifically: A classification and summary is made on the position of process in the software engineering architecture. After an analysis of the architecture of software engineering, based on the software project management, an analysis of the effect of process on software productivity and research work on the standards of software process capability appraisal are made. After this, we focus on the Capability Maturity Model for Software. Research work on CMM in introduced. A software process improvement based on CMM is made, validating and verifying the framework of CMM. An example of improvement projects details the implementation of software process improvement based on CMM.