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The importance of Process improvement in Web-based projects
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This paper outlines the details of seven case studies involving the pilot usage of the new standard ISO/IEC 29110 standard ‘Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities’, which was specifically designed by Working Group 24 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 to address the standardization needs of Very Small Entities (VSEs). The purpose of this paper is to add substantially to the body of knowledge and the literature on the rollout and implementation of this new and evolving standard and to act as guidance for other researchers in the design and implementation of ISO/IEC 29110 case studies. Furthermore it is hoped that that the lessons learnt from these case studies will help promote the adoption of this new standard in an industrial setting.
Software process improvement (SPI) offers obstacles and opportunities for very small entities (VSEs), which are organizations with 25 or fewer employees. To help with this, the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission jointly developed ISO/IEC 29110 as SPI guidelines for VSEs.
In the course of process improvement, software organizations attempt to concurrently implement practices that originate from different models, extracting the best from each. Issues of integration and compliance are raised due to missing conceptual view. This paper presents a new method for an explicit alignment between SPEM-based software process modeling and CMMI corpus of best practices. The alignment of process activities with CMMI goes beyond the maturity assessment; it sustains the conceptualization of introducing new software engineering practices at the process-level and open a new topic of combining conceptually parts of different process models. Our method extends the SPEM Meta-model by introducing new interface to CMMI Meta-data. This extension allows visualization of the practices' intentions within the activity breakdown structure. In addition, it offers a conceptual assessment of process maturity level according to CMMI scales. The method has been fully implemented in a process modeling tool and applied in both academic and industrial contexts to justify improvement opportunities through meaningful dashboards.
This study aims to explore how empowerment is enabled in Web-based project teams. It also aims to identify differences in empowering practices and levels of individual empowerment in different types of Web-based project development methods. The point of departure is the assumption that the relationships between two important disciplines in Web-based project development, which are the Web-based project development methods and empowerment, are not clear in industrial Web-based projects. Through a survey of data that collected from 123 Web-based projects in Jordan, the study assesses whether there is a difference in empowerment in different types of Web application development methodologies. The findings show that the level of participation in decisions and empowerment differ in Web-based project development teams and there are clear signs that this can be attributed to different organizations and the methodologies chosen. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are identified and proposed.
Software process standards (e.g. ISO/IEC 12207, ISO/IEC 15504) and models (e.g. CMMI) provide a set of best practices and guidelines for improving the quality of the software process and products resulting from that process. However, they do not prescribe a particular software development methodology (i.e. RUP, MSF), and thus software development teams face a compliance problem between the selected development methodology and a pursued particular standard or model. In this research, the particular issue of compliance of Agile Software Development Methodologies (SCRUM, XP, and UPEDU) and the new
ISO/IEC 29110 standard is studied. Because the new standard is focused on the software process in very small software development companies or small software project teams in the range from 1 to 25 people, and the Agile Software Development Methodologies (ASDMs) are primarily for same targets, this study is important. The ISO/IEC 29110 standard contains two processes: Project Management and Software Implementation. This study is focused on the first process. The main findings indicate that the UPEDU and SCRUM methodologies present and high compliance level with the ISO/IEC 29110 Project Management process, while XP has a moderate level. Thus, software developer teams interested in achieving compliance with the ISO/IEC 29110 Project Management process can count with two ASDMs. However, a full compliance study (with both Project Management and Software Implementation) is still missing.
Software development is a complex socio-technical activity, with the result that software development organisations need to establish and maintain robust software development processes. While much debate exists regarding the effectiveness of various software development approaches, no single approach is perfectly suited to all settings and no setting is unchanging. The capability to adapt the software process is therefore essential to sustaining an optimal software process. We designed an exploratory study to concurrently examine software process adaptive capability and organisational performance in 15 software development organisations, finding that companies with greater software process adaptive capability are shown to also experience greater business success. While our exploratory study of the complex relationship between these phenomena is limited in some respects, the findings indicate that software process adaptive capability may be worthy of further integration into software process engineering techniques. Software process adaptive capability may be an important organisational strength when deriving competitive advantage, and those responsible for the creation and evolution of software process models and methodologies may want to focus some of their future efforts in this area.
