A Follow-Up Reflection on Software Process Improvement ROI

摘要

The software engineering discipline's continuing growth urges a shift toward value-based software engineering, to prove its contributions to the bottom line. However, the number of studies containing return-on-investment (ROI) data on software process improvement (SPI) hasn't grown much in the five years following the 2004 IEEE Software article "Measuring the ROI of Software Process Improvement." Because software engineering is so strongly related to the success and failure of business, we must find a way to measure value. The adoption of Six Sigma might just be the catalyst needed for the software engineering discipline. Software companies that embrace Six Sigma to structure their improvements will outclass competitors because of their skill in having their improvement efforts contribute directly to the financial bottom line.