Evaluating Software Process Assessment Methods Based On Engineering Design Principles

Software Process Assessment (SPA) is an effective method used to understand organizations’ software processquality. Assessment methods are tools used to identify the possible software process improvement opportunities. This paper studies the design process of the SPA methods from an engineering viewpoint and uses Vincenti’s classifications of engineering design knowledge as an analytical tool. The analyses end up with the necessary pieces of knowledge that the SPA methods’ designers bring with them before starting the design process of the SPA method. These pieces of knowledge provide useful guidelines, mainly for less experienced designers, to start SPA methods design. For the already developed SPA methods, these pieces of knowledge can be used as evaluation criteria that disclose the strengths and weaknesses of theses SPA methods. Keywords— Software, Process, Assessment, Evaluation, Design, Engineering, Criteria