Abstract:Abstract. In most cases, enactment is the most resource consuming aspect of process improvement, as large process changes are put into practice. Problems that typically are encountered include ineffective process changes, resistance from employees, and unclarity about the advantages of the new process. These problems can be avoided by incrementally implementing process changes, especially if the enactment is supported by process management tools that immediately change the processes and workflow in information… Show more
“…A thorough explanation of the process that we followed to select an appropriate SPM tool is provided by Vlaanderen & Tuijl (2013). The main criteria for our choice were the support of workflow management, the capability to sup-port documents, simple-to-use configuration, modifiability, and that it is widely known and used in the industry.…”
Software companies keep evolving their methods for software production, due to the continuous changes in the organizational, technological, and societal context. Implementing changes to existing methods is a complex activity, which depends not only on understanding ‘what' to alter, but also on defining ‘how' to apply the changes. Approaches in the literature are mainly focused on the ‘what', provide only partial answers to the ‘how' question, and offer no concrete toolset to support change. In this paper, we propose and discuss a software toolset that realizes the online method engine (OME) concept and provides a concrete answer to the ‘how' question by supporting the iterative and incremental assessment, improvement, and enactment of methods for software production. The authors describe the technical architecture of our toolset that concretely realizes our previously proposed OME concept, provide details on the method enactment mechanism, and report on a qualitative evaluation based on interviews with experienced industrial practitioners in process improvement.
“…A thorough explanation of the process that we followed to select an appropriate SPM tool is provided by Vlaanderen & Tuijl (2013). The main criteria for our choice were the support of workflow management, the capability to sup-port documents, simple-to-use configuration, modifiability, and that it is widely known and used in the industry.…”
Software companies keep evolving their methods for software production, due to the continuous changes in the organizational, technological, and societal context. Implementing changes to existing methods is a complex activity, which depends not only on understanding ‘what' to alter, but also on defining ‘how' to apply the changes. Approaches in the literature are mainly focused on the ‘what', provide only partial answers to the ‘how' question, and offer no concrete toolset to support change. In this paper, we propose and discuss a software toolset that realizes the online method engine (OME) concept and provides a concrete answer to the ‘how' question by supporting the iterative and incremental assessment, improvement, and enactment of methods for software production. The authors describe the technical architecture of our toolset that concretely realizes our previously proposed OME concept, provide details on the method enactment mechanism, and report on a qualitative evaluation based on interviews with experienced industrial practitioners in process improvement.
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