Mps.br

MPS.BR (Brazilian Improvement Software Process or Melhoria de Processos do Software Brasileiro in Portuguese) is at same time a program for software development improvement in Brazil (MPS.BR) as well a process (MPS Model). MPS is a Brazilian model for software process improvement, same way CMMI but with a different focus and different target. It has focus on Brazilian companies, since it was built for Brazilian software development market. Its target is small and medium companies, besides can also be used in large ones.

This program was developed by Softex interacting with universities and Federal Government, and was sponsored by Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology, FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos) and IDB (Interamerican Development Bank).

The model is unique and built from scratch. It is inspired by standards ISO/EIC 12207 and ISO/EIC 15504 and compatible with other maturity models - CMMI 1.2.

Nevertheless being a Brazilian model, for Brazilian market, one of the process goals is to adapt it to export to Latin America countries - like Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru and Uruguai. All guides have been translated to Spanish.

Motivation

Brazil is a country with one of biggest markets of software development in the world, and its exigence level has been increasing in a day-by-day basis. From this increasing level companies started to seek to mature their process targeting standardization and productivity at international levels, which is essential to survive in IT market.

Besides this increase in maturity need a company may spend up to US$ 400K, which is not doable for small and medium companies. Due this scenario a partnership was created among Softex, Federal Government and Universities resulting in MPS.Br.

Goals

Objective for MPS.BR program is to improve Brazilian software process, with two medium/long term goals:

• Technical goal: aimed to create and improve MPS model.
• Market goal: aimed to disseminate and improve adoption of MSP model.

Components

MPS has three components:

• MR-MPS: Reference model, for software development improvement.
• MA-MPS: Assessment model. This assessment is valid for three years after it is finished in assessed organization.
• MN-MPS: Business model.

Guides

MPS models are described by guides.

Acquisition guide

This guide describes process for acquisition of software and correlates. It is inspired by ISO/IEC 12207:2008. It is not tied to a specific model.

Assessment guide

The assessment guide describes process and assessment method of MA-MPS, to be used against companies that implemented MR-MPS. This guide is based on ISO/IEC 15504.

General guide

It contains general description of MPS model and details MR-MPS (Reference model) and all necessary common definitions for its understanding and application. It has as reference ISO/IEC 15504:2008, ISO/IEC 12207 and CMMI-DEV.

Implementation guide

Implementation guide contains orientation for implementation of MR-MPS model. It is divided in ten sub guides, where seven of them helps to define maturity level:

• G: partially managed
• F: managed
• E: partially defined
• D: largely defined
• C: defined
• B: quantitative managed
• A: optimized

Other three guides are for 1. organizations that buy software; 2. organizations that have software factory departments; 3. companies that have test factories departments.

Each maturity level have process areas, where is analyzed:

• fundamental processes: acquisition, requirement management, requirement development, technical solution, product integration, product installation, product release
• organizational processes: project management, process adaptation for PM, causal analysis and resolution, risk management, organization process assessment and improvement, organization innovation and implantation
• support processes: quality guaranty, configuration management, validation, mediation, verification, training

Each maturity level needs to fulfill some process attributes. These processes attributes are cumulative, level F needs to fulfill level F's PA and G's PA.

• PA 1.1 - process is performed
• PA 2.1 - process is managed
• PA 2.2 - deliverable process are managed
• PA 3.1 - process is defined
• PA 3.2 - process is implemented
• PA 4.1 - process is measured
• PA 4.2 - process is controlled
• PA 5.1 - process is one of innovation objects
• PA 5.2 - process is optimized continually

Maturity level compared to CMMI:

MPS.Br	CMMI
Level G (partially managed)	Between 1 and 2
Level F (managed)	2
Level E (partially defined)	Between 2 and 3
Level D (largely defined)	Between 2 and 3
Level C (defined)	3
Level B (quantitatively managed)	4
Level A (optimized)	5

MPS.Br allows company to implant process in a more gradual way, its implantation is cheaper and may be financed by IDB.

• CMMI
• CMM

• Softex - Portal MPS.BR (Portuguese)
• Comparação do MPS.Br com o CMMI (Portuguese)