The SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) Project is a joint effort by the ISO and IEC to create an international standard for software process assessment. This book covers both the theory of SPICE and its practical applications, including the lessons learned from the SPICE trials. It includes a valuable automated tool on CD-ROM to help you apply the concepts presented in the book. The text shows the evolution of the most recent developments in the SPICE project. It documents the major products and the empirical evaluations that have been conducted thus far. The book is jointly written by the key experts involved in the SPICE project. The theory chapters describe the rationale behind the architecture and the contents of the V1.0 and V2.0 document set and how to interpret them. The remaining chapters describe the applications and how that make use of the theory behind them.

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in attention and focus on the discipline of software engineering. Software engineering tools and techniques have been developed to gain more predictable quality improvement results. Process standards such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO 9000, Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (SPICE), Agile Methodologies, and others have been proposed to assist organizations to achieve more predictable results by incorporating these proven standards and procedures into their software process. Software Process Improvement and Management: Approaches and Tools for Practical Development offers the latest research and case studies on software engineering and development. The production of new process standards assist organizations and software engineers in adding a measure of predictability to the software process. Companies can gain a decisive competitive advantage by applying these new and theoretical methodologies in real-world scenarios. Researchers, scholars, practitioners, students, and anyone interested in the field of software development and design should access this book as a major compendium of the latest research in the field.

This textbook is intended for SPI (software process improvement) managers and - searchers, quality managers, and experienced project and research managers. The papers constitute the research proceedings of the 16th EuroSPI (European Software Process Improvement, www.eurospi.net) conference held in Alcala (Madrid region), September 2–4, 2009, Spain. Conferences have been held since 1994 in Dublin, 1995 in Vienna (Austria), 1997 in Budapest (Hungary), 1998 in Gothenburg (Sweden), 1999 in Pori (Finland), 2000 in Copenhagen (Denmark), 2001 in Limerick (Ireland), 2002 in Nuremberg (G- many), 2003 in Graz (Austria), 2004 in Trondheim (Norway), 2005 in Budapest (Hungary), 2006 in Joensuu (Finland), 2007 in Potsdam (Germany), 2008 in Dublin (Ireland), and 2009 in Alcala (Spain). EuroSPI established an experience library (library.eurospi.net) which will be conti- ously extended over the next few years and will be made available to all attendees. EuroSPI also created an umbrella initiative for establishing a European Qualification Network in which different SPINs and national initiatives join mutually beneficial collaborations (ECQA – European Certification and Qualification Association, www.ecqa.org). With a general assembly during October 15–16, 2007 through Euro-SPI partners and networks, in collaboration with the European Union (supported by the EU L- nardo da Vinci Programme) a European certification association has been created (www.eu-certificates.org, www.ecqa.org) for the IT and services sector to offer SPI knowledge and certificates to industry, establishing close knowledge transfer links between research and industry.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination, SPICE 2015, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June 2015. The 17 revised full papers presented together with three short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on industrial frameworks; implementation and assessment; process improvement; agile processes; assessment and maturity models; process and education.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination, SPICE 2015, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June 2015. The 17 revised full papers presented together with three short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on industrial frameworks; implementation and assessment; process improvement; agile processes; assessment and maturity models; process and education.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination, SPICE 2014, held in Vilnius, Lithuania, in November 2014. The 21 revised full papers presented together with 6 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on developing process models for assessment; software process and models; software models and product lines; assessment; agile processes; processes improvement and VSE.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination, SPICE 2016, held in Dublin, Ireland, in June 2016. The 28 full papers presented together with 5 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 52 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: SPI in regulated and safety critical domains; gamification and education issues in SPI; SPI in agile and small settings; SPI and assessment; SPI and project management concerns; empirical research case studies of SPI; knowledge and human communications issues in SPI.