Jezreel Mejia

Expected Requirements in Support Tools for Software Process Improvement in SMEs

Nowadays being competitive is an important challenge for software development organizations. In order to achieve this, since last years, software process improvement has been an obvious and logical way. Unfortunately, even when many organizations are motivated to implement software process initiatives, not all know how best to do so, especially in Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs) where due to its especial features, they have to be carefully in how to manage its resources to assure their market survival. Besides, even when there has been developed models which pretend to helps SMEs in the implementation of software process improvements, one of the main barrier that stopping SMEs to implement software process improvements are the lack of knowledge and support of software process improvement. This paper presents an analysis of software process improvement at SMEs focusing on identifying on the one hand, SMEs features and success factors in the implementation of SPI initiatives. On the other hand, the expected requirements in a software tool focus on providing support for SMEs in the implementation of software process improvements initiatives (SPI).

Reinforcing the applicability of multi-model environments for software process improvement using knowledge management

Nowadays software development organizations look for tools and methods that help them maintain their competitiveness. A key approach for organizations in order to achieve this competitiveness is a successful implementation of software process improvement (SPI). Unfortunately, most of the times, software process improvement involves a path full of obstacles due to the lack of knowledge for choosing the right implementation. The most common and critical problem consists of the selection and application of the right reference model for guiding this implementation. As an effort for helping organizations in the selection of the right implementation of improvements, multi-model environments arised enabling the use of best practices from different reference models. Multi-model approach facilitates the improvement task in order to achieve the organizations business goals. In this context, effective integration of models and standards can play a crucial role in the implementation of multi-model environments as reference support tool. Nevertheless the use of multi-model approaches presents difficulties related to the lack of knowledge of how to manage the amount of information and the correct integration of different models and standards. In this sense, knowledge management technologies have proven to be highly promising support for knowledge sharing and system integration. This work presents an ontological framework based on a multi-model approach, which facilitates and supports the SPI for small and medium companies for a life cycle process improvement. Life cycle process improvement pursues the necessary actions in a deliberate, structured and methodical manner, required in each stage of the life cycle of software development, capable for improving process to current organization needs. Finally, a case study is presented in order to show the performance of the framework. Presents a general ontological framework for managing multi-model in SPI.Focuses in the correct implementation of SPI using multi-model environments.Is capable of representing any software process.Captures and homogenizes the structure of processes found in software organizations.Allows establishing a common understanding of the process improvement technologies.

Knowledge representation and information extraction for analysing architectural patterns

We examine time and recall of automated and manual pattern analysis.Time and recall were always better for the automated analysis.Recall decreased when analysing heterogeneous pattern descriptions. Today, many software architecture design methods consider the use of architectural patterns as a fundamental design concept. When making an effective pattern selection, software architects must consider, among other aspects, its impact on promoting or inhibiting quality attributes. However, for inexperienced architects, this task often requires significant time and effort. Some reasons of the former include: the number of existing patterns, the emergence of new patterns, the heterogeneity in the natural language descriptions used to define them and the lack of tools for automatic pattern analysis. In this paper we describe an approach, based on knowledge representation and information extraction, for analysing architectural pattern descriptions with respect to specific quality attributes. The approach is automated by computable model that works as a prototype tool. We focus on the performance quality attribute and, by performing experiments on a corpus of patterns with forty-five architects of varying levels of experience, demonstrate that the proposed approach increases recall and reduces analysis time compared to manual analysis.

CMMI-ACQ: A Formal Implementation Sequences of the Processes Areas at Maturity Level 2

Nowadays, the information technology outsourcing is having a fast growth worldwide. However, according to recent studies, 20 to 25 percent of large IT acquisition projects fail within two years and 50 percent fail within five years. CMMI-ACQ is a model that provides guidance to organizations on the acquisition of software products and related services. This paper addresses an implementation sequence of the processes areas at maturity level 2. To achieve this objective, graphs theory is used to represent the existing dependencies among CMMI-ACQ processes areas, in order to find strongly connected cluster and cyclic processes areas. These clusters using formal criteria have helped to determine the implementation sequences of the acquisition processes areas at maturity level 2.

