A lightweight inductive method for process assessment based on frequent feedback: A study in a micro software company

Abstract

Software process assessment is the most important phase in process improvement projects since it enables identification of all process issues that need to be improved. Small and micro software companies suffer from several restrictions that do not allow them to apply standards and best practice guidelines for process assessment. These companies rather implement lightweight assessment methods that can be easily tailored to their needs. This article presents a lightweight inductive process assessment method that can be adapted to specific needs of small companies. The method is based on active participation of company employees and assumes frequent exchange of information during feedback oriented working sessions in the assessed company. The method is implemented in an indigenous micro software company in Serbia for assessing software maintenance process. Four potential improvements were identified, while the best ranked one was implemented. Benefits for the company, as well as implications for practitioners from industry and researchers from academia are discussed.

Software maintenance improvement in small software companies: Reflections on experiences

“…The basic idea with the use of SHR in software maintenance is to increase maintainers efficiency by providing them the relevant data, which should reduce their reliance on their intuition and experience. In addition, historical data on maintenance everyday practice can be used to support management activities within an organization [19,20,21], or as a source of valuable data for maintenance practice assessment and improvement [22,23].…”

“…In addition, the company employees actively participate in the process assessment because they implement maintenance processes and are the best source of information about them. Developed process assessment method, named Lightweight Inductive Method for Process Assessment based on Frequent Feedback (LIM P AF 2 ) is presented in figure 5, while details are presented in [22].…”

Review of methods for migrating software systems to microservices architecture

“…Due to the rapid change of business conditions and constant improvement of technologies, software systems constantly change to remain useful for their users (Benestad, Anda, & Arisholm, 2010), which indicates that software maintenance is very important for improvement of software quality (Z. Stojanov, J. Stojanov, & Dobrilović, 2019). All changes can harm monolithic and legacy systems because their structure is solid and hard to modify.…”