An Evaluation of Software Measurement Processes in Pakistani Software Industry

Implementing a successful measurement process is a challenging task. Most measurement studies report measurement models, experiences, and lessons learned based on pilot projects or case studies in a limited scope to overcome specific challenges. This paper identifies 14 basic measurement practices and proposes a model of 18 success factors for implementing measurement processes with respect to the identified measurement theories in our systematic literature review (SLR), i.e., A systematic literature review on software measurement programs, by Tahir et al. , 2016. In addition, a survey is conducted to evaluate the state of measurement practices and to validate the proposed model based on the feedback from 200 software professionals working in Pakistani software industry. The state of measurement practices in the industry is mostly not according to the identified measurement theories in the SLR. For instance, more than 50 measurement models reported in the literature but only 10% software organizations follow any measurement model. 75% of organizations do not follow any measurement standard. 80% software organizations do not use any measurement tool. The proposed model is validated by applying structural equation modeling on the survey data. Furthermore, among 18 success factors, it is statistically significant that Pakistani software professionals strongly believe in necessity of three factors for successful implementation of a measurement process, i.e., synchronization between measurement process and software process improvement, use of measurement standards, and use of measurement models. In addition, they also believe that a successful measurement process will improve prediction, monitoring and management of software projects, and support in achievement of individual and organization-wide objectives. Software organizations might consider this paper in planning and improving their measurement processes

An Analysis of Measurement and Metrics Tools: A Systematic Literature Review

Measurement is an important field in Software Engineering, since it allows for organizations to obtain trustworthy estimates regarding deadlines, cost, and quality for the development of their software projects. Many tools are available for the calculation and storage of metrics and therefore, choosing the best tool can be a hard task. Faced with such a problem, this study carries out an analysis of the measurement tools presented in literature. The methodology chosen for the task was the systematic literature review. The results of the systematic review present the metric tools chosen in literature, their functionalities, and the main metrics used by these tools. The primary contribution of this article is a list with the metrics used by each of these tools, and their respective classification, according to their use in academia as well as in the software industry

Analysis of Software Process Improvement Activities in SMEs: A Systematic Literature Review

This Software industry is a very significant cog in today’s economic landscape. The majority of these organizations mainly comprise small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These enterprises aim to benefit from Software Process Improvement (SPI) activities in producing high-quality products and services in competitive business environments. For this purpose, SPI models have been developed for specific SME characteristics. In this study, we performed a systematic literature review to analyze the characteristics of these SPI models, the challenges of performing SPI activities in SMEs, and the critical success factors for SPI activities. In this context, 61 articles published from 2007 to 2020 were examined, as a result, 28 SPI models used in SMEs were found out. In addition, ten different situations that make SPI implementations challenging in SMEs and seven factors that affect the success of SPI studies in SMEs were reported

Sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

The following supporting information can be downloaded at: ttps://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/su14116493/s1, PRISMA checklist.Main aim: This paper examines the main topics of research in the literature studying the topic of sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), and aims at presenting a future research agenda. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review based on articles published between 2000 and 2020. From an initial set of 88 papers taken from WoS in the period under analysis, 42 papers were effectively analyzed. Main results: The results of an in-depth reading reveal four clusters representing the main topics of research in the field: sustainability and SMEs’ performance; green and environmental management issues; social and cultural issues and their impact on sustainability policies; values, skills, and capabilities. Key findings suggest that the following angles of research appear to be underexplored: theoretically grounded research; research using large samples; articles examining sustainability reporting; research looking into non-manufacturing sectors; work examining settings in developing countries; research undertaking international comparisons; articles exploring the complementarity between the literature on sustainability in SMEs and on family-owned businesses; and the influence of the social and cultural context on SMEs’ engagement with sustainability. Main contribution: This paper offers insights to academia, practitioners, and policy makers to help SMEs engaging with sustainability and may assist also the latter to develop strategies to improve SMEs’ social and environmental reporting. Given the current pandemic crisis, and the urgency for sustainable business practices, we expect to contribute to expanding knowledge in this field of research

