Combining Capability Assessment and Value Engineering: A BOOTSTRAP Example

Process improvement is a challenging task for software engineering. As Kuvaja [7]. has stated it:” It is difficult to find a unique way to identify a common improvement path suitable to all kinds of organizations.” The BOOTSTRAP method gives an assessor tools to evaluate processes. As a method it evaluates processes with low capability and a high effect on an organization’s goals the most important, and with high capability and a low effect on the organization the least important. It takes into account the organization’s needs and goals, capability profiles of its processes and industry as the main drivers of process improvement. Value Engineering (VE) is a systematic method to improve the value and optimize the life cycle cost of a function or a facility. VE generates cost improvements without sacrificing the capability levels needed. By combining these two processes, process improvement work can be tailored to take into consideration, not only the capabilities of software processes but also the values of the same processes. This article discusses how to enhance the BOOTSTRAP assessment method to include new value characteristics and phases. Same principles can be applied also in other capability based assessment methods (for example CMM, CMMI or SPICE).