Francisco J. Pino
IDIS Research Group
Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering Faculty University of Cauca, Street 5 # 4 – 70 Popayán, Colombia.
Félix Garcia, Mario Piattini
ALARCOS Research Group
Information Systems and Technologies Department, UCLM–Soluziona Research and Development Institute University of Castilla–La Mancha, Paseo de la Universidad, 4 – 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain.
Felix.Garcia, [email protected]
Keywords: Practices priorization, Software process improvement, SPI, Very small software enterprises, VSEs, SMEs, Reference process model.
Abstract:
1 INTRODUCTION
From the very beginning of present century XXI onwards, the Software Engineering community (industry and researchers) has expressed a special interest in Software Process Improvement –SPI– for Very Small Software Enterprises VSEs. This is evidenced by the growing number of articles that deal with the topic of SPI in VSEs, something that is seen in the analysis of the trends in publications about this subject, presented in (Pino et al., 2006).
Too by the appearance of a great number of standards and proposals related with SPI for VSEs, for instance:
The European Union has encouraged initiatives like European Software and System Initiative –ESSI– and projects such as Software Process Improvement in Regions of Europe –SPIRE– (SPIRE, 1993), Toward Organized Software Processes in SMEs – TOPS– (Esprit_Project, 1999), among others
The Mexico Economy Secretary created the Program for the Software Industry Development (PROSOFT) that has given origin to the Process Model for the Software Industry – MoProSoft – (Oktaba, 2005) and to the Method for Process Assessment for the
Software Industry – EvalProsoft – (Oktaba, 2004).
In Brazil the government subsidized the Productivity and Quality Software Program – PBQP– (Bedini et al., 2005) and has been developed the MPS.BR Project (melhoria do processo of software brasileiro) (Weber et al., 2005).
In Colombia the SIMEP-SW Project has been developed, it was financed by Colciencias and the University of Cauca. The main result is the Framework for the Software Processes Improvement in Small Companies so-called Agile SPI. (Hurtado et al., 2007).
The International Process Research Consortium – IPRC – from Software Engineering Institute – SEI –, has a research initiative about process improvement in small settings as one of the early high-priority topics. The "small settings" term include small teams, small projects, small organizations, and small businesses.
The International Organization for Standardization –ISO– shaped the workgroup SC7-WG24 in order to the development of software life-cycle profiles and guidelines for use in very small enterprises.
It growing interest about SPI in VSEs is because these companies are a very important cog in the gears of the economy of many nations in the world.
The software industry in most countries has an industrial backcloth, made up mainly of small software organizations which favour the growth of national economies. In order to fortify this sort of organizations, efficient strategies, practices and/or guides about process software improvement tailoring to their size and business kind is needed.
Currently COMPETISOFT project is developed.
This project deals with the creation of the software reference process, assessment and improvement models adapted to the characteristics of the software industry in Latin America, mainly composed of small-sized enterprises. The COMPETISOFT approach is based on models which have previously shown their practical usefulness, such as:
MoProSoft, EvalProSoft, Agile SPI, MPS.BR, Mares, among others.
A strategy of COMPETISOFT Project is the accomplishment of theoretical and/or practical studies in the area of SPI for VSEs, which provides information in order to have more judgment elements and thus facilitate the adoption and implantation of international or regional standards related to SPI in VSEs. Therefore in this article a set of processes (and the way like has been obtained) that consider high-priority when initiating the implementation of a project SPI in VSEs, is presented. The objective is to show a strategy to the VSEs about first processes that must consider when they undertake a project SPI.
The paper proceeds as follows. In Section 2 the related works are presented. Section 3 presents research works use for the processes priorization. In the section 4 the high-priority processes are displayed. Finally, the conclusions and future work are outlined.
2 RELATED WORKS
There are several related works that present a set of processes, which could use the VSEs in order to derive much benefit from the process improvement, as such as:
MoProSoft proposes 6 processes (based on ISO 12207, CMM, ISO 9001): Business management, Processes Management, Projects Management, Resources management, Administration of specific projects, and Software development and maintenance.
