Using Composition Trees to Validate an Entry Profile of Software Engineering Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs)

Context: For successful initiation of software process improvement (SPI) initiatives in software SMEs, it is vital for the practitioners to have deep understanding of various SPI inhibitors.Objective: The paper has the following objectives: investigate factors which impact SPI implementation initiatives in software SMEs, synthesize available evidence, identify gaps between existing approaches available in the literature, and to develop the taxonomy of the factors.Methods: Database search and snowballing procedure are adapted to perform the systematic mapping and review, which includes 105 primary studies published between 2002 and 2018. Also, we reviewed the empirical studies for their rigor and relevance.Results: A total of 16 inhibitors have been identified and are grouped into PMBOK knowledge areas framework. From the rigor and relevance scores, it is observed that despite the research has been conducted in an industrial context, it lacks rigor (mean = 1.79) and thus hinders the possibility of generalizing the results. This calls for more studies with thorough empirical analysis and validation using adequate statistical tests. Conclusions:The results can help the practitioners to understand the dynamics of factors, which undermine SPI implementation in software SMEs and also to assist them in the development of effective control and mitigation strategies. KEYWORDS Global Software Development, software process improvement, SPI factors, systematic literature review, systematic mapping 1 | INTRODUCTION Increasingly, many software organizations have taken up global sourcing of software activities, primarily because of the considerable benefits.However, there are various challenges linked with global sourcing, predominantly with respect to software process improvement (SPI). 1-3 In the previous two decades, significant research work has been undertaken by the researchers on the development of standards and model frameworks to boost up SPI process in software SMEs. In spite of the presence of models such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), MoProSoft, ISO/IEC 15504, and ISO/IEC 12207, the success rate of SPI implementation in SMEs is quite low. 3,4 Ngwenyama and Nielsen 4 described that about 70% of the organizations fail in the successful implementation of process improvement initiatives, and the major cause of this failure is the inadequate emphasis paid towards the process improvement. SPI literature encompasses numerous case studies on SPI programs, which have been realized by software companies, among other things, to improve quality and pace of their software projects. 5,6 Generally, SPI is deemed extremely significant for companies of all sorts and sizes. 7 But, it is also a risky attempt, which involves both cost and effort, as evident from literature studies being undertaken by researchers in software enterprises. [5][6][7][8][9][10] For successful initiation of SPI program software, SMEs transform their processes to meet the requirements of process reference models they wish to employ. [10][11]...

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the factors which impact SPI implementation initiatives in software SMEs—A systematic map and review

Sharma

Sangal

2019

“…34 Other research works are focused on its adoption 35 or focused on SPI experiences. [36][37][38][39] In addition, there are some authors focused on tailored life cycles for VSEs 40 and promoting the use of design patterns by these VSEs. 41 From a project management perspective, there are contributions focused on documenting management aspects in VSEs context.…”

Section: Very Small Entities and System Life-cycle Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing security debt across PLC phases in a VSE context

Larrucea

Santamaría

Fernández-Gauna

2019

Nowadays, security and safety aspects are two of the major concerns for any software system development, especially while developing safety critical systems. This is especially relevant for very small entities because they have a limited amount of resources for dealing with all these aspects at the same time. In addition, these systems are highly regulated domains, and they involve a huge set of standards focused on safety and security‐related issues. Therefore, these small entities are not only facing hurdles related to technical aspects but also from the so‐called technical debt when overarching a critical development. This paper extends the assurance cases approach by integrating security aspects within the life cycle, and it proposes a framework for managing the associated security technical debt for very small entities. A tool chain is outlined, and the approach is illustrated with an industrial use case.

“…[30][31][32][33] Some authors are researching on tailored lifecycles for VSEs through the use of composition trees for modelling processes. 34 From a project management perspective, there are contributions focused on documenting management aspects in VSEs context. 25 From a technical perspective, VSEs should overcome new technologies or approaches such as microservices.…”

Section: Very Small Entitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some authors are researching on tailored lifecycles for VSEs through the use of composition trees for modelling processes . From a project management perspective, there are contributions focused on documenting management aspects in VSEs context .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlations study and clustering from SPI experiences in small settings

Larrucea

Santamaría

2018

Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives have been applied in a wide set of organisations including very small entities (VSE). In fact, this kind of organisations is facing several hurdles when overarching a SPI initiative. In this context, the ISO/IEC 29110 has been used as a lightweight reference model for steering VSEs in their SPI initiatives. The inherent uncertainty behind the SPI curtains blocks the organisations in their investments. Due to these reasons, we need to identify relationships and similarities in order to predict whether a SPI will succeed or not. We propose the use of Self‐Organising Maps for identifying patterns from these SPI studies. The aim of this paper is to identify correlations among SPI studies and to discover patterns from them.