Yazılım Süreç Geliştirme Modellerinin KOBİ’lerde Kabulü için Model Geliştirilmesi: Ön Bulgular

The software industry is playing a significant role in development of economies all over the world. It is mainly made up of small and medium software enterprises (SMEs). These companies aim to benefit from Software Process Improvements (SPI) to increase product quality and productivity in a competitive environment. Several SPI models and frameworks have been developed to improve software quality in SMEs. As SPI require organizational change and adaptation to new tools, techniques and work practices; organizations have to handle with several challenges emerged from the change. In this study, we present the factors that influence the success and adoption of the SPI models and/or standards used in SMEs. We also present the preliminary findings of the SPI acceptance model that we developed based on an established behavioral theory for SMEs. A pilot survey study was conducted to analyze the model with 20 participants who work in a CMMI Level 3 company.Yazılım endüstrisi tüm dünya ekonomilerinin gelişiminde önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bu firmaların çoğunluğu küçük ve orta ölçekli şirketlerden (KOBİ) oluşmaktadır. Bu şirketler, rekabetçi bir ortamda ürün kalitesini ve verimliliğini artırmak için Yazılım Süreç İyileştirmelerinden (YSİ) faydalanmayı amaçlamaktadır. YSİ uygulamaları beraberinde kurumsal değişim ve yeni araçlara, tekniklere ve iş uygulamalarına adapte olmayı gerektirdiğinden; kurumlar değişimden kaynaklanan çeşitli zorluklarla başa çıkmak zorundadır. Bu çalışmada, KOBİ’lerde kullanılan YSİ model ve / veya standartlarının başarısını ve benimsenmesini etkileyen faktörler sunulmaktadır. Ayrıca, KOBİ’ler için Davranışsal Teoriye dayanarak geliştirdiğimiz YSİ kabul modelinin ön bulguları sunulmaktadır. CMMI Seviye 3 firmasında çalışan 20 katılımcı ile modeli analiz etmek için pilot bir anket çalışması yapılmıştır

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

Measuring the maturity of Indian small and medium enterprises for unofficial readiness for capability maturity model integration-based software process improvement

Establishing the maturity levels of ‐ Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) without Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification has always been regarded as an extremely challenging task. Software process improvement (SPI) has targeted to monitor and improve software processes, thereby improving the software business. Although there is scientific interest in SPI, little attention has been specifically given to the exploration of maturity levels for non‐CMMI SMEs. The goal is to explore the effect of time on process maturity and maturity levels achieved informally or unofficially by SMEs that are not otherwise CMMI certified. To find out the maturity levels achieved informally, a CMMI‐DEV v1.3 based survey questionnaire is administered to Indian software SMEs. Time of establishment of SMEs and follow‐up of CMMI‐based processes and practices unofficially are used as two important parameters to decide upon process maturity and achievement of specific CMMI level informally. This paper has been successful in ascertaining the effect of time of establishment of SMEs and follow‐up of CMMI‐based processes on process maturity using proposed RuleML that advocates adoption of more than 70% of CMMI‐DEV v1.3 process area‐specific practices for an SME to be unofficially ready for CMMI‐based SPI initiatives. The findings manifest multidimensional aspects of unofficial readiness of SMEs for CMMI‐based SPI that can be used by relevant authorities to select SMEs for funding for SPI initiatives. Finally, the proposed work has been validated statistically using t‐test for CMMI Level II and Level III

Systematic review of mixed methods in the framework of educational innovation

En el ámbito de la investigación, los métodos mixtos usan combinadamente datos cuantitativos y cualitativos para un acercamiento con la «realidad». En la literatura reciente de los estudios sociales y educativos, se ubica un crecimiento de publicaciones que integran tecnologías digitales y métodos mixtos y, con ello, se presenta la oportunidad de generar un aporte original de posibilidades para investigar la innovación educativa. El objetivo de este artículo fue analizar las características de estos estudios y las tendencias de nuevas contribuciones para la educación. Para lograrlo se realizó una revisión sistemática de literatura (SLR) de 311 artículos publicados, de enero 2010 a enero 2020, en las bases de datos Web of Science (WoS) y Scopus. Se trabajó con nueve preguntas que exploraron tres temas: características, tecnologías y diseños con líneas de innovación educativa. La validación se dio con los criterios de la Universidad de York: inclusión y exclusión, pertinencia y descripción de datos, así como evaluación de pares en el análisis. Los hallazgos dan cuenta de redes de co-términos, identificación de innovaciones educativas y tipos de diseños que están siendo trabajados en líneas de investigación de innovación educativa. Se concluye que el enfoque de métodos mixtos aporta con una combinación interceptada de estrategias y procesos para abordar la complejidad del fenómeno de la educación, con comprensión holística, interdisciplinar y cambio en la forma de hacer investigación en nuestros tiemposIn the field of education research, mixed methods have traditionally referred to the combination of quantitative and qualitative data that brings us closer to ‘reality’. However, recent literature on social and educational studies has increasingly incorporated works that integrate digital technologies and mixed methods. This novelty provides an opportunity to re-examine original contributions in the field, particularly in relation to educational innovation. Therefore, the objective of this article is to analyze the characteristics and the trends of new contributions from researchers in education. To achieve this, we carried out a systematic literature review (SLR) of 311 articles published from January 2010 to January 2020 in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. We worked with nine questions that explored three key themes: characteristics, technologies and designs within the realm of educational innovation. The validation for this analysis was achieved using a criterion adopted by scholars at York University, which incorporates: inclusion and exclusion, relevance and description of data, as well as peer review in the analysis. Our findings indicate that networks of co-terms, identification of educational innovations and the types of designs -currently applied in educational innovation- as well as the adoption of a mixed-method approach seem to be much better suited to underpin the required combination of strategies and processes that are interwoven in order to address the complexity of the education phenomenon in our time

