Evaluation of the implementation of a subset of ISO/IEC 29110 Software Implementation process in four teams of undergraduate students of Ecuador. An empirical software engineering experiment

Abstract

The competitiveness of software development companies depends on their ability to offer software products with quality attributes within approved budget and schedule. Most Very Small Entities (VSEs) that develop software do not see the benefits of implementing software standards. Consequently, they limit their potential to be recognised as quality software development entities. In this study, the authors present results obtained through the application of empirical software engineering in an experiment in which the ISO/IEC TR 29110–5–1–2 “Software engineering – Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) – Part 5–1–2: Management and engineering guide: Generic profile group: Basic profile” was used. The guide includes two processes: Project Management (PM) process and Software Implementation (SI) process. The objective of the project was the development of a software product for the scheduling of medical appointments for the Student Wellness Center of a university of Ecuador. Four teams of undergraduate students were involved. Two of them (controlled teams) implemented a subset of the SI process, while the other two (non-controlled teams) had freedom to choose development activities that were subsequently mapped with the activities of the standard. All teams developed the software product using the SCRUM framework within the same timeframe. Although the experiment was focused on the SI process, the teams also used a tailored version of the PM process defined by the professors. The experiment execution encountered several difficulties. For example, the timeframe of six weeks established in the design of the experiment was too short since students worked part time in the project. All the teams experienced this difficulty, especially when they had to construct and test the software components. Overall, the teams that used the ISO/IEC TR 29110–5–1–2 guide achieved better scores in the quality evaluation of their software processes.