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Integrated framework for software process improvemente in small organizations

  • Autores: Francisco J. Pino Correa Árbol académico
  • Directores de la Tesis: Félix O. García Rubio (dir. tes.) Árbol académico, Mario G. Piattini Velthuis (dir. tes.) Árbol académico
  • Lectura: En la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha ( España ) en 2010
  • Idioma: español
  • Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Francisco Ruiz González (presid.) Árbol académico, Javier Garzás Parra (secret.) Árbol académico, Maria Teresa Baldasarre (voc.) Árbol académico, Oscar Pedreira (voc.) Árbol académico, José A. Calvo-Manzano Villalón (voc.) Árbol académico
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  • Resumen
    • Small software organizations are a very important cog in the gears of the world's software industry, since in most countries this industry is principally made up of this type of organizations. Some studies state that 94% of software development companies are small (with fewer than 50 employees), 85% of the companies in the information technology sector in Europe are micro (fewer than 10 employees), and 75% of software companies in Latin-America are small organizations. However, in many of these organizations there are often no formalized and known processes with which to develop and maintain their software products, leading to chaotic operation models that entail a low level of process capability and organizational maturity, which in turn hinder their competing in a global market and therefore their growth.

      In recent years small organizations have come to view Software Process Improvement - SPI- as a strategy which can be used to address the problems previously described, aiming to increase software product quality and improve the productivity of software development and maintenance. However, the execution of an SPI project involves the use of process reference models (which describe good and available practices for software development), process assessment models (which present the means by which the state of the processes is determined and finds opportunities for improvement) and models to guide SPI (which direct the process improvement activities), but the vast majority of small organizations do not use the international standards related to these models since they do not offer SPI practices which are adapted to their features, size and type of business, and such standards cannot easily be applied in these organizations.

      With regard to a model to guide SPI, when a small software organization tackles an SPI project, this model is the least used, which is a great failing, because a model of this type: (i) helps to understand what to do when a small organization is interested in implementing the SPI projects, and (ii) provides the guidelines that are needed to organize all the activities related SPI, along with connecting the other models and elements involved. Several SPI proposals currently exist which have also been developed for small organizations but these proposals do not provide the explicit guidelines needed to drive the different activities involved in carrying out an SPI project. That is to say, there is no comprehensive model to guide the SPI which is adapted to the characteristics of small organizations.

      In this research, an Improvement framework to guide the activities involved in the execution of software process improvement projects in the context of small organizations in a detailed and comprehensive manner was developed and validated.

      The Improvement framework integrates both the process reference model and the process assessment method, and it supports the connection of the SPI with the other process management responsibilities. The framework integrates different SPI practices, process, strategies and tools which have been tailored to small organizations' characteristics, aiming to offer them a complete, useful and practical guideline for addressing SPI projects. This framework defines five components: (i) a process for managing and leading the SPI called PmCOMPETISOFT, (ii) a methodology for software process assessment called METvalCOMPETISOFT, (iii) a lightweight process for incorporating improvements called PfemCOMPETISOFT, (iv) a strategy to describe which processes to consider first in an SPI project, and (v) a set of tools to support the improvement framework.

      These components of the Improvement framework were applied, by means of the case study empirical method, in some organizations that were carrying out an SPI project in order to analyze their validity. Based on the experience acquired from the case studies carried out on process assessment and improvement, the increase of the capability of the processes to be improved, the effort of applying the proposed process and the benefits described by small organizations, we have observed that the improvement framework is suitable for leading SPI projects in this type of organizations. The results, in terms of effort, increase of capability and benefits, are an indicator that the proposed Improvement framework is a practical and useful strategy when confronting the difficulty of carrying out SPI in small organizations.


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