Support Software Process Improvement Research Articles

A benchmarking program to support software process improvement adaptation in a developing country, a Pakistan case.

BackgroundStandardization of software development processes using the software process improvement (SPI) frameworks like capability maturity model integration (CMMI) or the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) are vital for better performance and defect-free delivery of software engineering projects.ProblemThe studies from developing countries show that the organizations are unable to get the desired SPI benefits during early adaptation due to lack of benchmarking initiatives. These initiative needed bridging of the gap between major software engineering fields such as project performance, productivity, and SPI measurement metrics like effort, schedule, cost, productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction.MethodThis research quantifies SPI benefits by bridging the existing gaps and identifying a commonly defined set of 44 significant base metrics related to ESCPQC and applies a conceptual framework over the collected data of 62 projects from three leading software organizations.ResultThe results have quantified the “the introduction of change effect” and showed that the adaptation of SPI has shown SPI benefits like improved quality, customer satisfaction, and effort. In contrast, schedule metrics showed a high reduction at level 3 and again increased at high maturity levels values. The last benefits are communicated following a trustable mechanism.

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.

Experimental Evaluation of a Serious Game for Teaching Software Process Modeling

Software process modeling (SPM) is an important area of software engineering because it provides a basis for managing, automating, and supporting software process improvement (SPI). Teaching SPM is a challenging task, mainly because it lays great emphasis on theory and offers few practical exercises. Furthermore, as yet few teaching approaches have aimed at teaching SPM by introducing innovative features, such as games. The use of games has mainly been focused on other areas of software engineering, for example software project management. In an attempt to fill this gap, this paper describes a formal experiment carried out to assess the learning effectiveness of a serious game (DesigMPS), designed to support the teaching of SPM, and to compare game-based learning with a project-based learning method. In the DesigMPS game, the student models a software process from an SPI perspective, based on the Brazilian SPI model (MPS.BR). The results indicate that playing the game can have a positive learning effect and results in a greater degree of learning effectiveness than does the project-based learning instructional method.

Understanding the Role of Knowledge Management in Software Development

Software and systems engineering is distinct from other forms of engineering as it deals with an intangible product, where the progress in construction is not explicitly visible and team members often rely on the documentation of others to follow and review progress. Furthermore unlike traditional engineering disciplines, there is no single standardized unified process. The role of knowledge management in the software engineering literature is becoming more evident, as the software development activity is essentially a human knowledge intensive activity and is seen by many as a key factor. This paper discusses the role of software development knowledge management within software development process and specifically how software development knowledge is managed in software development in order to support software process improvement and the role of knowledge management in this. The authors present the results of a study of knowledge management process practices in very small software companies and discusses these under the major identified issues of: Communication; Learning and sharing; Documentation and Knowledge management process and commitment. The findings in this study give an insight towards knowledge management practices as they relate to software development process practices in very small companies and the important factors that must be considered to preserve knowledge and quality software.

A survey of industrial experiences with CMM and the teaching of CMM practices

Teaching Software Engineering at the undergraduate and graduate levels often lacks the emphasis on models and practices that support software process improvement, such as Capability Maturity Model ...

A Study of Knowledge Management Process Practices in Very Small Software Companies

Problem statement: Software development is distinct from other types of engineering because the product is intangible, progress is not explicit and team members rely on the documentation of others to review progress. In addition, there ar e no standard processes, which make it difficult to predict which process will cause development proble ms. The discourse of knowledge management is becoming more evident in the software engineering l iterature, as the software development activity is essentially a human knowledge intensive activity. Approach: This study explores the role of software development knowledge management within software development companies. Specifically: How software knowledge is managed; identify critical fa ctors in software development teams and software development knowledge management; understand how should software teams are organized in order to support software process improvement and the role o f knowledge management in this. Results: This study presents the results of a study of knowledge management process practices in very small software companies and discusses these under the major identified issues of: Communication; Learning and sharing; Documentation and Knowledge management process and commitment. Conclusion: The findings in this study give an insight towards knowledge management practices as they relate to software development process practic es in very small companies and the important factors that must be considered to preserve knowled ge and quality software.

