Software Process Improvement (Computer Science)

Recent years have seen an unprecedented consolidation of best practice know-how in various areas of IT management. With it came a certain popularity of standards and reference models (COBIT, ITIL, CMMI, ISO/IEC 27000 family etc.) commonly classified as frameworks for IT governance. Each of these frameworks aims to support certain parts of IT management with best practice knowledge and enhances the quality of the delivered IT Services. But now we are facing a situation characterised by an abundance of these IT governance frameworks. In particular their combined or parallel usage increasingly creates redundancies and issues of complexity. To organise an efficient interaction between frameworks and to cope with their heterogeneity; e.g. in process semantics and description techniques; the application of these frameworks has become a lively issue of research. In this contribution the authors will reflect on the state of the art in comparing and integrating IT governance frameworks, analyse pros and cons of various approaches, and present their own approach based on metamodelling. The authors consider metamodelling a promising approach to close the gap between high-level comparison and detailed mapping as it allows an identification of redundancies and incoherent semantics on a framework-independent level. Promising an increasing return on investment, harmonisation is an important topic within IT departments (Siviy et al., 2007). This approach is a first step toward an integrated and harmonised handling of the meanwhile mandatory frameworks for IT management.

Since the beginning of CMMI the underlying ideas of process capability and the roadmap to process improvement did not face substantial changes. This fact is documented in the ISO 33020 Standard that except of some minor changes reflects the mainstream of process capability thinking. The paper presents some critical remarks regarding this standard. They are Inspired on the work of Michael Hammer, practical experiences with SPICE Assessments in Dutch PPP programs and several special capability models. The paper also develops a first idea of an alternative that might also fit to the requirements of the ISO 33003 standard.

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. Based on the results of a systematic literature review on SPI measurement and evaluation practices, we developed a 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.

The increasing design, manufacturing, and provision complexity of high-quality, cost-efficient and trustworthy products and services has demanded the exchange of best organizational practices in worldwide organizations. While that such a realization has been available to organizations via models and standards of processes, the myriad of them and their heavy conceptual density has obscured their comprehension and practitioners are confused in their correct organizational selection, evaluation, and deployment tasks. Thus, with the ultimate aim to improve the task understanding of such schemes by reducing its business process understanding complexity, in this article we use a conceptual systemic model of a generic business organization derived from the theory of systems to describe and compare two main models (CMMI/SE/SwE, 2002; ITIL V.3, 2007) and four main standards (ISO/IEC 15288, 2002; ISO/IEC 12207, 1995; ISO/IEC 15504, 2005; ISO/IEC 20000, 2006) of processes. Description and comp...

Software is increasing in size and complexity. As a direct implication, organizations nd it more difficult to achieve the desired product quality. Process improvement models are used to improve product quality. In recent years the combination of different improvement models is increasing. The main challenge in these environments is the interoperability of chosen models. An incorrect integration approach diminishes efficiency and effectiveness on applying these models. The general objective of this thesis is to identify principles and process characteristics for designing a system of processes at the architectural level. As a result of this research work, an improved understanding of improvement models interoperability is expected by identifying the technical and structural relationships between processes that will help architecting a system of processes.

ISO has recently published Part 7 of the ISO/IEC 15504 standard, with the aim of determining the extent to which an organization consistently implements processes that contribute to achievement of its business goals. This new Part 7 of ISO/IEC 15504 has addressed issues related to the assessment of organizational maturity, as the CMMI-DEV model also does. Recently, growing interest has been shown towards the need to harmonize different improvement models or standards, thereby presenting an integrated vision about them. All this being so and in an effort to offer information on how the maturity levels described in these two models are related, we have carried out the harmonization of these two models. It is based, firstly, on a mapping between processes of ISO 12207:08 and process areas of CMMI-DEV, and in second place, on a matching between processes of ISO 12207:08 and ISO 15504-5. For this work, we have taken into account the latest versions of the models, and defined a suitable process to carry out the mapping in a systematic way. We established differences and similarities between the maturity levels (and their processes) described in these models, our goal being to support organizations which are interested in tackling organizational maturity.

