Software Process and Software Process Improvement Strategy

One of the most challenging issues faced in HEP in recent years is the question of how to capitalize on software development and maintenance experience in a continuous manner. To capitalize means in our context to evaluate and apply new technologies as they arise, and to further evolve technologies already widely in use. It also implies the definition and adoption of standards. The CMS software improvement effort aims at continual software quality improvement, and continual improvement in the efficiency of the working environment with the goal to facilitate doing great new physics. The use and creation of de-facto software process standards within CMS is the only viable route to a successful software process improvement program. This note describes the CMS approach to software process improvement, and describes the current status of the software processes formally established in CMS off-line software.