Abstract
Late product delivery is a common problem in software projects. Late delivery can be attributed to software change especially in the development and maintenance phases, leading to more work than originally planned, thus increasing project completion time. One approach for managing software change is Software Configuration Management (SCM). SCM was first introduced in the 1970s to ensure the timely delivery of software products. To date, SCM implementation is supported by recognized standards, best practice, and countless commercial and proprietary tools. However, after more than 50 years, the issue of late software product delivery still prevails, questioning the practice of SCM in software organizations. One aspect of SCM that has received little focus in mainstream research is the human aspects. This study aims to identify how the competency of SCM practitioners can be assessed through the identification of SCM competency criteria and the development of a competency assessment framework. The framework was validated through expert reviews and case studies involving practitioners from the public sector, industry, institutes of higher learning and international organizations. Results confirmed the reliability of the SCM competency criteria and the plausibility of the competency assessment framework.
Highlights
Late product delivery is a common problem in software projects
Www.aetic.theiaer.org the Software Engineering Competency Model (SWECOM) [28] explicitly focuses on Software Configuration Management (SCM), tasks remain in identifying suitable competency level for each skill set, and mapping specific skill set to a particular SCM process
Other contributing factors reported were the foundation of a Change Control Board, appropriate tools to support implementation, the use of SCM external consultant, the need for a suitable infrastructure www.aetic.theiaer.org to be in place, availability of SCM tools, SCM awareness, dedicated development and maintenance teams, clear requirements to minimize the number of change requests, and high morale of staff
Summary
Late product delivery is a common problem in software projects. Late delivery is caused by, amongst other things, software changes, leading to more development work than originally planned, increasing project completion time [1]. Software Configuration Management (SCM) has been used in software engineering to ensure timely completion of software projects and delivery of software products since the 1970s. After more than half a century, the problem of late software product delivery and projects still prevail in software engineering [3]. Human factors have been studied actively [5,6], the focus are mainly on technological or process-related factors [6]. Major competency frameworks focus more on other software engineering areas and not explicitly to SCM. Both challenges are addressed in this paper
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