A Case Study on Usage of a Software Process Management Tool in China

Abstract

Nowadays, commercial or in-house customized process management tools have been prevalently adopted for supporting software project management and process improvement. In this paper we report a case study to empirically investigate and evaluate the usage status and implications of a supporting tool named QONE in industrial environment in China. Decision theory is adopted in study design. The analysis is mainly based on the usage data from a typical industrial project. Further questionnaires and followup interviews with the end-users are also conducted. The analysis results reveal that 1) the effects of such supporting tool vary with respect to different task types; 2) tasks with smaller granularity are comparatively easier to predict and control; 3) missing data reporting analysis helps to reveal opportunities for further process improvement and tool enhancement. This investigation aims to help us take advantages of such supporting tools and benefit software development eventually.