Managing Risk in Software Process Improvement: An Action Research Approach

We studied SPI in its organizational context through collaborative practice research (CPR), a particular form of action research. The CPR program involved close collaboration between practitioners and researchers over a three-year period to understand and improve SPI initiatives in four Danish software organizations. The problem of understanding and managing risks in SPI teams emerged in one of the participating organizations and led to this research. We draw upon insights from the literature on SPI and software risk management as well as practical lessons learned from managing SPI risks in the participating software organizations.