Software Process Improvement Initiatives Research Articles

Success Factors for Conducting Software-Process Improvement in Web-Based Software Projects

Abstract Continuous Software Process Improvement (SPI) is essential for achieving and maintaining high-quality software products. Web-based software enterprises, comprising a substantial proportion of global businesses and forming a cornerstone of the world’s industrial economy, are actively pursuing SPI initiatives. While these companies recognize the critical role of process enhancement in achieving success, they face challenges in implementing SPI due to the distinctive characteristics of Web-based software projects. This study aims to identify, validate, and prioritize the sustainability success factors that positively influence SPI implementation efforts in Web-based software projects. Data have been meticulously gathered through a systematic literature review and quantitatively through a survey questionnaire. The findings of this research empower Web-based software enterprises to refine their management strategies for evaluating and bolstering SPI practices within the Web-based software projects domain.

The importance of theory at the Information Systems Journal

The importance of theory at the <i>Information Systems Journal</i>

A Novel model to adapt CMMI Level 2 by Assessing the Local SMEs of Bangladesh

While software process improvement (SPI) aims at optimizing software processes to produce high-quality software, SPI efforts in software development are still inert in practice, especially in developing countries. In this work, we make an experimental investigation aiming at developing a model for applying SPI of CMMI level 2 practice based on the views and experiences of small and medium-sized software firms in Bangladesh. The primary goal of this study is to determine how commonly a given CMMI practice is adopted to build a new maturity model within specific exercises. We use questionnaire-based survey sessions as the main tool to collect data from 9 SMEs in Bangladesh. Practitioners were asked to choose and rank CMMI level 2 practices based on the five classes of evaluations. Afterward, based on CMMI Level 2 practices from the acquired data, we develop a maturity model for adopting SPI.The paper proposes a model to improve those particular practices to build successful CMMI-based SPI and increase the success rate of CMMI-based SPI initiatives.

Software process improvement programs

While many organizations successfully embrace and experience software process improvement (SPI) benefits, others abandon the effort before realizing the total potential result of an SPI initiative. Therefore, researchers' interest in understanding the reasons why software organizations that have a successful start in adopting SPI abandon improvement initiatives after evaluation has increased. Thus, this work aims to investigate how the abandonment of SPI programs based on maturity models occurs after the evaluation. The multiple case study method was used with eight organizations. Data were analyzed using Grounded Theory open and axial coding procedures. The results show that SPI initiatives failed because of internal factors (people, SPI project management, organizational aspects, and processes) and external factors to the organizational context (country economic crisis, outsourcing, governmental political influence, and external pressure from the client). As a contribution, we highlight the identification of these factors that organizations can use to learn about their initiatives and avoid pitfalls that can lead to the abandonment of SPI.

Design of a gamification strategy to intervene in social and human factors associated with software process improvement change resistance

Best practices of software development and software process improvement (SPI) are people-centred. Both have a high level of influence of social and human factors inherent to the individuals involved in these processes. At the same time, software process improvement is inherent to the change of the conditions and the behaviour of individuals. In this work, the authors show the results of applying a deductive approach for a method based on gamification and social and human factors to influence the productivity of the software development team. The results show that it is possible to abstract all the design aspects of an existing strategy called Interplanetary Mission and identify the social and human factors involved in change resistance in SPI initiatives. The strategy execution results show that gamification strategies could help to mitigate change resistance in SPI initiatives for software development teams and their productivity, understanding this term in software engineering context as the ratio between output and input within the software development production process.

Software process improvement initiative in medium size IT organization: a case study

IT organizations are striving to develop software solutions that meet customer needs as well as their business goals. Software organization scontinuously improve their software development practices for faster time-to-market and better software quality. The success factors to conduct process improvement initiatives are documented in the literature, but their effect and existences differ from one place to another. Hence, as the culture and organizational behavior in developing software varies across the world, it becomes interesting to report and discuss local experiences in differentregions. The experience gained in this empirical study differs from that gained in the previous work in the sense that it was the organization that initiated this initiative and this ensures the top management commitment in conducting the process improvement initiative. We have used CMMI continuous representation and SCAMPI Class C appraisal method to conduct the appraisal. In this empirical study, most of the success factors are met toconduct the process improvement initiative, including: Staff involvement and high staff morale. Several process pitfalls have been identified; an interesting one is that adopting powerful case tools is not enough to control the development process if they are not fully used.

