Technical Target Setting in QFD for Web Service Systems using an Artificial Neural Network

There are at least two challenges with quality management of service-oriented architecture based web service systems: 1) how to link its technical capabilities with customer\u27s needs explicitly to satisfy customers\u27 functional and nonfunctional requirements; and 2) how to determine targets of web service design attributes. Currently, the first issue is not addressed and the second one is dealt with subjectively. Quality Function Deployment (QFD), a quality management system, has found its success in improving quality of complex products although it has not been used for developing web service systems. In this paper, we analyze requirements for web services and their design attributes, and apply the QFD for developing web service systems by linking quality of service requirements to web service design attributes. A new method for technical target setting in QFD, based on an artificial neural network, is also presented. Compared with the conventional methods for technical target setting in QFD, such as benchmarking and the linear regression method, which fail to incorporate nonlinear relationships between design attributes and quality of service requirements, it sets up technical targets consistent with relationships between quality of web service requirements and design attributes, no matter whether they are linear or nonlinear

Business-oriented Software Process Improvement based on CMM and CMMI using QFD

Software Process Improvement (SPI) has become the key to the survival of many software development organizations. Many international SPI models/standards are developed for SPI. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI)) from the Software Engineering Institute are two SPI models. In this study, several existing SPI models and approaches are reviewed, their advantages are identified, and their drawbacks are discussed. A set of new SPI frameworks integrating Quality Function Deployment (QFD) with both CMM and CMMI are developed by combining the best features of previous approaches and addressing their limitations --Abstract, page iii

Business-Oriented Software Process Improvement Based on CMM Using QFD

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from the Software Engineering Institute has been used successfully by many organizations for Software Process Improvement (SPI). Despite its great success, there exists a disconnect between business goals and maturity levels. A new framework using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been developed to deal with this problem. This framework serves three purposes: (i) it establishes a connection between requirements from the business and Key Process Areas (KPAs) in CMM; (ii) it proposes a methodology for the priority assessment of requirements from multiple perspectives; and (iii) it helps identify a set of software process improvement actions based on business requirements and KPAs

Assessing the business value of software process improvement using CMMI® in South Africa

The focus of software process improvement is on enhancing product quality and productivity to increase business competitiveness and profitability. The Capability Maturity Model Integration or CMMI® remains the dominant standard for software process improvement globally. The lack of software quality standards such as CMMI® is seen as one of the causes of the current uncompetitive state of the South African software industry and so in 2007, a pilot programme called “Bringing CMMI® to South Africa” was launched. This research focused on the experiences of the South African organisations participating in the South African CMMI® pilot study through a combination of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The aim was to assist future managerial decision making to assess the business value CMMI® can bring to South African software organisations. The research found that the adoption of CMMI® improved both the internal quality and efficiencies as well as opportunities for growth. The research also established that CMMI® cannot be regarded as a silver bullet solution and that while process improvements can cause short-term upheaval, there are longer-term tangible and intangible benefits. It is, however, key that the organisational aspects of the change be properly managed. A lack of awareness of quality standards or actual demand for CMMI® along with the relatively high implementation and support costs are further preventing its adoption in South Africa. The recommendations resulting from the research, including a model, are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided. CopyrightDissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

Agile software development in large-scale new product development organization: team level perspective

Many modern intelligent products and systems (e.g., automotive, consumer electronics, telecommunications) contain more and more embedded software. Often the new product development (NPD) companies developing such products operate under turbulent circumstances stemming from the business environment, technology development and other, even disruptive sources. The embedded software development functions of such NPD organizations then face the uncertainties directly or indirectly, often coupled with time-to-market, quality and productivity pressures. Agile software development has been advocated as a new way of coping with such circumstances in particular with small independent teams developing customer-driven software products. This thesis investigates in contrast how it can be utilized with embedded software development teams in large-scale market-driven industrial NPD context. The exploratory, problem-driven research process is based on interpretive design science and action research principles. The author worked as a full-time software quality and process development specialist employee inside the case organization, thus acting as a reflective practitioner. The longitudinal study research cycles were conducted over several years in that particular NPD organization context. The cycle viewpoints evolved from first recognizing typical software project problems and uncertainties, and developing certain solutions to software team knowledge management and software process model selection. This development led to consider, what problems current agile software methods address. The realization of agile software development was then further examined with respect to the cost factors, and finally towards integrating agile software product development teams into larger-scale NPD organization. The main result of this research is that agile software development models address many typical key issues in large-scale industrial NPD context, and the cost/benefit factors are in principle justifiable. However, if agile software methods are applied just bottom-up trying to integrate isolated agile software teams into larger organizational context, this inside-out approach leads often to problems with organizational barriers and impediments. Thus, in order to be able to leverage the potential benefits, agile software development should be approached more from the strategic business perspective (outside-in), viewing the software development functions as elements of the total value-creation system in the NPD organization. Different software development (project) teams may have different roles and needs for agility in this complex over time. The contributions imply that rational software team-level improvements require in many cases wider, even enterprise-level perspectives in creating and improving the agile capabilities of the NPD organization. It is thus fundamental to conceptualize agility in the NPD context by combining software development with the overall NPD processes. In particular in large organizations, the improvements may require more actions at the organizational level than in software teams