Since almost two decades ago, process improvement has been evolving considerably. Proof of this is the increase in the amount of models (models and fact standards) that have been able to be referenced and taken as a basis on which to carry out process improvement. The heterogeneity of available models, together with the need to solve problems from many dimensions and organizational hierarchies, lead to organizations facing problems in improvement process projects which have to deal with different models at the same time. To balance these models, this paper sets out a homogenized structure as a support mechanism for the harmonization and integration of their different characteristics.

Software inspection is a proven methodology that enables the detection and removal of defects in software artifacts and thus contributes towards software quality assurance. It eventually leads to significant budget and time benefits. To be most effective, inspections must be an integral part of the software development life cycle and form part of the development schedule. This study considers code inspection as it is the most frequently used inspection in the software development process. For the implementation part of this research, code inspection is carried out in a selected outsourced project in a company situated in Mauritius, and the results are evaluated based on the inspection process and feedback of people involved in the inspection process.

A widely recognized fact is that the quality of software products is largely determined by the quality of the process used to develop them. Regardless of the number of tools/frameworks developed to aid companies to perform software process assessment (SPA) and improvement (SPI) activities, the industry often suffers with quality issues in their products. In order to evaluate the SPA and SPI research areas, a systematic mapping was performed to identify the available tools/frameworks and methodologies used in research, as well as the existing gaps in the area. As a result it was possible to identify the current trends in the SPA and SPI research areas that can be used as a guideline to future work and can contribute to the software engineering and quality community.

In large software projects a relevant part of the management effort is dedicated to communication and coordination activities. In order to explore such an issue, we carried out, within our R&D software laboratory, an experiment consisting in the introduction of a specific workgroup productivity tool based on Langiage/Action Perspective.

This thesis examines software inspections application in a non-traditional use through examining the cognitive levels developers demonstrate while carrying out software inspection tasks. These levels are examined in order to assist in increasing developers' ability to understand, maintain and evolve software systems.

Adopting standards and reference models for quality software processes is essential to ensure a competitive software industry. However, despite the increasing number of standards and models, only a small proportion of software organizations adopt them. This paper presents a set of support tools for software process appraisal and improvement through their adherence to the CMMI-DEV (Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development) model. The purpose of this set of support tools is to assist software organizations in the implementation of the CMMI-DEV model. It is expected that these tools will be readily adopted by software organizations because they are based on models and standards that are generally accepted. Furthermore, this set of support tools employs free (non-proprietary) technologies to reduce costs.

Systematic software process improvement based on multiple software process improvement approaches is getting more and more emphasised. Despite a systematic improvement requires mapping of quality approaches to organizational processes and data shall be stored in a well-designed manner, storing multimodel results is not yet addressed in detail in the current literature. In this report we present a data model for multimodel software process improvement which allows storing multimodel results in a maintainable way.

The success of a project can be described based on the output performance of the project. Output Performance defines successful completion of a project with given constraints. To keep the project’s output performance high, it is very necessary to complete the project with defined a set of resources. One of the important resources of a project is scope. Scope defines the set of tasks need to be completed for a project. Scope change is a very common issue in software development project and this change has a major impact on productivity as well as the overall performance of the project. In this paper, we have proposed a simulation model based on rework cycle using System Dynamics for managing the project’s performance considering scope change. We have tried to compare the scenarios both for baseline project and project with scope change. In this case we have shown how moderate use of schedule pressure and overtime gives positive impact on productivity. And this increase of productivit...

Software Process Improvement (SPI) has been used successfully in software intensive organizations usually based on a single pre-defined reference model, such as, for example, a CMMI or ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE) model. However, it has increased the need for utilization of multiple reference models for process improvement. The current solutions usually embrace the previous creation of a new model that integrates a set of specific models. This paper presents a Process Capability Profiles Metamodel for dynamic integration of elements from multiple reference models during a process improvement cycle. The metamodel uses Model Driven Engineering (MDE) as theoretical reference applied for process improvement instead of for software development. The metamodel provides a basis for evolving current SPI methodologies towards a Modeling Driven Process Improvement methodology. This paper also presents the rationality, specification, implementation strategy, current implementation and examples of the metamodel.

