On integrating assessment and measurement: towards continuous assessment of software engineering processes

Abstract

Goal-driven measurement and software process assessment are established technologies and are used extensively in the software industry to facilitate process improvement. Usually, these are activities performed by separate measurement and assessment experts with little mutual co-operation. In the PROFES research project, measurement and assessment have been successfully integrated to save costs and seek synergies. In this paper, we describe these integration possibilities and identify their limitations, with a focus on continuous assessment using ISO 15504 as a background reference model for software processes. As a practical example, we present Tokheim's experience of establishing and using the continuous assessment approach in extending their measurement programme on the system testing process of the Omega system.