MPS.BR proposes 23 processes (based on ISO 12207 and CMMI): Organizational innovation and deployment, Causal analysis and resolution, Organizational process performance, Quantitative project management, Risk management, Decision analysis and resolution, Requirements development, Technical solution, Validation, Verification, Software integration, Software installation, Product release, Training, Process establishment, Process assessment and improvement, Tailoring process for project management, Configuration management, Quality assurance, Acquisition, Measurement, Project management and Requirements management.
RAPID (Cater-Steel et al., 2005) proposes 8 processes (based on ISO 15504:1998): Requirements elicitation, Software development, Configuration management, Quality assurance, Project management, Problem resolution, Risk management, Process establishment.
PROCESSUS proposes 6 processes (based on CMM and ISO 9001): Customer relationship management, Project management, Software engineering, Supporting activities, Process management and Process automation.
ADEPT (McCaffery et al., 2006) proposes 12 processes (based on CMMI):
Gestión de requisitos, Gestión de configuración, Planeación del proyecto, Control y seguimiento del proyecto, Análisis y medida, Aseguramiento de calidad de procesos y producto, Gestión de riesgos, Solución técnica, Verificación, Validación, Desarrollo de requisitos e Integración de producto.
All the previous research works are related with assessment methods or process reference models, and all of them define a group of processes that should be taken into account by the VSEs in the improvement programme. However, these proposals do not consider important aspects like the reasons that lead to select a particular process, or the criterion to define its priority.
The main contribution this work pretend to make to the SPI on VSEs subject is to propose and prioritize several reference processes based on the very special features VSEs have, as well as the existing literature about SPI. It is also exposed the concepts about VSEs and SPI in which is supported
the analysis and synthesis to prioritize the processes.
The prioritize of processes allows to guide the VSEs about practices which be done at the beginning of a SPI project, not matter the process reference model used.
It is important to emphasize this work wants to explain to VSEs which processes to tackle at the beginning of a SPI project. The description of the processes as well as their results, conclusions, practices, inputs, etc., are available on the process reference models material such as MoProSoft, MR- MPD de MPS.BR, RAPID, PROCESSUS, ADEPT, ISO/IEC 12207, CMMI.
3. RESEARCH WORKS USED FOR PRIORITIZATION
The main goal of the COMPETISOFT project is to provide the software industry in Latin America with a reference framework for software process improvement and certification, which will enable them to be more competitive in the global market.
The research method applied in the definition, refinement and application of the COMPETISOFT model is Action-Research (A-R). Figure 1 provides a summary of the A-R application.
Figure 1:A-R application to the COMPETISOFT project
The participants in the COMPETISOFT project could be grouped into two main categories:
Researchers and Critical reference group.
The processes proposed in this article are fundamentally based on the analysis and contrast of three research works carried out by the COMPETISOFT project:
An exploration of the software process practice background in the south-western Colombian software industry.
A systematic review about software process improvement on small and medium software enterprises.
An analysis of the contribution of international standards to management and improvement software process.
As follows, the results of the previously described research works used to prioritize will be detailed.
3.1 South-western Colombian software process practice background.
This section must be in one column.
2.3.1 Section Titles
The heading of a section title should be in 13-point bold in all-capitals, aligned to the left with a linespace exactly at 15-point, hanging indent of 0,7- centimeter and with an additional spacing of 24- point before (not applicable to the first title section of the paper) and 12-point after.
No dot should be included after the section title number.
2.3.2 Subsection Titles
The heading of a subsection title should be in 12- point bold with initial letters capitalized, aligned to the left with a linespace exactly at 13-point, hanging indent of 1,0-centimeter and with an additional spacing of 11-point before (not applicable right after a section title) and 11-point after.