Software Process Improvement Implementation Issues in Small and Medium Enterprises That Develop Healthcare Applications

Software Process Improvement (SPI) intends to recuperate software processes to realize high quality software. But numerous SPI initiatives predominantly in the case of software Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are failed to achieve desired results as certain issues occur during this progression. Objective of this research work is to facilitate the efficacious SPI implementation in the case of software SMEs that develop healthcare applications. The study identifies and ranks common SPI implementation issues in the case of related SMEs. For this purpose, two questionnaire surveys have been performed by involving relevant software industry practitioners. In the first survey, by providing a literature-based list of SPI issues, we have solicited respondents to choose common issues or resistant factors for SPI in the case of SMEs that deal with healthcare application development. We have also requested the practitioners to mention the issues that they have been generally spotting during the SPI in case of pertinent SMEs but have not been mentioned in the given list. During the second survey, by employing two rounds of the Delphi method, practitioners have ranked the commonly transpiring SPI issues regarding SMEs that deal with the development of healthcare applications. The ranking is based on the issues' impact having four categories: catastrophic, serious, tolerable and insignificant. To incorporate various SMEs standards that are followed worldwide, the concept of 'common/shared range standard' is presented. The study identifies 26 SPI issues in the case of SMEs that develop healthcare applications whereas top 10 issues instigate from finance and management. To enable swift and fruitful SPI in the case of pertinent SMEs, this study suggests that the 26 identified issues must be tackled proactively whereas financial and managerial issues must be given top priority.

Software Process Improvement Implementation Issues in Small and Medium Enterprises That Develop Healthcare Applications

Software Process Improvement (SPI) intends to recuperate software processes to realize high quality software. But numerous SPI initiatives predominantly in the case of software Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are failed to achieve desired results as certain issues occur during this progression. Objective of this research work is to facilitate the efficacious SPI implementation in the case of software SMEs that develop healthcare applications. The study identifies and ranks common SPI implementation issues in the case of related SMEs. For this purpose, two questionnaire surveys have been performed by involving relevant software industry practitioners. In the first survey, by providing a literature-based list of SPI issues, we have solicited respondents to choose common issues or resistant factors for SPI in the case of SMEs that deal with healthcare application development. We have also requested the practitioners to mention the issues that they have been generally spotting during the SPI in case of pertinent SMEs but have not been mentioned in the given list. During the second survey, by employing two rounds of the Delphi method, practitioners have ranked the commonly transpiring SPI issues regarding SMEs that deal with the development of healthcare applications. The ranking is based on the issues' impact having four categories: catastrophic, serious, tolerable and insignificant. To incorporate various SMEs standards that are followed worldwide, the concept of 'common/shared range standard' is presented. The study identifies 26 SPI issues in the case of SMEs that develop healthcare applications whereas top 10 issues instigate from finance and management. To enable swift and fruitful SPI in the case of pertinent SMEs, this study suggests that the 26 identified issues must be tackled proactively whereas financial and managerial issues must be given top priority.

Measuring the maturity of Indian small and medium enterprises for unofficial readiness for capability maturity model integration‐based software process improvement

AbstractEstablishing the maturity levels of ‐ Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) without Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification has always been regarded as an extremely challenging task. Software process improvement (SPI) has targeted to monitor and improve software processes, thereby improving the software business. Although there is scientific interest in SPI, little attention has been specifically given to the exploration of maturity levels for non‐CMMI SMEs. The goal is to explore the effect of time on process maturity and maturity levels achieved informally or unofficially by SMEs that are not otherwise CMMI certified. To find out the maturity levels achieved informally, a CMMI‐DEV v1.3 based survey questionnaire is administered to Indian software SMEs. Time of establishment of SMEs and follow‐up of CMMI‐based processes and practices unofficially are used as two important parameters to decide upon process maturity and achievement of specific CMMI level informally. This paper has been successful in ascertaining the effect of time of establishment of SMEs and follow‐up of CMMI‐based processes on process maturity using proposed RuleML that advocates adoption of more than 70% of CMMI‐DEV v1.3 process area‐specific practices for an SME to be unofficially ready for CMMI‐based SPI initiatives. The findings manifest multidimensional aspects of unofficial readiness of SMEs for CMMI‐based SPI that can be used by relevant authorities to select SMEs for funding for SPI initiatives. Finally, the proposed work has been validated statistically using t‐test for CMMI Level II and Level III.

