QuickLocus: A Software Development Process Evaluation Method for Small-Sized Organizations

Abstract

Many small-sized organizations have a significant role in the software business. A good software development process is the best way to assure quality to software products. Audits and evaluations are commonly used to verify implementation and certify the development process. This chapter describes the development and application of QuickLocus, a special-purpose evaluation method of software process developed to be applied in small-sized organizations. QuickLocus has been successfully applied since January 2003 by more than 50 organizations in process improvement programs. The reason for QuickLocus success is its low-cost methodology and its capability to output reliable information for kicking off a software improvement process. QuickLocus will provide organizations ways to be more competitive—producing better products at lower costs faster—ready to compete in the international software market. This chapter is organized in three parts: foundation, method, and results. The first one is theoretical and presents how the method was developed. The second part details the method itself, and the third part presents the method application results.