Software process improvement success factors for small and medium Web companies: A qualitative study

Abstract

ContextThe context of this research is software process improvement (SPI) in small and medium Web companies. ObjectiveThe primary objective of this paper is to identify software process improvement (SPI) success factors for small and medium Web companies. MethodTo 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. ResultsAn 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. ConclusionThe 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.