Pioneering process improvement experiment in hungary

Abstract

The PASS (Pay-roll Accounting and Settlement System) project is the first Central and Eastern European ESSI PIE (European Systems and Software Initiative Process Improvement Experiment) project directly supported by the European Commission. The PASS project was carried out under the ESSI initiative with the financial support of the Commission of the European Communities under the ESPRIT Programme EP21223. The PASS (Pay-roll Accounting and Settlement System) project started as a new business project of MemoLuX. Its business purpose is to develop a modular, platform independent, integrated networked software system satisfying functional requirements of EU standards in public accountancy and applicable for the Hungarian as well as for the international market. The system provides direct service among employers, employees and banks. The PASS project is the baseline project for the process improvement experiment. In the PIE, the quality of MemoLuX's development process was enhanced to become well defined and predictable with the professional support of MTA SZTAKI (Computer and Automation Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences). During the dissemination supported by ISCN, this PIE is used as a master example to adapt Eastern European processes to the high quality norms of Western Europe, this way facilitating the integration of Eastern Europe into a joint EU in the long term. Objectives and expected results are improving the control of the development process (QA Unit, structured system analysis, improved testing process, efficient project planning, ISO 9001 documentation), raising the maturity level (CMM) to 3 and achieving compliance with ISO 9001 requirements at this high level of maturity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons Ltd