Is The Term Process Problematic

From ProcessImprovementTools...

Even calling software development a "process" is problematic. Maybe calling software development (or parts of software development) a "skill" would help. Then we could borrow "skill improvement tools" and "skill improvement techniques" from other endeavors. See WhatRecursEverySoftwareProject.

Would you care to expand on why the term "process" is problematic? I see a "skill" as something an individual may possess, while a "process" is something that a business may do. I think it is also important to distinguish between a "process" and a "project." A project is bounded in terms of budget, resources, and schedule. A process has none of these bounds. A lot of CMM, ISO, and the like focus on software development as a project, not software development as a process.

In my opinion, I don't think the term process precisely captures what software development is. I prefer terms such as skill-based endeavor, human-activity system, group-of-humans activity, etc.

The term process, to me, infers something that repeats day after day. It applies well to an assembly line. But I would group software development with business, leadership, economics, politics, etc. These activities have some repetition, but it is not day-after-day repetition, and it is not identical repetition.

Things sort-of repeat, sort-of regularly. Again, see WhatRecursEverySoftwareProject. Skill, expertise, and experience are used to react to these sort-of repeating things, rather than a recipe that trained monkeys can use.

In other words, I think that when you write down what good software development is, you get a set of skills/experience/expertise/patterns/rules, rather than a step-by-step process.