Product Focused Software Process Improvement: Concepts and Experiences from Industry

Management problems in the development of software have been addressed over the last years by a strong focus on the improvement of the development processes. Software process improvement (SPI) activities are characterized by an internal focus on a software development department and its procedures. However, the quality of the product is hardly addressed in software process improvement programs. This paper presents the application of a model for product focused SPI (P-SPI) and describes experiences with this model in practice. The main conclusions are that P-SPI puts products to be developed in a central position in improvement programs, results in fulfilling specific quality goals of a company and project, and industrial experiments show interesting benefits. Applying the approach in industrial projects showed that P-SPI is relatively cheap and gives fast results and high benefits.     

Examining the impacts of organizational culture and top management support of knowledge sharing on the success of software process improvement

Although numerous studies have discussed the importance of the relationship between knowledge management and software process improvement (SPI), a research gap still exists in relation to how the specific role of knowledge sharing influences successful SPI implementation. This study advances our knowledge by developing an innovative model for exploring the impact of knowledge sharing on SPI success, the impact of knowledge sharing in specific organizational cultures, and how the support of top management specifically influences the path to SPI success. To empirically test the model, this study adopts the statistical technique of partial least squares (PLS) to analyze 118 samples collected from SPI-certified Taiwanese organizations. The results suggest that clan-type organizational culture has a stronger association with knowledge sharing than hierarchy-type in the context of SPI success. SPI knowledge sharing is found to be a mediator of both clan culture and top management support in the context of SPI success. The findings also include the implication to improve our knowledge about how organizational culture and top management support drive effective knowledge sharing on the way to SPI success.     

Empirical evaluation of selected best practices in implementation of software process improvement

To be successfully applied in practice, software process improvement (SPI) needs not only identifying what needs to be improved, and which factors will influence its success, but also guidelines on how to implement those improvements and meet the factors. This paper proposes an SPI implementation strategy that has been developed in lines with standard SPI models and frameworks, intended to be suitable for global software development (GSD), and exploiting ideas of incremental deliveries, short iterations with frequent reviews and close collaboration with customers. Quantitative analyses of data from case studies within large GSD show that improvement teams implementing the strategy are more likely to have better progress and achieve better effectiveness in terms of improvement deployment within development teams. The results could be useful to SPI practitioners in making their SPI initiatives more successful.     

Fuzzy AHP based prioritization and taxonomy of software process improvement success factors in global software development

The phenomena of global software development (GSD) face many challenges that are specifically associated with software process improvement (SPI). The main objective of this work is to develop the prioritization-based taxonomy of the SPI success factors using the fuzzy AHP approach. Total of twenty-one factors were extracted from the available literature that were further evaluated by conducting questionnaire survey with the SPI experts. In the second stage, multi-criterion decision making (MCDM) fuzzy AHP tool was used to prioritize and develop the taxonomy of the identified factors and their categories. The implications of fuzzy AHP approach are novel in this research area as it has been successfully used previously in different other domains e.g. electrical and electronics, supplier selection, agile software development and personnel selection. The contribution of this study is not only limited to the development of the factor’s taxonomy, but also their proper prioritization by introducing the novel fuzzy AHP approach in the research field of GSD and SPI, which assist to remove the vagueness and uncertainty in the opinion of the process improvement experts.     

软件过程改进工程研究综述

软件过程改进是目前软件开发的关键问题。该文从企业组织级讨论了如何通过软件过程改进工程的进行达到提高企业软件能力的目标。作为一个工程,软件过程改进工程有其一般性和特殊性。文章对软件改进工程的特点和该工程的组织和管理形式进行了详细的描述。     

Software Process Improvement Motivators: An Analysis using Multidimensional Scaling

In this paper we present an analysis of software practitioners' motivations for software process improvement (SPI). Our findings are based on an empirical study of SPI in 13 software companies where we conducted focus groups with nearly 200 software practitioners. Our aim is to better understand how companies can maximise practitioner support for SPI. This insight should help SPI managers establish more effective SPI implementation strategies. In this paper we introduce the use of multidimensional scaling (MDS) in SPI research. MDS is a social science data analysis technique designed to generate a rich visual understanding of human issues. By using MDS we found evidence to suggest distinct clusters of punitive and rewarding SPI motivators. Furthermore our analysis also suggests that different clusters of motivations exist for different staff groups.     

Commitment Nets in Software Process Improvement

Several studies have revealed the fact that nearly two-thirds of all software process improvement (SPI) efforts have failed or have at least fallen short of expectations. Literature and practice have shown that commitment to SPI at all organizational levels is essential for the success of any SPI endeavor. A research model for studying the existence, development and interplay of SPI-related commitment is introduced in this paper. This study suggests that software organizations operate through strategic, operational and personal commitment nets. These nets consist of actors, drivers, concerns, actions, commitment, and outcomes. The commitment nets model is applied in a study of four industrial SPI initiatives. The results from two of these cases are reported here. The results show that SPI is driven through the formation and reformation of commitment nets. The contents of strategic, operational and personal commitment nets are laid out and implications are discussed.     

