Timo Mäkinen

Assessment driven process modeling for software process improvement

Software process improvement (SPI) is used to develop processes to meet more effectively the software organizationpsilas business goals. Improvement opportunities can be exposed by conducting an assessment. A disciplined process assessment evaluates organizationpsilas processes against a process assessment model, which usually includes good software practices as indicators. Many benefits of SPI initiatives have been reported but some improvement efforts have failed, too. Our aim is to increase the probability to success by integrating software process modeling with assessments. A combined approach is known to provide more accurate process ratings and higher quality process models. In this study we have revised the approach by extending the scope of modeling further. Assessment Driven Process Modeling for SPI uses assessment evidence to create a descriptive process model of the assessed processes. The descriptive model is revised into a prescriptive process model, which illustrates an organizationpsilas processes after the improvements. The prescriptive model is created using a process library that is based on the indicators of the assessment model. Modeling during assessment is driven by both process performance and process capability indicators.

Toward nuclear SPICE - integrating IEC 61508, IEC 60880 and SPICE

International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission 15504 has been applied to several domains, where safety is one main characteristic for software and systems. Nuclear power industry is one of the most challenging domains, because of its extreme safety requirements. Nuclear power domain has also a long tradition in using its own standards, classifications and certification schemes.

Modeling and Assessment in IT Service Process Improvement

This paper is based on the experiences of a research project with the aim to develop modeling and assessment readiness for IT companies. As a part of the project, process assessments for process improvement purposes were performed in some of the participating companies. This paper describes the background of applying process reference model based assessment and modeling of the processes for the same process instance. Some findings and experiences based on an industry case are documented. We also discuss how these approaches could be combined in an efficient way.

On the applicability of capability models for small software organizations: does the use of standard processes lead to a better achievement of business goals?

The ISO/IEC 15504 standard implies that the use of its level-based capability model for software process development leads to a better business performance. At capability level 3, this would mean that there is not only a positive correlation but also a causal relation from the use of standard processes to better achievement of business goals. In this paper, we make this claim explicit and challenge it with a counterargument in the context of small software organizations. We argue that in most part, the way the software is designed is what determines the business success in software development, and when application domains are complex socio-technical systems, relying on a standard process instead of human expertise not only fails to answer the promise of process stability but also presents business risks related to poor design, a loss of diversity, and reduced adaptability. With reasons to believe that the standard’s claim is weak in this context, we come up with alternative explanations for why some small software organizations nevertheless use standard processes. Through these hypotheses, we argue that the reasons are not necessarily process-related. In closing, we suggest further studies on how the standard’s notion of process capability and business goals relate to each other when the application domain is not just complicated but complex.

Integration of Software Process Assessment and Modeling

Several approaches, such as modeling, assessment, measurement, and technology adoption, are available to improve a software process. The approaches supplement each other, but one usually dominates in process improvement. Process assessment is a norm-based approach, which is often used for evolutionary process improvement. The starting point for process improvement actions is the gap between the current state of an organization and the desired future state. These two states can be characterized using a norm for good software practices like CMMI or SPICE. Process modeling comprises analysis of activities, artifacts, roles and tools. Process assessment studies the capability of the process based on process attributes defined in the assessment model. In this paper we illustrate, how a method for descriptive process modeling can be integrated with an approach of assessment based software process improvement. The outcome is based on the observations of existing solutions and proposals for their improvement. The final result of our on-going study is a unified method for process improvement. The application of the method results in detailed process profiles with process improvement opportunities, and a descriptive process model of the assessed software unit. The main benefit of the approach is that the improvements are clearly expressed in the actual process model to make the process changes more manageable.

Database implementation for a software process assessment model

Summary form only given. A new work item for a software process assessment standard was approved by the International Standardization Organization in January 1993. The SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) project was established in June 1993 to assist the standardization project in its preparatory stage, to undertake user trials and, to create market awareness and take-up of the evolving standard. As a result of the projects the technical report of type 2 ISO/IEC 15504 was published in 1998 to provide a framework for the assessment of software processes. The technical report is composed of nine parts. Part 2 defines a two-dimensional reference model for describing processes and process capability used in a process assessment while Part 5 is an exemplar assessment model compatible with the reference model. In this paper we present a conceptual model of the reference model (part 2) and its compatible assessment model (part 5) of the technical report ISO/IEC 15504. We also show how the model can be implemented as a relational database.

Process Assessment in a Safety Domain - Assessment Method and Results as Evidence in an Assurance Case

Applications of process assessment have been established in various domains that require also safety considerations regarding processes, products and services. Often, the scope of the applied process assessment model is inadequate in meeting safety assurance requirements. This paper presents some considerations, how assurance needs could be met with a process assessment method, including both the assessment process and assessment model. Our main domain of interest is nuclear power, and its requirements are used here as examples. The main result is an analysis of the assurance case for systems and software engineering, and how a process assessment method and results can be used as evidence in safety assurance. Our aim is to develop an integrated approach to manage assessment and assurance related evidence in an efficient way.

Towards Systematic Compliance Evaluation Using Safety-Oriented Process Lines and Evidence Mapping

The role of software is growing in safety related systems. This underlines the need for software process assessment in many safety-critical domains. For example, the nuclear power industry has strict safety requirements for control systems and many methods are applied to evaluate compliance to domain specific standards and requirements. This paper discusses the needs of the nuclear domain and presents alternatives to develop a process assessment method that takes into account domain specific requirements. The aim is to provide an approach that facilitates the use of assessment findings in evaluating compliance with the domain requirements and supports other assurance needs. Safety-oriented Process Line Engineering (SoPLE) is studied as a method for mapping assessment criteria to domain specific requirements. A binary distance metric is used to evaluate, how far a process mapping based method would solve problems found in compliance evaluation. Based on the results, SoPLE is applicable in this case, but process mapping is not adequate to facilitate compliance evaluation.

Assessment of a software process assessment process

Summary form only given. The process of software process assessment presented in this paper is based on the software process assessment standard of ISO/IEC and practices applied in a software process improvement project with small software developing organizations. A project to establish a software process improvement network in the Satakunta region (SataSPIN) in Western Finland was started in August 1998. The ultimate objective of the project is to help ten small enterprises in the software business to develop their operations using international software process models. The project uses ISO/IEC 15504 TR (SPICE) as the software process assessment and improvement framework. The project is now moving on to its second phase, in which more software companies in the Satakunta region and more external advisors will be involved. The experiences of the first phase will be used to assist the SPI efforts of the whole software industry in the region. During the SataSPIN project a framework for software process improvement initiation was developed. The framework consists of three phases. The first phase aims at understanding the company needs and, on the other hand, the possibilities of SPI in achieving the business goals of the company. In the second phase the selected processes are assessed by using the SPICE Part 5 compatible model to provide detailed ideas for software process improvement. In the third phase of the framework the ideas are developed into actions.

Open data based value networks: Finnish examples of public events and agriculture

In recent years, several countries have placed strong emphasis on openness, especially open data, which can be shared and further processed into various applications. Based on studies, the majority of open data providers are government organizations. This study presents two cases in which the data providers are companies. The cases are analyzed using a framework for open data based business models derived from the literature and several case studies. The analysis focuses on the beginning of the data value chain. As a result, the study highlights the role of data producers in the ecosystem, which has not been the focus in current frameworks.