Methodology for Process Improvement Through Basic Components and Focusing on the Resistance to Change.

This paper describes a multi-model methodology that implements a smooth and continuous process improvement, depending on the organization's business goals and allowing users to establish their improvement implementation pace. The methodology focuses on basic process components known as ‘best practices’. Besides, it covers following the topics: knowledge management and change management. The methodology description and the results of a case study on project management process are included

A quality management based on the Quality Model life cycle

Managing quality is a hard and expensive task that involves the execution and control of processes and techniques. For a good quality management, it is important to know the current state and the objective to be achieved. It is essential to take into account with a Quality Model that specifies the purposes of managing quality. QuEF (Quality Evaluation Framework) is a framework to manage quality in MDWE (Model-driven Web Engineering). This paper suggests managing quality but pointing out the Quality Model life cycle. The purpose is to converge toward a quality continuous improvement by means of reducing effort and time.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2010-20057-C03-02Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN 2010-12312-EJunta de Andalucía TIC-578

Towards Successful Software Process Improvement Initiatives: Experiences from the Battlefield

Over the past years Brazil has done significant investments in software process improvement. Among them, the long term MPS.BR program focuses on improving the software process quality of Brazilian companies. This paper describes the successful software process improvement (SPI) initiative that is being developed in Brazil, called the MPS.BR program, including its software process improvement reference model (MR-MPS-SW) and the most important results accomplished to date. Our results include the analysis of the iMPS family of surveys, and lessons learned that are valuable to the SPI community. The results and benefits presented can be useful to researchers, practitioners and decision makers in Government, University, and Industry interested in SPI and software industry competitiveness. Moreover, the benefits presented can motivate organizations to engage on MPS model SPI initiatives as a mean to improve the quality of their software

Experience Management for Very Small Entities: Improving the Copy-paste Model

International audienceThe emerging ISO/IEC 29110 standard Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities is developing a "Generic" profile group applicable to a vast majority of very small entities (enterprises, organizations, departments or projects) having up to 25 people, that do not develop critical software and have typical situational factors. The developers of the standard, ISO/IEC JCT1/SC7 Working Group 24, recommended the use of pilot projects as a mean to trial the adoption of the new International standard in small organizations. Accordingly an ISO/IEC 29110 pilot project has been established between the Software Engineering group of Brest University and a 14-person company with the aim of establishing an engineering discipline for a new web-based project. As the project proceeded, it became apparent that the current set of ISO/IEC 29110 documents describing a first profile, the Basic profile, was not sufficient to sustain this VSE in its SE activities. What was needed was to organize the knowledge contained in them. The results of this pilot study are providing VSEs with a simple Experience Management system which is compatible with the emerging ISO/IEC 29110 standard. It is founded on two principles: 1) keeping the Content Management System-based Experience Management infrastructure as simple as possible, structured with the decomposition of the ISO/IEC 29110 processes; and 2) the requirement of Experience Management dedicated processes, taken from D. Schon's work on the reflection-on-action approach to learning

A framework and tool to manage Cloud Computing service quality

Cloud Computing has generated considerable interest in both companies specialized in Information and Communication Technology and business context in general. The Sourcing Capability Maturity Model for service (e-SCM) is a capability model for offshore outsourcing services between clients and providers that offers appropriate strategies to enhance Cloud Computing implementation. It intends to achieve the required quality of service and develop an effective working relationship between clients and providers. Moreover, quality evaluation framework is a framework to control the quality of any product and/or process. It offers a tool support that can generate software artifacts to manage any type of product and service efficiently and effectively. Thus, the aim of this paper was to make this framework and tool support available to manage Cloud Computing service quality between clients and providers by means of e-SCM.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RJunta de Andalucía TIC-578

Towards Experience Management for Very Small Entities

International audienceThe ISO/IEC 29110 standard: Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities, provides several Process Reference Models applicable to the vast majority of very small entities (defined by the ISO as "an entity (enterprise, organization, department or project) having up to 25 people") which do not develop critical software and share typical situational factors. An ISO/IEC 29110 pilot project has been established between the Software Engineering group at Brest University and a 14-employee company with the aim of establishing an engineering discipline for a new Web-based project. As the project proceeded, it became apparent that setting up the ISO/IEC 29110 standard has to be performed in two steps: 1) provide self-training materials to the VSE employees on this new standard; and 2) support good practices with a simple Experience Management system which is compatible with the ISO/IEC 29110 standard. This paper reports the lessons learned about training from the pilot project, and addresses the research issues associated with the Experience Management system