Process for Systematic Literature Review and Systematic Mapping

La Revisión Sistemática de Literatura (RSL) es una estrategia de investigación destinada a obtener evidencia desde artículos científicos almacenados en repositorios digitales, la cual debe ser sistemática, reproducible y auditable para formular preguntas de investigación sobre un área temática o fenómeno de interés y para buscar, seleccionar, analizar y comunicar toda la investigación relevante, básica o aplicada, necesaria para responder a dichas preguntas. La RSL (al igual que el Mapeo Sistemático) se puede realizar sobre estudios primarios o secundarios. En ambos casos se requieren procesos y métodos bien establecidos. Si bien existen guías del proceso de la RSL para Ingeniería de Software, las cuales indican los pasos a seguir en las tres fases del proceso propuesto por Kitchenham, consideramos que sería un aporte para la comunidad científica el mejorar la especificación de su proceso. Para este fin, empleando perspectivas de modelado de proceso, documentamos la especificación del proceso de RSL usando principalmente el lenguaje SPEM (Software & Systems Process Engineering Metamodel). En tanto desarrollamos el trabajo, ejemplificamos aspectos del proceso usando una RSL piloto sobre ontologías de testing de software ya realizada. Cabe acotar que el proceso propuesto de RSL también puede ser usado para Mapeo Sistemático.Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is a research strategy intended to obtain evidence from scientific articles stored in digital repositories. It must be systematic, repeatable and auditable to formulate research questions about a thematic area or phenomenon of interest and to search, select, analyze and communicate all basic or applied research relevant findings in order to answer those questions. SLR, as well as Systematic Mapping (SM), can be carried out on primary or secondary studies. In both cases, well-established processes and methods are required. Although there are guides to the SLR process in Software Engineering, which indicate the steps to be followed in the three phases of the process proposed by Kitchenham, we believe that it would be a contribution for the research community to improve the current process specifications. To this end, we document the SLR process specification using mainly the SPEM (Software & Systems Process Engineering Metamodel) language and process modeling perspectives. As long as we develop the present work, we exemplify process aspects using a pilot SLR on software testing ontologies already performed. It should be noted that the proposed SLR process can also be used for SMs.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Significance of Criteria for Early-Stage Venture Assessment : Systematic Literature Review

The valuation of early-stage ventures represents a difficult and often subjective process that is characterized by risk and uncertainty. This can be further stressed for technology- driven ventures, having substantial technological risks. We therefore approached existing research on the significance of criteria driving the early-stage technology venture evaluation process in a structured way through means of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). It could be shown that research deals with an enormous number of criteria that can in principle be included in the evaluation process. However, only a few of them can be assigned a decisive character. It became clear that a positive evaluation outcome is primarily driven by the passion of the venture’s founders, their industry and leadership experience, market growth and the uniqueness of the product. In essence, venture evaluation depends largely on management criteria, and thus an investor’s focus lies primarily on the skills and experience of the founders themselves, with personality characteristics slightly outweighing. The market and product- related criteria seem to be relatively far behind, and so we assume that no positive investment decision would be made if the management shows deficiencies in the qualification, no matter how promising the market or the product itself is. In the end, we found that the market potential in most cases outweighs the product itself, which is astonishing in that the offer of the venture itself moves to the last place in the evaluation

Una propuesta basada en el paradigma dirigido por modelos para la integración del ciclo de vida de la medición al ciclo de vida del proceso

Context: Measurement enables organizations to gain knowledge about its processes and projects, also to reach predictable performance and high capability processes, which places organizations in better positions to make appropriate decisions. Measuring the software development process supports organizations in its endeavor to understand, evaluate, manage, and improve its development processes and projects. In the last decades, the software development process has evolved to meet the market needs and to keep abreast of modern technologies and infrastructures that have influenced the product development and its use. These changes in the development processes have increased the importance of the measurement and caused changes in the measurement process and the used measures. Objective: This thesis aims to contribute to the software process measurement domain in two main aspects; first, propose a novel solution to support the identification and the operational definition of the measurement concepts and objectives. The second is defining a measurement lifecycle and integrate it into the process lifecycle. Method: We have carried out a survey and mapping study to understand the current state of the art, and to identify existing gaps. After that, we have proposed a theoretical solution to support the software process measurement, and finally, we have developed this solution to allow its practical use in real environments, enabling its application and evaluation in a real project. Results: The proposed solution consists of three main components: (i) Measurement lifecycle; which define the measurement activities throughout the process lifecycle, (ii) Measurement metamodels; these metamodels support the measurement lifecycle and its integration into the process lifecycle, (iii) Transformation process; which allow the derivation of the necessary measurement models, artifacts, and activities throughout the process lifecycle. Conclusion: The solution presented in this dissertation allows organizations to manage and improve their processes and projects; the proposed information model supports the unification of the measurement concepts vocabulary, coherently connects them, and ensures the traceability between these concepts. The defined measurement process lifecycle provides a clear and comprehensive guide for the organizations to establish the measurement objectives and carry out the necessary activities to achieve them. The proposed measurement definition metamodel support and guide the engineers to define the measurement concepts and their relationships completely and operationally. Moreover, the proposed transformations use this metamodel to support the measurement process and to derive the necessary measurement artifacts and activities throughout the process lifecycle.Contexto: la medición permite a las organizaciones obtener conocimiento sobre sus procesos y proyectos, también alcanzar un rendimiento predecible y procesos de alta capacidad, lo que pone las organizaciones en mejores posiciones para tomar decisiones apropiadas. La medición del proceso de desarrollo de software apoya a las organizaciones en su esfuerzo para comprender, evaluar, gestionar y mejorar sus procesos y proyectos de desarrollo. Objetivo: Esta disertación propone una solución novedosa para respaldar la identificación y la definición de los conceptos y objetivos de medición en una forma operativa. Además, busca definir un ciclo de vida de la medición e integrarlo en el ciclo de vida del proceso. Método: Hemos llevado a cabo una encuesta y estudios de mapeo para comprender el estado del arte e identificar brechas existentes. Posteriormente, hemos propuesto una solución teórica para respaldar la medición del proceso del software y, finalmente, hemos desarrollado esta solución para permitir su uso práctico en entornos reales, permitiendo su aplicación y evaluación en un proyecto real. Resultados: La solución propuesta consta de tres componentes principales: (i) Ciclo de vida de la medición; que define las actividades de medición a lo largo del ciclo de vida del proceso, (ii) Metamodelos de medición; estos metamodelos apoyan el ciclo de vida de la medición y su integración en el ciclo de vida del proceso, (iii) Proceso de transformación; que permite la derivación de los modelos de medición, artefactos y actividades necesarios a lo largo del ciclo de vida del proceso. Conclusión: la solución presentada en este trabajo permite a las organizaciones gestionar y mejorar sus procesos y proyectos; El modelo de información propuesto apoya la unificación del vocabulario de los conceptos de medición, los conecta de forma coherente y garantiza la trazabilidad entre estos conceptos. El ciclo de vida del proceso de medición proporciona una guía clara y completa para que las organizaciones establezcan los objetivos de medición y realicen las actividades necesarias para lograrlos. El metamodelo de definición de la medición apoya y guía a los ingenieros para definir los conceptos de medición y sus relaciones de manera completa y operativa; además, las transformaciones propuestas utilizan este metamodelo para respaldar el proceso de medición y derivar los artefactos y las actividades de medición necesarios durante el ciclo de vida del proceso

