Claude Y. Laporte

A Software Engineering Lifecycle Standard for Very Small Enterprises

Industry recognizes that very small enterprises (VSE), that develop parts involving software components are very important to the economy. These parts are often integrated into products of larger enterprises. Failure to deliver a quality product on time and within budget threatens the competitiveness of both organizations. One way to mitigate these risks is to haveall suppliers of a product chain put recognized engineering practices in place. Many international standards and models such as ISO/IEC12207 or CMMI have been developed to capture proven engineering practices. However, these standards were not designed for very small development organizations, those with less than 25 employees, and are consequently difficult to apply in such settings. An ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 Working Group has been established to address these difficulties by producing a software engineering standard tailored to VSE.

Developing International Standards for Very Small Enterprises

In this article software engineering addresses the needs of small organizations, especially those with a low capability level. Industry recognizes that very small enterprises (VSEs) contribute valuable products and services.According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Small and Medium Enterprise Outlook, 2002, enterprises with fewer than 10 employees represent 93 percent of all companies in Europe and 56 percent in the US - 66 percent of total employment. The current software engineering standards do not address the needs of these organizations, especially those with a low capability level. Compliance with standards such as those from ISO and the IEEE is difficult if not impossible for them to achieve. Subsequently, VSEs have no or very limited ways to be recognized as enterprises that produce quality software systems in their domain. Therefore, they are often cut off from some economic activities.

Initiating software process improvement in very small enterprises

The paper concerns software process improvement in Very Small Enterprises (VSEs). It presents briefly a gradual methodology to initiate software process improvement in VSE through three steps approach and develops the first and most original step. This first step is based on a light evaluation achieved by means of a dedicated Micro-Evaluation approach. It has been experimented during 7 years in 86 organizations from three countries. The experience with that utilization tends to show that such a light approach is practicable and promising, at least for the targeted enterprises.

Software engineering support activities for very small entities

The emerging ISO/IEC 29110 standard Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities has at its core a Management and Engineering Guides which is targeted at very small entity (enterprise, organization, department or project) having up to 25 people, to assist them unlock the potential benefits of using standards which are specifically designed to address there needs. The developers of the standard, ISO/IEC JCT1/SC7 Working Group 24 (WG24), recommend the use of pilot projects as a mean to trial the adoption of the new International standard in small organisations. Accordingly an ISO/IEC 29110 pilot project has been established between the Software Engineering group of Brest University and a 14 person company with the aim of establishing an engineering discipline for a new web-based project. This paper details the lessons learned from the pilot project and based on our experiences with using ISO/IEC 29110 we identify a potential deficiency and accordingly propose new process area, “Infrastructure and Support” for include in the future evolution of ISO/IEC 29110 Process Profiles.

Software Project Management in Very Small Entities with ISO/IEC 29110

The recently published ISO/IEC 29110 standard Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities has at its core a Management and Engineering Guide [1] which are targeted at very small entities (enterprises, organizations, departments or projects) having up to 25 people [2], to assist them unlock the potential benefits of using standards which are specifically designed to address their needs. This paper discusses the role and structure of Project Management in the emerging ISO/IEC 29110 standard Software Process Lifecycles for Very Small Entities as well as its practical implication. This paper will also focus on the design and development of project management support documentation and their associated usage in early trials of ISO/IEC 29110.

An Innovative Approach to the Development of an International Software Process Lifecycle Standard for Very Small Entities

For very small software development companies, the quality of their software products is a key to competitive advantage. However, the usage of Software Engineering standards is extremely low amongst such very small software companies. A primary reason cited by many such companies for this lack of quality standards adoption is the perception that they have been developed for large multi-national software companies and not with small and very small organizations in mind and are therefore not suitable for their specific needs. This paper describes an innovative systematic approach to the development of the software process lifecycle standard for very small entities ISO/IEC 29110, following the Rogers model of the Innovation-Development process. The ISO/IEC 29110 standard is unique amongst software and systems engineering standards, in that the working group mandated to develop a new standard approached industry to conduct a needs assessment and gather actual requirements for a new standard as part of the standards development process. This paper presents a unique insight from the perspective of some of the standards authors on the development of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard, including the rationale behind its development and the innovative design of implementation guides to assist very small companies in adopting the standards, as well outlining a pilot project scheme for usage in early trials of this standard.

Deploying lifecycle profiles for very small entities: an early stage industry view

The recently published ISO/IEC 29110 standard Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities has at its core a Management and Engineering Guide [1] which is targeted at very small entities (enterprises, organizations, departments or projects) having up to 25 people [2], to assist them unlock the potential benefits of using standards which are specifically designed to address their needs. This paper will also outline this standard and the implementation of a series of pilot project initiative harnessing a set of detailed guidelines known as “Deployment Packages” to assist very small entities in understanding and exploring the potential usage of an international software process standard. This paper will address issues of small entities needs, industry reaction to early pilot projects and highlight the needs for a light weight process assessment mechanism to meet the needs of very small entities and complement this new lifecycle standard.

Software Process Improvement in Very Small Organizations

Software process improvement (SPI) offers obstacles and opportunities for very small entities (VSEs), which are organizations with 25 or fewer employees. To help with this, the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission jointly developed ISO/IEC 29110 as SPI guidelines for VSEs.

Using ISO/IEC 29110 to harness process improvement in very small entities

The recently published ISO/IEC 29110 standard Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities has at its core a Management and Engineering Guide [1] which are targeted at very small entities (enterprises, organizations, departments or projects) having up to 25 people [2], to assist them unlock the potential benefits of using standards which are specifically designed to address their needs. This paper will outline this new standard and the implementation of a series of pilot project initiative harnessing a set of detailed guidelines known as “Deployment Packages” to assist very small entities in understanding the potential usage of this new software process standard.

A Systems Process Lifecycle Standard for Very Small Entities: Development and Pilot Trials

Very small entities, organizations with up to 25 people, are very important to the worldwide economy. The products they develop are either developed specifically for a customer or are integrated into products made by larger enterprises. To address the needs of Very small entities, a set of standards and guides have been developed using the systems engineering lifecycle standard ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 as the main framework. The systems engineering handbook, developed by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), is used as the reference for the development of a set of systems engineering deployment packages. Two pilot projects, using the new ISO/IEC 29110 guide for systems engineering, are presented as well as a cost and savings analysis. Finally, the certification scheme is discussed as well as the future developments.