A Canadian division of a large American engineering company has developed and implemented project management processes for their small-scale and medium-scale projects. The company was already using a robust project management process for their large-scale projects. The objectives of this process improvement project were to reduce cost overruns and project delays, standardize practices to facilitate the integration of new managers, increase the level of customer satisfaction and to reduce risk-related planning deviations. For this improvement project, the engineering organization used the new ISO/IEC 29110 standard developed specifically for very small entities. An analysis of the cost and the benefits of the implementation of small and medium scale project management processes was performed using the ISO economic benefits of standard methodology. The engineering enterprise estimated that, over a three-year timeframe, savings of about 780,000$ would be realized due to the implementation of project management processes using the ISO/IEC 29110 standard.
ISO/IEC 12207 training is a key element to provide an ability to software development organizations for selecting a set of required processes, measuring the performance of these processes, and continuously improving them. Traditionally, such training is either performed by an expert individual to the software quality management personnel most likely in form of a seminar in a classroom environment. This may also be given by a qualified professional, such as a registered auditor. However, software requirements are usually subject to change, and therefore such training is not enough to teach the substantial details of the entire standard. This has led to increased reports of complications, which demotivates organization to use this standard. To improve the quality of traditional training, a 3D serious game was proposed. The preliminary idea here is that the training is utilized as a game that employs 3D office landscape to provide a realistic virtual environment for ensuring that the training will be based in a real-world-like environment. Before building a prototype for our serious game, we consulted five industrial experts whose works are related with ISO standards. To give these practitioners an opportunity to explore the conceptual design and raise some potential problems, the semi-structured interview method was used. Based on the suggestions of experts, proposed model of the serious game were revised. Taken together, initial results suggest that a serious game for teaching ISO/IEC 12207 should be useful for individuals who are interested in learning more about the standard.
This article presents the implementation of ISO/IEC 29110 in a four-person IT startup company in Peru. After completing the implementation of the ISO/IEC 29110 project management and software implementation processes using an agile approach, the next step was to execute these processes in a project with an actual customer: software that facilitates communication between clients and legal consultants at the second-largest insurance companies in Peru. Managing the project and developing the software took about 900 hours. Using ISO/IEC 29110 software engineering practices enabled the startup to plan and execute the project while expending only 18 percent of the total project effort on rework (that is, wasted effort). In this article, the authors also describe the steps and the effort required by the VSE to be granted an ISO/IEC 29110 certificate of conformity. The startup became the first Peruvian VSE to obtain an ISO/IEC 29110 certification. The ISO/IEC 29110 certification facilitated access to new clients and larger projects.
This article presents a software development project carried out by a two-person start-up enterprise. The objective of the project was to develop a social networking website for travelers. The new ISO/IEC 29110 standard developed specifically for very small entities and start-ups was used to develop the software for a Web application to allow users to collaborate with all members of a network of friends, planning their trips and sharing the details in a simple and easily accessible way. Managing this project and developing the software for it took about 1000 hours. Using proven software engineering practices set out in the ISO/IEC 29110 standard enabled the two-person team to plan and execute the project expending only 13 percent of the total project effort on rework (that is, wasted effort). About 9 percent of the total project effort was expended on prevention tasks and 6 percent on evaluation tasks, such as desk check peer reviewing and testing. The last section of this article presents lessons learned and a list of recommendations for future users of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard and guides. Key words: cost of quality, deployment package, desk check, ISO/IEC 29110, peer review, process, rework, standard, start-up, very small entity (VSE) INTRODUCTION Worldwide, start-ups and very small entities (VSEs), that is, enterprises, organizations, departments, or projects having up to 25 people, are major contributors of valuable products and services. In Europe, for instance, as illustrated in Table 1, more than 92 percent of enterprises have fewer than 10 employees. Another 6.5 percent have between 10 and 49 employees. In Canada, close to 98 percent of businesses are small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. About 32 percent of these have between 1 and 19 employees (Statistics Canada 2008). These small businesses spend about 5.8 percent of their revenues on research and development (R&D). The standard and guides presented in this article have been specifically developed with the needs of start-ups and VSEs in mind.
