The PROFES Improvement Methodology. Enabling Technologies and Methodology Design

Software process improvement methodologies do not typically address product issues explicitly and integration of different technologies is often weak. In the European project PROFES an integrated, product-focused software process improvement methodology has been developed. This paper gives an overview of the methodology and explains its enabling technologies. Emphasis is on how the PROFES improvement methodology was created, what was the design rationale, and how the methodology was implemented.