Empirical results from using custom-made software project control centers in industrial environments

One means for institutionalizing project control, systematic quality assurance, and management support on the basis of measurement and explicit models is the establishment of so-called Software Project Control Centers. Nowadays many companies develop their own dashboards for project control or use off-the-shelf tools that provide a predefined functionality. It is not clear how to tailor an existing tool to the specific needs and goals. An engineering-like approach providing the methodological foundation is needed for systematically defining and applying project control mechanisms. "Soft-Pit" is a research project focusing on an improvement-oriented approach for setting up and applying project control mechanisms in a goal-oriented way and evaluating the practical benefits of such a control center. This article describes the results of industrial case studies conducted in the context of the project. Moreover, lessons learned are discussed, related work is described, and future work is presented.