EFFECTIVE SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT USING SOFTWARE CAPABILITY EVALUATION (SCE) AS AN ASSESSMENT CRITERION

Software Capability Evaluation (SCE) is a method for evaluating the software process of an organization to gain insight into its process capability, Saiedan and Kuzara (1995). SCE provides a snapshot of an organization's past process implementation, current process activities, and future process potential, Gray and Smith, (1998). Many issues arise with the implementation of SCE in a company. No doubt SCE has its benefits and the goal of it seems attractive. However, companies that wish to adopt this method have to evaluate the pro and contra's of it fits towards the strategic fit and strategic stretch of the company. The long term solution of software to an organization's primary goals, objectives and mission statements are one that is often neglected and often needs to be re-evaluated by the company for lack of attention to this particular observation in SCE. Organizations also are inclined to consider the maturity of software's capability in a longer term in order to minimize costs and productivity of the organization a notion supported and documented by CMU/SEI-94-TR-06, June 1994. In this paper, we try to bring out the issues related to this and look into recommendations as a stepping stone for a more dynamic approach to software solution selections and SCE methods. We bring forward that the implementation of SCE can be a problem, more often on a large scale than not, if not conducted in proper manner or in a timely manner. This paper also outlines out the competitive method for Software Capability Evaluation as opposed to CMM-SCE Based Assessment for Internal Process Improvement (CBA-IPI).