This paper describes an empirical study which addresses the issue of communication among members of a software development organization. In particular, data was collected concerning code inspections in one software development project. The question of interest is whether or not organizational structure (the network of relationships between developers) has an effect on the amount of effort expended on communication between developers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, including participant observation, structured interviews, generation of hypotheses from field notes, some simple statistical tests of relationships, and interpretation of results with qualitative anecdotes. The study results show that past and present working relationships between inspection participants affect the amount of meeting time spent in different types of discussion, thus affecting the overall meeting length. Reporting relationships and physical proximity also have an effect, as well as the ...

Diverse models currently exist in the field of Software Engineering which help organizations to apply recommended practices in order to support ther multiple needs in the areas of software development, maintenance and operation, security, IT government, etc. Examples of such models are CMMI, ISO 9001, ISO 12207, ISO 27001, COBIT, ITIL. Nevertheless, many differences exist between these models, since each model defines its own structure, terminology, definitions and quality systems, amongst other aspects. This issue increases the complexity when an organization is required to apply two or more models in order to satisfy its needs. Organizations must, therefore, define the most appropriate means of choosing and implementing multi-models, and harmonization may be one solution. This paper presents a systematic literature review with the aim of analyzing the state of the art with regard to inititatives concerning the harmonization of multiple reference models. As a result, it has been concluded that there is currently a lack of guidelines with which to help organizations to implement the harmonization of multiple models, and of a unified terminology with which to homogenize the diversity of the structure of the different models and the harmonization techniques which can be applied. In order to address these issues, a framework to support the harmonization of multiple models is outlined.

Since almost two decades ago, process improvement has been evolving considerably. Proof of this is the increase in the amount of models (models and fact standards) that have been able to be referenced and taken as a basis on which to carry out process improvement. The heterogeneity of available models, together with the need to solve problems from many dimensions and organizational hierarchies, lead to organizations facing problems in improvement process projects which have to deal with different models at the same time. To balance these models, this paper sets out a homogenized structure as a support mechanism for the harmonization and integration of their different characteristics.

Der Vortrag stellt das von der TU München gemeinsam mit Siemens SCR/Princeton entwickelte Referenzmodell für das Requirements Engineering (REM) vor [1]. Den Kern von REM stellt ein einheitliches Requirements Engineering Artefaktmodell (RE Artifact Model) dar. Es definiert die wesentlichen Arbeitsergebnisse im RE und ihre Beziehungen untereinander. In Analogie zum V-Modell XT unterstützt dies eine produkt-orientierte Prozessdefinition und definiert Meilensteine in der Systementwicklung auf der Basis von zu erarbeitenden RE Artefakten. Für die Anwendung des Ansatzes in konkreten Projekten und Domänen ist ein Tailoringkonzept definiert.

Logistics Journal : Proceedings, Vol. 2016, Iss. 05 - Der GridSorter ist ein neuartiges Fordersystem zur effizienten und platzsparenden Sortierung von Gutern. Durch seine dezentrale Steuerung und den modularen Aufbau aus baugleichen rechteckigen Fordermodulen lasst er sich leicht an sich verandernde Anforderungen anpassen. In diesem Artikel wird ein neuer Reservierungsalgorithmus vorgestellt, welcher den Transport von Ladungstragern erlaubt, die groser sind als ein Fordermodul. Dadurch wird nicht nur die Menge an moglichen Transportgutern erweitert, sondern es kann, wie in einer Simulation gezeigt wird, auch eine Effizienzsteigerung durch eine Verringerung der Modulgrose erreicht werden.

It is a challenge for small and very small organizations to adopt software process improvement models and the associated assessment methods to improve their software process. A number of customized assessment methods based on SPI models, such as CMM/CMMI and ISO 15504, have been proposed to fit the needs of such organizations. To help them select an assessment method relevant to their needs, this paper presents a framework to compare SPI methods dedicated to small and very small organizations?.

