Process improvement in IT departments: a four years experience in a large retail company

This paper describes a four years experience of process assessment and improvement for the IT department of a large retail company. The involved company and the organization of the IT department are shortly presented. A first process assessment was done during 2005. We describe the methodological approach, based on ISO 15504 and the assessment results. We also discuss both the improvement actions and the results of a second assessment, done in 2008, presenting successes and difficulties. Finally, we highlight benefits, problems and lessons learned.