A DISCUSSION ON ASSURING SOFTWARE QUALITY IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SOFTWARE ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Under the studies of general core activities including software inspection, review and testing to achieve quality objectives in small-medium size enterprises (SMEs), the paper presents a contemporary view of such companies against quality measures. The results from a local empirical investigation of quality standards in the Turkish software industry are reported.Around 150 software companies have been approached from which 17 detailed feedback inform that in order to ensure software quality, standards including internationally recognized International Standards Organization (ISO) and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) are given credit. However the substantial workload and resources required to obtain them are also reported as serious; downscaled frameworks of such large models proposed in the literature are not well known by the SMEs either. The paper also discusses "work around" that bypasses such standards to ease delivery of products while keeping certificates as labels just to acquire new jobs for the business

[[alternative]]A KM-Based Project Management System on the Web

計畫編號：NSC91-2213-E032-021研究期間：200208~200307研究經費：498,000[[sponsorship]]行政院國家科學委員

A study of process improvement activities for web development processes within a small company

This thesis describes activities carried out in order to improve a small company's web development process, specifically focusing on the areas of reuse and web accessibility. CACDP are the examinations board for British Sign Language and other related disciplines. Within the domain of web development they have no formal processes and no skills or knowledge with which to improve them. They wish to develop four new web based products, and to apply accessibility guidelines to both these and their existing web site. The areas of web development, process Improvement and reuse are investigated, specifically In relation to their suitability for CACDP, and an action list is drawn up of tasks that will assist them in achieving their aims. A formal process is defined and implemented in an iterative procedure, designed to gradually improve their working practices, and work towards achieving improvements in some of the Key Process Areas of the Capability Maturity Model. Reuse is targeted as a specific way to achieve efficiency within the development, and web accessibility is particularly important to CACDP as they work with many people who are affected by the lack of accessibility. The thesis describes the production of the applications using the defined process, and the problems faced during the implementation. These problems are reviewed and suggested improvements are integrated into the next implementation of the process. This project has resulted in the successful introduction of a formal process for the development of web-based applications. Reuse is now being used within the company to reduce cost and improve productivity. Accessibility standards have been implemented in all products. CACDP have benefited from increased services for their customers, increased profitability, mature development and maintenance procedures, the introduction of a reuse programme for their future development and technical learning and training for their staff

Balch internet research and analysis tool development case study

The Internet has become increasing popular as a vehicle to deliver surveys. An essential objective of research is to collect accurate data and there has been little work to insure that Internet survey systems are employing best practices as defined by academic and professional research to collect data. My dissertation reviews the current literature relating to best practices in Internet survey design and best practices in software design and development. I then document the development and deployment of an Open Source and publicly licensed Internet survey system that allows researchers to easily create, deploy, and analyze the results of Internet surveys. The resultant Internet survey design product, the Balch Internet Research and Analysis Tool (http://birat.net) is a full-featured Internet survey system which addresses best Internet research practices as defined by academic and professional research. The system was designed and coded by the author and is considered by him to be both innovative and unique to the field. The dissertation then reviews the system features, describes how the system was deployed, and discusses the strategies used to increase use and adoption of the system

Investigating software process in practice: a grounded theory perspective

This thesis is concerned with how software process and software process improvement is practiced within the indigenous Irish software product industry. Using the grounded theory methodology, the study utilises in-depth interviews to examine the attitude and perceptions of practitioners towards software process and software process improvement. The outcome of the work is a theory, grounded in the field data, that explains how software processes are formed and evolve, and when and why software process improvement is undertaken. The resultant grounded theory is based on two conceptual themes, Process Formation and Process Evolution, and one core theoretical category, Cost of Process. The empirical investigation shows that software process improvement programmes are implemented by companies as a reaction to business events, and how many software managers reject software process improvement because o f the associated costs. In addition, indigenous Irish software companies largely ignore commercial best practice software process improvement models, and the reasons for this are discussed. The research also argues that software process improvement is not solely technologycentred but is also affected by wider human and organisational factors. As these ‘sociocultural’ influences have been more widely addressed in the Information Systems discipline, than in Software Engineering, this work draws on the experiences and lessons from both disciplines and ultimately resides between these two academic fields. The results o f this work provide new light on the issues facing software process and process improvement in small software product companies and make a contribution towards bridging the gaps between research and practice, and theory and practice, in both Software Engineering and Information Systems

Estimación de proyectos de software pequeños basada en el juicio de expertos

Para poder contestar la pregunta de investigación de si es posible mejorar la estimación de esfuerzo medido en horas persona de los pequeños proyectos de software, investigamos en profundidad los diferentes métodos de estimación de productos de software basados en el juicio de expertos. Estos conocimientos nos ayudaron a resolver el problema que se presentó en una empresa multinacional cuando se planteó la necesidad de disminuir el porcentaje de error de proyectos pequeños de software para evitar la revisión del alcance. Para esto se diseñamos un método llamado MEBER que se aplicó a un conjunto de ocho proyectos típicos reales de la empresa, durante aproximadamente dos años. De esta manera podemos decir que el método es aplicable.Facultad de Informátic

Un modelo del proceso de desarrollo de software guiado por la traceability

En esta tesis se presenta la especificación de un proceso de desarrollo de software definido a partir de lo establecido en un modelo de RT. Se ha tomando como referencia el esquema de traceability para los usuarios High End definido por Ramesh y Pohl. El proceso de desarrollo consta de cuatro actividades principales Modelizar la Organización, Especificar los Requerimientos de Software, Validar la Especificación de Requerimientos de Software y Desarrollar la Arquitectura del Sistema. Además se especificó la actividad de soporte Fundamentar. Es importante recalcar que quedan excluidas de la especificación del proceso de desarrollo de software tanto las actividades involucradas en la confección del diseño detallado, como así también las concernientes a la codificación del sistema.Facultad de Informátic