Integration of strategic management, process improvement and quantitative measurement for managing the competitiveness of software engineering organizations

Strategic management is a key discipline that permits companies to achieve their competitive goals. An effective and explicit alignment and integration of business strategy with SPI initiatives based on measurement is essential to prevent loss of income, customers and competitiveness. By integrating SPI models and measurement techniques in the strategy management process, an organization’s investments will be better aligned with strategy, optimizing the benefits obtained as a result of an SPI program. In this paper, the authors propose BOQM (Balanced Objective-Quantifiers Methodology) that integrates properly strategic management, process improvement and quantitative measurement to manage the competitiveness of software engineering organizations. Finally, this paper presents and discusses the results from implementing BOQM in a software development organization.     

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.     

A practitioner’s guide to light weight software process assessment and improvement planning

Software process improvement (SPI) is challenging, particularly for small and medium sized enterprises. Most existing SPI frameworks are either too expensive to deploy, or do not take an organizations’ specific needs into consideration. There is a need for light weight SPI frameworks that enable practitioners to base improvement efforts on the issues that are the most critical for the specific organization.

This paper presents a step-by-step guide to process assessment and improvement planning using improvement framework utilizing light weight assessment and improvement planning (iFLAP), aimed at practitioners undertaking SPI initiatives. In addition to the guide itself the industrial application of iFLAP is shown through two industrial cases. iFLAP is a packaged improvement framework, containing both assessment and improvement planning capabilities, explicitly developed to be light weight in nature. Assessment is performed by eliciting improvements issues based on the organization’s experience and knowledge. The findings are validated through triangulation utilizing multiple data sources. iFLAP actively involves practitioners in prioritizing improvement issues and identifying dependencies between them in order to package improvements, and thus establish a, for the organization, realistic improvement plan. The two cases of iFLAP application in industry are presented together with lessons learned in order to exemplify actual use of the framework as well as challenges encountered.     

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.     

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.     

SPI Models: What Characteristics are Required for Small Software Development Companies?

There is a need for small indigenous software companies to improve their software process. Consequently, much has been written highlighting the deficiencies in the more popular Software Process Improvement (SPI) models where the small company is concerned. However, there has been little discussion about the characteristics that should be included in SPI models to make them useful for the small company. In this paper, the author proposes an SPI model for use in small software development companies. The eight characteristics that were required to exist in the model are examined and reasons for their successful inclusion presented.     

Identifying high perceived value practices of CMMI level 2: An empirical study

ObjectiveIn this paper, we present findings from an empirical study that was aimed at identifying the relative “perceived value” of CMMI level 2 specific practices based on the perceptions and experiences of practitioners of small and medium size companies. The objective of this study is to identify the extent to which a particular CMMI practice is used in order to develop a finer-grained framework, which encompasses the notion of perceived value within specific practices.MethodWe used face-to-face questionnaire based survey sessions as the main approach to collecting data from 46 software development practitioners from Malaysia and Vietnam. We asked practitioners to choose and rank CMMI level 2 practices against the five types of assessments (high, medium, low, zero or do not know). From this, we have proposed the notion of ‘perceived value’ associated with each practice.ResultsWe have identified three ‘requirements management’ practices as having a ‘high perceived value’. The results also reveal the similarities and differences in the perceptions of Malaysian and Vietnamese practitioners with regard to the relative values of different practices of CMMI level 2 process areas.ConclusionsSmall and medium size companies should not be seen as being “at fault” for not adopting CMMI – instead the Software Process Improvement (SPI) implementation approaches and its transition mechanisms should be improved. We argue that research into “tailoring” existing process capability maturity models may address some of the issues of small and medium size companies.     

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.     

Software process impediment

I've been involved on software people and process improvement consulting for more than 15 technology to years. Along the way, I've noticed a significant change in people's perception of the worth of software engineering practices. But remarkably, relatively little has changed in how companies approach SPI. For all the debate about content and appropriateness, the SEI's Capability Maturity Model has been well defined. Unfortunately, it represents a destination, not a road map. Too often, organizations that take the SPI journey are looking for a magic route: a single, one-size-fits-all strategy that guarantees higher process-maturity levels. In reality, dozens of possible strategies will get the organization to its goal     

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.     

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。     

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.     

Einsatz der Informationsmodellierung bei der Einführung betrieblicher Standardsoftware

Information models are an established instrument to handle the complexity of information systems. In addition to software development and business process management the implementation of packaged software is one of the major application domains of information models. This contribution investigates through an explorative study, how information models are currently used in the context of packaged software implementation. Object of investigation is the implementation of billing software within utility companies. The study indicates that most companies of the sample applied information models within their implementation projects. Process and data models are more common than other models. However, only a minor part of the companies used dedicated modeling tools for the development and management of the models. The major application domain of information models was the configuration of the software, whereas model based software selection was from subordinate interest. The majority of companies who have applied information models will do this in future projects again     

Information technology service management models applied to medium and small organizations: A systematic literature review

(ANTECEDENT) The main responsibility of the Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) as an organization is to provide services in high level quality. That implies that the services will be an appropriate service and it will ensure continuity. In this context, the organization needs to adopt the best practices in service management to be more efficient and competitive. Some ITSM models collect the best practices of recognized organizations. These models are mainly applied by large organizations. (OBJECTIVE) The objective of this study is to gather experiences in the application of ITSM models in small organizations. (METHODS) To achieve this objective a systematic literature review was performed. (RESULTS) We found primary studies applied to IT areas from some large and medium companies but there is a few in small companies' context. (CONCLUSION) During the SLR we have identified some improvements and difficulties in many organizations, we have founded when applying ITSM models. The principal difficulty was the lack of knowledge of its personnel and consultants have, for adopting a model. On the other hand, companies who succeeded in the application of an ITSM model, had founded some benefits, such as processes improvement, higher user satisfaction, and service cost and time reduction.     

