This paper outlines the details of seven case studies involving the pilot usage of the new standard ISO/IEC 29110standard ‘Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities’, which was specifically designed by Working Group 24 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 to address the standardization needs of Very Small Entities (VSEs). The purpose of this paper is to add substantially to the body of knowledge and the literature on the rollout and implementation of this new and evolving standard and to act as guidance for other researchers in the design and implementation of ISO/IEC 29110 case studies. Furthermore it is hoped that that the lessons learnt from these case studies will help promote the adoption of this new standard in an industrial setting.

Background. It is significant to constantly change and improve the software process to thrive in the software market with rapidly changing requirement and situation. However, very small entities(VSEs) have difficulties to adopt software process improvement that have played an important role in software market, because they usually have some unique characteristics, such as informal and fewer documents, tight budget, and less human resources. Therefore, we believe it is necessary to study factors that are crucial to successful conducting SPI, to help inexperienced VSEs with limited resource implement SPI with reasonable cost. Objectives. The overall aim of our research is to analyse critical success factors about successfully conduct software process improvement for Very Small Entities. The objectives are based on the aim as following: 1) Identifying the special characteristics of VSEs which related to conducting SPI, 2) Identifying the state-of-the-art critical success factors when VSEs conducting SPI both in literature and practice: verifying and prioritizing the factors, and 3) Investigating the strategies that VSEs can take in order to successfully implement SPI. Methods. In order to investigate the critical factors and barriers need to focus and avoid during the improvement, we implemented a systematic literature review as the first phase. Then a survey questionnaire as the second phase to validate the results gained from the systematic literature review through consulting industrial software engineers. Results. The final result includes 80 success factors which have been mentioned at least once in the primary studies, a few characteristics of VSEs and strategies for SPI in VSEs. Among the 80 factors, we chose 29 factors as CSFs that were mentioned more than three times, then selected the first 15 CSFs as survey questions material. Through the survey, we gathered the evaluation of all factors from two areas and some suggestion or opinion of SPI in VSEs, explained the 29 CSFs and two ranking tables about top factors from the SLR and the survey, discussed 14 CSFs from both ranking tables, then provided specific strategies for each of the common 8 factors. Conclusions. For helping VSEs that intend to conduct SPI with limited resources, we answered our research questions through SLR and Survey, found 29 state-of-the-art success factors of SPI in VSEs, ranked 15 of them and provided a description, discussion, and strategies. Selected and prioritised success factors would be supportive for VSEs to ration their budget. Furthermore, we hope we can inspire VSEs who are having trouble to implement SPI by providing strategies.

This thesis investigates the database model selection process in VSEs, looking into how priorities and needs differ compared to what is proposed by existing theory in the area.  The study was conducted as a case study of a two-person company engaged in developing various applications and performing consulting tasks. Data was collected through two semi-structured interviews. The first interview aimed to understand the company's process for selecting a database model, while the second interview focused on obtaining their perspective on any differences in their selection process compared to the theoretical recommendations and suggested methodology. The purpose was to investigate the important factors involved in the process and explore why and how they deviated from what the theory proposes. The study concludes that VSEs have different priorities compared to larger enterprises. Factors like transaction amount does not have to be considered much at the scale of a VSE. It is more important to look into the total cost of the database solution, including making sure that the selected technology is sufficiently efficient to use in development and relatively easy to maintain. Regarding selection methodology it was concluded that the time investment required to decide what is the best available database solution can be better spent elsewhere in the enterprise, and finding a good enough solution to get the wheels of the ground is likely a more profitable aim.

The diploma thesis is focused on software process improvement in very small entities. It contains description of benefits that can be achieved by implementing such improvements. The focus is on the use of the fairly new ISO/IEC 29110 international standard and the basic profile of ISO/IEC 29110 standard for software engineering in particular. The standard is also suitable for use in system engineering. However, such application is not discussed within this diploma thesis. The aim of the work was to promote dissemination of information regarding said standard in the Czech Republic. The thesis, therefore, describes advantages of conforming to the standard and issues that the standard deals with. Thus, the attractiveness of the standard for very small entities is expected to increase. Furthermore, the thesis describes the importance of centers (organizations) providing support for very small entities. These centers are dedicated to spreading information about the standard and helping VSEs with the implementation of ISO/IEC 29110 into practice. The possibility of creation of such center in the Czech Republic is discussed in the thesis. A description for the center is provided designed based on information about similar foreign centers and their experiences gained during execution of pilot projects aimed at implementing the ISO/IEC 29110 processes and practices. In the practical part of the thesis, an informational website about ISO/IEC 29110 has been designed and created. The website will serve as a source of information regarding the ISO/IEC 29110 standard in the Czech Republic. It will also promote the activities of the center for very small entities and provide organizations with possibilities of collaboration. I regard the main contributions of the thesis to be: evaluation of center's competencies needed promote the use of ISO/IEC 29110 in Very Small Entities for example by an execution of pilot projects us; and the creation of a website that can be used to concentrate knowledge about the ISO/IEC 29110 standard and to share it among the target audience.