Using multi dimensional scaling to analyse software engineers' de-motivators for SPI

We present analysis of factors that de-motivate software practitioners from supporting software process improvement (SPI) initiatives, using a multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique. Our findings...

Using multi dimensional scaling to analyse software engineers' de‐motivators for SPI

AbstractWe present analysis of factors that de‐motivate software practitioners from supporting software process improvement (SPI) initiatives, using a multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique. Our findings are based on an empirical study involving nearly 200 software practitioners from 13 UK companies. Our aim is to provide managers with a better understanding of the obstacles that prevent practitioners from supporting SPI. This insight should help SPI managers establish more effective SPI implementation strategies. In this article we re‐introduce the use of MDS techniques in SPI research. MDS is a social science data analysis technique designed to generate a rich visual understanding of human issues. By using MDS we found evidence to suggest distinct clusters of de‐motivators exist for different staff groups. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Creating a Dual-Agility Method

Agile approaches to software development provide flexibility within the method, but provide little or no flexibility to support software process improvement (SPI). This second kind of flexibility is important to permit organizations to improve with time. To accomplish such improvement, a method-engineering approach is shown here to be useful. Examples of the application of method engineering to agile method construction are given based on the use of the OPEN process framework. A dual-agility method to support both intraproject and interproject flexibility can then be constructed by the selection of appropriate method fragments from this repository with the use of the accompanying guidelines. This is illustrated in an industry study of an organization transitioning to an agile software-development environment in which a minimalistic agile method was first constructed and then enhancements were made as the organization itself improved the process.

Understanding the use of an electronic process guide

This paper presents a case study of the installation and use of an electronic process guide within a small-to-medium software development company. The purpose of the study is to better understand how software engineers use this technology so that it can be improved and better used to support software process improvement. In the study the EPG was used to guide new processes in a software improvement programme. The use of the EPG was studied over a period of 8 months with data collected through access logs, by questionnaires and by interviews. The results show that the improvement programme was successful in improving project documentation, project management and the company's relationship with its customers. The EPG contributed to the improvement programme by providing support for the creation of templates for key project documentation, assisting with project planning and estimation and providing a forum for discussion of process and work practices. The biggest improvements that could be made to the EPG would be to provide better navigation tools including a graphical overview of the process, provide tailoring facilities, include examples and experience and link to a project management tool.

Software process simulation to support ISO/IEC 15504 based software process improvement

The emerging international standard ISO/IEC 15504 on ‘Information Technology – Software Process Assessment’ aims to harmonize the various assessment approaches used in software process improvement (SPI). While approaches based on the organization-focused ‘staged model’ (SW-CMM etc.) provide a ‘roadmap’ generally true for most organizations, the process-focused ‘continuous model’ of ISO/IEC 15504 does not prescribe any particular improvement path. SPI projects using the ISO/IEC 15504 approach are thus considered to have to deal with increased complexity in improvement planning. Targeting this problem, the basic ideas behind a generalized system dynamics model of ‘a set of improving software processes’ currently under development to support SPI action planning at a tactical level are presented. The basic intention is to determine the impact of a set of scheduled improvement actions on the strategic target variables of SPI (time-to-market, cost, quality). The approach integrates the two main ‘mental models’ behind ISO/IEC 15504: the process model described textually as a network of processes and work products, and the model of maturing single processes. The development of the model is oriented at organizations with lower capability and medium sized development projects. The results of preceding software process assessments are used as a major source for model initialization. How simulation can support software process improvement is discussed, and insights from sample applications are presented. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Simulation in support of CMM-based process improvement

This paper shows how simulation can be of significant benefit in supporting software process improvement and, in particular, how it supports the capability maturity model (Paulk et al., 1993. Capability maturity model for software, version 1.1. Software Engineering Institute Report CMU/SEI-93-TR-24). In the latter context it is shown that simulation can be used to support improvement at all five levels of the CMM. Simulation capability at each CMM level incrementally builds upon the simulation capabilities of the preceding levels, and match the needs of the software engineering practices at that level.