This document provides an outline for a presentation on an ongoing study analyzing the impact of process improvement on IT service quality. The study is being conducted by Marion Lepmets, a postdoctorate fellow who has 10 years of experience studying software process improvement and assessment. The motivation for the study is that while process improvement is commonly applied, the impact on quality is rarely measured. The scope of the study involves assessing processes using CMMI and ISO/IEC 15504, improving processes using ITIL best practices, and measuring service quality using SERVQUAL and ISO/IEC 25010. Next steps include validating quality measures, conducting an international survey, and case studies.

1. Impact Analysis of Process
Improvement on IT Service Quality –
an ongoing study
Marion Lepmets
PostDoctorate Fellow
Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor
2011/02/17 IESS conference presentation in Geneva, Switzerland 1

2. Outline
➤ Background
➤ Motivation for the research
➤ Scope of the research
➤ Software Process Improvement
➤ IT Service Management
➤ Quality measurement frameworks
➤ Next steps
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3. Background
➤ PhD in Software Engineering in Finland
➤ Studied Software Process Improvement (SPI) and
Software Process Assessment for the last 10 years
➤ National representative in Process Assessment and IT
Service Management working groups - ISO/IEC JTC1
SC7 WG10 and WG25
➤ Focus on: Impact analysis of process models and
process improvement
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4. Motivation
➤ Process Improvement has been applied in Software
Engineering for the last 20 years
➤ The common starting point is process assessment,
the best known process models are CMMI and ISO/IEC 15504
➤ In IT Service Management, increasing focus is on IT
service management processes  an objective
measurement of these processes is provided by
process assessment:
➤ TIPA – Tudor’s IT Service process assessment framework
➤ Yet, measurement of process improvement is complex,
time consuming and resource demanding  rarely
done in industry
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5. Aim of the study
➤ How does standard or model based process
improvement impact IT service quality?
Process provides input to Process positively impacts IT service
assessment improvement quality
How to measure IT Service Quality?
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6. Scope of the Study
Process Assessment
Models:
CMMI and ISO/IEC 15504
Process Improvement
+
IT Service Management best
practices:
ITIL
Impact on IT Service Quality
Measurement Frameworks from
Service Quality Measurement Software Engineering:
Framework: Practical Software and Systems
SERVQUAL Measuring IT Service quality Measurement (PSM)
&
ISO/IEC 25010 SQuaRE
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7. IT Service quality measures
➤ SQuaRe standard divides quality measures to 4:
➤ Process measures
➤ Internal measures
➤ External measures
➤ Quality in use measures Information needs
➤ PSM illustrates a path to a measurable indicator
through: Common issue areas
➤ Information needs
Indicator
➤ Common issue area Measurement category
➤ Measurement category
Measure
➤ Measure
➤ Indicator (derived from measure, providing insight to common
issue area)
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8. Next steps
➤ We have mapped IT Service quality measures to the
measurement frameworks of PSM and SQuaRE
➤ Next, we will conduct expert interviews to verify the
information needs and measurable indicators for IT
service quality
➤ We will then tailor the measurable quality indicators and
conduct an international survey to understand the
measurement undertaken in ITSM industry
➤ Additional case studies will be conducted to understand
the reasoning behind the data
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9. Thank you!
marion.lepmets@tudor.lu
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