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

A Study of Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Supply Chain

There is a general consensus that human activity has significant impact on global climate change with significant consequences to the environment. Although there has been relatively limited research on the relationship between corporate environmental performance and corporate financial performance, empirical of the relationship between proactive corporate climate change strategies and economic performance is still in need of clear delineation. It is in light of this hat this research examines the impacts of sustainability adoption on competitive performance of oil and gas companies. The research explores the notion of market driven sustainability by establishing an empirical link between sustainable supply chains characteristics and organisational competitiveness. The overall aim is to develop an empirical model of sustainable supply chain characteristics that improves resource utilisation, profit maximization and competitiveness in the oil and gas industry. The research reviews existing literature on supply chain management, sustainability and competitive objectives in order to generate an appropriate and adequate context for relevant analytical investigations. Primary data on sustainability and its impacts on organisational performance were collected from UK and gas industry through survey by questionnaire. The results show that the most significant drivers of sustainability are the desire to conserve energy, increase market share and improve competiveness. However, legal and regulatory pressure, in contrast to common perspectives in the literature, was not seen as strong drivers of sustainability. The most significant inhibitors of sustainability are inappropriate infrastructural facilities, higher take-up costs, shortage of information on sustainability and employees lack of environmental awareness. The results further indicate that, though sustainability strategies implemented by the respondent firms varied in scopes, these strategies were being extensively and successfully implemented. Generally, the adoption of sustainability in oil and gas supply chain leads to improved economic performance and environmental performance, which, in turn, positively impact organisational competitiveness. These results are of particular importance to managers, government policy makers environmentalists and researchers

Business process modelling in ERP implementation literature review

Business processes are the backbone of any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Business process modelling (BPM) has become essential for modern, process driven enterprises due to the vibrant business environments. As a consequence enterprises are dealing with a substantial rate of organizational and business processes change. Business process modelling enables a common understanding and analysis of the business processes, which is the first step in every ERP implementation methodology (blueprint phase). In order to represent enterprise processes models in an accurate manner, it is paramount to choose a right business process modeling technique and tool. The problem of many ERP projects rated as unsuccessful is directly connected to a lack of use of business process models and notations during the blueprint phase. Also, blueprint implementation phase is crucial in order to fit planned processes in an organization with processes implemented in the solution. However, business analysts and ERP implementation professionals have substantial difficulties to navigate through a large number of theoretical models and representational notations that have been proposed for business process modeling (BPM). As the availability of different business process modeling references is huge, it is time consuming to make review and classification of all modeling techniques. Therefor, in reality majority of ERP implementations blueprint documents have no business process modeling included in generating blueprint documents. Choosing the right model comprise the purpose of the analysis and acquaintance of the available process modelling techniques and tools. The number of references on business modelling is quit large, so it is very hard to make a decision which modeling notation or technique to use. The main purpose of this paper is to make a review of business process modelling literature and describe the key process modelling techniques. The focus will be on all business process modeling that could be used in ERP implementations, specifically during the blueprint phase of the implementation process. Detailed review of BPM (Business process modeling) theoretical models and representational notations, should assist decision makers and ERP integrators in comparatively evaluating and selecting suitable modeling approaches

Meeting point of strategy and operations: tactical management sense and response framework enhancement

We recognize a problem of work overload in every managerial position nowadays. This is complemented with data overload, and still somehow, information inadequacy. We recognize the problem of rather clear strategic or business plan expectations and inability to meet them. We also recognize the problem of complexity of issues every manager has to deal with in all of their diversity. All of these elements persisting in an uncertain and unpredictable environment of today's business, technology and economy, where planning is trading places with structuring, modularizing and preparing oneself in being adaptive to any given circumstances, especially in terms of tactics, denote longing for multidimensional support. There are various efforts and products to automatize and enrich the data in order to give basis for better decision-making and problem solving. Also, there are frameworks to formalize and verbalize the strategic or business plan expectations and targets with respective performance measurement in order to point out the direction where a business unit/company should be headed. And quite a lot is being done on a subject-specific areas such as: Alignment of IT and Strategy, Business Operations and Strategy,. But the perceived "boiling" zone of tactical management is somehow un-addressed, both in theory and with feasible artifacts. Tactical Management as the managerial function that implements strategies and deploys and utilizes specific resources from the operational level in order to gain that specific advantage prescribed in the strategy has both differentiating and uniting characteristics when compared to operations and strategy. Furthermore, if standing in the shoes of a tactical manager, what one will see as work description, will be overwhelming crossroads of unmatched information flows in structure, depths, sources, manners, complexity, timings, and expectations. How to perceive, organize, handle and utilize all that landscape with what is given, and be able to handle it dynamically, appropriately and with least expenditures, is what we are aiming for. It's neither straightforward, nor an easy, automated task. For anyone. It is both company-and person-dependent task. This research focuses on tactical management, from the perspective of the individual manager. We believe that by Enhancing the Sense-and-Respond Framework on a tactical level we will assist the individual tactical manager with increased adaptability and handling complexity

A conceptual framework for capability sourcing modeling

Companies need to acquire the right capabilities from the right source, and the right shore, at the right cost to improve their competitive position. Capability sourcing is an organizing process to gain access to best-in-class capabilities for all activities in a firm's value chain to ensure long-term competitive advantage. Capability sourcing modeling is a technique that helps investigating sourcing alternative solutions to facilitate strategic sourcing decision making. Our position is applying conceptual models as intermediate artifacts which are schematic descriptions of sourcing alternatives based on organization's capabilities. The contribution of this paper is introducing a conceptual framework in the form of five views (to organize all perspectives) and a conceptualisation (to formulate a language) for capability sourcing modelling