Words like “is”, “or”, “then”, etc should not be capitalized unless it is the first word of the subsection title.
No dot should be included after the subsection title number.
2.3.3 Sub Subsection Titles
The heading of a sub subsection title should be in 11-point bold with initial letters capitalized, aligned to the left with a linespace exactly at 12-point, hanging indent of 1,0-centimeter and with an additional spacing of 10-point before (not applicable right after a subsection title) and 10-point after.
Words like “is”, “or”, “then”, etc should not be capitalized unless it is the first word of the sub subsection title.
No dot should be included after the sub subsection title number.
2.3.4 Tables
The table must appear inside the designated margins or it may span the two columns.
Tables in two columns must be positioned at the top or bottom of the page within margin. It is advisable the use of text boxes in this case.
Tables should be properly numbered, centered and should always have a caption positioned above it. Captions with one line should be centered and if it has more than one line should be set to justified. The font size to use is 9-point. No bold or italic font style should be used. Spacing before and after should be of 12-point and 6-point, respectively.
The final sentence of a caption should end with a period.
Table 1: This caption has one line so it is centered.
Example column 1 Example column 2 Example text 1 Example text 2
Table 2: This caption has more than one line so it has to be set to justify.
Example column 1 Example column 2 Example text 1 Example text 2
Please note that the word “Table” is spelled out.
2.3.5 Figures
Please produce your figures electronically, and integrate them into your document.
Check that in line drawings, lines are not interrupted and have a constant width. Grids and details within the figures must be clearly readable and may not be written one on top of the other.
Figure resolution should be at least 300 dpi.
The figure must appear inside the designated margins or it may span the two columns.
Figures in two columns must be positioned at the top or bottom of the page within margin. It is advisable the use of text boxes in this case.
Please do not use indentation and set the figure layout to in line with text.
Figures should be properly numbered, centered and should always have a caption positioned under it. Captions with one line should be centered and if it has more than one line should be set to justified. The font size to use is 9-point. No bold or italic font style should be used. Spacing before and after should be of 6-point and 12-point, respectively.
The final sentence of a caption should end with a period.
Figure 1: This caption has one line so it is centered.
Figure 2: This caption has more than one line so it has to be set to justify.
Please note that the word “Figure” is spelled out.
2.3.6 Equations
Equations should be placed on a separate line, numbered and centered. An extra line space should be added above and bellow the equation.
The numbers accorded to equations should appear in consecutive order inside each section or within the contribution, with number enclosed in parentheses and set on the right margin, starting with the number 1.
The use of a table with two columns is advisable.
Example:
a = b + c (1)
2.3.7 Program Code
Program listing or program commands in text should be set in typewriter form such as Courier New.
Example of a Computer Program in Pascal:
begin
Writeln('Hello World!!');
End.
The text should be aligned to the left with the linespace set to single and in 9-point type.
2.3.8 Reference Text and Citations
References and citations should follow the Harvard (Autor, date) System Convention (see the References section). As example you may consider the citation (Smith, 1998). Besides that, all references should be cited in the text. No numbers with or without brackets should be used to cite or to list the references.
References should be set to 9-point, justified, with a single linespace and hanging indent of 0,5- centimenter.
Citations should follow the section text format (see file FormatContentsForAuthors.pdf).
For more instructions about the references and citations usage please follow the link:
http://www.apastyle.org/elecsource.html
3 COPYRIGHT FORM
For the mutual benefit and protection of Authors and Publishers, it is necessary that Authors provide formal written Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright before publication of the Book. The
signed Consent ensures that the publisher has the Author’s authorization to publish the Contribution.
The copyright form is located on the authors’
reserved area.
The printed form should be completed and signed by one author on behalf of all the other authors, and sent on to the secretariat either by normal mail, e-mail or fax.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Hope you find the information in this template useful in the preparation of your submission.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
If any, should be placed before the references section without numbering.
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
If any, the appendix should appear directly after the references without numbering, and not on a new page.