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. Based on the results of a systematic literature review on SPI measurement and evaluation practices, we developed a 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.

In this paper we describe the first steps of a PhD programme, having the goal to develop a common meta-model for different software quality approaches and methods. We focus on presenting the structure of quality approaches emphasizing the similarities amongst them. Understanding the structure of quality approaches helps supporting organizations in using multiple quality approaches and methods in the same time.

Software process assessment methods such as SCAMPI and ISO 15504-2 provide an assessment framework for evaluating the current practice of software development organizations. Strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations are core results of process assessment to be used as a basis for process improvement. While the existing models provide concrete methods for identifying strengths and weaknesses of process, they lack detailed approaches to building recommendations, which are crucial in developing strategic improvement plans. This makes it difficult for the assessment team to develop constructive recommendations, which has consequently negative impact on the quality of process improvement. To address this, we present a systematic method for developing recommendations based on a capability-based reference model (e.g., CMMI, SPICE). The presented method is evaluated using real assessment data from industry and the results show the potential of the method.

Many of quality approaches are described in hundreds of textual pages (see CMMI, SPICE, Enterprise SPICE, ITIL among others). Manual processing of information consumes plenty of resources. In this report we present a text mining approach applied on CMMIone well known and widely known quality approach. The text mining analysis can provide a quick overview on the scope of a quality approaches. The result of the analysis could accelerate the understanding and the selection of quality approaches.

Poor software quality due to failure to organize development processes using SPI is visible in small software companies, although these companies are significant to industry and world economy; the challenge of quality needs much more attention. The development of different frameworks to sort the development process in SSC continues to leave a lot to be desired. This work leads us to the development of a comparison framework which will ultimately end with an adaptable SPA and SPI framework for SSC. From a SLR to identify the factors affecting SSC and mapping them to the specific processes in which they occur, we analyze the software development environment and identify SPI frameworks that have registered success in similar environments of SSC to help us adopt best practices from which comparison is made to generate requirements for an adaptable SPI framework within context for small companies.

This paper addresses the influence the Checklist Based Reading inspection technique has on a developer's ability to modify inspected code. Traditionally, inspections have been used to detect defects within the development life cycle. This research identified a correlation between the number of defects detected and the successful code extensions for new functionality unrelated to the defects. Participants reported that having completed a checklist inspection, modifying the code was easier because the inspection had given them an understanding of the code that would not have existed otherwise. The results also showed a significant difference in how developers systematically modified code after completing a checklist inspection when compared to those who had not performed a checklist inspection. This study has shown that applying software inspections for purposes other than defect detection include software understanding and comprehension.

This article introduces a Method Framework for Engineering Process Capability Models. This method framework supports the definition of methods or processes to engineer a Process Capability Model. The main goal is that the method framework is a useful proposal for developing methods and processes for engineering Process Capability Models. The method framework defines seven steps and seven customizations rules.

Generalizing Perspective-based Inspection to handle Object-Oriented Development Artifacts Oliver Laitenberger and Colin Atkinson Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering Sauerwiesen 6 67661 Kaiserslautern, Germany +49 (0)6301707200 {laiten, atkinson} @ ...

In order to allow software organizations to reuse their know-how, the authors have defined product patterns artefact. This know-how can be used in combination with software engineering best practices to improve the quality and productivity of their software projects, as well as reduce projects cost. This paper describes the structure of the Process Assets Library (PAL), and the framework developed to encapsulate the know-how in organizations. The PIBOK-PB (Process improvement based on knowledge - pattern based) tool uses the proposed PAL to access the knowledge encapsulated in the product patterns, and to execute software projects more efficiently. This paper also describes PIBOK-PB’s features and compares similar tools in the market.

