240 research outputs found
The Effects of GQM+Strategies on Organizational Alignment
The increasing role of software for developing products and services requires that organizations align their software-related activities with high-level business goals. In practice, this alignment is very difficult and only little systematic support is available. GQM+Strategies is a method that aims at aligning organizational goals, strategies, and measurements at all levels of an organization in a seamless way. This article describes a case study of applying GQM+Strategies in a globally op- erating industrial R&D organization developing special-purpose device products for B2B customers. The study analyzes how GQM+Strategies has helped clarify and harmonize the goal set of the organization. Results of the study indicate im- proved alignment and integration of different goals. In addition, the method helped to make the initially informal goal-setting more transparent and consequently en- abled revising it while new, more important goals were discovered and compre- hended. Moreover, several elements affecting the achievement of goals as well as impediments were identified.Peer reviewe
A Deployment Process for Strategic Measurement Systems
Explicitly linking software-related activities to an organisation's
higher-level goals has been shown to be critical for organizational success.
GQM+Strategies provides mechanisms for explicitly linking goals and strategies,
based on goal-oriented strategic measurement systems. Deploying such strategic
measurement systems in an organization is highly challenging. Experience has
shown that a clear deployment strategy is needed for achieving sustainable
success. In particular, an adequate deployment process as well as corresponding
tool support can facilitate the deployment. This paper introduces the
systematical GQM+Strategies deployment process and gives an overview of
GQM+Strategies modelling and associated tool support. Additionally, it provides
an overview of industrial applications and describes success factors and
benefits for the usage of GQM+Strategies.Comment: 12 pages. Proceedings of the 8th Software Measurement European Forum
(SMEF 2011
MAP REQUIREMENT ENGINEER MODEL (SHIPPING DOMAIN)
The failures in the implementation and use of computer systems are due in numerous studies to a bad comprehension of the needs that these systems attempt to answer. The consequences of this misunderstanding can be critical and needs huge efforts to deal with the situation. So, it is necessary to define methods, technologies and tools to clarify, validate and represent needs relative to the systems on appropriate and structured manner. In this article, we will summarize main characteristics of different requirement modeling approaches such us I star, EKD, KAOS…therefore we choose MAP as the most adequate modeling approach. And we propose a model based on MAP in the Shipping domain. Indeed, our choice of the model Map approach has been based on a comparison of different characteristics and contributions of t e MAP compared to other models. In addition to that we choose the field of shipping, because of the abundance of stakeholders and activities (business process), to present needs in map model. A concrete model of the shipping import service allows us to on the alignment between organizational and operational sight of a company. This rapprochement is fundamental to ensure dynamism imposed to all system to be update facing a rapid and continuous evolution
DETERMINING THE IMPACT OF BUSINESS STRATEGIES USING PRINCIPLES FROM GOAL-ORIENTED MEASUREMENT
In practice, the success or failure of business strategies is often determined by management as a gut feeling without taking into account quantitative information. If data is collected, it is often unclear how the data contributes to higher-level goals of the organization. GQM+Strategies® provides mechanisms for explicitly linking measurement goals to higher-level goals, and also to goals and strategies at the level of the entire business. It is based on experiences with software-related organizations, but is intended to be applicable in all kinds of businesses. This article gives an overview of the basic concepts and presents a practical case
How Decision Makers Learn to Choose Organizational Performance Measures
This study, framed by decision making, program theory, and performance measurement theory, explored the knowledge and experience that enable decision makers to identify organizational performance measures. It used a mixed method, exploratory sequential research design to discover the experience, knowledge, and skills (EKS) senior decision makers felt were important in learning to choose organizational performance measures. From the analyzed interviews, a survey was designed to measure the importance of the EKS characteristics. Qualitative analysis identified 55 life, work, or educational experience; knowledge; or skill characteristics and 23 effective measure characteristics. Regression analysis and PCA were used to extract 6 components. One-way ANOVA found no significant differences in these factors between gender groups, age groups, and process complexity levels, but found differences for decision-making tenure. MANOVA found no significant differences by the same dimensions. The limited sample size and high number of variables confounded component extraction. Further research with a suitable sample size is required before findings can be generalized
A Systemic Approach to Evaluating the Organizational Agility in Large-Scale Companies