ON THE CHALLENGE OF A SEMI-AUTOMATIC TRANSFORMATION PROCESS IN MODEL DRIVEN ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Recently, Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approaches have been proposed for supporting the development, maintenance and evolution of software systems. Model driven architecture (MDA) from OMG (Object Management Group), “Software Factories” from Microsoft and the Eclipse Modelling Framework (EMF) from IBM are among the most representative MDE approaches. Nowadays, it is well recognized that model transformations are at the heart of these approaches and represent as a consequence one of the most important operations in MDE. However, despite the multitude of model transformation languages proposals emerging from university and industry, these transformations are often created manually. In this paper we present in the first part our previous works towards automation of the transformation process in the context of MDA. It consists on an extended architecture which introduces mapping and matching as first class entities in the transformation process, represented by models and metamodels. Our architecture is enforced by a methodology which details the different steps leading to a semi-automatic transformation process. In the second part, we propose the illustration of the architecture and methodology to the main case of transforming a PIM into PSM

Integrating Human-centered Design into Product Development Process

Tarve käytettäville tuotteille kasvaa jatkuvasti. Kansainvälistyminen asettaa haasteensa tuotesuunnittelulle. Työkäyttöön tarkoitettujen järjestelmien tehokkuusvaatimukset ovat nousseet. Samalla myös käyttäjäkokemukseen on alettu kiinnittää enemmän huomiota. Tässä työssä kehitettiin tapa sulauttaa käyttäjäkeskeinen kehitysprosessi yrityksen olemassa olevaan tuotekehitysprosessiin. Yrityksessä toteutettiin käytettävyyden kypsyysarviointi, haastatteluja sekä osallistuva havainnointijakso. Näiden menetelmien avulla saatujen tulosten sekä kirjallisuuslähteiden perusteella luotiin uusi tuotekehityksen prosessimalli, jota testattiin pilottiprojektissa. Projektin osallistujat vastasivat kyselyyn ja heitä haastateltiin. Prosessimallia kehitettiin pilottiprojektista saadun palautteen perusteella. Ehdotettu prosessi painottaa alkupään suunnittelua ja käyttäjän osallistuttamista tuotekehitykseen. Prosessimalli jakaa tuotekehitysprojektit kolmeen tasoon niiden käytettävyyskriittisyyden suhteen. Eri tasoilla suunnittelutyötä tehdään erilaisia käytettävyyttä parantavia menetelmiä hyödyntäen. Tässä diplomityössä ehdotettu prosessimalli on otettu käyttöön kohdeyrityksessä. Muutoksen pysyvyyttä tuetaan koulutuksin, tiedotuksin, ja varmistamalla johdon tuki. Prosessin noudattamista valvoo keskeinen käytettävyysryhmä, jonka vastuulla on tuotekehitysprojektien ulkopuolinen käytettävyystyö.The need for usable systems is growing constantly. Internationalization of products and companies brings new demands for usability. Efficiency and productivity are key issues in the business world. At the same time user experience has risen to a more important role. A way to integrate human-centered design into an existing product development process of an organization was developed in this master s thesis. A usability maturity assessment, participant observation and interviews were executed in this thesis. With the results obtained with these methods and the cognizance gained in the literature review, a process model for product development was created. The model was tested in a pilot project and it was developed further based on the feedback gained from a survey and interviews after the pilot project. The process emphasizes the early phase design and involvement of the actual users. The process model divides the product development projects into three categories according to the importance of usability. The usability work methods vary in each category. The process model created in this thesis has been implemented in the target organization. The change is being supported by training and communication. A central usability group is controlling the compliance with the process. All the usability work outside the development projects is part of the responsibility of the central usability group

Managing software engineers and their knowledge

This chapter begins by reviewing the history of software engineering as a profession, especially the so-called software crisis and responses to it, to help focus on what it is that software engineers do. This leads into a discussion of the areas in software engineering that are problematic as a basis for considering knowledge management issues. Some of the previous work on knowledge management in software engineering is then examined, much of it not actually going under a knowledge management title, but rather “learning” or “expertise”. The chapter goes on to consider the potential for knowledge management in software engineering and the different types of knowledge management solutions and strategies that might be adopted, and it touches on the crucial importance of cultural issues. It concludes with a list of challenges that knowledge management in software engineering needs to address