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.     

Agile improvement practices in software organizations

Inspired by the chasm between early adopters and early majority in diffusion of technological innovations, this paper investigates how agile improvement practices can help software organizations successfully implement new processes. An action research-based improvement initiative implemented a new change-request process and tool at the telecom company Ericsson AB in Gothenburg, Sweden. The study identifies a ‘guerilla tactic’ that change agents can use in software organizations to cross the chasm, and it discusses lessons learned in relation to literature on diffusion of innovation and software agility. The contribution of the study is that the guerrilla tactic supports agile improvement practices and facilitates successful implementation.     

Improving software process improvement

Two dichotomies characterize software process improvement efforts and approaches: disciplined versus creative work and procurer risks versus user satisfaction. Based on these perspectives, the authors introduce six theses to illuminate the problems of pursuing SPI.     

Applying grounded theory to understand software process improvement implementation: a study of Brazilian software organizations

Despite the fact that organizations recognize the importance of implementing software process improvement (SPI) to enhance software development capabilities, recent studies show that many organizations still struggle to successfully implement SPI. These studies demonstrate that most SPI initiatives fail due to their incapacity to overcome social–cultural critical barriers, such as lack of motivation and higher management support. Therefore, the accurate understanding of the context where SPI occurs may facilitate the development of more efficient SPI implementation strategies aiming to overcome those difficulties. The objective of this work was to present a Grounded Theory-based study that investigated SPI implementation initiatives conducted by Brazilian software organizations. The main product of this study is a theoretical framework that tries and explains the phenomenon associated to the success of SPI implementation initiatives. The theoretical framework constituted a set of interrelated SPI domain entities supported by a set of propositions assessed by experienced Brazilian SPI consultants. We expect that such theoretical framework can facilitate SPI implementation by providing better understating of the dependency relationships among critical success factors that may jeopardize SPI initiatives.     

软件过程改进框架

在软件开发过程中,软件工程师以及软件组织不可避免地会遇到各种困难,尤其是软件组织在实施能力成熟度模型(CMM)过程中面对的各种挑战.根据对CMM研究的体会与实践经验,提出了以集成的能力成熟度模型(CMMI)为基础,以个体软件过程和群组软件过程为支持的软件过程改进框架.     

Managing change in software process improvement

Software process improvement has become the primary approach to improving software quality and reliability, employee and customer satisfaction, and return on investment. Although the literature acknowledges that SPI implementation faces various problems, most published cases report success, detailing dramatic improvements. Such best-practice cases are a great benefit when learning how to effectively implement SPI. On the basis of experiences from SPI initiatives and insights into organizational-change management, we offer the following advice for successful SPI implementation: software managers must appreciate that each SPI initiative is unique and carefully negotiate the context of change. Managers must also understand the elements of change involved. SPI can't succeed without managerial commitment and a mastery of appropriate change tactics.     

SEL's software process improvement program

We select candidates for process change on the basis of quantified Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) experiences and clearly defined goals for the software. After we select the changes, we provide training and formulate experiment plans. We then apply the new process to one or more production projects and take detailed measurements. We assess process success by comparing these measures with the continually evolving baseline. Based upon the results of the analysis, we adopt, discard, or revise the process     

Learning and best practices for learning in open-source software communities

This research is about participants who use open-source software (OSS) discussion forums for learning. Learning in online communities of education as well as non-education-related online communities has been studied under the lens of social learning theory and situated learning for a long time. In this research, we draw parallels among these two types of communities and explore what can be learned from open-source software communities about online learning. Thematic network analysis was used to code the qualitative data from the open-ended questions in the survey and the interviews. The results indicate that learning in online open-source software communities encompasses much more than just learning about the software being discussed. 283 Open-source forum participants were surveyed, and 21 were interviewed to develop an understanding of the challenges to learning in these communities as well as to identify the practices that promote learning. Identifying these practices helps to understand online learning and enables the integration of best practices into online education.     

