Does Context Matter? Assessing the Current State of Quality Practice During Software Development in Small Software Companies

Tuape, Micheal; Ntebane, Phemelo; Majoo, Pulafela

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-63092-8_23

Cited by 2 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…A company should structure its leadership, organize its affairs, ensure systematic planning, and be able to adjust the daily activity to control while exercising sufficient flexibility. The importance of management in software engineering and how it impacts SSC success cannot be overstated [43], [59].…”

Section: ) Management Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory on Non-Technical Characteristics Affecting Process Adoption in Small Software Companies: A Grounded Theory Study

2022

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Despite the inefficiency of software processes and products, small software companies (SSCs) enjoy a promising future. These companies are known to have few employees, creating the inefficiency that makes it challenging for the SSCs to adopt effective software practices. This subsequently introduces additional complexity, affecting software engineering processes' adoption. Using the Glaserian Grounded Theory, we conducted interviews (N=18) with participants from SSCs intensively engaged in software development from four countries. We looked for the common traits that are identifiable as antecedents to the number of employees in a company to affect the adoption of software engineering processes. From the participants' experience, five non-technical characteristics (Risk, Competitive advantage, Resilience, Innovative capacity, and Management ability) emerged, complementing the number of employees to affect the process during software practice in SSCs. By the end of this study, we developed five hypotheses for predicting and explaining the adoption of software engineering processes by small software companies.

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Section: ) Management Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory on Non-Technical Characteristics Affecting Process Adoption in Small Software Companies: A Grounded Theory Study

2022

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“…SSCs [23], [24], [55], [58], [59], [61], [65], [67], [75], [83], [96], [97], [101], [106], [113], [122], [125]…”

Section: B Knowledge Area Characteristics and Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This, therefore, leads to the need in understanding context and its effect on the influencing factors. There seems to be an indication that researchers have not paid significant attention to size and context while developing tools and methods for software development [101]. This is evidenced by a lack of proper classification of small companies seen through author's usage of terminologies leading to contextual challenges in research and practice.…”

Section: B How Are Companies Referred To In Literature?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1], [101], [142]- [144] However, the process tools have a weak relationship to the production of quality software, and the weakness is explained by the inability of the SSCs to adopt the process tools hence failure to produce quality products. The weak relationship between the process tools and the production of quality software products during the development process is highlighted as the gap in research and practice, as evidenced by the continued poor quality of software products [47], [101], [140], [145]. The researchers propose the adoption mechanism to strengthen the relationship between the development process tools and quality software products.…”

Section: Quality Software Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the complexity that arises out of the efforts to solve the challenges of lack of utilization of the process tools by the SSCs, we find the justification of a new theoretical framework highlighting the relationship between the process tools and quality software products moderated by the adaptation mechanism. The theory also helps us explain the reasons for SSCs failure to utilise the process tools which is an issue of concern as observed in [1], [11], [12], [101], [154].…”

Section: A Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Tuape¹,

Hasheela-Mufeti

Kayanda

et al. 2021

IEEE Access

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Small software companies face numerous challenges of complexity, unstructured software development processes and scarce resources. This notwithstanding, the companies have dominated the software market by 80 percent. The practice and products of these companies are still persistently marred by quality issues arising from the processes, with evidence indicating that process tools do not fit the unique contexts in which they operate. Significant strides have been made in transforming software development practice; however, the challenges are still evidently apparent. Hence the need to establish how knowledge areas are applied in process practice, understand the context of software development and its implication in practice, how process tools are utilised in practice and evaluate quality of research in software literature The researchers undertook a systematic mapping study to determine the state of practice in empirical literature on software engineering of SSCs by examining and classifying 1096 publications. Other than the finding that research quality was low and affecting generalisation and transferability, the results also revealed interesting findings which we finally consolidated and integrated to develop two contributions (i) a software development process adoption theoretical framework which provides new insights of understanding software development and (ii) a 3-point guideline for research quality.

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Does Context Matter? Assessing the Current State of Quality Practice During Software Development in Small Software Companies

Cited by 2 publications

References 52 publications

Theory on Non-Technical Characteristics Affecting Process Adoption in Small Software Companies: A Grounded Theory Study

Theory on Non-Technical Characteristics Affecting Process Adoption in Small Software Companies: A Grounded Theory Study

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

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