predictable, reliable, and self-improving software development process that produces software of high quality. The strategy consists of step-wise improvements in software organization, defining which processes are key in development. The software process and the software product quality are predictable because they are kept within measurable limits. History The first company to adopt this term was Hitachi in 1969 with its Hitachi Software Works. Later, other companies such as System Development Corporation in 1975, NEC, Toshiba and Fujitsu in 1976 and 1977 followed the same organizational approach. Cusumano suggests that there are six phases for software factories: Basic organization and management structure (mid-1960s to early 1970s) Technology tailoring and standardization (early 1970s to early 1980s) Process mechanization and support (late 1970s) Process refinement and extension (early 1980s) Integrated and flexible automation (mid-1980s) Incremental product / variety improvement (late 1980s) See also Software Product Line Software Lifecycle Processes Software engineering Systems engineering Software development process Automatic programming Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM) Model Driven Engineering (MDE) References External links Harvard Business Review Wipro Technologies: The Factory Model Outsourcing Without Offshoring Is Aim of ‘Software Factory’ By P. J. Connolly Information technology management Software project management