Abstr act. Las iniciativas de mejora de procesos software son un caso particular de cambio organizacional y, como tales, sus implementaciones están influenciadas por lo que suelen denominarse factores críticos de éxito. Estas iniciativas de cambio, a su vez, no están exentas de dificultades y a menudo encuentran barreras y obstáculos a niveles individual y organizacional. Conocer cuáles son estos factores que inciden positiva o negativamente en la mejora de procesos software es de importancia para las organizaciones que están llevando a cabo o planificando establecer una iniciativa de este tipo. El propósito de este artículo es reportar un mapeo sistemático de la literatura cuyos objetivos fueron a) identificar la investigación existente sobre los factores que afectan la mejora de procesos software, y b) extraer y categorizar los factores reportados en los estudios analizados. Se describe el proceso seguido para el mapeo y se identifican los artículos existentes, los tipos de factor...

Many of quality approaches are described in hundreds of textual pages (see CMMI, SPICE, Enterprise SPICE, ITIL among others). Manual processing of information consumes plenty of resources. In this report we present the complexity analysis of CMMIone well known and widely process improvement framework. The complexity analysis can provide a quick overview on the coupledness of the elements of quality approaches by an automated analysis of the cross-references in quality approaches. The result of the analysis could accelerate the understanding the quality approach and help in setting the starting points of improvement.

The OOSPICE project aims at creating a capability assessment package for component-based development (CBD), which complements and extends the ISO 15504 technical report (SPICE) and its pending standard. In addition, it will offer support for process definition, creation and tailoring in the CBD domain. The major deliverables are a process reference model for CBD, a process assessment methodology, a new CBD methodology and supporting toolset, and an underpinning CBD process metamodel. Here, we evaluate the various terminologies in current usage in OO, CBD, capability assessment and the ISO standards, and then describe the important architectural framework of the project, which brings together the two previously disparate fields of process and methodology metamodeling with capability assessment and improvement. Additionally, we show how elements of preexisting standards, such as ISO 15504 and ISO 12207, as well as elements of existing OO process metamodels can be successfully reused to create a standard for this new focus on component-based systems development.

The requirements for conformance of a process model to the international standard for process assessment, ISO/IEC 15504, cover a broad range. The most significant of these is the need to establish a complete and unambiguous mapping between the Process Assessment Model and the relevant Process Reference Model and the Measurement Framework described in the Standard. This is required to support the development of a mechanism for translating the outputs from an assessment using the Process Assessment Model into the standard process profiles defined in ISO/IEC 15504. This article reports the results of an analysis of the relationship between CMMI  , as a 'candidate conformant Process Assessment Model', relative to the Measurement Framework defined in ISO/IEC 15504-2, and the Process Reference Model described in ISO/IEC 12207 Amd 1/2. It is shown that, while in general terms a complete mapping can be established, there are specific areas where coverage is weak. Use of CMMI as a Process Assessment Model in ISO/IEC 15504 Conformant assessments will need to take account of these issues. Copyright

The Appraisal Assistant process assessment tool has been developed to support the assessment or appraisal of process capability and/or organizational maturity, following approaches consistent with the requirements of ISO/IEC 15504 and the Appraisal Requirements for Capability Maturity Model R Integration (CMMI R). In the course of an assessment a workload data file is captured containing information on the volume and usage of collected evidence in the assessment. This paper presents an analysis of evidence usage data from a total of 30 assessments employing a range of Process Assessment Models and Assessment Methods. Key differences between ISO/IEC 15504-based and CMMI-based assessments are identified, and some explanations of the differences are offered.

Maturity model" (MM) (based on Crosby's original idea) has been one of the main buzzwords over the past 20 years. A variety of MMs have been created in several application domains, from Software Engineering to Contract Management. Despite several models intending to cover the same domain, their PRMs (Process Reference Models) typically have different scopes, do not always cover the same set of processes, or have different levels of depth, or do not express the same level of granularity when describing concepts. Thus some important questions from the MM users' viewpoint arise: how to choose the right models for our needs? After selecting those models, how to build a new, tailored MM based on several sources and customized to a specific domain? This paper motivates these important questions and proposes a way to choose, combine and adapt the contents from multiple MMs within a generic-domain approach we call 'LEGO' (Living EnGineering prOcess), based upon the well-known kids' toy that stimulates creativity through combining different bricks. We present three case studies, one of them based upon the development of the Medi SPICE model, illustrating how the proposed approach may be used to develop MCM (Maturity & Capabilty Models) in this context.

