Auditing for ISO 9001 requirements in the context of agile software processes

ISO 9001 demands of (software) organizations that a rigorous demonstration of their software processes be implemented and a set of guidelines followed at various levels of abstraction. What these organizations need to show, in other words, is that their software processes have been designed and implemented in a way that allows for a level of configuration and operation that complies with ISO 9001 requirements. For software organizations needing ISO 9001 certification, it is important that they establish a software process life cycle that can manage the requirements imposed by this certification standard. However, software organizations that develop their software products using the agile software processes, such as Extreme Programming (agile-XP), face a number of challenges in their effort to demonstrate that their process activities conform to ISO 9001 requirements, major ones being: product construction, traceability, and measurement. Agile software organizations must provide evidence of ISO 9001 conformity, and they need to develop their own procedures, tools, and methodologies to do so. As yet, there is no consensus on how to audit the agile software organization to ensure that their software processes have been designed and implemented in conformity with ISO 9001 requirements. Moreover, it is challenging to ensure that such lightweight documentation methodologies meet these requirements for certification purposes. The motivation of this research is to help software organizations that use agile software processes in their effort to meet the ISO 9001 certification requirements. This research project is also aimed at helping IS auditors extract auditing evidence that demonstrates conformity to the ISO 9001 requirements that must be met by agile software organizations. Extreme programming (agile-XP) has been selected for improvement as a candidate agile process. This selection was based on the literature indicating a higher adoption of agile-XP over other agile software processes. The goal of this research project is to improve the ability of the agile-XP process to meet the auditing requirements of ISO 9001. The goal of the research also focuses on helping agile software organizations in their effort to become ISO 9001 certified. The main objective of this research project is to design an auditing model that covers the measurement and traceability requirements of ISO 9001. The auditing model should provide IS auditors with auditing evidence that the software projects developed with the agile-XP process have fulfilled the requirements of ISO 9001. The objective also proposes several sub processes to enhance the early planning activities of agile-XP according to ISO 9001 requirements. To achieve these objectives, the main phases of the research methodology are: Investigation of the capability of agile-XP to achieve the requirements of ISO 9001 software process certification; modification of the early phases of agile-XP (i.e. release planning phase) using CMMI-DEV; and design of an auditing model for ISO 9001 traceability and measurement requirements. The main outcome of this research study, which is an auditing model that is aligned with the principles of agile-XP and focuses on ISO 9001 traceability and measurement requirements to provide the IS auditors with a methodological approach for the auditing process. The auditing model has been assessed based on case studies selected from the literature

Methods to evaluate lightweight software process assessment methods based on evaluation theory and engineering design principles

Achieving a mature software development process has become essential for many software organizations. A mature development process permits software organizations to provide their customers with a high quality software product delivered on time and within budget. Software organizations have been struggling for decades to improve the quality of their products by improving their software development processes. Designing an improvement program for a software development process is a demanding and complex task. This task consists of two main processes: the assessment process and the improvement process. A successful improvement process requires first a successful assessment; failing to assess the organization's software development process could create unsatisfactory results. Software processes assessment (SPA) can be used either to determine the capability of another organization, for subcontracting purposes, or to determine and understand the status of the organization's current processes to initiate an improvement process. The increasing number of assessment approaches available; the ISO 15504 standard that sets out the requirements for process assessment; and the popularity of the CMMI model, illustrate the relevance of software process assessment for the software development industry. Currently, several methods are available to assess the maturity and capability of a software development process based on well-known software process assessment and improvement frameworks such as CMMI and ISO-15504. The success of these assessment methods and improvement frameworks is supported by post-development studies on the validity, reliability and effectiveness of these methods. Unfortunately, many researchers consider that such methods are too large to implement in SME organizations. As a result, many researchers have studied process assessment and improvement in SME organizations and proposed assessment methods, usually called lightweight SPA methods, suitable to the organizations' needs. The current research in the SPA field focuses on proposing convenient and easy-to-use assessment methods, without investigating to what extent the design of these methods is related to the engineering design perspective. This unclear alignment with the engineering discipline raises questions about the relevance and representativeness of the results produced by these methods from an engineering viewpoint. Moreover, although numerous SPA methods are currently available which offer help and guidance, unfortunately they only partially address evidences found essential for achieving an SPA success. This thesis presents and discusses the evaluation of lightweight SPA methods. The evaluation is two-fold: evaluating the SPA methods design using a top-down approach and based on engineering viewpoints and evaluating the success of SPA methods using a bottom-up approach. The evaluation theory concepts are used as a framework to formally develop both evaluation methods. To develop the first evaluation method using the top-down approach, an exploratory analytical study of SPA methods from an engineering design viewpoint has been conducted. Vincenti's classification has been used as a tool for this analysis. The aim of this exploratory study is to put the developed SPA methods into an engineering design framework, and use this framework as a guideline to put the new SPA methods to be designed into the same engineering design framework. To develop the second evaluation method using the bottom-up approach, a systematic literature review was conducted to extract the set of evidences for the success of the SPA method based on requirements, observations, lessons learned and recommendations which have been formulated within the industry and published in books, conferences and journals. The development process of the two evaluation methods has then been verified using a set of verification criteria and the proposed evaluation methods were tested by conducting three case studies. The first evaluation method would be useful mainly for the designers of new SPA methods during the design phase, while the second evaluation method would be useful for both designers and practitioners of SPA methods to verify the success of the assessment method in question. This research project forms an entry point to study the alignment of SPA methods design with engineering design principles and sheds light on achieving successful assessment results by studying the successful evidences that should be supported by assessment methods separated from the improvement process. The proposed evaluation methods in this thesis have great benefits for SPA methods designed mainly for SME organizations, because these assessments methods, contrary to well-known methods, lack comprehensive studies on their reliability and effectiveness

