Mapping CMMI Level 2 to Scrum Practices: An Experience Report

CMMI has been adopted advantageously in large companies for improvements in software quality, budget fulfilling, and customer satisfaction. However SPI strategies based on CMMI-DEV require heavy software development processes and large investments in terms of cost and time that medium/small companies do not deal with. The so-called light software development processes, such as Agile Software Development (ASD), deal with these challenges. ASD welcomes changing requirements and stresses the importance of adaptive planning, simplicity and continuous delivery of valuable software by short time-framed iterations. ASD is becoming convenient in a more and more global, and changing software market. It would be greatly useful to be able to introduce agile methods such as Scrum in compliance with CMMI process model. This paper intends to increase the understanding of the relationship between ASD and CMMI-DEV reporting empirical results that confirm theoretical comparisons between ASD practices and CMMI level

Harmonizing CMMI-DEV 1.2 and XP Method to Improve The Software Development Processes in Small Software Development Firms

Most software development organizations are small firms, and they have realized the need to manage and improve their software development and management activities. Traditional Software Process Improvement (SPI) models and standards are not realistic for these firms because of high cost, limited resources and strict project deadlines. Therefore, these firms need a lightweight software development method and an appropriate SPI model to manage and improve their software development and management processes. This study aims to construct a suitable software development process improvement framework for Small Software Development Firms (SSDFs) based on eXtreme Programming (XP) method and Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development Version 1.2 (CMMI-Dev1.2) model. Four stages are involved in developing the framework: (1) aligning XP practices to the specific goals of CMMI-Dev1.2 Key Process Areas (KPAs); (2) developing the proposed software development process improvement framework based on extending XP method by adapting the Extension-Based Approach (EBA), CMMI-Dev1.2, and generic elements of the SPI framework; (3) verifying the compatibility of the proposed framework to the KPAs of CMMI-Dev1.2 by using focus group method coupled with Delphi technique; and (4) validating the modified framework by using CMMI-Dev1.2 questionnaire as a main item to validate the suitability of the modified framework for SSDFs, and conducting two case studies to validate the applicability and effectiveness of this framework for these firms. The result of aligning XP practices to the KPAs of CMMI-Dev1.2 shows that twelve KPAs are largely supported by XP practices, eight KPAs are partially supported by XP practices, and two KPAs are not-supported by XP practices. The main contributions of this study are: software development process improvement framework for SSDFs, elicit better understanding of how to construct the framework, and quality improvement of the software development processes. There are possible avenues for extending this research to fulfil the missing specific practices of several KPAs, examining other agile practices and using CMMI-Dev1.3 to improve the framework, and conducting more case studie

Capability Maturity Model Integration (Cmmi) for Small Organizations

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is a large area of expertise that deals with software development standard processes and is a progression of proven methods of process improvement from many different methodologies. Personal Software Process (PSP) and Team Software Process (TSP) complement the implementation of Capability Maturity Model Implementation (CMMI) and can be applied gradually from the individual, to the team, and then to the organization. These solutions from Carnegie Melon\u27s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) are leading edge for the field of process improvement. Solutions like this consume many resources, are very complex, require years to implement, and can be costly. The SEI solutions offer an industry standard for SPI. Three case studies were analyzed to provide insight into the benefits of CMMI for small organizations. Decisions that steer these solutions generally involve scheduling, quality, and cost. Depending on the individual needs of an organization, the CMMI technology can fulfill what is required. The example case studies were examined and concluded that given favorable conditions, implementing CMMI is feasible for small organizations

Transcriptomic characterization of a synergistic genetic interaction during carpel margin meristem development in \u3cem\u3eArabidopsis thaliana\u3c/em\u3e

In flowering plants the gynoecium is the female reproductive structure. In Arabidopsis thalianaovules initiate within the developing gynoecium from meristematic tissue located along the margins of the floral carpels. When fertilized the ovules will develop into seeds. SEUSS (SEU) and AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) encode transcriptional regulators that are critical for the proper formation of ovules from the carpel margin meristem (CMM). The synergistic loss of ovule initiation observed in the seu ant double mutant suggests that SEU and ANT share overlapping functions during CMM development. However the molecular mechanism underlying this synergistic interaction is unknown. Using the ATH1 transcriptomics platform we identified transcripts that were differentially expressed in seu ant double mutant relative to wild type and single mutant gynoecia. In particular we sought to identify transcripts whose expression was dependent on the coordinated activities of the SEU and ANT gene products. Our analysis identifies a diverse set of transcripts that display altered expression in the seu ant double mutant tissues. The analysis of overrepresented Gene Ontology classifications suggests a preponderance of transcriptional regulators including multiple members of the REPRODUCTIVE MERISTEMS (REM) and GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR (GRF) families are mis-regulated in the seu ant gynoecia. Our in situ hybridization analyses indicate that many of these genes are preferentially expressed within the developing CMM. This study is the first step toward a detailed description of the transcriptional regulatory hierarchies that control the development of the CMM and ovule initiation. Understanding the regulatory hierarchy controlled by SEU and ANT will clarify the molecular mechanism of the functional redundancy of these two genes and illuminate the developmental and molecular events required for CMM development and ovule initiation

The Empire Strikes Back: The end of Agile as we know it?

