European conference on Software Process Improvement 

About: European conference on Software Process Improvement is an academic conference. The conference publishes majorly in the area(s): Software development process & Software development. Over the lifetime, 590 publications have been published by the conference receiving 4828 citations.

A Software Engineering Lifecycle Standard for Very Small Enterprises

Abstract: Industry recognizes that very small enterprises (VSE), that develop parts involving software components are very important to the economy. These parts are often integrated into products of larger enterprises. Failure to deliver a quality product on time and within budget threatens the competitiveness of both organizations. One way to mitigate these risks is to haveall suppliers of a product chain put recognized engineering practices in place. Many international standards and models such as ISO/IEC12207 or CMMI have been developed to capture proven engineering practices. However, these standards were not designed for very small development organizations, those with less than 25 employees, and are consequently difficult to apply in such settings. An ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 Working Group has been established to address these difficulties by producing a software engineering standard tailored to VSE.

On-Site Customer in an XP Project: Empirical Results from a Case Study

Abstract: Extreme programming (XP), similarly to other agile software development methods, values close collaboration with customers. One of the XP practices suggests that the customer should be 100% available for the development team. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the XP customer role is costly, difficult and demanding. However, very few empirical studies have been published on the role of customer in an XP project. The results of this controlled case study are in line with the common belief that the on-site customer’s role is indeed demanding, requiring a strong ability to resolve issues rapidly. Yet, the study also offers contrasting findings in terms of required actual customer involvement in the development project. This empirical case demonstrates that while the customer was present close to 100% with the development team, only 21% of his work effort was required to assist the team in the development. However, it is also shown that an on-site customer may create a false sense of confidence in the system under development. The implications of these and other findings are discussed.

Mapping CMMI Level 2 to Scrum Practices: An Experience Report

Abstract: CMMI has been adopted advantageously in large companies for improvements in software quality, budget fulfilling, and customer satisfaction. However SPI strategies based on CMMI-DEV require heavy software development processes and large investments in terms of cost and time that medium/small companies do not deal with. The so-called light software development processes, such as Agile Software Development (ASD), deal with these challenges. ASD welcomes changing requirements and stresses the importance of adaptive planning, simplicity and continuous delivery of valuable software by short time-framed iterations. ASD is becoming convenient in a more and more global, and changing software market. It would be greatly useful to be able to introduce agile methods such as Scrum in compliance with CMMI process model. This paper intends to increase the understanding of the relationship between ASD and CMMI-DEV reporting empirical results that confirm theoretical comparisons between ASD practices and CMMI level2.

Empirical Evaluation of Two Requirements Prioritization Methods in Product Development Projects

Abstract: Requirements prioritization is recognized as an important but difficult activity in product development. The literature offers methods for requirements prioritization, but many authors report that practices in companies are mostly informal. In this study, we evaluated two requirements prioritization methods from the requirements engineering literature in industrial product development projects. In the first case, the users of the system evaluated the pair-wise comparison technique [5] for prioritizing user needs. In the second case, practitioners evaluated Wiegers’ method [18] for change requests. The findings from the cases provide information about the suitability of the prioritization methods for product development work. In addition, our findings indicate why it might be challenging for practitioners to employ a requirements prioritization method.

Software Project Management in Very Small Entities with ISO/IEC 29110

Abstract: The recently published ISO/IEC 29110 standard Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities has at its core a Management and Engineering Guide [1] which are targeted at very small entities (enterprises, organizations, departments or projects) having up to 25 people [2], to assist them unlock the potential benefits of using standards which are specifically designed to address their needs. This paper discusses the role and structure of Project Management in the emerging ISO/IEC 29110 standard Software Process Lifecycles for Very Small Entities as well as its practical implication. This paper will also focus on the design and development of project management support documentation and their associated usage in early trials of ISO/IEC 29110.