Software Engineering in Small Software Companies: Consolidating and Integrating Empirical Literature Into a Process Tool Adoption Framework

Micheal Tuape,Anna Kayanda,Victoria T Hasheela-Mufeti,Jussi Kasurinen,Jari Porras

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3113328

Abstract

Small software companies face numerous challenges of complexity, unstructured software development processes and scarce resources. This notwithstanding, the companies have dominated the software market by 80 percent. The practice and products of these companies are still persistently marred by quality issues arising from the processes, with evidence indicating that process tools do not fit the unique contexts in which they operate. Significant strides have been made in transforming software development practice; however, the challenges are still evidently apparent. Hence the need to establish how knowledge areas are applied in process practice, understand the context of software development and its implication in practice, how process tools are utilised in practice and evaluate quality of research in software literature The researchers undertook a systematic mapping study to determine the state of practice in empirical literature on software engineering of SSCs by examining and classifying 1096 publications. Other than the finding that research quality was low and affecting generalisation and transferability, the results also revealed interesting findings which we finally consolidated and integrated to develop two contributions (i) a software development process adoption theoretical framework which provides new insights of understanding software development and (ii) a 3-point guideline for research quality.

Highlights

Software has become entrenched in human life that society is increasingly dependent on software-intensive systems
The need to establish how knowledge areas are applied in process practice, understand the context of software development and its implication in practice, how process tools are utilised in practice and evaluate quality of research in software literature The researchers undertook a systematic mapping study to determine the state of practice in empirical literature on software engineering of Small Software Companies (SSCs) by examining and classifying 1096 publications
Subsection B presents the utilised knowledge areas by the companies cited with their respective research contribution and categories aspects, the terminologies used to refer to the companies and the companies utilisation of software development process frameworks/standards

Summary

Introduction

Software has become entrenched in human life that society is increasingly dependent on software-intensive systems. The SSCs are business entities involved in producing software products, typically employing less than 50 employees, and their aim is to create one or a few software products for their customers[4]. The annual turnover is taken as an aspect to consider in defining SSCs. the threshold differs depending on economies. Owing to small sizes and character of SSCs, these companies are flexible in their operations, which is to a certain extent an advantage for them. This definition fits very small entities (VSE), though with fewer employees and start-ups at the initial stage of formation as part of the SSC. We define SSCs as VOLUME XX, 20XX

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