Estrategia integrada de pruebas de software consciente de la situación y basada en escenarios

En la actualidad, las aplicaciones de software se han vuelto muy complejas ya que, en algunas situaciones particulares, dependen de otros sistemas o servicios para realizar correctamente sus funciones. En otras palabras, esto significa que un sistema no está aislado y está influenciado por entidades de contexto. Debido a su complejidad inherente, algunos enfoques o estrategias de pruebas de software existentes no son lo suficientemente efectivos para verificar y validar situaciones particulares en las que es relevante considerar y modelar las entidades de contexto. Además, hay un escaso número de metodologías que son útiles para probar este tipo de situaciones. Con la intención de contribuir en esta área, en esta tesis doctoral se propone una estrategia de pruebas de software basada en escenarios y consciente de la situación. Esta estrategia es consciente de la situación porque la situación debe ser modelada y considerada para producir casos de prueba. La misma fue inicialmente validada ya que se aplicó en dos empresas del ámbito privado por dos estudiantes de grado para sus proyectos finales de ingeniería. Una estrategia es un recurso fundamental de una organización que define un curso específico de acción a seguir, es decir, especifica qué se debe hacer y cómo hacerlo. A su vez, una estrategia debería integrar tres capacidades fundamentales o pilares, a saber: i) una especificación de proceso, ii) una especificación de métodos, y iii) una especificación de base conceptual. Por lo tanto, la estrategia propuesta en este trabajo también considera estas tres capacidades. El beneficio de integrar estos tres pilares en una estrategia en particular es que la misma especificará qué actividades están involucradas, cómo llevarlas a cabo a través de métodos, y todo esto dentro de un marco semántico de un vocabulario de uso común y compartido. Dado que una ontología es la representación más rica para modelar bases conceptuales, se considera que una estrategia integrada debería tener entonces una ontología como base conceptual y no meramente un glosario y/o taxonomía. Por ello, en esta tesis doctoral, se decidió desarrollar y utilizar una ontología de pruebas de software para dar soporte a la estrategia integrada. Además, las especificaciones de procesos y métodos deberían utilizar los conceptos que involucra esta base conceptual ontológica para que la estrategia sea consistente. Por otro lado, es importante contar con procesos bien especificados como parte de una estrategia integrada. Un proceso bien especificado debería describir cuáles son las principales actividades que deben ser realizadas, sus productos de trabajo consumidos y producidos, qué roles intervienen, cuál es el flujo a seguir entre las diferentes actividades, entre otros aspectos. Además, otro aspecto que fortalece las especificaciones de procesos es el modelado de diferentes vistas o perspectivas de proceso. Como beneficio, un proceso bien especificado no solo permite el entendimiento del mismo, sino que también facilita la comunicación entre las partes interesadas. Además, asegura la repetibilidad y la reproducibilidad en la implementación de las actividades y tareas.Doctor en Ciencias InformáticasUniversidad Nacional de La PlataFacultad de Informátic