The economics of software process improvement

Software process improvement is gaining momentum throughout the software industry. Many cities now have nonprofit SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network) groups. In a visible sign that process improvement is now a mainstream technology, SPIN's national conference in Boston last spring drew several thousand attendees. Another sign is the frequency of journal articles devoted to process improvement. However, as often happens with software, process improvement articles tend to be theoretical. Comparatively little solid, empirical data is being published on three important topics: what does it cost to improve software processes? How long will it take to make tangible improvements? What kind of value can be expected in terms of better quality, productivity, or user satisfaction? The paper condenses some of my findings, which are based on studies of leading software producers in the United States, Europe, South America, and the Pacific Rim     

How software process improvement helped Motorola

Many organizations are using or considering the Capability Maturity Model as a vehicle for software process improvement. But does the CMM provide real benefits? The authors offer metrics and data that show the results of Motorola's CMM usage     

A longitudinal study of software process improvement

Studying a software process improvement effort over time reveals the factors associated with its success. This case study shows how Motorola's Cellular Infrastructure Group progressed to CMM level 4, and examines what is needed to optimize its software process     

Measuring the ROI of software process improvement

Software process improvement has been on the agenda of both academics and practitioners, with the Capability Maturity Model as its de facto method. Many companies have invested large sums of money in improving their software processes, and several research papers document SPI's effectiveness. SPI aims to create more effective and efficient software development and maintenance by structuring and optimizing processes. SPI assumes that a well-managed organization with a defined engineering process is more likely to produce products that consistently meet the purchaser's requirements within schedule and budget than a poorly managed organization with no such engineering process. We discuss about the measuring the ROI in software process improvement.     

Empirical analysis of the evolution of a taxonomy for best practices

Taxonomies play an increasingly role in knowledge management, providing the basis on which to find and communicate knowledge, information and metrics. However, knowledge continues to evolve over time. As a result, taxonomies also need to continue to evolve.Two different evolved versions of a taxonomy for best practices, each based on the same original taxonomy were analyzed. This research investigated empirical approaches to trace the changes in the original taxonomy. In so doing, an approach using empirical findings to monitoring and anticipating taxonomy change is initiated. There were a number of findings, including a tendency to evolve to greater complexity.     

SPICE: Overview for software process improvement

This paper presents the original software process model (currently called n 1) as 1) as it has been developed by the SPICE project and delivered to ISO in June 1995 to become the international reference for process assessment. This model is used for software process assessments, in order to compare the actual status of an organization's software processes, to the requirements of the model. The process profile resulting from the assessment is used as a major input for a process improvement initiative.     

探索软件开发过程的CMM最佳实践方法

基于中、小型规模的软件开发特点,通过融合多种软件过程开发实践,保证快速、合理、低代价和清晰的软件开发过程控制基础上,作者基于工程实践的总结和归纳,提出一种基于组件构建软件系统的CMM和RUP的有序过程控制的最佳实践方法,该方法具有清晰过程控制、可被重复检验和理解,允许在软件过程中进行适应性的自我调整和完善。通过实际案例的统计和规律性分析,证明该种软件开发过程的最佳实践方法在实际的工程项目管理中具有较强的工程指导意义和现实参考价值。     

From process improvement to people improvement: enabling learning in software development

The importance of people factors for the success of software development is commonly accepted, because the success of a software project is above all determined by having the right people on the right place at the right time. As software development is a knowledge intensive industry; the ‘quality’ of developers is primarily determined by their knowledge and skills. This paper presents a conceptual model of nine ‘learning enablers’ to facilitate learning in software projects. These enablers help identifying whether individual and/or organisational learning is facilitated. The main question addressed in this paper is: ‘Which factors enable learning in software projects and to what extent?’     

软件过程改进方法的研究与设计

成熟度模型(CMM)是当前国内外研究的热点。给出了如何理解CMM的基本概念,提出了两种软件过程改进方法,即基于同行评审和测试的软件过程改进方法和基于CASE工具和文档的软件过程改进方法。这两种方法是分别针对现有软件开发机构实施过程改进时遇到的实际问题,结合CMM的关键实践而设计的。最后对现有软件过程活动中存在的问题进行了相关总结。