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Software development is a collaborative and knowledge intense process where success depends on the ability to create, share and integrate information (Walz et al., 1993). This process has been evolving since its origins in the NATO Software Engineering Conference at end of the 60’s. During this evolution, new forms of software development have appeared, i.e., open-source software development (Lerner & Tirole, 2002) or outsourcing development (Sahay et al., 2003). Along with the evolution of software development, the research about it has evolved and branched too. Moreover, an external but nearly related factor to software development process and its characteristics is still a top issue since, which are people (Gannon, 1979; Laughery, Jr., & Laughery, Sr., 1985);“People factors” seem to dominate “tools and techniques” as Blackburn et al. (1996) pointed in their study. Within people issue, other issues such as teams (Krishnan, 1998), people’s factors (Blackburn et al., 1996), and human resources management issues such as assigning roles (Acuña & Juristo, 2004), productivity management of IT projects (Mahmood et al., 1996) or skills identification (Colomo et al., 2010; Trigo et al., 2010) as top issues in software development research.
As a key issue for software development process, quality improvement within an organization is founded on three basic pillars: processes, technologies and people. These pillars are interconnected with each other, forming an inseparable triangle on which organizations operates. In turn, software process improvement requires an effort on three levels: organization, team, people (Humphrey, 2002). For each one of these levels there are well-recognized models for its continuous improvement and quality. At organizational level, models such as CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Improvement), which based on the premise that management is convinced of the need to improve processes, facilitates the integration of traditional functions, establishes objectives and priorities for processes improvement in the guide to quality processes, and evaluates current processes; at team level, models such as TSP (Team Software Process), which guides engineers in the creation and maintenance of self-managed software teams, which plan and monitor their work, set their goals and commit to compliance with the them (Humphrey, 2000); and at individual level, models such as PSP (Personal Software Process), which shows software engineers to manage the quality of their projects, agreeing that can meet commitments to improve their estimates and schedules and reduces defect rates in their products (Humphrey, 1995).