Using Agile Approaches to Drive Software Process Improvement Initiatives

Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives intend to improve the quality of developed products by guiding development teams and aiming at increased efficiency and effectiveness on software development. However, some obstacles are perceived in companies that implement SPI, such as long periods of implementation, high cost, bureaucracy, lack of flexibility and misalignment with user's needs. A proper SPI approach must guide new processes definition, mobilize proper resources and foster motivation for people to work on it. This paper presents an industry experience with a SPI approach based on Scrum to create new processes deliveries in short cycles. The implementation strategy was based on action research. Results show that the Scrum framework was helpful to create fast outcomes, Design Thinking workshops succeeded in generating initial versions of the product backlog, and User Experience aided defining the navigability of the defined processes.