Introducing gamification to increase staff involvement and motivation when conducting SPI initiatives in small‐sized software enterprises

Small-sized software enterprises have tried for years to make major changes to improve the software development process and, consequently, the quality of their products. Many small companies are focusing their efforts on conducting software process improvement (SPI) initiatives to mature their software processes and to deliver products on time and on budget. Nevertheless, these initiatives are not always successful because human factors are still difficult to control leading to a high failure rate due to lack of involvement and motivation. Gamification can be used to motivate staff and increase participation and commitment to improve the chances of success when an SPI initiative is conducted in these companies. In this study, a gamification strategy was designed to add game-like elements into the GamiSPI tool for supporting SPI activities. Significant research has been carried out, but the authors’ approach aims to apply gamification in a distributed way by enabling employees from different enterprises to share information and knowledge, combine efforts, support communication, and collaborate with others toward common improvement goals. The effects of gamification were assessed using quantitative and qualitative methods to show that this strategy can increase the involvement, motivation, and ambition of the participating staff.

How has SPI changed in times of agile development? Results from a multi‐method study

AbstractThe emergence of agile methods and practices has not only changed the development processes but might also have affected how companies conduct software process improvement (SPI). Through a set of complementary studies, we aim to understand how SPI has changed in times of agile software development. Specifically, we aim (a) to identify and characterize the set of publications that connect elements of agility to SPI, (b) to explore to which extent agile methods/practices have been used in the context of SPI, and (c) to understand whether the topics addressed in the literature are relevant and useful for industry professionals. To study these questions, we conducted an in‐depth analysis of the literature identified in a previous mapping study, an interview study, and an analysis of the responses given by industry professionals to SPI‐related questions stemming from an independently conducted survey study. Regarding the first question, we identified 55 publications that focus on both SPI and agility of which 48 present and discuss how agile methods/practices are used to steer SPI initiatives. Regarding the second question, we found that the two most frequently mentioned agile methods in the context of SPI are Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP), while the most frequently mentioned agile practices are integrate often, test‐first, daily meeting, pair programming, retrospective, on‐site customer, and product backlog. Regarding the third question, we found that a majority of the interviewed and surveyed industry professionals see SPI as a continuous activity. They agree with the agile SPI literature that agile methods/practices play an important role in SPI activities but that the importance given to specific agile methods/practices does not always coincide with the frequency with which these methods/practices are mentioned in the literature.

Foreword to the special issue of the World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST 2017)

Foreword to the special issue of the World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST 2017)

Investigating the factors which impact SPI implementation initiatives in software SMEs—A systematic map and review

AbstractContextFor successful initiation of software process improvement (SPI) initiatives in software SMEs, it is vital for the practitioners to have deep understanding of various SPI inhibitors.ObjectiveThe paper has the following objectives: investigate factors which impact SPI implementation initiatives in software SMEs, synthesize available evidence, identify gaps between existing approaches available in the literature, and to develop the taxonomy of the factors.MethodsDatabase search and snowballing procedure are adapted to perform the systematic mapping and review, which includes 105 primary studies published between 2002 and 2018. Also, we reviewed the empirical studies for their rigor and relevance.ResultsA total of 16 inhibitors have been identified and are grouped into PMBOK knowledge areas framework. From the rigor and relevance scores, it is observed that despite the research has been conducted in an industrial context, it lacks rigor (mean = 1.79) and thus hinders the possibility of generalizing the results. This calls for more studies with thorough empirical analysis and validation using adequate statistical tests.ConclusionsThe results can help the practitioners to understand the dynamics of factors, which undermine SPI implementation in software SMEs and also to assist them in the development of effective control and mitigation strategies.

Building a hierarchical structure model of enablers that affect the software process improvement in software SMEs—A mixed method approach

In the present study authors developed a mixed approach based on qualitative and interpretive approaches to model and analyze software process improvement (SPI) enablers in software small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In phase-I after listing the research questions, the data is synthesized using the observations of stakeholders in their work domain followed by semi-structured interviews. The results of the qualitative analysis, as key learning's formed the basis for grouping of SPI indicators into nine key SPI enablers. Open, focused and theoretical coding procedures in grounded theory were used to create categories, subcategories, and thematic relationships among these enablers. Further, in phase-II, the hierarchical structure model of SPI enablers is build using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach and influencing dynamics among the enablers is analyzed using MICMAC analysis. From the results of the study, it is concluded that organization, people, and technology issues are important drivers, on which SMEs shall proactively focus for successful implementation of SPI initiatives.

Gamification for software process improvement: a practical approach

Gamification is a research field that is intended to increase motivation, so it is especially indicated in human capital intensive environments such as the software industry. Within Software Engineering, one of the main issues regarding software process improvement (SPI) is personnel motivation in specific SPI initiatives. These issues are stronger in small and medium software development companies where employees have to deal with the pressure of deadlines and occasional work overload. To address the adoption of SPI initiatives, the researchers implemented a defined gamification framework for deployment in SPI efforts in order to increase motivation among software workers and to enhance SPI results. The framework was rolled out in a small Spanish software development organisation, which is conducting internal SPI initiatives. To validate the effectiveness of the implemented framework, a controlled experiment was carried out in which an experimental group adopted SPI improvements using a gamification approach. The implementation results show that the application of the framework does not increase personnel motivation in SPI tasks although it contributes to enhancing the SPI tasks performance. This study discusses the limitations and recommendations to implement appropriately the SPI-gamification framework in the scope of small and medium software development companies.

