On behalf of the PROFES organizing committee we are proud to present to you the
proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Product Focused Software Process
Improvement (PROFES 2004), held in Kansai Science City, Japan.
Since 1999, PROFES has established itself as one of the recognized international process
improvement conferences. In 2004 the conference left Europe for the first time and moved
to Japan. Japan and its neighboring countries are intensifying their efforts to improve
software engineering excellence, so it was a logical step to select Japan as the venue for
PROFES 2004.