Software process improvement: where is the evidence?: initial findings from a systematic mapping study

Kuhrmann, Marco; Konopka, Claudia; Nellemann, Peter; Diebold, Philipp; Münch, Jürgen

doi:10.1145/2785592.2785600

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Others propose that some development processes improve the ability for successful SPI, e.g., SPI and agile methodologies (Chetankumar Patel, 2009;Polavarapu and Jami, 2016). Hence "there is a growing interest over the recent years in SPI for SME's and adopting agile principles for SPI" (Kuhrmann et al, 2015). Alignment of SPI initiatives with business goals is also considered as one of the critical factors for a successful SPI initiative (Vasconcellos et al, 2017).…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Investigation of Factors that Hamper Pursuing Software Process Improvement: Analyses of Saudi Practitioners’ Views

Zarour¹

2018

Journal of Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Software product quality is affected by the quality of the process used to develop it. Improving process quality helps software organizations in developing better software products on time and within budget. To achieve these benefits, software organizations are becoming more interested to pursue Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives. The failure in pursuing such initiatives is affected by several factors. The literature reports many studies that document different factors impacting the success of SPI initiatives. Very few of these studies have been conducted in the Middle East and particularly in Saudi Arabia. In this study, we report the results of a survey-based empirical study that identify factors that hamper the SPI initiatives conducted by 26 organizations located in Saudi Arabia. A survey has been sent to various organizations. Responses have been collected and analyzed. Results from the literature review and from our survey have been synthesized and presented in this study along with a comparative analysis of similar factors reported in similar studies worldwide. Knowing, prioritizing and understanding these factors can help both researchers and software development organizations avoid them to successfully plan and execute SPI initiatives.

show abstract

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Investigation of Factors that Hamper Pursuing Software Process Improvement: Analyses of Saudi Practitioners’ Views

Zarour¹

2018

Journal of Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, SPI is considered relevant to companies regardless of their size and industry sector. SPI has been around for decades, and numerous approaches to conduct SPI have been proposed . The different SPI approaches range from formal/prescriptive/de‐facto (commercial) standards, such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) or ISO/IEC 15504, which are often criticized, over tailored SPI approaches, eg, for small and medium‐sized companies, to small case‐specific solutions documented in numerous experience reports .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How has SPI changed in times of agile development? Results from a multi‐method study

Küpper

Pfahl

Jürisoo

et al. 2019

J Software Evolu Process

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The emergence of agile methods and practices has not only changed the development processes but might also have affected how companies conduct software process improvement (SPI).Through a set of complementary studies, we aim to understand how SPI has changed in times of agile software development. Specifically, we aim (a) to identify and characterize the set of publications that connect elements of agility to SPI, (b) to explore to which extent agile methods/practices have been used in the context of SPI, and (c) to understand whether the topics addressed in the literature are relevant and useful for industry professionals. To study these questions, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the literature identified in a previous mapping study, an interview study, and an analysis of the responses given by industry professionals to SPI-related questions stemming from an independently conducted survey study. Regarding the first question, we identified 55 publications that focus on both SPI and agility of which 48 present and discuss how agile methods/practices are used to steer SPI initiatives. Regarding the second question, we found that the two most frequently mentioned agile methods in the context of SPI are Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP), while the most frequently mentioned agile practices are integrate often, test-first, daily meeting, pair programming, retrospective, on-site customer, and product backlog. Regarding the third question, we found that a majority of the interviewed and surveyed industry professionals see SPI as a continuous activity. They agree with the agile SPI literature that agile methods/practices play an important role in SPI activities but that the importance given to specific agile methods/practices does not always coincide with the frequency with which these methods/practices are mentioned in the literature. KEYWORDSagile methods, software process improvement, SPI, systematic review INTRODUCTIONSoftware has become the key driver in many industry sectors, and software development processes face increasing demands for flexibility, customer-and value-orientation, short time-to-market cycles, and high quality. As a consequence, companies are challenged with finding appropriate software development methods that, on the one hand, allow for flexible project operation and, on the other hand, allow for creating high-quality products. To define, adapt, evaluate, and improve their software processes, companies implement software process improvement (SPI) initiatives. According to Humphrey 1 and Münch et al, 2 SPI comprises a variety of tasks, ie, scoping, assessment, design and realization, and continuous improvement. Furthermore, SPI is considered relevant to companies 3 regardless of their size and industry sector.SPI has been around for decades, 4 and numerous approaches to conduct SPI have been proposed. 5,6 The different SPI approaches range from formal/prescriptive/de-facto (commercial) standards, such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) or ISO/IEC 15504, which are often critic...

show abstract

“…1 Within software development processes, the improvement of these processes (software process improvement) has been one of the most important and evolving subfields in recent years. 2 One of the prerequisites for such a systematic software process improvement is a description of the development process. This aspect of describing a software process is addressed in the research field of process modeling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Software process models vs descriptions: What do practitioners use and need?

Diebold

Scherr

2017

J Software Evolu Process

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is commonly known that software or system development processes are very important for getting a high-quality product. Such processes can be described in many different ways, from textual documents to existing modeling notations. Before dealing with the overall goal of improving the description of development processes, this paper evaluates the current state of practice regarding process descriptions and reasons for that. A major focus is on the degree of formality. Based on an interview guideline, a series of 12 interviews was conducted in German companies of different sizes. The results were analyzed to come up with the current usage of and need for software process models or descriptions. In general, our results confirm the literature statement that in industrial practice the majority of processes descriptions are detailed but rather focus on informal descriptions than formal notations or models. Nevertheless, they use semiformal process descriptions containing different graphical, table-based, or structured-text elements for representation. It is interesting that even if companies do not want to use formal models; they would like to have their advantages and even often have the detailed information necessary for formal models. Overall, our findings provide evidence on the state of practice regarding usage of process descriptions and models and show the need for future work in this area

show abstract

Software process improvement: where is the evidence?: initial findings from a systematic mapping study

Cited by 15 publications

References 41 publications

Empirical Investigation of Factors that Hamper Pursuing Software Process Improvement: Analyses of Saudi Practitioners’ Views

Empirical Investigation of Factors that Hamper Pursuing Software Process Improvement: Analyses of Saudi Practitioners’ Views

How has SPI changed in times of agile development? Results from a multi‐method study

Software process models vs descriptions: What do practitioners use and need?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About