Systematic and Grounded Theory Literature Reviews of Software Process Improvement Phenomena: Implications for IS Research

Abstract

Over the years, there seems to be little achievement made with regards to effective measurement of software development organizations' capabilities, especially with regards to their effective implementation of Software Process Improvement (SPI) programs. This problem has been ascribed to the limitations which the capability models have in terms of accurately identifying organizational variables which will appropriately serve as capability measures. This study, therefore, argues that variables such as knowledge economy, corporate ideology, organizational design, quality management, and performance management can evolve in IS research as primary measures required to accurately measure software development organizations' capabilities. The methods that were adopted are the grounded theory literature review and the systematic literature review methods. The grounded theory literature review allowed the authors to carry out a rigorous review of the literature on subjects, namely, knowledge economy, organizational sciences, quality management, and performance management, with the aim of pointing out the need for a conceptual shift in SPI research. The systematic literature review was used to descriptively analyze 14 IS based articles published in five hand-picked IS research publication outlets. We found out that there is need for IS based SPI researchers to study knowledge economy, corporate ideology, organizational design, quality manMaterial published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@InformingScience.org to request redistribution permission.Systematic and Grounded Theory Literature Reviews 250 agement and performance management as intertwined variables and not as separate variables as currently being practiced in the field. We also found out that IS based SPI research is multidisciplinary in nature and are mainly carried out as literature reviews and action research. We recommend that IS researchers should endeavour to bring together these variables since they influence one anther in order to be able to carry out more formidable analysis of the issues affecting the measurement of software development organizations' capability and how it affect the implementation of SPI programs. This research contributed theoretically to the IS SPI literature.