Abstract
For very small software development companies, the quality of their software products is a key to competitive advantage. However, the usage of Software Engineering standards is extremely low amongst such very small software companies. A primary reason cited by many such companies for this lack of quality standards adoption is the perception that they have been developed for large multi-national software companies and not with small and very small organizations in mind and are therefore not suitable for their specific needs. This chapter describes the design and development of the software process lifecycle standard for very small entities ISO/IEC 29110. This chapter presents a unique insight from the perspective of some of the standards authors on the development of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard, including the rationale behind its development and the innovative design of implementation guides to assist very small companies in adopting the standards, as well outlining a pilot project scheme for usage in early trials of this standard.
TopBackground
This section will introduce the problem with standards and explain the specific case of very small entities, before presenting the ISO/IEC standard as a solution specifically designed to address these problems for very small companies.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Process Assessment: The disciplined examination of the processes by an organisation against a set of criteria to determine capability of those processes to perform within quality, cost and schedule goals.
Very Small Entity: An enterprise, organization, department or project having up to 25 people.
Project Implementation: Is defined as a specified set of activities designed to put into practice an activity or program of known dimensions.
Software Process Improvement (SPI): Aims to understand the software process as it is used within an organisation and thus drive the implementation of changes to that process to achieve specific goals such as increasing development speed, achieving higher product quality or reducing costs.
Software Process: A set of activities, methods, practices and transformations that people use to develop and maintain software and the associated products. AU57: Reference appears to be out of alphabetical order. Please check
Project Management: This is the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals.