Almost everybody in the software engineering world has read about or has heard of the importance and benefits of the mature software process. This master thesis aims to answer the question why despite all the efforts; software organizations still have difficulties to achieve the mature and effective software process. The results of the literature survey and a case study performed at a real software company have shown that there is a set of factors that may cause process inefficiency in the software companies. These factors are connected with the soft aspects of the software process such as motivation of the software engineers, process understanding and the process training. / Vad är orsakerna till att programvaruföretagen har svårt att uppnå en mogen och effektiv utvecklingsprocess? Resultatet efter en fallstudie och en literaturundersökning visar att det finns ett antal faktorer som påverkar effektiviteten på processen. / Nina Dzamashvili Övre Brunnsvägen 46, SE-372 36 RONNEBY Sweden E-mail: nina.dzamashvili@bth.se

Abstract A fundamental problem in the software engineering community is how to achieve a state of continuous improvement. Over the last ten years a number of studies have been made concerning various tools, methods and software process improvement project life-cycle models, but the problem persists and in many cases the software process improvement program dies off within a year. This thesis takes the assumption that the answer cannot be reduced to a single tool or method, as there are no silver bullets to complex problems. Instead the entire Software Process Engineering system should be studied to find out what elements are necessary for sustaining improvement activity on a long-term basis. Through understanding the fundamental elements of a Software Process Engineering system, the organization can manage and improve the system, tune it up to the environment and make it efficient and effective. When the system is operational, the software process improvement program, which is a part of the system, can be sustained. This research studies a case in which the Software Process Engineering system of a large, multi-site telecommunications company was successfully revised to meet the increasing improvement challenges. The revised system has proven to be capable of sustaining continuous improvement and case is used here to derive architectural design models of a Software Process Engineering system. Two such models are established here. One is a system model that is independent of implementation and identifies the main elements of a Software Process Engineering system. With the help of this model, those responsible for process improvement in their organizations can design, evaluate, and revise complete Software Process Engineering systems. The other model is a design of a multi-site Software Process Engineering organization, and identifies not only the operative part of the organization but also the key non-operative elements that a Software Process Engineering system needs to work with. With the help of this model a multi-site organization can set up the operative Software Process Engineering organization and plan for strategies for managing the cooperation with the interfacing entities up front, rather than ending up managing such contacts on a reactive fashion.

Atualmente são diversos os modelos de qualidade, internacionais e nacionais (CMMI, SPICE, MPS.BR), mas o número de empresas que os utilizam é ainda reduzido. Tal fato não é justificado pela falta de interesse das empresas, pois, além de aumentarem o controle e qualidade dos processos e produtos, esses modelos são importantes para o desenvolvimento e para a exportação de software. Um dos fatores que leva a baixa utilização dos modelos de qualidade é a falta de um método para instanciação destes modelos ao domínio de negócio específico de cada empresa. Método que possa ser utilizado para diferentes modelos de qualidade desde que exista uma arquitetura de referência baseada neste modelo. Este trabalho apresenta um método de instanciação de processos que a partir de uma arquitetura de referência baseada em um modelo de qualidade e das características da empresa geram processos de uma fábrica de software. O método proposto será aplicado experimentalmente em duas empresas reais a fim de se coletar dados sobre a utilização do método em situações reais. As aplicações do método de instanciação nas empresas reais seguirão um roteiro de execução de experimentos de engenharia de software experimental. / Currently there are several quality models, international and national (CMMI, SPICE, MPS.BR), but the number of companies that use them is still low. This fact is not justified by the lack of interest of companies, because, in addition to increasing control and quality of products and processes, these models are important to development and to export software. One of the factors that leads to low use of quality models is the lack of a method for instantiation of these models to the of companys specific business domain. A method that can be used to different quality models since there is a reference architecture based on these models. This paper presents a method to instantiate processes to a software factory from characteristics of business and from a reference architecture which is based on a quality model. The proposed method will be applied experimentally on two real companies in order to collect data on the use of the method. The real applications of the instantiation method in real companies follow a roadmap for execution of software engineering experiments.

Atualmente são diversos os modelos de qualidade, internacionais e nacionais (CMMI, SPICE, MPS.BR), mas o número de empresas que os utilizam é ainda reduzido. Tal fato não é justificado pela falta de interesse das empresas, pois, além de aumentarem o controle e qualidade dos processos e produtos, esses modelos são importantes para o desenvolvimento e para a exportação de software. Um dos fatores que leva a baixa utilização dos modelos de qualidade é a falta de um método para instanciação destes modelos ao domínio de negócio específico de cada empresa. Método que possa ser utilizado para diferentes modelos de qualidade desde que exista uma arquitetura de referência baseada neste modelo. Este trabalho apresenta um método de instanciação de processos que a partir de uma arquitetura de referência baseada em um modelo de qualidade e das características da empresa geram processos de uma fábrica de software. O método proposto será aplicado experimentalmente em duas empresas reais a fim de se coletar dados sobre a utilização do método em situações reais. As aplicações do método de instanciação nas empresas reais seguirão um roteiro de execução de experimentos de engenharia de software experimental. / Currently there are several quality models, international and national (CMMI, SPICE, MPS.BR), but the number of companies that use them is still low. This fact is not justified by the lack of interest of companies, because, in addition to increasing control and quality of products and processes, these models are important to development and to export software. One of the factors that leads to low use of quality models is the lack of a method for instantiation of these models to the of companys specific business domain. A method that can be used to different quality models since there is a reference architecture based on these models. This paper presents a method to instantiate processes to a software factory from characteristics of business and from a reference architecture which is based on a quality model. The proposed method will be applied experimentally on two real companies in order to collect data on the use of the method. The real applications of the instantiation method in real companies follow a roadmap for execution of software engineering experiments.

In spite of the fact that software reliability studies have attracted great deal of attention from different disciplines in 1970s, applications of the subject have rarely been involved in the software industry. With the rise of technological advances especially in the military electronics field, reliability of software systems gained importance. In this study, a company in the defense industries is inspected for their abilities and needs regarding software reliability, and an improvement proposal with metrics measurement system is formed. A computer tool is developed for the evaluation of the performance of the improvement proposal. Results obtained via this tool indicate improved abilities in the development of reliable software products.

Software has gained an essential role in our daily life in the last decades. This condition demands high quality software. To produce high quality software many practitioners and researchers put more attention on the software development process. Large investments are poured to improve the software development process. Software Process Improvement (SPI) is a research area which is aimed to address the assessment and improvement issues in the software development process. One of the most important aspects in software process improvement is to measure the results gained from the embarked process change. Without measuring the results, it is hard to tell whether the goals have been achieved or not. However, measurement for software process improvement is not a trivial task. Furthermore, there is no common systematic methodology that can be used to help measuring the performance of software process improvement initiatives. This thesis is intended to provide basic key concepts for the effective measurement and evaluation of the outcome of software process improvement. A major part of this thesis presents the systematic review in evaluating the outcome of software process improvement. The systematic review is aimed at the identification of the major issues in software process improvement evaluation and to gather the requirements for a software process improvement measurement and evaluation framework. Based on the results of the systematic review, a measurement and evaluation model is formulated. The objective of the model is to provide the groundwork for a software process improvement measurement and evaluation framework. The model is deemed to be applicable in a broad spectrum of scenarios by providing concepts that are independent from specific SPI initiatives.

The development of electronic commerce systems is subject to different conditions than that of conventional software systems. This includes the introduction of new activities to the development process and the removal of others. An adapted process must cope with important idiosyncrasies of EC system development: EC systems typically have a high degree of interaction, which makes factors like ergonomics, didactics and psychology especially important in the development of user interfaces. Typically, they also have a high degree of integration with existing software systems such as legacy or groupware systems. Integration techniques have to be selected systematically in order not to endanger the whole software development process. This article describes the development of an EC system and it generalizes salient features of the software process used. The result is a process model that can be used for other highly integrative EC system development projects. The processes described are determined by short process lifecycles, by an orientation towards integration of legacy systems and by a strict role-based cooperation approach.

Šio darbo tikslas yra sukurti procesų vertinimo apimtį, naudotiną mažoms programinę įrangą kuriančioms organizacijoms, turinčioms tikslą pradėti procesų gerinimo programą. Darbo metu buvo įvertinti 25 Lietuvos programinę įrangą kuriančių organizacijų naudojamų procesų gebėjimai. Atsižvelgiant į gautus rezultatus buvo sudaryta procesų vertinimo apimtis, kurioje yra pateikiami 8 procesai. Siūloma vertinimo apimtis buvo sudaryta atsižvelgus į tirtų organizacijų naudojamus procesus, procesų gebėjimus, tobulinimo poreikius bei programinės įrangos kokybę, kaip pagrindinį procesų tobulinimo programos tikslą. / The purpose of this paper is to create a process assessment scope to be used assessing software processes in small software enterprises, with the emphasis on process improvement. During the course of writing the paper assessment of 25 Lithuanian software developing and/or supporting organization has been performed. Considering the results of the assessments a proposed process assessment scope containing 8 processes has been created. Proposed scope has been created considering the use of processes, process capabilities, and perceived process improvement goals in the assessed organizations, while maintaining that the core purpose of the process improvement program is the quality of the software.

A área de melhoria de processos de software (MPS) tem sido investigada sistematicamente, dadas as evidências de que a qualidade do processo pode influenciar significativamente na qualidade do produto final. Modelos e guias com boas práticas para a MPS têm sido sintetizados. Ainda assim, a literatura carece de trabalhos que estabeleçam estratégias de como implementar as boas práticas sugeridas por tais modelos e guias na indústria. Em paralelo, o desenvolvimento distribuído de software (DDS) tornou-se uma realidade, aumentando a complexidade e a importância do processo de desenvolvimento de software e demandando estratégias que permitam uma MPS também distribuída. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar estratégias e mecanismos que possam promover uma MPS distribuída e colaborativa. A ColabSPI, uma estratégia colaborativa e distribuída para MPS, é proposta para apoiar a evolução estruturada do processo; o tratamento de propostas de melhorias de processo; e a comunicação e participação dos desenvolvedores na MPS. Durante a investigação, fatores que podem influenciar a MPS foram identificados e a relação entre eles foi mapeada, tanto a partir da literatura quanto a partir de um estudo em campo. Dois contextos foram explorados durante a investigação: (i) a MPS em uma organização de grande porte, com unidades distribuídas; e (ii) a MPS no desenvolvimento de software livre (SL). Contribuições para a MPS no desenvolvimento de SL foram geradas no contexto do projeto internacional Qualipso, com a co-autoria do Qualipso Open Source Maturity Model (OMM) e a adequação de ColabSPI para evoluir o OMM. Em ambiente industrial, estudos experimentais foram conduzidos para validar a aplicação de ColabSPI e revelaram que algumas práticas do desenvolvimento de software, inclusive do DDS e do desenvolvimento de SL, podem ser aplicadas com sucesso à MPS, trazendo ganhos de eficácia e eficiência para a melhoria de um processo de desenvolvimento de software. A estratégia proposta está sendo base também para a definição do ambiente de MPS do processo Demoiselle, um processo livre para desenvolvimento de software / Software Process Improvement (SPI) has become an active research field, given the evidences that the quality of software processes can significantly influence the final product quality. Therefore, SPI models and guides have been disclosed. Still, there is a lack of studies establishing strategies on how to implement SPI models\' best practices. Meanwhile, distributed software development (DSD) is becoming widespread, increasing the complexity and importance of software processes and demanding distributed SPI strategies. This study aims to investigate strategies and mechanisms to promote a distributed and collaborative SPI. ColabSPI, a collaborative and distributed approach to SPI is proposed to supporting process evolution, handling process improvement proposals, and promoting the developers participation in SPI and communication. Accordingly, during the investigation possible influences to SPI programs were explored and the relationship between them has been mapped, both from the literature and from a field study. SPI was investigated in two contexts: (i) a large organization, counting on distributed development units; and (ii) the FLOSS development environment. Contributions to SPI in the FLOSS development environment took place in the international project Qualipso resulting on a ColabSPI customization to evolve the Qualipso Open Source Maturity Model (OMM) and in the co-authoring of the model. In industrial environment, experimental studies were conducted to validate ColabSPI, revealing that some of the software development practices, including DSD and FLOSS practices, can be successfully applied to SPI and yield a more efficient and effective improvement of the software development process. ColabSPI features are also being considered to the definition of a SPI environment to the Demoiselle process, an open process for software development

This thesis presents a software engineering process improvement study. The literature on software process improvement is reviewed. Then the current design verification process at one of the Software Engineering Departments of the X Company, Ankara, T&uuml / rkiye (SED) is analyzed. Static software development process metrics have been calculated for the SED based on a recently proposed approach. Some improvement suggestions have been made based on the metric values calculated according to the proposals of that study. Besides, the author&#039 / s improvement suggestions have been discussed with the senior staff at the department and then final version of the improvements has been gathered. Then, a discussion has been made comparing these two approaches. Finally, a new software design verification process model has been proposed. Some of the suggestions have already been applied and preliminary results have been obtained.