Antonio Carlos Tonini

Contribuição dos modelos de qualidade e maturidade na melhoria dos processos de software

Many software development companies have developed their own work method. Due to the fast software market growth, the competition focuses more on cost than on differentiation. To achieve competitive advantage, software developer organizations must continually update their technology, reach high level process maturity and eliminate all the operational inefficiency. These procedures involve people, processes and the whole organization. The aim of the paper is to discuss software process improvement implementation according to the most important quality and maturity models. Based on a Multiple Case Study, it is verified that the software process improvement needs firstly individual improvement and, later, it involves the developer teams and the whole organization. The research concludes that the quality and maturity models must be used as improvement process drivers.

Six Sigma and Software Development Process: DMAIC Improvements

Six sigma increases quality by reducing process variability and aligning customers expectations, providing high financial returns. First applied in manufacturing companies, it also becomes very effective on finance, management and service in general, including software development. DMAIC (define-measure-analyze-improve-control) has been widely used as the method for six sigma implementation projects in manufacturing, once its procedures are based on the well known PDCA (plan-do-check-act) principles. However, it does not fulfill appropriately all software development requirements, which leads to researches for introducing new practices in the DMAIC method or developing other methods and techniques. Based on a research performed through a multiple cases study, it is possible to suggest improvements in the DMAIC method. Some of the considered issues are: cost evaluation, time and customer satisfaction impact on business; improvement processes verification; organizational standardization and learning achieved from six sigma projects. The main result is a proposal of a specific roadmap for six sigma projects application in software development process improvement, which includes the treatment of the aspects found

Software development strategic management: A resource-based view approach

Business strategies vary from market analysis to resource capability positioning. In this context, the Resource-Based View approach analyses organizations as a group of resources in order to continually enhance their business results. Software development is a knowledge-intensive activity, demanding specific human resources. So, software organizations would have to intensify their strategic forces in order to preserve and improve their capabilities. Aiming to verify how the relationship between resources and competitive advantage occurs, this paper presents the outcomes of a research that was applied at Brazilian software companies, repeating a similar study performed in Europe in 2004. The variables used in both researches are: (a) value of the resource to organization, (b) rarity to obtain it, (c) imitation by competitors and (d) substitution of resources. Results have been statistically evaluated using contingency tables and chi-square tests and they had shown the same tendency of the previous European study: value and rarity practically exercise the same influence over the competitiveness, while substitution and imitation act in an inverse way. However, this Brazilian research also verified that companies should have their own core competences to obtain competitive advantages and would transform them in the main and most visible competition elements: schedule, cost and quality.

The Cp and Cpk Indexes in Software Development Resource Relocation

In software development, the effort is the measure of process capacity, while resource relocation is one of the potential causes of its variability. Without appropriate capacity, the developer cannot meet the demand; with capacity excess, it creates an idleness that reduces its profitability. Six Sigma proposes the use of Cp capacity index just with process data and Cpk capacity index, when a certain goal is considered. The article analyzes the use of those indexes for effort calculation in some projects of an ERP software developer organization, in which resource relocation is a condition for the businesses. The use of those indexes makes possible to calculate the opportunity cost, that translates the resource relocation cost- benefit relationship and, for this reason, they are used as exchange currency in business negotiations.