Total quality management: An approach & a case study

For the last decade, American companies have been playing catch-up in the area of quality and productivity. Japanese companies and other foreign competitors have moved into markets that were once dominated by American companies, by producing higher quality products. The problem to date in the U.S. has obviously not been the lack of resources or documentation on quality and improvement programs, but the misdirection of these programs and the lack of total management commitment. Total Quality Management (TQM) is seen as an effective method that will accomplish the task of higher quality levels, and increased productivity.

The purpose of Total Quality Management is to implement a process that is long term and continuous, in which all of management participates in establishing continuous improvement initiatives throughout the organization, beginning with their own function in the organization. TQM integrates the fundamental techniques and principles of Quality Function Deployment, Taguchi Methods, Statistical Process Control, Just-In-Time, and existing management tools into a structured approach. The primary objective of this approach is to incorporate quality and integrity into all functions at all levels of the organization.

This paper examines the TQM process, philosophy, concepts, attributes and how it can be used to develop a “quality-based” culture. The paper also examines the introduction and implementation of the TQM process at an electronic's manufacturer.     

Pattern-driven green adaptation of process-based applications and their runtime infrastructure

Business processes are a key aspect of modern organization. In recent years, business process management and optimization has been applied to different cross-cutting concerns such as security, compliance, or Green IT, for example. Based on the ecological characteristics of a business process, proper environmentally sustainable adaptation strategies can be chosen to improve the total environmental impact of the business process. We use ecological sustainable adaptation strategies that are described as green business process patterns. The application of such a green business process pattern, however, affects the business process layer, the application component and the infrastructure layer. This implies that changes in the application infrastructure also need to be considered. Hence, we use best practices of cloud application architectures which are described as Cloud patterns. To guide developers through the adaptation process we propose a pattern-based approach in this work. We correlate Cloud patterns relevant for sustainable business processes to green business process patterns and organize them within a classification. To provide concrete implementation support we further annotate these Cloud patterns to application component models that are described with the topology and orchestration specification for cloud applications (TOSCA). Using these annotations, we describe a method that provides the means to optimize business processes based on green business process patterns through adapting the implementation of application components with concrete TOSCA implementation models.     

Assessment methodology for software process improvement in small organizations

ContextDiagnosing processes in a small company requires process assessment practices which give qualitative and quantitative results; these should offer an overall view of the process capability. The purpose is to obtain relevant information about the running of processes, for use in their control and improvement. However, small organizations have some problems in running process assessment, due to their specific characteristics and limitations.ObjectiveThis paper presents a methodology for assessing software processes which assist the activity of software process diagnosis in small organizations. There is an attempt to address issues such as the fact that: (i) process assessment is expensive and typically requires major company resources and (ii) many light assessment methods do not provide information that is detailed enough for diagnosing and improving processes.MethodTo achieve all this, the METvalCOMPETISOFT assessment methodology was developed. This methodology: (i) incorporates the strategy of internal assessments known as rapid assessment, meaning that these assessments do not take up too much time or use an excessive quantity of resources, nor are they too rigorous and (ii) meets all the requirements described in the literature for an assessment proposal which is customized to the typical features of small companies.ResultsThis paper also describes the experience of the application of this methodology in eight small software organizations that took part in the COMPETISOFT project. The results obtained show that this approach allows us to obtain reliable information about the strengths and weaknesses of software processes, along with information to companies on opportunities for improvement.ConclusionThe assessment methodology proposed sets out the elements needed to assist with diagnosing the process in small organizations step-by-step while seeking to make its application economically feasible in terms of resources and time. From the initial application it may be seen that this assessment methodology can be useful, practical and suitable for diagnosing processes in this type of organizations.     

Electronic Commerce Internet Strategies and Business Models-A Survey

Today, any doubts about possibilities of significant profits over the Internet are a distant memory. Such has been the proliferation of Internet-based business on the public network. But electronic commerce has turned out to be more difficult to master than previously assumed. For many, ventures have been less lucrative than expected. The problem is that integrating business models with technology is a multifaceted and largely open question (Shaw, et al. 1997). How do businesses of various sizes and industries actually start their Internet activity and how do their business models change over time? More specifically, how do their different Internet strategies play out? This article is the result of a survey of the Internet strategies and business models of 280 companies that sell products and services on the public network. The results show that electronic commerce has penetrated companies of all sizes. Based on this survey it is apparent that while many companies have participated in electronic commerce for years, their business models are still in their infancy stages.     

A research framework for building SPI proposals in small organizations: the COMPETISOFT experience

Establishing a research strategy that is suitable for undertaking research on software engineering is vital if we are to guarantee that research products are developed and validated following a systematic and coherent method. We took this into account as we carried out the COMPETISOFT research project, which investigated software process improvement (SPI) in the context of Latin American small companies. That experience has enabled us to develop a research strategy based on the integrated use of action research and case study methods. This paper introduces the proposed research strategy and provides extensive discussion of its application for: (1) developing the Methodological framework of COMPETISOFT for SPI, (2) putting this framework into practice in eight small software companies, and (3) refine the Methodological framework due to the practice feedback. The use of this research strategy allowed us to observe that it was suitable for developing, refining, improving, applying, and validating COMPETISOFT’s Methodology framework. Furthermore, having seen it applied, we believe that this strategy offers a successful integration of action research and case study, which can be useful for conducting research in other software engineering areas which address needs of small software companies.