The 7th International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES 2006) brought together researchers and industrial practitioners for reporting new research results and exchanging experiences and findings in the area of process and product improvement. The focus of the conference was on understanding, evaluating, controlling, and improving the relationship between process improvement activities (such as the deployment of innovative defect detection processes) and their effects on products (such as improved product reliability and safety). Consequently, major topics of...