Towards a theoretical framework of SPI success factors for small and medium web companies

ContextThe context of this research is software process improvement (SPI) success factors for small and medium Web companies.ObjectiveThe primary objective of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies.MethodThe theoretical framework presented in this study aggregated the results of three previous research phases by applying principles of theoretical integration and comparative analysis. Those three previous phases were all empirical in nature, and comprise: a systematic review of SPI in small and medium Web companies [1], [2]; a replication study [3] and a grounded theory-based initial exploratory framework of factors in small and medium Web companies [4].ResultsThe theoretical framework includes 18 categories of SPI success factors, 148 properties of these categories and 25 corresponding relationships, which bind these categories together. With the help of these relationships, the categories and properties of SPI success factors can be directly translated into a set of guidelines, which can then be used by the practitioners of small and medium Web companies to improve the current state of SPI in their companies and achieve overall company success.ConclusionThe comprehensive theoretical framework of SPI success factors presented herein provides evidence regarding key factors for predicting SPI success for small and medium Web companies. The framework can be used as a baseline for a successful implementation of SPI initiatives in the mentioned domain.     

Software process improvement in small and medium software enterprises: a systematic review

Small and medium enterprises are a very important cog in the gears of the world economy. The software industry in most countries is composed of an industrial scheme that is made up mainly of small and medium software enterprises—SMEs. To strengthen these types of organizations, efficient Software Engineering practices are needed—practices which have been adapted to their size and type of business. Over the last two decades, the Software Engineering community has expressed special interest in software process improvement (SPI) in an effort to increase software product quality, as well as the productivity of software development. However, there is a widespread tendency to make a point of stressing that the success of SPI is only possible for large companies. In this article, a systematic review of published case studies on the SPI efforts carried out in SMEs is presented. Its objective is to analyse the existing approaches towards SPI which focus on SMEs and which report a case study carried out in industry. A further objective is that of discussing the significant issues related to this area of knowledge, and to provide an up-to-date state of the art, from which innovative research activities can be thought of and planned.

SPI success factors within product usability evaluation

This article presents an experience report where we compare 8 years of experience of product related usability testing and evaluation with principles for software process improvement (SPI). In theory the product and the process views are often seen to be complementary, but studies of industry have demonstrated the opposite. Therefore, more empirical studies are needed to understand and improve the present situation. We find areas of close agreement as well as areas where our work illuminates new characteristics. It has been identified that successful SPI is dependent upon being successfully combined with a business orientation. Usability and business orientation also have strong connections although this has not been extensively addressed in SPI publications. Reasons for this could be that usability focuses on product metrics whilst today's SPI mainly focuses on process metrics. Also because today's SPI is dominated by striving towards a standardized, controllable, and predictable software engineering process; whilst successful usability efforts in organisations are more about creating a creative organisational culture advocating a useful product throughout the development and product life cycle. We provide a study and discussion that supports future development when combining usability and product focus with SPI, in particular if these efforts are related to usability process improvement efforts.     

Understanding the implementation of software process improvement innovations in software organizations

Abstract. The development of software is a complex task frequently resulting in unfinished projects, project overruns and system failures. Software process improvement (SPI) approaches have been promoted as a promising remedy for this situation. The organizational implementation of such approaches is a crucial issue and attempts to introduce SPI into software organizations often fail. This paper presents a framework to understand, and subsequently successfully perform, the implementation of SPI innovations in software organizations. The framework consists of three perspectives on innovation: an individualist, a structuralist and an interactive process perspective. Applied to SPI, they emphasize different aspects of implementing SPI innovations. While the first focuses on leadership, champions and change agents, the second focuses on organization size, departmental and task differentiation and complexity, and the third perspective views the contents of the innovation, the social context and process of the implementation as related in an interactive process. We demonstrate the framework's applicability through two cases. We show that the three perspectives supplement each other and together provide a deeper understanding of the implementation process. Such understanding is crucial for the successful uptake of SPI approaches in software organizations.     

Software process improvement success factors for small and medium Web companies: A qualitative study

Context

The context of this research is software process improvement (SPI) in small and medium Web companies.

Objective

The primary objective of this paper is to identify software process improvement (SPI) success factors for small and medium Web companies.

Method

To achieve this goal, we conducted semi-structured, open-ended interviews with 21 participants representing 11 different companies in Pakistan, and analyzed the data qualitatively using the Glaserian strand of grounded theory research procedures. The key steps of these procedures that were employed in this research included open coding, focused coding, theoretical coding, theoretical sampling, constant comparison, and scaling up.

