A STUDY ON THE MANAGEMENT OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING CAPABILITIES IN JAPAN USING PANEL ANALYSIS

We designed a survey on software engineering excellence (SEE) and administered it in 2005, 2006 and 2007 with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to better understand the mechanism of how software engineering capabilities relate to IT vendors’ business performance and business environment. We measured the SEE survey results with regard to seven factors: deliverables, project management, quality assurance, process improvement, research and development, human development, and contact with customers. In this paper, we integrated 233 valid responses to the SEE surveys received over three years into a new database and identified 151 unique IT firms. We conducted panel analyses of the seven SEE factors using the three years of data to clarify what influence SEE factors have within a year, year-to-year, and mid-term. Based on the results of the panel analysis, our first observation is that most SEE factors for a year had significant positive influences on the same factors the next year. Second, there were three paths to improving the level of deliverables through project management, quality assurance and research and development in a year. Third, some SEE factors had significant positive influence on different SEE factors in the following year. Fourth, there were some negative paths, implying that effort put toward a particular factor did not pay off during the duration of our research. These efforts, however, might be expected to have longer-term effects on other SEE factors

A STUDY ON CHARACTERISTICS OF SOFTWARE VENDORS IN JAPAN: FROM ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS AND RESOURCE-BASED VIEW

The objectives of this research are to describe competitive environment in software industry in Japan and to understand the differences of characteristics among maker-turned, user-turned and independent vendors. Based on management frameworks such as Porter’s five forces and Barney’s resource-based view, we developed the measurement model of environmental threats and competitive strengths/weaknesses. And we conducted factor analysis of the data collected from 100 major IT vendors in Japan. Then we extracted 8 threats factors, e.g., industry stagnation, recruiting bright people, ROI/quality requirement by clients, price cutting/quick delivery request by clients, new technology adoption. Also we identified 6 strengths/weaknesses factors, e.g., human capital, scale merit, expansive business, inimitability, stability. The regression tree analysis suggests that the maker-turned vendors tend to significantly expand business with well-resourced R&D, while the user-turned vendors seem to depend heavily on the demand of the parent companies. Therefore, some of them are thought to gain inimitable capabilities. On the other hand, many of the independent vendors supply people with the principal contractors as the temporary staffing without the specific strengths. However, some of independent vendors with the inimitable asset are thought to be the role model of the software vendors in Japan

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF DEVELOPMENT VISUALIZATION FOR PROCUREMENT BY IN-PROCESS MEASUREMENT DURING INTEGRATION AND TESTING

This study describes a new method of development visualization along with empirical evidence of its usefulness. Typically, development activities such as program design, programming, and unit testing are not disclosed to the procurement organization (project owner). However, during integration and testing, various issues require collaboration between the procurement organization and developers. When this occurs, it is important to make the development process visible. Recent reports indicate the usefulness for project management of various in-process project measurements which allow visualization of the formerly invisible software project progress [1-6]. Based on this background, the authors investigated a case study where in-process measurement during the integration and test phase helped to make development issues visible. In this study, data obtained from the integration and testing phase were compared to a development process model. This model was based on the author's experience, and provided a vivid picture of the development activity. By applying in-process measurements in collaboration during the integration test phase, the development activity was clearly visualized, and the procurement organization understood problems. AB - This study describes a new method of development visualization along with empirical evidence of its usefulness. Typically, development activities such as program design, programming, and unit testing are not disclosed to the procurement organization (project owner). However, during integration and testing, various issues require collaboration between the procurement organization and developers. When this occurs, it is important to make the development process visible. Recent reports indicate the usefulness for project management of various in-process project measurements which allow visualization of the formerly invisible software project progress [1-6]. Based on this background, the authors investigated a case study where in-process measurement during the integration and test phase helped to make development issues visible. In this study, data obtained from the integration and testing phase were compared to a development process model. This model was based on the author's experience, and provided a vivid picture of the development activity. By applying in-process measurements in collaboration during the integration test phase, the development activity was clearly visualized, and the procurement organization understood problems

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第1部　高い生産性を持つ高信頼ソフトウェア作成技術の開