Mariano Montoni

Implementing Software Process Improvement Initiatives in Small and Medium-Size Enterprises in Brazil

Appropriate process implementation approaches are fundamental for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to obtain the most of software process improvement (SPI) benefits. COPPE/UFRJ has been providing SPI consultancy services to the Brazilian software industry for more than two decades. In order to cope with factors that have influence on SPI success, we developed an approach to implement SPI initiatives based on the Brazilian software process model (named MPS model) through the adoption of a SPI strategy (named SPI-KM) and the support of a process-centered software engineering environment named Taba Workstation. This paper presents the work conducted in a group of Brazilian SMEs aiming to deploy the MPS model based initiatives using the SPI-KM strategy supported by the Taba Workstation. We also discuss the lessons learned from implementing SPI in this group of SMEs and also other lessons collected throughout previous SPI experiences.

A methodology for identifying critical success factors that influence software process improvement initiatives: an application in the Brazilian software industry

Continuous improvement of software development capability is fundamental for organizations to thrive in competitive markets. Nevertheless, Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives have demonstrated limited results because SPI managers usually fail to cope with factors that have influence on the success of SPI. In this paper, we present the results of a multistrategy approach aiming to identify critical success factors (CSF) that have influence on SPI. The study results were confirmed by the literature review. The CSF were identified through a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses of the results of a survey we conducted with SPI practitioners involved in Brazilian software industry experiences. We also identified the relationships of major factors that emerged from the survey. We expect that the major CSF presented in this paper can be used by SPI managers in the definition of SPI strategies aiming to enhance SPI initiatives success.

Applying ISO 9001: 2000, MPS.BR and CMMI to Achieve Software Process Maturity: BL Informatica's Pathway

Customer satisfaction, quality improvement and rework reduction are known to be the most important benefits obtained through deployment of software process maturity models and standards within an organization. Since 2003 BL Informatica has been motivated and has established and maintained its software processes based on international standards (like ISO 9001:2000) and maturity models (like MPS.BR and CMMI). In spite of the lack of financial and human resources, the organization achieved satisfactory results. This paper describes BL Infomaticas software processes improvement plan, lessons learned, difficulties and benefits that where collected during the execution of the improvement plan. It also presents quantitative results that demonstrate the return on investment during these years.

Taba workstation: supporting software process deployment based on CMMI and MR-MPS.BR

Deployment of software processes based on reference models is a knowledge-intensive task, i.e., a great amount of technical knowledge must be applied in order to guarantee conformance and adherence of processes deployed to the reference models adopted. Moreover, software process deployers have to deal with organizational and individual cultural problems on a regular basis, for instance, resistances to organizational changes. Therefore, the success of software process deployment within an organization or organizational unit depends on both technical and social aspects of the software process deployment strategy definition and execution. This paper presents the Toba Workstation, an enterprise-oriented Process-centered Software Engineering Environment (PSEE) constituted of an integrated set of tools to support software process deployment based on the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and the Reference Model for Brazilian Software Process Improvement (MR-MPS.BR). Software process appraisals demonstrated that the Taba Workstation constitutes one of the most important organizational assets to facilitate the success of software process deployment initiatives and to overcome the inherent difficulties.

Knowledge Acquisition and Communities of Practice: An Approach to Convert Individual Knowledge into Multi-organizational Knowledge

The implementation of knowledge management mechanisms to convert individual knowledge into organizational knowledge is important to guarantee business success in the global and dynamic economy. Besides that, there is a trend in the software industry to create a consistent body of software process knowledge across different organizations through the conversion of organizational knowledge into multi- organizational knowledge. Since software organizations do not execute software processes in the same way, the creation of such body of knowledge is a difficult task. This work presents a knowledge acquisition approach aimed to acquire organization members’ knowledge and store it in a software process community of practice repository accessible through a Web-based system. The application and evaluation of knowledge captured in the context of a specific organization, and reuse of such knowledge in different contexts provides the means for converting organizational knowledge into multi-organizational knowledge.

Applying Grounded Theory to Understand Software Process Improvement Implementation

Recent studies show that many organizations struggle to implement Software Process Improvement (SPI) based on process models and standards mainly because of incapacity to overcome critical barriers, such as lack of motivation and higher management support. The accurate understanding of the social-cultural context where SPI is undertaken can facilitate the development of more efficient SPI implementation strategies aiming to overcome those difficulties. The objective of this work is to present a Grounded Theory based study conducted to investigate SPI implementation initiatives in the perspective of consultants of SPI consultancy organizations. The main product of this study is a theoretical framework that tries and explains the phenomenon associated to the success of SPI implementation initiatives.

Reference model for software process improvement: a Brazilian experience

Recent research efforts about quality in the software area demonstrate that a concentrated effort is necessary to improve software process. Mainly in Brazil, there is an urge to enhance software processes performance aiming to improve the quality of software products and to increase Brazilian organizations competitive advantages both in the national and international markets. This work describes an approach developed to establish the base for Brazilian organizations to improve software processes. The focus of this work is to increase the software development capability of small and medium size companies in a fast pace. The presented approach consists of the development of a Reference Model for software process improvement and an appraisal method for the Brazilian software industry. This model has been deployed in several Brazilian companies thorough the support of Software Development Environments. The pilot experience and empirical validation results of application of the presented approach are also described in this paper.

Knowledge Management in an Enterprise-Oriented Software Development Environment

Software Development Environments have evolved to support software developers activities, and to support organizations to achieve goals such as productivity enhancement, quality improvement, cost reducing, and decrease of time-to-market solutions. In this context, have appeared the Process-centered Software Development Environments and, more recently, the Enterprise-Oriented SoftwareDevelopment Environments. This paper presents the main approaches adopted on the Taba Workstation, a software development meta-environment, to support knowledge management in the context of Enterprise-Oriented Software Development Environments: an ontology-based infrastructure, a knowledge acquisition tool, and a community of practice system.

Learning organizational knowledge: an evolutionary proposal for requirements engineering

The rapid deployment of high quality commercial technology often results in organizational reengineering. These changes reflect in different software engineering aspects, as the increase of software complexity. Within heterogeneous environments, due to the variety of users classes and their geographical distribution, a common understanding of the domain knowledge can be a hard task and would lead to a high uncertainty of the knowledge of real needs. User centered design methods along with knowledge engineering techniques proved to be suitable in such cases. This paper describes an evolutionary proposal for requirements engineering of a system to support the management of telecommunication networks. The proposal enhanced and speeded the software development, achieving a better acceptance of the system since the software group managed to efficiently acquire the organizational knowledge.

SPI-KM - lessons learned from applying a software process improvement strategy supported by knowledge management

Software development organizations recognize the importance of improving software processes to enhance their competitive advantages. COPPE/ UFRJ software process research group has been providing SPI consultancy services to the Brazilian software industry for more than two decades. In order to support the SPI activities of the group, a SPI deployment strategy named SPIKM that is supported by Knowledge Management and has been developed based on international and national reference models and standards. This paper presents the SPI-KM strategy and the results of an empirical study executed aiming to characterize the SPI initiatives that employed it. The study findings are presented as lessons learned and their applications are discussed in different organizations. We consider the adoption of the SPI-KM strategy and the lessons learned as important knowledge to be appreciated during SPI initiatives aiming to facilitate SPI deployment and to assure their success.