Werner Mellis

Success factors of organizational change in software process improvement

The management of organizational change is an essential element of successful software process improvement efforts. This paper describes ten factors that affect organizational change in software process improvement initiatives based on the Capability Maturity Model or the ISO 9000 quality standards. It also assesses the relative importance of these factors and compares the findings with the results of previous research into organizational change in software process improvement. The paper is based on an analysis of published experience reports and case studies of 56 software organizations that have implemented an ISO 9000 quality system or that have conducted a CMM-based process improvement initiative. Copyright

A critical look at ISO 9000 for software quality management

A considerable number of software suppliers report improvements in product and service quality, development costs and time to market achieved with the help of the ISO 9000 standards. Nevertheless, the ISO 9000 family has received unfavourable criticism in journals, textbooks and at software quality conferences. The paper summarizes, discusses and reviews eleven of the most popular arguments against the ISO 9000 standards. The review of the criticism is based on findings of two empirical surveys among European software suppliers that have implemented an ISO 9000 quality system. The paper concludes with suggestions and guidelines for advances in software quality management concepts, such as the ISO 9000 family, CMM, BOOTSTRAP and the emerging SPICE standard.

Software process improvement via ISO 9000? Results of two surveys among European software houses

Presents the results of two surveys among European software houses. One of the goals was to find out whether software companies have actually achieved software process improvements via ISO 9000. The first survey was conducted among 20 German software houses that have received an ISO 9001 certificate. The study focuses on five elements of an ISO 9000 quality system: code reviews and inspections software testing, product and process measurements, measurement of quality costs, and demonstration of quality improvements. Many software houses included in our first survey have not carried out any modifications of the five elements. Thus, it seemed that ISO 9000 had not led to significant improvements. Nevertheless, nearly 100% of the companies would decide in favor of implementing an ISO 9000 quality system once again. We decided to conduct a second study to gain a better understanding of the software process improvements achieved via ISO 9000. We analyzed experience reports and conducted interviews with quality managers from a total of 36 European software houses. It turned out that software houses have indeed achieved process improvements. Unfortunately, most software houses are not able to quantify the benefits of implementing an ISO 9000 quality system. We identified ten key success factors that the respondents of our studies considered to be the most helpful when implementing an ISO 9000 quality system. Astonishingly, only two of the ten factors are explicit requirements of ISO 9001. This shows that it is necessary to implement a more comprehensive approach to achieve substantial software process improvements.

Software quality management in turbulent times – are there alternatives to process oriented software quality management?

There is a widely accepted paradigm of successful software development, called process oriented software quality management (PSQM). The proponents of PSQM claim that it has a significant impact on some essential parameters of a software producers competitiveness. However, case studies of some well known software producers reveal a rather different management style. Since the management style is a means to influence the essential parameters of a companys competitiveness, which are influenced by the competitive conditions, two questions arise. 1. Do the investigated software producers employ a different management style by accident or is their management style an appropriate answer to their specific competitive conditions? 2. If their management style is an appropriate answer to their competitive conditions, what is specific about these conditions and about the appropriate management style? It is argued, that their management style is a form of concurrent engineering, which rather conforms the needs of a software producer in a turbulent environment, while PSQM on the other hand rather conforms the needs of a software producer in a placid environment. This means, there is no universal process management and environmental dynamics is a contingency factor to be considered in the configuration of process management.

Das Rätsel des prozeßorientierten Softwarequalitätsmanagement

Process-oriented software quality management has gained considerable attention both from academia and industry. This is mainly due to the application of the Capability Maturity Model and the ISO 9000 standards throughout the world. Process-oriented software quality management (PSQM) aims at achieving higher quality of software products and at reducing development costs. Advocates of PSQM claim that applying PSQM improves the success of software companies. However, various examples are incompatible with this assertion. From these incompatibilities we deduce the puzzle of process-oriented software quality management. We show that objectives and recommendations of PSQM are only adequate for companies that operate in a relatively stable environment. Companies that operate in a turbulent environment and that depend on flexible processes and innovative products need different recommendations. From this we conclude that objectives and recommendations of PSQM as well as the advocates’ assertions need to be modified.

Requirements Uncertainty in Contract Software Development Projects

Only a few studies have analyzed the indirect effect that different levels of requirements uncertainty have on the effects of established flexible development techniques. Whereas much of what we know relates to the development of commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS), in this empirical study, we investigate contract software development projects undertaken for a specific contractor / customer. We analyze how requirements uncertainty moderates the effects of (1) sequential development, (2) investment in architectural design, and (3) intensity of early feedback on the performance of contract software development projects. We confirm that requirements uncertainty negatively moderates the effects of sequential development and of investment in architectural design. For flexible development approaches, the value of investment in architectural design falls with increasing uncertainty. Early feedback throughout the development process is helpful at any level of requirements uncertainty, potentially dependent on the business relationship between the customer and the software project team.

Process and Product Orientation in Software Development and their Effect on Software Quality Management

During the last decade process oriented software quality management was considered the successful paradigm of developing quality software. But the constant pace of change in the IT world brought up new challenges demanding for a different model of software development. In this paper product orientation is described as an alternative to process orientation, which is specifically adapted to some of those new challenges. Both development models are adapted to different environments or development tasks. And they are based on different concepts of product quality and quality management.

Effort of EAI Projects: A Repertory Grid Investigation of Influencing Factors

Many companies struggle with effective and efficient accomplishment of enterprise application integration (EAI), resulting in significant time and budget overruns. Concerning project management, a major reason for failure is considered to be effort underestimation. This underestimation is an aftermath of applying estimation methods that do not account for all relevant factors influencing EAI project effort. Applying the Repertory Grid Technique, we explore factors affecting the effort of such projects by conducting 22 semi-structured expert interviews. We provide an extensive overview of 91 effort-influencing factors and their classification in nine categories, which can be used as a checklist in EAI projects.

Managing Motivation in Software Development — A Case Study at SAP AG

Human input is the key production factor in the field of software development. In turn, employee motivation plays a considerable role in the productivity of a software company.

Wissenstransfer in der Softwareentwicklung — Eine ökonomische Analyse

Derzeit wird (erneut) diskutiert, die Softwareentwicklung durch einen systematischen Umgang mit der Unternehmensressource Wissen zu verbessern. Dabei dominieren datenbankorientierte Ansatze, die wie das Konzept der Experience Factory primar auf einen schriftlichen Transfer von (Erfahrungs-)Wissen ausgelegt sind. Dieser Beitrag fuhrt mit einer Aufwandsbetrachtung ein okonomisches Kriterium in die Gestaltungsuberlegungen zum Wissenstransfer ein. Es wird aufgezeigt, das vor allem der Wissensbedarf bestimmt, ob die schriftliche oder die mundliche Form des Wissenstransfers unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Aufwands vorzuziehen ist. Mit dem Element der Nachfragesteuerung wird zudem erlautert, wie datenbankorientierte Ansatze durch die Einbeziehung des Wissensbedarfs sinnvoll erganzt werden konnen. Durch diese Verbindung konnen die grundsatzlichen Vorteile des schriftlichen Wissenstransfers genutzt und der erforderliche Aufwand beherrscht werden.