Faster, better and cheaper are challenges that IT-companies face every day. The customer's expectations shall be met in a world where constant change in environment, organization and technology are the rule rather that the exception. A solution for meeting these challenges is to share knowledge and experience - use the company's own experience, and the experience of other companies. Process Improvement in Practice - A Handbook for IT Companies tackles the problems involved in launching these solutions.
Process Improvement in Practice - A Handbook for IT Companies is designed for small IT companies who wish to start with systematic improvement. The methods and techniques in this handbook are tried in practice, and have proven to be easy to use and scalable for local needs. Managers and developers will discover useful tips to initiate improvement work efficiently. This practical handbook is based on the authors' improvement work in a range of companies since the mid-nineties.
Process Improvement in Practice - A Handbook for IT Companies is designed for a professional audience, composed of researchers and practitioners in industry. This book is also suitable for graduate-level students in software process improvement and software engineering.

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Preface 1: Introduction 1.1 What is the purpose of this handbook? 1.2 What is a process 1.3 What is process improvement 1.4 How can process improvement help software organizations 1.5 How can we get going with process improvement 1.6 What is special about software development 1.7 Basic Principles 1.8 Overview of this handbook 2: Knowledge and Learning 2.1 Why learning? 2.2 What does learning mean? 2.3 Physical arrangements 2.4 Organizational and cultural arrangements 2.5 Arrangements for technical infrastructure 2.6 Arrangements in the projects 2.7 How do we stimulate creativity 3: Improvement Process 3.1 Organizing process improvement 3.2 A model for project-based experiential learning 3.3 Initiating - learning before doing 3.4 Executing - learning whilst doing 3.5 Closing - learning after doing 4: Measurement and Feedback 4.1 Process for measurement and feedback 4.2 Planning to use data 4.3 Data collection 4.4 Data analysis 4.5 Feedback 4.6 Follow-up 5: Process Assessment 5.1 Why perform an assessment? 5.2 Basic principles 5.3 Gap analysis 5.4 A participative approach to process assessment 6: Process Guides 6.1 What is a process guide? 6.2 Why is a process guide useful? 6.3 What should we put into a process guide? 6.4 How to develop a process guide 6.5 How to adapt a process guide 6.6 How to maintain a process guide 7: Techniques 7.1 Technique 1: Feedback meeting 7.2 Technique 2: GQM abstraction sheet 7.3 Technique 3: Mind map 7.4 Technique 4: Brainstorming 7.5 Technique 5: KJ/Affinity diagram 7.6 Technique 6: Prioritizing 7.7 Technique 7: Time-line 7.8 Technique 8: Action list 7.9 Technique 9: Root cause analysis Bibliography About the Authors