Results

An initial framework of key SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies was proposed, which can be of use for small and medium Web companies engaged in SPI. The paper also differentiates between small and medium Web companies and analyzes crucial SPI requirements for companies operating in the Web development domain.

Conclusion

The results of this work, in particular the use of qualitative techniques - allowed us to obtain rich insight into SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies. Future work comprises the validation of the SPI success factors with small and medium Web companies.     

Successful process implementation

We propose measuring software process improvement (SPI) success through implementation success - the extent to which initiatives lead to actual changes in software engineering practice. First, without implementation success, SPI success is impossible. Second, only when implementation succeeds can we see how SPI initiatives affect software practices. Third, implementation success is easy to assess. Finally, focusing on implementation success is a pragmatic way to steer SPI initiatives toward success. We studied the approach and outcome of 18 different SPI initiatives conducted over a five-year period at the telecom company Ericsson AB, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Doing so gave us insight into how SPI initiatives can best 1) ensure stakeholder commitment 2) support organizational learning 3) distribute resources over different activities 4) manage customer relations.     

Investigating software process in practice: A grounded theory perspective

This paper presents the results of a study of how software process and software process improvement (SPI) is applied in actual practice in the software industry using the indigenous Irish software product industry as a test-bed. The study used the grounded theory methodology to produce a theory, grounded in the field data, that explains how software processes are formed and evolve and when and why SPI is undertaken. Our research found that SPI programmes are implemented reactively and many software managers are reluctant to implement SPI best practice models because of the associated costs.     

一个基于Web的软件过程改进框架SPIF的实现

软件过程的理论日趋成熟，而基于软件过程改进模型的面向中小软件组织的应用程序却很少，因而造成一种情形，即管理者知道应该进行软件过程的改进，也知道有很多可以参考的规范与模型，但是，真正开始的时候，却不知道该如何着手。本文介绍一个基于Web的软件过程改进框架，试图给出一个解决问题的途径。该系统集成一组管理工具与相关知识库，用一种灵活的方式帮助组织确定适合自己的软件过程模型，从而以一种相对简洁方便的方式实现对软件过程的管理与改进。     

An empirical analysis of the impact of software development problem factors on software maintainability

Many problem factors in the software development phase affect the maintainability of the delivered software systems. Therefore, understanding software development problem factors can help in not only reducing the incidence of project failure but can also ensure software maintainability. This study focuses on those software development problem factors which may possibly affect software maintainability. Twenty-five problem factors were classified into five dimensions; a questionnaire was designed and 137 software projects were surveyed. A K-means cluster analysis was performed to classify the projects into three groups of low, medium and high maintainability projects. For projects which had a higher level of severity of problem factors, the influence on software maintainability becomes more obvious. The influence of software process improvement (SPI) on project problems and the associated software maintainability was also examined in this study. Results suggest that SPI can help reduce the level of severity of the documentation quality and process management problems, and is only likely to enhance software maintainability to a medium level. Finally, the top 10 list of higher-severity software development problem factors was identified, and implications were discussed.     

Process improvement for small firms: An evaluation of the RAPID assessment-based method

With increasing interest by the software development community in software process improvement (SPI), it is vital that SPI programs are evaluated and the reports of lessons learned disseminated. This paper presents an evaluation of a program in which low-rigour, one-day SPI assessments were offered at no cost to 22 small Australian software development firms. The assessment model was based on ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE). About 12 months after the assessment, the firms were contacted to arrange a follow-up meeting to determine the extent to which they had implemented the recommendations from the assessment.Comparison of the process capability levels at the time of assessment and the follow-up meetings revealed that the process improvement program was effective in improving the process capability of 15 of these small software development firms. Analysis of the assessment and follow-up reports explored important issues relating to SPI: elapsed time from assessment to follow-up meeting, the need for mentoring, the readiness of firms for SPI, the role of the owner/manager, the advice provided by the assessors, and the need to record costs and benefits. Based on an analysis of the program and its outcomes, firms are warned not to undertake SPI if their operation is likely to be disrupted by events internal to the firm or in the external environment. Firms are urged to draw on the expertise of assessors and consultants as mentors, and to ensure the action plan from the assessment is feasible in terms of the timeframe for evaluation. The RAPID method can be improved by fostering a closer relationship between the assessor and the firm sponsor; by making more extensive use of feedback questionnaires after the assessment and follow-up meeting; by facilitating the collection and reporting of cost benefit metrics; and by providing more detailed guidance for the follow-up meeting.As well as providing an evaluation of the assessment model and method, the outcomes from this research have the potential to better equip practitioners and consultants to undertake software process improvement, hence increasing the success of small software development firms in domestic and global markets.