Investigating measures for applying statistical process control in software organizations

Abstract

The growing interest in improving software processes has led organizations to aim for high maturity, where statistical process control (SPC) is required. SPC makes it possible to analyze process behavior, predict process performance in future projects and monitor process performance against established goals. The selection of measures for SPC can be a challenging task. Although the literature suggests measures for SPC, information is fragmented. With an aim towards providing a consolidated set of measures for SPC, as well as processes and goals related to these measures, we investigated the literature through a systematic mapping. Following that, we applied a questionnaire to three professionals from Brazilian organizations to check whether the measures they have used in SPC initiatives could also be found in literature. In this paper we discuss our main findings related to the 47 goals, 15 processes and 84 measures identified considering the systematic mapping and the questionnaire results.