Timo Varkoi

Standard based software process assessments in small companies

Small software companies face similar issues regarding software quality improvement and process assessments as larger companies. The main difference is that smaller companies seldom have specialized or competent resources to solve the problems. Therefore, the development of assessment methods from the viewpoint of small companies can also support the software industry. Based on experiences applying ISO/IEC 15504 in small software companies in Finland and Brazil, we present a flexible approach to efficient process assessments. Flexibility requires a continuous assessment model, so that the scope of process improvement and assessment can be defined on the basis of the prioritized needs of an organization. Our experiences show that 15504 can also be applied with success in small software organizations. This paper presents how the assessments were run and lessons learned on applying 15504 in this kind of organization. Copyright

Models and Success Factors of Process Change

Software process improvement is a popular way to increase the quality of software and the predictability of software engineering. In order to acquire effective processes, the software process improvement needs to be continuous. In this article we analyze the improvement models, which aim to introduce detailed actions for continuous process improvement and the key success factors of improvement based on various literary sources. As a result of the comparison of the two, we have pointed out issues, which, if considered in the improvement models, would help organizations in their improvement efforts.

Process Assessment In Very Small Entities - An ISO/IEC 29110 Based Method

Very small software producing entities will soon have their own software process model. A new standard describes the basic processes for software projects. The new standard should also support conformance assessments and process assessments. This paper presents a process assessment method that consists of an assessment process and a process assessment model including assessment indicators. The method is applicable for process improvement purposes, but has limitations regarding formal process capability determination.

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.

Safety as a Process Quality Characteristic

Software is increasingly been used to provide system functionality that is related to safety. From systems point-of-view safety is often considered to be a probabilistic property and development process has less significance. For software this approach is not necessarily valid. This article studies the applicable process scope in relation to safety requirements for software. Based on a new concept of process quality characteristics, process quality attributes for safety are tentatively defined. The aim of the presented process quality characteristic for safety is that risks related to achievement of safety goals in software development can be evaluated with process assessment. Key results would be increased trust in safety of software-intensive systems and established safety culture in development organizations.

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.

Situational Factors in Safety Critical Software Development

The generic software development situational factors model has been developed in order that environments within which software is developed can be profiled and better understood. Situational context is a complex concern for software developers, with a broad set of situational factors holding the potential to affect any one software development project. Safety critical software development is broadly similar to other kinds of software development/ engineering. But there are some additional or more dominant situational factors. In this article we conduct a conceptual experiment to define safety critical software development context using situational factors. Eleven such factors are identified, with some of the factors requiring elaboration beyond the detail presently available in the generic situational factors model. We firstly discuss the appropriateness of the selected factors in generic safety critical software development context. Thereafter we apply the selected factors to the medical device and nuclear power domains. Selected situational factors can be used as a high level profile and starting point for more detailed process and safety assessment. Discussion about potential use cases and further development needs is also presented.

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.

Key success factors of a regional software process improvement programme

This article views the situation of software process improvement (SPI) activities in two neighbouring European countries, Estonia and Finland, with the aim to point out the prerequisites of a country prior to implementing the SPI activities. The authors compare SPI activities in Finland and Estonia and analyse the reasons for the differences in the two countries. Through a comparison of the SPICE related SPI activities, the necessary prerequisites are derived which a country should fulfil prior to the implementation of SPI. After reading this article, the reader should have an idea about what needs to be done before successful implementation of a software process improvement programme.