Das Rätsel des prozeßorientierten Softwarequalitätsmanagement

Process-oriented software quality management has gained considerable attention both from academia and industry. This is mainly due to the application of the Capability Maturity Model and the ISO 9000 standards throughout the world. Process-oriented software quality management (PSQM) aims at achieving higher quality of software products and at reducing development costs. Advocates of PSQM claim that applying PSQM improves the success of software companies. However, various examples are incompatible with this assertion. From these incompatibilities we deduce the puzzle of process-oriented software quality management. We show that objectives and recommendations of PSQM are only adequate for companies that operate in a relatively stable environment. Companies that operate in a turbulent environment and that depend on flexible processes and innovative products need different recommendations. From this we conclude that objectives and recommendations of PSQM as well as the advocates’ assertions need to be modified.