PIM.3 Process Improvement

Linked Knowledge Nuggets:
arrow_forward "Combining ASPICE with functional safety requirements"

person Author: Process Fellows
When ASPICE meets ISO 26262, overlap is inevitable. Instead of duplicating effort, align processes, project planning and documentation: Define interfaces early between safety and other roles, use shared terminology, and clarify ownership of key artifacts like safety plans, requirements, and validations. One important key for success is an integrated process approach!

arrow_forward "Competitive despite processes!"

person Author: Timo Karasch
We live in tricky times. Cost pressure is constantly rising, complexity continues to increase, we have less and less time and our employees are groaning under all this pressure. And that's not all. Then the “quality experts” come along and demand “process-compliant implementation in accordance with applicable standards”. How are we supposed to manage this without losing out to the lurking competition? So that we are not defenceless against these outrageous demands, I would like to try to give you a few powerful arguments. With a little finesse, we will learn in this webinar how we can use the following 5 theses to remain competitive despite processes:

1. standards block our flexibility!
2. processes slow us down!
3. projects only ever need more resources!
4. documentation is an annoying overhead!
5. more roles always means more staff!

• school Webinar recording and slides
  

arrow_forward "How to create process compliance without killing creativity?"

person Author: Process Fellows
A common misconception: process equals rigidity. In reality, frameworks like ASPICE offer room for tailoring. Instead of prescribing how to do things, they ask you to prove that you're achieving results in a repeatable, structured way. Creativity thrives when it’s grounded in clarity — not chaos.

arrow_forward "Process Improvement Starts with Listening"

person Author: Process Fellows
Don’t improve alone. Talk to the people doing the work. What slows them down? What helps? Let experience drive improvement – and ASPICE will follow naturally.

arrow_forward "Process debt is real – pay it off regularly"

person Author: Process Fellows
Like technical debt, process complexity grows silently. Revisit ownership, simplify wording, remove dead templates. Keep it clean and aligned.

arrow_forward "Summary of the SPI manifesto"

person Author: Process Fellows
The SPI Manifesto (Software Process Improvement Manifesto) was created by a group of international experts during workshops held at the EuroSPI Conference in Alcalá, Spain in 2009 and officially published in early 2010. Its purpose is to define core values and principles that make process improvement initiatives truly effective and sustainable.

• Key Motivations
  Many SPI assessments fail to lead to lasting improvements. Improvement actions are often not implemented or tracked. Success is frequently limited to individual projects rather than scaled across organizations.
• Core Values (excerpt)
  The manifesto emphasizes on values and principles. Exemplary values are:
  • Practicality: Improvement actions must be realistic and applicable.
  • Sustainability: Improvements should be embedded into organizational culture.
  • People Involvement: Active participation of those affected by the processes is essential.
  • Transparency and Traceability: Actions and results must be visible and measurable.
• Principles (excerpt)
  • Focus on real organizational needs, not just compliance.
  • Ensure management support and commitment.
  • Promote continuous learning and feedback.
  • Align SPI activities with business goals.

The SPI manifesto was created with the support of our Process Fellows Bernhard Sechser and Jürgen Schmied. The full content of the SPI manifesto can be found via the linked pdf file (see below).

• school External link to SPI manifesto stored at EUROSPI website
  

arrow_forward "The power of process ownership"

person Author: Process Fellows
Assigning clear ownership to each process area leads to real engagement. A process owner drives improvement, supports teams, gathers metrics, and ensures process intent is understood. Without ownership, processes become orphaned and lose effectiveness.

arrow_forward "Too busy to improve?"

person Author: Florian Schmitt
Many projects nowadays have the challenge that they are not based on sufficient resources. Besides the omnipresent lack of skilled professionals, we often experience that companies decide to start additional projects, although the resources are actually not even sufficient for the running ones. To find out why this happens so often (although actually nobody wants it), we will investigate the root causes and mechanisms of organizational psychology. We show the mid-term consequences, illustrated by practical examples, and conclude with a set of recommendations how to cope with such situations and how to avoid that they come up at all.

• school Webinar recording and slides
  

arrow_forward "What ASPICE does not cover?"

person Author: Process Fellows
ASPICE doesn’t replace engineering judgment, common sense, or domain expertise. It also doesn't define lifecycle models or toolchains. Use it for what it is — a scaffold, not a script.

• O1 Commitment is established to provide resources to sustain improvement measures (Measure = An activity to achieve a certain intent.).
• O2 Issues arising from the organization's internal or external environment are identified as improvement opportunities and justified as reasons for change.
• O3 Analysis of the current status of the existing process is performed.
• O4 Improvement goals are identified and prioritized, and consequent changes to the process are defined, documented and implemented.
• O5 The effects of process implementation are monitored, measured and confirmed against the identified improvement goals.
• O6 Knowledge gained from the improvement is communicated within the organization.