An investigation in software process improvement in the software development of a large electricity utility

Process improvement techniques as well as metrics have just recently been implemented in the software development department in the Eskom Information Technology Department. The techniques implemented are Function Point Analysis (FPA) and the ISO/IEC 15504 emerging international standard for software process improvement and capability determination (SPICE). Subscription to the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) Research and Advisory Services Performance Enhancement Programme (PEP) has facilitated the collection of baselining and measurement data, of which FPA is part. This paper seeks to provide background of these techniques, details of the four projects which were chosen for the comparative case study, and the approach taken for the study. Preliminary results are reviewed.