Continuous Software Process Improvement Requires Organisational Learning: An Australian Case Study

The study reported in this paper suggests that in order to achieve optimal benefits from implementing process improvement programs, organisations must move towards becoming what is termed a learning organisation. Software process assessment leads to the identification and selection of key activities for improvement and the continuous application of improvements to match business needs (ISO/IEC 1996). Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning on the part of the organisation (Garvin 1993). A model to help identify evidence of learning (the Organisational Learning Evaluation Cycle [OLEC] has been developed and empirically tested in the study. We have found evidence to suggest that the case study organisation had not moved through all three of Garvin's (1993) overlapping phases of organisational learning and as a result the firm's improvement program did not achieve optimal benefits for the organisation. The paper concludes by discussing why significant improvement in performance was not achieved.     

Can the effectiveness of software processes be assessed?

A conceptual model is presented for the assessment of the effectiveness of software processes. The model distinguishes between three levels — the organization, the process, and the constituent activities, and proposes appropriate indicators for each level. The validity of the model has been investigated through an empirical case study of the configuration management process in a small software development organization, and preliminary results demonstrate its validity and usefulness.     

Allocentric Spatial Memory Activation of the Hippocampal Formation Measured With fMRI.

Hippocampal activation was investigated, comparing allocentric and egocentric spatial memory. Healthy participants were immersed in a virtual reality circular arena, with pattern-rendered walls. In a viewpoint-independent task, they moved toward a pole, which was then removed. They were relocated to another position and had to move to the prior location of the pole. For viewpoint-dependent memory, the participants were not moved to a new starting point, but the patterns were rotated to prevent them from indicating the final position. Hippocampal and parahippocampal activation were found in the viewpoint-independent memory encoding phase. Viewpoint-dependent memory did not result in such activation. These results suggest differential activation of the hippocampal formation during allocentric encoding, in partial support of the spatial mapping hypothesis as applied to humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Process improvement: an alternative to BPR for software development organizations

Whereas BPR (Business Process Re-engineering or Business Process Re-design) is being offered as a means by which organizations may be able to respond to the challenge of increased competition, Process Improvement, on the other hand aims to improve productivity, product quality and competitive advantage. Fundamentally, both activities offer a means by which organizations may be able to deal with a rapidly changing business environment, through internal change. BPR extends the concept of process change (albeit rapid change through innovation) to include changes to the basic assumptions and principles of management. The results, however are not positive: estimates of between 50 and 70% of firms fail to achieve the expected dramatic gains from BPR. An alternative to BPR for software development organizations is Process Assessment and Process Improvement. This paper presents a Process/Product Quality Model which incorporates three separate evaluations: process conformance, process effectiveness and product quality as a means of evaluating what is, i.e. the current status of activities, within a software development organization. The model aims to identify possible areas for process improvement and to uncover all relevant issues which may affect attempts to implement improvement initiatives. Preliminary findings from a set of case studies conducted within software development organizations in Australia are presented in support of the usefulness of the model.