Software development practices in small entities: an ISO29110‐based survey

Abstract

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in software development often experience problems in mastering their development processes. This can lead to time and cost overruns or failure to address functional and nonfunctional requirements. In general, this can significantly affect customer satisfaction and hamper business growth potential. This paper reports on a survey conducted in Belgium to assess more precisely which and how SMEs are affected by problems related to development processes. The survey was driven by the ISO29110 lightweight standard focusing on very small entities developing software, ie, whose internal IT department is less than 25 people. Worldwide, and in particular in Belgium, this represents a very large portion of SMEs in business. Survey results highlight the most frequent issues and how they may be linked to organization and project characteristics. The survey is based on a free online self‐assessment tool. Therefore, results go 1 step further than identifying issues encountered in companies: the tool also infers a set of quick‐win high‐level recommendations to solve these issues. Our results are also compared with those reported by other surveys targeting both large and small companies.

Software Process Capability Self-Assessment Support System Based on Task and Work Product Characteristics: A Case Study of ISO/IEC 29110 Standard

“…Currently, there are different methods and tools for evaluating the use of software development processes in accordance with ISO/IEC 29110 for SMEs/VSEs: 1) Survey/Studies such as OWPL Tool (Observatoire Wallon des Pratiques Logicielles Tool by CETIC: Belgium) for selfassessment in 2015, with emphasis on 10 processes and 39 main tasks of SI and PM processes. (Entry Profile Level) including NOEMI Tool (CETIC: Luxemburg) [32]. The survey such as CHAOS survey by questionnaire is provided in several languages: English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish.…”

“…The survey such as CHAOS survey by questionnaire is provided in several languages: English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish. The data will be analyzed and summarized for further process improvement [32]. 2) Methods and Tools such as Deployment Packages (INCOSE: International Council on Systems engineering) [33], [34], MARES (Brazil), Full Assessment [35], TOPS, FAME, RAPID (Australia -focused on CM), SPM, EAP, Micro-Evaluation, METvalCOMPETISOFT (Botswana, South Africa), SPINI, EvalProSoft, ADEPT, and MA-MPS [36] by supporting tools including paper forms, software tool, electronic process guides, data collection.…”

Software Engineering in Small Software Companies: Consolidating and Integrating Empirical Literature Into a Process Tool Adoption Framework

“…Recent development in technology and growth in the software industry has been championed by Small Software Companies (SSCs), making up over 90% of the companies in the software industry [1] . Although software is a crucial driver to today's global economy [2] and SSCs contribute significantly to this, these companies' failure rate and inferior quality products are a point of concern [3].…”

“…According to the project management statistics [16], the proportion of challenged projects has increased to 43 percent resulting from a change in the organisation's priorities, inaccurate requirements gathering, change in project objectives, and inadequate vision or goal. Other authors [3], [15], [17], [18] list scope creep as one of the most prevalent factors responsible for project failure. The challenges have not stopped the SSCs from considerable progress by significantly dominating the highly competitive market although, sustaining this business environment with a good customer relationship is complex [19].…”

Engenharia de Software em Empresas de Pequeno e Médio Porte: Um Mapeamento Sistemático

“…Como resultado, as PMEs podem encarar vários desafios. Por exemplo, há poucos recursos para dar suporte ao investimento e crescimento, assim há resistência na adoção da ES, gerando um processo deficitário desde o desenvolvimento até a entrada do produto no mercado [O'Connor and Coleman 2009, Sánchez-Gordón and O'Connor 2016, Moll 2013, Majchrowski et al 2016.…”