Analysis of software engineering principles from an engineering perspective

Software engineering has recently emerged as a new engineering field in a continuing evolution. Software engineering is a discipline whose aim is the production of high quality software, but lacks maturity compared to other traditional engineering fields. Traditional engineering fields have their own principles originating from physics, chemistry and mathematics. However, since the software engineering discipline is not based on natural laws, establishing a set of principles is more challenging. This research on the set of candidate fundamental principles will contribute to a better understanding and possibly, to the teaching of the principles of software engineering and it will help improve the content of the software engineering body of knowledge (SWEBOK) Guide from an engineering perspective. This research work investigated the issue of software engineering as an engineering discipline using Vincenti categories of engineering knowledge; identified engineering fundamental principles from a set of candidates; and finally investigated the lack of explicit and systematic descriptions of these principles and their application, as in the SWEBOK Guide. The two main research objectives are the identification of the fundamental principles of software engineering from the 34 candidates principles; and the description of operational guidelines for these principles, based on the content of the SWEBOK Guide. To achieve these objectives, the following research methodology was used. The main phases of this research methodology are: the analysis, from an engineering perspective, of software engineering and the set of 34 ftandamental principles candidates; the identification of the software engineering principles in the content of the SWEBOK Guide - ISO TR 19759; the description of the operational guidelines on the basis of the content of the SWEBOK Guide and aligned with the IEEE standard 1362-1998 Concept of Operations (ConOps) Document. The main outcome of this research study is the identification of a set of nine software engineering fundamental principles and the description of operational guidelines

A gap analysis of NPO resource utilisation in a community literacy project

Abstract: Non-profit organisations (NPOs) play a critical role in national development; through the use of resources they obtain, they fulfil the needs of society that governments are unable to fulfil. Thus, the current study was conducted at an NPO Rotary District 9400 (RD9400) to identify gaps in resource utilisation and ultimately, performance planning practices. The research evaluated a key RD9400 literacy project and provided recommendations on how the value created through the project could be enhanced by improved management practices, leading to optimised resource utilisation. A case study research strategy was adopted and literature was reviewed to gain an understanding of the research problem. Subsequently, a sequential qualitative and quantitative mixed methods approach was followed. Gap analysis was used to identify areas where RD9400 could enhance value creation. The findings revealed gaps in RD9400’s management practices, signalling the need for improvement in the performance planning of its key literacy project and perhaps other similar literacy projects. The findings also indicated that RD9400 needs to incorporate management practices through the use of management tools (e.g. the balanced scorecard) in order to standardise and optimise resource utilisation and project impact. Limitations of the study included the focus on a single NPO, which reduces the generalisability of the findings. The sample also excluded individuals under the age of 18, which meant that not all the direct beneficiaries of the literacy project could be represented in the sample. The study proposed a framework of recommendations for RD9400 on how to better manage, and thereby, measure the impact of the literacy project. As limited literature is available on the topic of NPOs in South Africa, this framework could also inform other NPOs and Rotary International globally on how to better manage their literacy projects.M.Com. (Strategic Management

