  Many software development organizations still lack support for obtaining
intellectual control over their software development processes and for
determining the performance of their processes and the quality of the produced
products. Systematic support for detecting and reacting to critical project
states in order to achieve planned goals is usually missing. One means to
institutionalize measurement on the basis of explicit models is the development
and establishment of a so-called Software Project Control Center (SPCC) for
systematic quality assurance and management support. An SPCC is comparable to a
control room, which is a well known term in the mechanical production domain.
Its tasks include collecting, in- terpreting, and visualizing measurement data
in order to provide context-, purpose-, and role-oriented information for all
stakeholders (e.g., project managers, quality assurance manager, developers)
during the execution of a software development project. The article will
present an overview of SPCC concepts, a concrete instantiation that supports
goal-oriented data visualization (G-SPCC approach), and experiences from
practical applications.