This paper presents action research to analyze an approach for assessment of the alleged agile transformation. This approach was implemented at AK Bars Digital Technologies, an IT spin-off of one of the largest banks in Russia using the Scaled Agile Framework. The approach is based on the Goal-Question-Metric approach, non-invasive measurement collection, and systemic analysis. It uses data from several different sources, including interviews, code repositories, user ratings in the play stores, and templates for agile assessment. The effectiveness of the approach is subjectively validated by the adoption of the proposed recommendations by the banks’ senior management. Details are provided on the approach, the required effort from the side of both those assessing and of the people being assessed and the results. The final part of the paper is devoted to the discussion of its generalizability and the plan for future experimentation and refinement
A Method To Select Goals, Indicators and Strategies for IT Services
Background: Measurement is a key process to support organizations in management and improvement of processes, products and services. Indicators are measures used to monitor whether a goal is reached, increasing feedback and objectivity on judgment and helping organizations to focus attention and effort on what matters. IT services literature, such as libraries, frameworks, standards, and maturity models, requires proper identification of critical business process and definition of relevant measures to support decision-making. However, there is no clear direction about what should be those critical business processes and indicators. IT service departments often spend time and effort measuring without being sure about what the measurement results represent and organizations consider the indicators selection as a difficult task. Aims: We conducted this work aiming to answer the research question: “How to support selection of IT services indicators in different organizational levels and aligned to business goals?” Method: Considering this scenario, we proposed SINIS, a method to help organizations select indicators for IT services in several levels in alignment to business goals. SINIS was created based on concepts from process improvement models and approaches related to IT Services Management. We evaluated SINIS in the IT Infrastructure and the IT Security areas of a global large company. Results: By using SINIS IT Infrastructure was able to define indicators and an appropriate set of strategies aligned with IT Service goals in which teams could focus work and IT Security was able to better understand and document indicators, associate them to business goals and strategies and discard those ones that were not considered useful. Conclusion: SINIS was evidenced as applicable to different IT Service areas, supporting definition of strategies and indicators for members to work on that could help attending IT service and business goals, instead of working in several and unfocused initiatives.
A conceptual framework for SPI evaluation
Software Process Improvement (SPI) encompasses the analysis and modification
of the processes within software development, aimed at improving key areas that
contribute to the organizations' goals. The task of evaluating whether the
selected improvement path meets these goals is challenging. On the basis of the
results of a systematic literature review on SPI measurement and evaluation
practices, we developed a framework (SPI Measurement and Evaluation Framework
(SPI-MEF)) that supports the planning and implementation of SPI evaluations.
SPI-MEF guides the practitioner in scoping the evaluation, determining
measures, and performing the assessment. SPI-MEF does not assume a specific
approach to process improvement and can be integrated in existing measurement
programs, refocusing the assessment on evaluating the improvement initiative's
outcome. Sixteen industry and academic experts evaluated the framework's
usability and capability to support practitioners, providing additional
insights that were integrated in the application guidelines of the framework
Towards an Approach for Analysing the Strategic Alignment of Software Requirements using Quantified Goal Graphs
Analysing the strategic alignment of software requirements primarily provides
assurance to stakeholders that the software-to-be will add value to the
organisation. Additionally, such analysis can improve a requirement by
disambiguating its purpose and value, thereby supporting validation and
value-oriented decisions in requirements engineering processes, such as
prioritisation, release planning, and trade-off analysis. We review current
approaches that could enable such an analysis. We focus on Goal Oriented
Requirements Engineering methodologies, since goal graphs are well suited for
relating software goals to business goals. However, we argue that unless the
extent of goal-goal contribution is quantified with verifiable metrics, goal
graphs are not sufficient for demonstrating the strategic alignment of software
requirements. Since the concept of goal contribution is predictive, what
results is a forecast of the benefits of implementing software requirements.
Thus, we explore how the description of the contribution relationship can be
enriched with concepts such as uncertainty and confidence, non-linear
causation, and utility. We introduce the approach using an example software
project from Rolls-Royce.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1211.625
A service-oriented approach to modeling and performance analysis of Port Community Systems:
A Port Community System (PCS) is an electronic platform that links the multiple systems operated by private and public organizations. Accordingly, PCSs can be interpreted as complex service system networks that coproduce services. The study proposes a three levels top-down methodology which aims to interpret existing PCS in order to: provide a formal description of this system network based on the enterprise architecture concepts of a PCS; illustrate how each actor of a PCS offers or requires services; and present a new approach to the measurement of services based on the Goal-Question-Metric paradigm
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