In order to allow software organizations to reuse their know-how, the authors have defined product patterns artefact. This know-how can be used in combination with software engineering best practices to improve the quality and productivity of their software projects, as well as reduce projects cost. This paper describes the structure of the Process Assets Library (PAL), and the framework developed to encapsulate the know-how in organizations. The PIBOK-PB (Process improvement based on knowledge - pattern based) tool uses the proposed PAL to access the knowledge encapsulated in the product patterns, and to execute software projects more efficiently. This paper also describes PIBOK-PB’s features and compares similar tools in the market.

In order to allow software organizations to reuse their know-how, the authors have defined product patterns artefact. This know-how can be used in combination with software engineering best practices to improve the quality and productivity of their software projects, as well as reduce projects cost. This paper describes the structure of the Process Assets Library (PAL), and the framework developed to encapsulate the know-how in organizations. The PIBOK-PB (Process improvement based on knowledge - pattern based) tool uses the proposed PAL to access the knowledge encapsulated in the product patterns, and to execute software projects more efficiently. This paper also describes PIBOK-PB’s features and compares similar tools in the market.

In order to allow software organizations to reuse their know-how, the authors have defined product patterns artefact. This know-how can be used in combination with software engineering best practices to improve the quality and productivity of their software projects, as well as reduce projects cost. This paper describes the structure of the Process Assets Library (PAL), and the framework developed to encapsulate the know-how in organizations. The PIBOK-PB (Process improvement based on knowledge - pattern based) tool uses the proposed PAL to access the knowledge encapsulated in the product patterns, and to execute software projects more efficiently. This paper also describes PIBOK-PB’s features and compares similar tools in the market.

The European System and Software Process Improvement and Innovation Initiative (EuroSPI 2) was founded in 1994. EuroSPI 2 's mission is to develop an experience and knowledge exchange platform for Europe where SPI practices can be discussed and exchanged and knowledge can be gathered and shared. This mission is implemented by the following major action lines <http://www.eurospi.net>. • The annual EuroSPI 2 conference supported by Software Process Improvement Networks from different EU countries. EuroSPI took

Improvement of the business cycle plays a very significant role in the product growth, rendering it successful for production teams, and utilizing the same collection of activities[1]. SPI is a really major task for companies to survive in a dynamic world to understand different changing functionalities such as developments in the market, shifts in the organizational level to unplanned adjustments, and eventually enhance product quality[3]. Improvement of the software platform is not introduced at a single point, but is a continuous and iterative method over the development cycle that allows to reach a high degree of maturity[4].

The CMMI-ACQ and the ISO/IEC 12207:2008 are process reference models that address issues related to the best practices for software product acquisition. With the aim of offering information on how the practices described in these two models are related, and considering that the mapping is one specific strategy for the harmonization of models, we have carried out a mapping of these two reference models for acquisition. We have taken into account the latest versions of the models. Furthermore, to carry out this mapping in a systematic way, we defined a process for this purpose. We consider that the mapping presented in this paper supports the understanding and leveraging of the properties of these reference models, which is the first step towards harmonization of improvement technologies. Furthermore, since a great number of organizations are currently acquiring products and services from suppliers and developing fewer and fewer of these products in-house, this work intends to support organizations which are interested in introducing or improving their practices for acquisition of products and services using these models.

Evidence suggests that pair programmers-two programmers working collaboratively on the same design, algorithm, code, or test-perform substantially better than the two would working alone. Improved quality, teamwork, communication, knowledge management, and morale have been among the reported benefits of pair programming. This paper presents a comparative economic evaluation that strengthens the case for pair programming. The evaluation builds on the quantitative results of an empirical study conducted at the University of Utah. The evaluation is performed by interpreting these findings in the context of two different, idealized models of value realization. In the first model, consistent with the traditional waterfall process of software development, code produced by a development team is deployed in a single increment; its value is not realized until the full project completion. In the second model, consistent with agile software development processes such as Extreme Programming, code is produced and delivered in small increments; thus its value is realized in an equally incremental fashion. Under both models, our analysis demonstrates a distinct economic advantage of pair programmers over solo programmers. Based on these preliminary results, we recommend that organizations engaged in software development consider adopting pair programming as a practice that could improve their bottom line. To be able to perform quantitative analyses, several simplifying assumptions had to be made regarding alternative models of software development, the costs and benefits associated with these models, and how these costs and benefits are recognized. The implications of these assumptions are addressed in the paper.