Agile methods have co-evolved with the onset of rapid change in software and systems development and the methodologies and process models designed to guide them. Conceived from the lessons of practice, Agile methods brought a balanced perspective between the intentions of the stakeholder, the management function, and developers. As an evolutionary progression, trends towards rapid continuous delivery have witnessed the advent of DevOps where advances in tooling, technologies, and the environment of both development and consumption exert a new dynamic into the Agile oeuvre. We investigate the progression from Agile to DevOps from a Critical Social Theoretic perspective to examine a paradox in agility – does an always-on conceptualization of production forestall and impinge upon the processes of reflection and renewal that are also endemic to Agile methods? This paper is offered as a catalyst for critical examination of and as a call to action to advocate for sustaining and nurturing reflective practice in Agile and post-Agile methods, such as DevOps. Under threat of disenfranchisement and relegation to automation, we question how evolution towards DevOps may alter key elements in the tenets and principles of the Agile methods phenomenon

Maturity Models for Managing People in Software Development Teams: A Systematic Literature Review

Human factors are fundamental to software development, hence the need to understand people-oriented maturity models in development teams. This article aims to identify the maturity models for people management in software development teams cited in the literature, in order to identify evidence about their use, benefits and limitations, and the human aspects involved. A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out, where automatic searches were done in four search engines, congresses in the area of ​​human factors within software engineering, in addition to a manual search. Evidence indicates that there are numerous models aimed at developing people in development teams, but few are applied. Models based on observation and informal discussion were found, as well as non-validated models, indicating the scarcity of models applicable to people in software engineering. However, complete but complex models were also found, indicating that a more transparent, dynamic and simple process is needed for people's development. In the observed human factors, emphasis is placed on communication, collaboration, knowledge, learning, self-management, motivation and skills in general. Keywords: Maturity models; Human Factors; Software Development Teams; Teams; People DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-14-02 Publication date:July 31st 202

Secure Configuration tool Suite Initiative

Vulnerability identification, remediation, and compliance verification within the Department of Defense (DOD) are currently inconsistent and non-integrated. The Secure Configuration Tool Suite (SCTS) solution should make significant grounds in resolving the DOD deficiency within an Enterprise-wide Information Assurance Vulnerability Management System. The professional project documented in this paper is a result of a major DOD initiative in support of the SCTS, and is comprised of 2 initiatives: the Secure Configuration Compliance Validation Initiative (SCCVI), which provides vulnerability assessment capability, and the Secure Configuration Remediation Initiative (SCRI), which provides vulnerability remediation capability. As a member of the project installation team the author performed on-site installations as required and directed. The DOD is a large organization and documenting the entire project would be beyond the scope of this professional project. Therefore, this analysis is based on a smaller scale of the initiative above. The installation of an unclassified baseline model at a pre-selected DOD command andall of its subcomponents will be utilized for this thesis. This installation will eventually be available for all DOD components to use as a lessons-learned tool and as a result these tools will be applied across the DOD Enterprise and should fully integrate IA Vulnerability identification, verification, and reporting; thus making a significant contribution to an Enterprise-wide Information Assurance Vulnerability Management System. While this project is based on actual events and efforts, in order to keep within the guidelines of non-disclosure outside of the DOD environment, specific names of commands, agencies and locations have been substituted with generic ones

The High Speed Balancing Game: How Software Companies Cope with Internet Speed

This paper compares and contrasts the practices in developing application software for the Internet in 2000 and 2002. We identify key organizational and technical factors that facilitated or impeded implementation of Internet applications. The identification is done through a grounded theory analysis of data collected from ten companies. A comparison of the 2000 and 2002 data shows how major factors, such as market environment and lack of experience emerged to change the software process and the attitude towar

Mastering Agile Practice Adoption through a Model-Driven Approach for the Combination of Development Methods

Many software companies are adapting their traditional development processes to incorporate agile practices. In this context, it is necessary to count on expert knowledge to evaluate different agile practices and configure them according to project needs. However, this expert knowledge is scarce, difficult to validate, and time-consuming, since it is applied manually. As a solution, the paper presents a model-driven approach, called SIAM, which automatically generates guidelines for the adoption of agile practices through the combination of different development methods. SIAM is supported by a meta-model architecture to implement a knowledge repository that characterizes method configuration decisions, which can be reused in different development projects. SIAM has been implemented in a tool suite that facilitates the specification of models and the identification of issues during the definition of the development processes. The approach has been successfully applied to reconfigure an industrial development process with agile methods, showing that the effort required for tailoring agile practices according to organizational standards is considerably reduced