This paper reports on part of the findings of a mixed-methods study which explored the educational experiences of Computing Professionals who design and develop educational software. A particular focus is given on the gaps professionals perceive between what was covered in their formal (university) education and the skills and knowledge that have been most important to them in their professional roles. Discrepancies were found particularly in areas related to practical skills (such as testing, maintaining code over time, use of source code control and development tools), communication, critical thinking and problem solving, and strategies used to continue learning on-the-job. Participant suggestions for improving university programs focused largely on the use of large scale, complex, authentic projects of significant duration. The author recommends further consideration be given to explicitly teaching the type of self-learning skills and strategies used by experienced professionals.
Over the past 20 years, there has been a debate on the effectiveness of virtual reality used for learning with young children, producing many ideas but little empirical proof. This empirical study compared learning activity in situ of a real environment (Real) and a desktop virtual reality (Virtual) environment, built with video game technology, for discovery-based learning. The experiences were in the form of two field trips featuring statistically identical wildflower reserves. While the results support that the Real is superior for learning activity, they also show that the Virtual is useful for priming and reinforcing in-curriculum material, or for situations when the real environment is inaccessible. Offering the Virtual first primes for learning activity in the Real; if used second, it reinforces the Real experience, as supporting evidence shows significant transfer effects. Thus, the Virtual may serve educational goals, if used appropriately, and can come close to the Real. As informal learning environments, such as field trips and video games, are accepted as motivational, an attitudinal survey was conducted postexperiences to capture motivational factors at play, to aid in comparison and contrast, and to provide context to the empirical results on learning activity in situ; however, more work is needed.
The software process landscape is rich in complexity and many alternative software development approaches have emerged over the past 40 years. However, no single software development approach is universally implemented and it seems likely that no single approach can be universally useful. One of the primary reasons that no single approach is universally useful is that no two software development settings are identical. We have assembled a team of recognized academics, who together with industrial collaborators, plan to map the complex world of software processes with the context of software development projects. The results of our initial mapping efforts, reported in this paper, demonstrate that although there are challenges in an undertaking such as this, the outcomes are potentially of considerable value to both software researchers and practitioners.
ContextAn optimal software development process is regarded as being dependent on the situational characteristics of individual software development settings. Such characteristics include the nature of the application(s) under development, team size, requirements volatility and personnel experience. However, no comprehensive reference framework of the situational factors affecting the software development process is presently available.Objective
The absence of such a comprehensive reference framework of the situational factors affecting the software development process is problematic not just because it inhibits our ability to optimise the software development process, but perhaps more importantly, because it potentially undermines our capacity to ascertain the key constraints and characteristics of a software development setting.Method
To address this deficiency, we have consolidated a substantial body of related research into an initial reference framework of the situational factors affecting the software development process. To support the data consolidation, we have applied rigorous data coding techniques from Grounded Theory and we believe that the resulting framework represents an important contribution to the software engineering field of knowledge.ResultsThe resulting reference framework of situational factors consists of eight classifications and 44 factors that inform the software process. We believe that the situational factor reference framework presented herein represents a sound initial reference framework for the key situational elements affecting the software process definition.Conclusion
In addition to providing a useful reference listing for the research community and for committees engaged in the development of standards, the reference framework also provides support for practitioners who are challenged with defining and maintaining software development processes. Furthermore, this framework can be used to develop a profile of the situational characteristics of a software development setting, which in turn provides a sound foundation for software development process definition and optimisation.
The objective of this paper is to identify existing Software Process Improvement (SPI) models and techniques used by small
and medium Web companies. We performed a systematic review of studies that applied SPI models and techniques to Web companies.
Four papers applied SPI techniques or models to Web companies, and our results showed that none suggested any customized model
or technique to measure the SPI of Web companies. The SLR also revealed the characteristics of some small and medium companies
and suggested that they have tight budget constraints, tight deadlines and a short term strategy. Finally, our SLR showed
that the measures of success for small and medium Web companies included development team and client satisfaction, increase
in productivity, compliance with standards and overall operational excellence. The results of this review showed that very
few studies have specifically focused on SPI for Web companies, despite the large number of existing Web companies worldwide,
and the even larger number of Web applications being currently developed. This clearly indicates a research gap in this area,
with numerous avenues for future work.
