Experiences and results from tailoring and deploying a large process standard in a company

Armbrust, Ove; Ebell, Jan; Hammerschall, Ulrike; Münch, Jürgen; Thoma, Daniela

doi:10.1002/spip.391

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Fucci et al conduct a series experiments and study the impact of process conformance on the effective use of test‐driven development practices. Finally, Gandomani et al discuss how to find and set up pilot projects (a standard instrument in classic SPI) for agile transformations.…”

Section: Study Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kanban and Lean principles could be beneficial to drive SPI programs as both methods focus on efficient and effective work, ie, doing what is necessary and measuring the impact/success of the work done. Especially the limit work‐in‐progress philosophy should be regarded advantageous to SPI as it motivates all stakeholders to stay focused and prioritize work instead of starting all SPI activities at a time (Armbrust et al and Münch et al discuss this in the context of the different SPI and process deployment strategies).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Küpper

Pfahl

Jürisoo

et al. 2019

J Software Evolu Process

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The 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. KEYWORDSagile methods, software process improvement, SPI, systematic review INTRODUCTIONSoftware has become the key driver in many industry sectors, and software development processes face increasing demands for flexibility, customer-and value-orientation, short time-to-market cycles, and high quality. As a consequence, companies are challenged with finding appropriate software development methods that, on the one hand, allow for flexible project operation and, on the other hand, allow for creating high-quality products. To define, adapt, evaluate, and improve their software processes, companies implement software process improvement (SPI) initiatives. According to Humphrey 1 and Münch et al, 2 SPI comprises a variety of tasks, ie, scoping, assessment, design and realization, and continuous improvement. Furthermore, SPI is considered relevant to companies 3 regardless of their size and industry sector.SPI has been around for decades, 4 and numerous approaches to conduct SPI have been proposed. 5,6 The different SPI approaches range from formal/prescriptive/de-facto (commercial) standards, such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) or ISO/IEC 15504, which are often critic...

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Section: Study Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Küpper

Pfahl

Jürisoo

et al. 2019

J Software Evolu Process

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Armbrust et al (2008) mention the importance of pilot projects in the context of case study research, and discuss the difficulties finding proper projects and allocating resources. Replication increases the level of difficulty, as experiments and case studies are conducted multiple times thus blocking critical resources for long periods of time without immediately creating value in terms of products and services.…”

Section: Replication Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guidelines for using empirical studies in software engineering education

Fagerholm

Kuhrmann

Münch

2017

PeerJ Computer Science

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Software engineering education is under constant pressure to provide students with industry-relevant knowledge and skills. Educators must address issues beyond exercises and theories that can be directly rehearsed in small settings. Industry training has similar requirements of relevance as companies seek to keep their workforce up to date with technological advances. Real-life software development often deals with large, software-intensive systems and is influenced by the complex effects of teamwork and distributed software development, which are hard to demonstrate in an educational environment. A way to experience such effects and to increase the relevance of software engineering education is to apply empirical studies in teaching. In this paper, we show how different types of empirical studies can be used for educational purposes in software engineering. We give examples illustrating how to utilize empirical studies, discuss challenges, and derive an initial guideline that supports teachers to include empirical studies in software engineering courses. Furthermore, we give examples that show how empirical studies contribute to high-quality learning outcomes, to student motivation, and to the awareness of the advantages of applying software engineering principles. Having awareness, experience, and understanding of the actions required, students are more likely to apply such principles under real-life constraints in their working life.

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“…In the first step of the set up, few experience-based questions (e.g., for the context, preknowledge, or deployment and training strategies; [1,10]) need to be answered to prepare the tailoring of the artifact model. The tailoring is done in the second step (at the © ACM.…”

Section: Project Set Upmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artifact-based software process improvement and management: a method proposal

Kuhrmann¹,

Beecham

2014

Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Software and System Process

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When it comes to software process improvement (SPI), process engineers look for SPI methods to support process analysis, design, realization, deployment, and management. Although a number of different SPI methods and models exist, process engineers tend to view these as too generic, too large, or a poor fit for the organization in which SPI is conducted. A strategy to overcome these shortcomings is to concentrate on the artifacts, which precisely define the desired outcomes, rather than on specific methods. In this paper, we present the Artifact-based Software Process Improvement & Management (ArSPI) model that provides a unified perspective on SPI and company-wide software process management (SPM), the required key artifacts, and the life cycle models. ArSPI is shown to be of practical support to industry who called for a practical way to define the interfaces between SPI projects. This paper concludes with an example of how ArSPI paved the way for several organizations through applying the model in real-world SPIprojects.

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Experiences and results from tailoring and deploying a large process standard in a company

Cited by 16 publications

References 9 publications

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

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

Guidelines for using empirical studies in software engineering education

Artifact-based software process improvement and management: a method proposal

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