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is made up of 5 maturity levels namely Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitatively Managed, and Optimizing. Each maturity level consists of Key Process Areas (KPA) each of which in turn consists of key practices. Recent studies have shown that many developing countries rank poorly on this maturity model. The current study evaluated the level of performance of the practices associated with the two KPAs at maturity level 4 in a typical Nigerian software-house. The SEI CMMI Organizational Process Performance and Quantitative Project Management KPAs at maturity level 4 (Quantitatively Managed) are depicted as Software Quality Management (SQM) and Quantitative Process Management (QPM) respectively in the SEI maturity questionnaire employed in conducting the study. The survey study was conducted across 30 different software-houses within the country. The study equally employed the action research approach with some of the selected companies which were nominated for more detailed investigation. The study revealed weak performances in both KPAs but with a better performance of the practices associated with the SQM KPA. The findings from the current study were observed to be consistent with findings from similar studies in other developing countries. The causes of the observed weak performances, including unawareness of the existence of laid down international standards, non-adherence to such standards and inadequate knowledge about the required process improvement techniques, were discussed. Solutions, such as the institutionalisation of formal standard indicators for QPM and SQM with associated functional definitions, measurement methods, and analysis models, were proffered to address the causes of the weak performances experienced in both KPAs. Also, adequate resources in terms of time, budget, bureaucracy, tools, training, organisational framework, senior management support, common understanding and patience was equally advocated for QPM and SQM practices so as to forestall the occurrence of any unforeseen overhead. It was equally suggested that quality reviews for assessing software quality should be performed as often as possible and should secure the full support of organisational top management. Quality management activities should also be separated from project management activities so as to guarantee the independence of the quality management reviews. Finally, organizational top managements were encouraged to enforce strict adherence to QPM and SQM practices across the length and breadth of the organization. It is believed that if the proffered solutions are adopted, the software-houses will rank higher on the CMMI maturity scale and most likely experience better patronage.

Integrated Software Management (ISM) and Software Product Engineering (SPE) are the two key process areas (KPA) of interest in the current study. They are both at the defined level of software process maturity. Following the clamor for software companies with high levels of maturity, the study examined the level of performance and relationship between ISM and SPE practices in the software industry of a typical developing country, with Nigeria as the case study. The study was conducted using survey research, case study and action research methodologies. The study covered 30 software companies spanning across several different geographical zones. The results of the research revealed a strong relationship between the ISM and SPE KPAs and a poor performance of the key practices associated with the respect KPAs in the industry. To improve the current level of performance of the respective KPAs, software companies have been advised to procure the services of professional ISM and SPE service providers and to properly equip their software product engineers and integrated software managers with the specialized skills and knowledge necessary for properly discharging their duties.

Software process improvement (SPI) can be seen as a profession, having its own competence needs and its own community of interest. European projects EQN and EU Cert have defined skills sets and a common certification scheme for about 20 professions, mainly in IT domain. A common way to describe IT domain from process perspective is concept '3S' (software, systems, services). Software process can be seen as the first spearhead among these. First software process models, such as Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and SPICE, have existed already about 20 years. That is also the main reason to start process improvement profession from software processes, because we have much experience in that. Software Process Improvement Manager (SPI Manager) is one of new topics in EU Cert project. Development of SPI Manager training and certification scheme has been done in many small steps so far. This paper explains the current structure and main components of SPI Manager competences, training needs and certification scheme. Several other schemes will be developed in future for PI-related competences. Current version of SPI Manager skills set is based mainly on software, systems and service processes and their related reference models. It could be used in future also in other domains than IT.