Recognized as one of the trends of the 21st century, globalization of the world economies brought significant changes to nearly
all industries, and in particular it includes software development. Many companies started global software engineering (GSE)
to benefit from cheaper, faster and better development of software systems, products and services. However, empirical studies
indicate that achieving these benefits is not an easy task. Here, we report our findings from investigating empirical evidence
in GSE-related research literature. By conducting a systematic review we observe that the GSE field is still immature. The
amount of empirical studies is relatively small. The majority of the studies represent problem-oriented reports focusing on
different aspects of GSE management rather than in-depth analysis of solutions for example in terms of useful practices or
techniques. Companies are still driven by cost reduction strategies, and at the same time, the most frequently discussed recommendations
indicate a necessity of investments in travelling and socialization. Thus, at the same time as development goes global there
is an ambition to minimize geographical, temporal and cultural separation. These are normally integral parts of cross-border
collaboration. In summary, the systematic review results in several descriptive classifications of the papers on empirical
studies in GSE and also reports on some best practices identified from literature.
This paper describes an experience with a software process improvement (SPI) approach particularly adapted to small structures with low software maturity level (e.g. small and medium enterprises in software businesses, small software teams in bigger businesses, small software teams in public organisations). A characterisation of software process in-the-small is first made on basis of a deep analysis of software processes actually followed by a number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The approach proposes a gradual software process improvement framework based on three nested models. It allows SMEs to start SPI in a very targeted manner, to quickly progress within a limited budget and, eventually, to reach an acceptable level according to SPI standard models such as CMM and SPICE
In the last few years our knowledge about how to develop large complex web systems have grown rapidly. In this paper we attempt to arrange this knowledge into a schema based on how our knowledge gets matured as we get more experience in developing large complex web systems. Based on this we propose a systematic approach to developing large complex web systems. We call this body of knowledge consisting of technologies, methodologies and standards that enable us to successfully develop large complex web systems Web Engineering.
Small and medium enterprises are a very important cog in the gears of the world economy. The software industry in most countries is composed of an industrial scheme that is made up mainly of small and medium software enterprises—SMEs. To strengthen these types of organizations, efficient Software Engineering practices are needed—practices which have been adapted to their size and type of business. Over the last two decades, the Software Engineering community has expressed special interest in software process improvement (SPI) in an effort to increase software product quality, as well as the productivity of software development. However, there is a widespread tendency to make a point of stressing that the success of SPI is only possible for large companies. In this article, a systematic review of published case studies on the SPI efforts carried out in SMEs is presented. Its objective is to analyse the existing approaches towards SPI which focus on SMEs and which report a case study carried out in industry. A further objective is that of discussing the significant issues related to this area of knowledge, and to provide an up-to-date state of the art, from which innovative research activities can be thought of and planned.
Semantic Web developers have adopted OWL to represent knowledge. OWL, or a language with similar theoretical foundations, will lead the way in the semantic exploration of the Web. Currently, Web-based standards are the preferred way to represent knowledge. Furthermore, respondents mainly use ontologies to allow both humans and computers to understand knowledge and domain models. Web 3.0 can bring a new breed of spectacular applications compared to Web 2.0. with the same magnitude that separates Web 2.0 from Web 1.0.
Open source software development (OSSD) has evolved from being an underground
movement for hackers, to become a promising option for synthesizing agile and plandriven
software development methodologies that hold most benefits of the two approaches.
In this paper, we compare the agile and plan-driven software development with OSSD,
highlighting its synthesis of benefits from both approaches, with unique benefits for OSSS
that offer solutions to Web project development where other approaches continue to face
challenges. OSSD is a significant choice due to its high awareness for client needs, low-risk
methodology with low potential losses, but with potentially high return on investment. We
believe that OSSD can provide opportunities for companies to improve their Web
application development processes
In June 2015 a group of experts in Software Process Improvement (SPI) and Education from all over the world gathered at the 1st International Workshop on Software Process Education, Training and Professionalism held in connection with 15th International Conference Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination. Discussions with key players in the relevant professional and personal certification fields, as well as experienced educators led to a consensus that it is time for the industry to rise to the new challenges and set out in a manifesto a common vision for educators and trainers together with a set of recommendations to address the challenges faced. At the workshop 14 “experts” from education and industry presented and discussed their “wisdom and experience” of the challenges faced for software process education, training and professionalism, especially with the background of the new modes of learning and teaching in higher education. Based on the presentations, 32 workshop participants brainstormed core values and principles specifically addressing the needs of software process education, training and professionalism. Via affinity analysis and group thinking exercises we identified an initial manifesto, consisting of 10 values and 4 principles. It is expected that this draft manifest will give expression to state-of-the-art knowledge on software process education, training and professionalism. It is based on hundreds of person-years of practice and experience from educators and industry professionals globally. Further work is currently being undertaken to extend and validate this draft manifesto with a view to publishing in its entirety by 2016.
CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) models are collections of best practices that help organizations improve their processes. This article reports on the authors' experience in achieving and maintaining CMMI Maturity Level 5 in a small organization. Economic achievements, success factors, and lessons learned are reported by using real-life examples from almost 10 years of improvement process. This article could be a valuable and unique reference for practitioners intending to pursue high-maturity CMMI level, particularly in small organization settings. The importance of this topic and lack of similar experience reports make it a valuable contribution to the state of the practice. The first Web extra at http://youtu.be/HMbgNSFxkpE is an audio recording in which IEEE Software Multimedia Editor Davide Falessi speaks with Shane Oleson and Shannon Taylor of Keymind about how the organization achieved and maintained CMMI Maturity Level 5. The second Web extra at http://youtu.be/RKpKBo7roZI is an audio recording in which author Kathy Mullen introduces a custom Web-based tool called the Keymind Measurement Reporting Tool.
Scrum has become one of the most popular agile methodologies, either alone or combined with other agile practices. Besides, CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is accepted as a suitable model to measure the maturity of the organizations when developing or acquiring software. Although these two approaches are often considered antagonist, the use of an agile approach to reach certain CMMI maturity levels may result beneficial to organizations that develop Web systems, since they would take the advantages of both approaches. In Web community, this union may be very interesting, because agile approaches fits with the special needs of Web development, and they could be a useful tool for companies getting a certain grade of maturity. This work analyzes the goals of CMMI maturity level 2 and the feasibility of achieving them using the practices proposed by Scrum, trying to assess whether the use of this methodology is suitable for meeting the CMMI generic and specific goals or not. Finally, and based on this analysis, this paper raises a possible extension of Scrum, based on agile techniques, to accommodate the CMMI maturity level 2.
This paper presents a probabilistic approach for the estimation of the angle between the optical and visual axes (angle kappa) in infants. The approach assumes that when patterned calibration targets are presented on a uniform background, subjects are more likely to look at the calibration targets than at the uniform background, but it does not require accurate and continuous fixation on presented targets. Simulations results show that when subjects attend to roughly half of the presented targets, angle kappa can be estimated accurately with low probability (
Software architecture focuses on the structure of a software system, how such structure is organized into components, how components are related to each other, and what are the external visible properties of these components. In addition to satisfying the functional requirements, software architecture attempts to fulfill the non-functional requirements such as performance, efficiency, reliability, portability, scalability, and interoperability. Software architecture is an important part of software engineering and more so when developing complex software systems [2].
This paper describes practical experience of four years of assessing the health of the software engineering process within BT (British Telecommunications, Plc), using the Healthcheck assessment method.
In this paper we present survey data characterizing the implementation of SPI in 85 UK companies. We aim to provide SPI managers with more understanding of the critical success factors of implementing SPI. We present an analysis of the critical implementation factors identified in published case studies. We use a questionnaire to measure the use of these factors in ‘typical’ software companies. We found that many companies use SPI but the effectiveness of SPI implementation is variable. Many companies inadequately resource SPI and fail to evaluate the impact of SPI. On the other hand, companies show a good appreciation of the human factors associated with implementing SPI. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Capability Maturity Model for software has become a major force in software development process improvement. We looked at the role of process improvement in the context of a small organization. Although the Capability Maturity Model integration is replacing the CMM, we focused on the older CMM. We had to look at more than which CMM key process areas apply to small businesses. Our overall goal was to institute good software development practices, we used the language of the CMM to gain the management's cooperation. Applying these practices is essential to managing growth, yet undertaking this effort without prior experience could impede a small company's innovative nature. This case study's purpose was to investigate the success factors of a software process improvement effort for a small software development organization.
Process Increments: An Agile Approach to Software Process Improvement
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