Abstract—In this paper we investigate the use of multi- process quality model in the adoption of process improvement frameworks. We analyze an improvement effort based on multiple process quality models adoption. At present, there is a possibility of a software development organization to adopt multi-quality and improvement models in order to remain competitive in the IT market place. Various quality models emerge to satisfy different improvement objective such as to improve capability of models, quality management and serve as IT government purpose. The heterogeneity characteristics of the models require further research on dealing with multiple process models at a time. We discuss on the concept of software process and overview on software maintenance and evolution which are important elements in the quality models. The concepts related to process quality model and improvement models are discussed. The research outlined in this paper shows that software processes, maintenance, evolution, quality and improvement have become really important in software engineering. The synergy among the multi-focused process quality model is examined with respect to process improvement. The research outcome is to determine key processes vital to the implementation of multi-process quality model. Index Terms—evolution; maintenance; multi-process quality model, process improvement I. INTRODUCTION N this paper we investigate the use of multi-process quality model in the adoption of process improvement frameworks. The improvement effort in a multi model environment must be integrated across the quality standards and models which are being used in the software projects or organizations. Manuscript received February 29, 2012. This work was supported by Universiti Lumpur and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. A. A. Rahman is with the Software Engineering Section, Malaysian Institute of Information Technology, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, 1016 Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Corresponding author: phone: 6-012-6846325; e-mail: aedah@miit.unikl.edu.my). S. Sahibuddin is with the Advanced Informatics School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (e-mail: shamsul@utm.my). S. Ibrahim is with the Advanced Informatics School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (e-mail: suhaimiibrahim@utm.my). Our analysis suggests that due to recent awareness in quality initiatives, there is a possibility of a software development organization to adopt multi-quality and improvement model in order to increase their capability and maturity level. Discussion is first made on the concept of software process and software evolution is presented. We proceed with the concepts related to process quality model and improvement models. The research outlined in this paper shows that software processes, evolution, quality and improvement are primary success factors in software engineering. The synergy among the multi-focused process quality model is examined with respect to process improvement. The research is expected to determine the key processes essential to the implementation of multi-process quality model. Process quality models which are adopted by software development organizations have been proven to improve the software development processes at process, project, and organization levels [3]-[6], [20]-[21]. Organizations also adopt process quality model for achieving quality service [9], [10]. In this paper, the basic concepts related to software processes are firstly discussed. In addition, an overview on software evolution is presented. Furthermore, the basic concepts related to software process quality and improvement models are discussed. The research outlined in this paper indicates the importance of software processes and the use of quality models to manage software processes. This paper presents the discussion on software processes, software maintenance and evolution, software quality and improvement, and process quality models in Section II. Section III discusses about the research method. Section IV describes the research results and discussion, followed by the conclusion in Section V. The paper aims to determine the key processes needed for adoption of multi-process quality model. II. RELATED RESEARCH A. The Concept of Software Processes Software processes are defined as a set of interrelated processes in the software development life cycle. A software process establishes a framework for managing software A Multi-Process Quality Model: Identification of Key Processes in the Integration Approach Aedah Abd Rahman 1 , Shamsul Sahibuddin 2 and Suhaimi Ibrahim 3 1 Software Engineering Section, MIIT, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2,3 Advanced Informatics School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia I DOI: 10.5176_2010-2283_2.1.152 GSTF Journal on Computing (JoC) Vol.2 No.1, April 2012 208 © 2012 GSTF brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by GSTF Digital Library (GSTF-DL): Open Journal Systems (Global Science and Technology...