SMART TECHNOLOGIES, DIGITALIZZAZIONE E CAPITALE INTELLETTUALE. Sinergie e opportunità

Il volume offre una visione d’insieme delle smart technologies, della digitalizzazione e del capitale intellettuale nelle aziende, al fine di delinearne i profili emergenti in chiave economico-aziendale. L’analisi di tali tematiche riveste particolare importanza nell’attuale scenario, in cui le aziende sono chiamate ad accogliere la quarta rivoluzione industriale e a fronteggiare un’emergenza mondiale di natura sociosanitaria ed economica. Pertanto, la riflessione scientifica su questioni relative all’analisi e alla definizione delle sfide e delle opportunità derivanti dalle smart technologies, dai processi e percorsi di digitalizzazione aziendali e dal capitale intellettuale rappresenta un contributo fondamentale per supportare le aziende nelle necessarie valutazioni di convenienza, nelle decisioni consapevoli e condivise, e nella attivazione di comportamenti coerenti. I contributi di ricerca raccolti in questo volume rappresentano il fruttuoso lavoro del Gruppo di Studio “Smart Technologies, Digitalization & Intellectual Capital” (STEDIC) della Società Italiana dei Docenti di Ragioneria e di Economia Aziendale (SIDREA) coordinato dai curatori del volume

Usabilidade pedagógica: um fator determinante na adoção do e-Learning no ensino superior

O artigo que apresentamos neste simpósio doutoral surge no âmbito do Curso de Doutoramento em Educação, especialidade em Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação na Educação, do Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa. O estudo tem como objetivo principal propor e testar um modelo que permita explicar a intenção comportamental dos docentes do Ensino Superior aquando da adoção e uso continuado das plataformas de e-Learning. Para o efeito procura-se compreender o contributo da usabilidade pedagógica como fator determinante no processo de adoção da tecnologia

Knowledge sharing in engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturing enterprises.

Sharing Knowledge is considered an important part of managing new product development (NPD) research on the process of NPD and Knowledge Management methods have influenced industry in various ways. For example the management of the NPD process, the use of tools, techniques and the organisation of teams, and the integration of the marketing and manufacturing have resulted in considerable progress within NPD process. Prior studies on the NPD problems have delivered various models of the NPD process and a variety of supporting methods, tools and techniques in a generic context. A more realistic scenario however, is to consider the needs of firms that develop products on a Make-to-Order (MTO) or Engineer-to-Order (ETO) basis.The research methodology adopted was based on extracting a preliminary ETO model supported by variety of Knowledge Management methods, tools and techniques from the review of literature. To examine the applicability of these models and methods and also the influential factors on the NPD process a survey by questionnaire and structured interviews in UK industrial companies was carried out. Findings were bound together to provide a generic model of the ETO process and a framework for the knowledge sharing on the specific needs of ETO manufacturing companies. IDEFO technique was used to develop the preliminary and the generic models.The objective of this research is to construct a structured and practical framework for supporting the opportunity for knowledge sharing within one-off projects. The knowledge sharing framework referred to as 'Sharing-ETO-Knowledge' (SETOK) was translated into a computer program using the "MS Visio' enterprise modelling systems. It was examined by applying the system program to the data of the two cases that had been obtained at the case study stage. The framework has been fruitful in the provision of a guideline for the implementation of the knowledge sharing in various NPD-ETO projects.The SETOK framework may be viewed as a practical, robust generic tool to assess the process performance of ETO manufacturing projects. The outcome of this study would help ETO manufacturing companies in their knowledge sharing and decision making processes with regards to NPD-ETO manufacturing projects

Engines of Order

Over the last decades, and in particular since the widespread adoption of the Internet, encounters with algorithmic procedures for ‘information retrieval’ – the activity of getting some piece of information out of a col-lection or repository of some kind – have become everyday experiences for most people in large parts of the world