Definition of a Hybrid Measurement Process for the Models ISO/IEC 15504-ISO/IEC 12207:2008 and CMMI Dev 1.3 in SMEs

A fundamental aspect of software product quality is the possibility of measuring. Therefore, measurement applied to the software product and processes has become a need, even in the smallest organizations where agile methodologies are applied. The objective of this paper is to describe a proposal of a hybrid measurement process for the ISO/IEC 15504-ISO/IEC 12207:2008 standards and CMMI Dev 1.3 model in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The hybrid process was obtained through the definition of a cluster of tasks valid in both models. The motivation and viability of having hybrid processes in small organizations is analyzed. Besides, the use of hybrid processes as basic processes that are able to be fitted in similar processes in differents quality models and standards is discussed. Moreover, the definition of hybrid processes in order to provide a support in the creation of processes compatible in different models and standards is included.

How is CMMI-DEV Applying when Using TSPi Project Planning

Nowadays organizations require better-qualifysoftware engineers in order to face two majorchallenges: 1) their process improvements and, 2)quality software development teamwork, due toactually large amount of software is developed byteams. This article aims to clarify the relationshipbetween two technologies Capability Maturity ModelIntegration for Development (CMMI-DEV) and TeamSoftware Process introduction (TSPi) for the projectplanning.

Impact of TSPi on Software Projects

This paper describes the effect of TSPi (introduction to the team software process) on key performance dimensions in software projects, including the ability to estimate, the quality of the software produced and the productivity achieved. The study examines the impact of the TSPi on the performance of 31 software teams. Finally an analysis comparing the results through two iterations is discussed.

A Methodology for Establishing Multi-Model Environments in Order to Improve Organizational Software Processes

Organizational software processes improvement offers a key opportunity for organizations to be more efficient and effective. However, in most cases software process improvement initiatives in organizations become a path full of obstacles. As a consequence, organizations worldwide are adopting international standards and models in an effort to improve their software processes. Nevertheless, the difficulty of using multi-model improvement environments for the implementation of software processes improvements is well-known. In this context, effective integration of models and standards is a tool that enhances information sharing and communication. Integration can play a crucial role for the implementation of multi-model environments in order to be used as a reference model in software process improvements. This paper shows a methodology that enables organizations to establish a multi-model environment based on their business goals and on the results of a case study focused on implementing improvements in project management processes. Finally, results obtained after applying the methodology and future research line related to a platform for providing knowledge management and information sharing are included.

Software Process Architecture: Roadmap

Software Process Architecture is an emergent area of research, with little understanding, scarce experience and confusing terminology. Thus, technical concerns along with its evolution are difficult to express. And it has been until recent time that has received increasing attention as an important sub-area of Software Process Engineering. This paper aims to briefly present main topics of software process architecture addressing three main issues: What is a software process architecture?, How it is created? And who is responsible for building it? (i.e. definition, process and role). It also identifies some challenges and research directions by delineating a roadmap to facilitate its understanding and growth.

Data Analysis for Software Process Improvement: A Systematic Literature Review.

Current information systems demand high quality software products that guarantee a safety and a reliable use for our day-to-day life. A common understanding between software organizations and practitioners is that software product quality largely depends on the software process quality. A Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiative consists of a set of practices and activities that are designed to improve software organizations processes through the evaluation of their current practices and the way software products and services are developed. However, the big amount of information that is generated from the software organization practices has complicated the knowledge extraction, and therefore, the SPI initiatives. A possible technique to make a good knowledge management is data analysis. This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review to establish the state-of-the-art of data analysis for software process improvement. The findings also encourage to the creation of a BigData-based data analysis model in a future work for this research.