Empirical study of software process improvement in Malaysian small and medium enterprises: The human aspects

Abstract

Software Process Improvement (SPI) aims to achieve quality software products in software companies. Ignoring human factors can cause several types of damage in the software development process. Because, Software development is not a purely technical task, but rather it is a relationship between technical and human factors that interact with each other constantly. Currently, Small Medium Enterprises' (SMEs) software development companies in Malaysia still struggle to implement SPI successfully. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the empirical evidence based on the human factor perspective for helping Malaysian SMEs' software development companies to implement SPI strategies. A questionnaire‐based survey method was used for gathering information from 79 practitioners. The results indicate that 9 factors (employee awareness, leadership involvement, employee involvement, customer involvement, senior management support, staff experience, staff learning, staff skills, and client support) are considered important for implementing SPI in Malaysian SME software development companies. The involvement of both leadership and employees, and getting support from management are the most important human factors that should be considered during the design process of SPI strategies.

Effect of knowledge management on software product experience with mediating effect of perceived software process improvement: An empirical study for Indian software industry

“…The findings reveal that security is an important quality measure in addition to usability, reliability and maintainability. Almomani et al [33] placed emphasis on the view that insights and experiences of humans influence software quality; the human perception is stressed as it is the base for implementing SPI and is accountable for attaining actual, competent and quality processes. Thus, there is a correlation between human experiences, SPI and quality of software product.…”

Yeh’s Satisfaction Index Modelling of Tenants in Rental Appartments (A Case Study of Latifabad Hyderabad)

“…This method is used by researchers in this research to conduct the survey related to measuring apartment rent, services, and amenities such as utilities, maid services, and location facilities. Susilawati's research in 2002 highlighted the need to identify satisfaction for tenants to match the success of the organization [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Leader happiness conceptualizes human perception of a certain service meeting as an interactional means.…”

A lightweight inductive method for process assessment based on frequent feedback: A study in a micro software company

“…Medium and large software organizations usually implement top-down approaches based on best practice guidelines, such as ISO/IEC 15504 -Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (SPICE) (SPICE, 2008) or Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) (CMMI, 2006), which are heavyweight approaches that do not conform to small organizations due to their limited resources (Zarour et al, 2015). These top-down models are too expensive and very complicated to implement in small software organizations (Almomani, Basri, & Gilal, 2018;Staples et al, 2007), which is evident from large scale research study that revealed that less than 18 percent of small software organizations use process oriented standards (Laporte, Alexandre, & Renault, 2008). In addition, Sharma and Sangal (2018) identified that the most important inhibitor factors for SPI initiatives are the management commitment and the lack of resources, which is particularly emphasized in small organizations.…”

“…In addition, Sharma and Sangal (2018) identified that the most important inhibitor factors for SPI initiatives are the management commitment and the lack of resources, which is particularly emphasized in small organizations. Further, in an empirical study with Malaysian small and medium software organizations, Almomani, Basri and Gilal (2018) indicated that human factors such as employee awareness, leadership involvement, employee involvement, customer involvement, senior management support, staff experience, staff learning, staff skills, and client support are essential for success of SPI initiatives.…”