Software Process Improvement (SPI) intends to recuperate software processes to realize high quality software. But numerous SPI initiatives predominantly in the case of software Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are failed to achieve desired results as certain issues occur during this
progression. Objective of this research work is to facilitate the efficacious SPI implementation in the case of software SMEs that develop healthcare applications. The study identifies and ranks common SPI implementation issues in the case of related SMEs. For this purpose, two questionnaire
surveys have been performed by involving relevant software industry practitioners. In the first survey, by providing a literature-based list of SPI issues, we have solicited respondents to choose common issues or resistant factors for SPI in the case of SMEs that deal with healthcare application
development. We have also requested the practitioners to mention the issues that they have been generally spotting during the SPI in case of pertinent SMEs but have not been mentioned in the given list. During the second survey, by employing two rounds of the Delphi method, practitioners have
ranked the commonly transpiring SPI issues regarding SMEs that deal with the development of healthcare applications. The ranking is based on the issues' impact having four categories: catastrophic, serious, tolerable and insignificant. To incorporate various SMEs standards that are followed
worldwide, the concept of 'common/shared range standard' is presented. The study identifies 26 SPI issues in the case of SMEs that develop healthcare applications whereas top 10 issues instigate from finance and management. To enable swift and fruitful SPI in the case of pertinent SMEs, this
study suggests that the 26 identified issues must be tackled proactively whereas financial and managerial issues must be given top priority.