Are project managers informally following capability maturity model integration practices for project management?

Project planning is crucial for fruitful completion of a software development project. In case of a certified software development organisation, one can guess whether the software development projects are planned properly or not. But, what to do for a non-certified organisation? The objective of this study is to address this problem. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey has been conducted by involving experienced practitioners. The results show that several software development organisations follow Capability Maturity Model Integration) Project Planning-Process Area practices unofficially. Such organisations are potential candidate organisations for software process improvement initiatives, and would be cheap and safe for successful completion of a project. Keywords: CMMI, software project management, software process improvement, specific goals, specific practices, subpractices.

Software project management in high maturity: A systematic literature mapping

High maturity in software development involves statistically controlling the performance of critical subprocesses and using the predictability thus gained to manage projects with better planning precision and monitoring control. Maturity models such as CMMI mention statistical and other quantitative methods, techniques, and tools supporting high-maturity project management, but do not provide details about them, their use or their available types. Thus, knowledge is lacking on how to support software process improvement initiatives to select and apply statistical and other quantitative methods, techniques and tools in this context. The goal of this study is to identify various methods, techniques, and tools which can assist in high-maturity software project management. By conducting a systematic literature mapping, we identified 108 papers describing 153 contributions. We describe the contributions identified, classifying them by their type, their software technology maturation phase, the method by which they were evaluated, the development methods and characteristics which they support, and the process/indicator areas to which they were applied. We hope this work can help fill the knowledge gap on the statistical and other quantitative methods, techniques and tools actually being proposed, evaluated, experimented with and adopted by organizations to support quantitative high-maturity software project management.

Systematic literature study for dimensional classification of success factors affecting process improvement in global software development: client–vendor perspective

The majority of organisations are globalising their software development activities by following the ideas of global software development (GSD). The motivation behind the adoption of GSD phenomena are the list of benefits gained by the software industry. However, there are different challenges face by the GSD organisations, particularly the issues related to software process improvement (SPI). The aim of this study is the identification and classification into categories of the success factors that can impact SPI initiatives taken in GSD organisations. The systematic literature review (SLR) method has been used to extract the success factors from the literature. SLR phases, ‘planning, conducting, and reporting the review’ have been followed to perform this study. Totally, 15 success factors were identified and classified into the six main categories. The authors have also reported the critical success factors of SPI, i.e. management commitment, staff involvement, roles and responsibilities, communication, and resources allocation. This article also reported the similarities and differences between the success factors classified on the bases of client-vendor organisation and size of the organisation. The identified factors can contribute towards the implementation of SPI programme in both client and vendor GSD organisations because these factors represent key areas of process improvement.

Survival studies based on ISO/IEC29110: Industrial experiences

Very small organizations are suffering when they embark on software process improvement initiatives such as CMMI-DEV or ISO/IEC 15504-5. The ISO/IEC29110 basic profile has been defined as solution for these small companies, and literature related to this standard provides some insights on the potential results and benefits for VSEs. In this sense, two of the topics which have not been deeply studied yet are the survival analysis of VSEs, and an analysis of ISO/IEC29110 basic profile areas. In fact, this paper provides a survival analysis of 90 improvement initiatives, and an analysis of the ISO/IEC29110 basic profile areas. Non-parametric and semi parametric models are used in order to analyse survivability and we analyse project management and software implementation practices defined by ISO/IEC29110 basic profile

Analyzing the requirements to implement a data analysis model for software process improvement

SummarySoftware is everywhere. From simple applications to complicated pieces of software, these software products and services facilitate our day‐to‐day activities, but they also need to be high‐quality products in order to guarantee their reliability, security, good performance, and usability. In this context, software development organizations have highlighted that a product's quality largely depends on the quality of the processes followed to build the software. The Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiative is a set of best practices designed to improve software processes through the evaluation of the current organizational practices, competencies, and experiences. However, these SPI initiatives have presented some issues and challenges that complicate their success and preclude software organizations to get improvements. Most of these issues are related to how organizations manage, analyze, and use their own data to improve software processes. The purpose of this paper is to analyze if the three most used software repositories cover the key requirements to implement a data analysis model for implementing SPI initiatives. The results show that the three repositories analyzed as they are do not cover the complete requirements to implement a model highlighting the aspects to be improved.