Abstract
While software process improvement is well established as a practice, it still presents challenges for some adopters. Drop-outs from SPI programs are not uncommon. The paper argues that SPI sustainment is a function of the organizational context of the program, not just of the program (or SPI ‘product’) itself. Critical in this context is the organization’s operational capabilities and capacity for change, as well as key external factors that, together, can influence SPI outcomes. SPI sustainment is not an established topic of research. To foster interest and progress is responding to the problem, the paper makes a theoretical contribution by developing and proposing a research model of SPI sustainment, called SUSTAIN, from published research on process improvement. Four testable propositions are developed from the model. Implications of the model and plans for future work are also discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allison, I.: Organizational Factors Shaping Software Process Improvement in Small-Medium Sized Software Teams: A Multi-Case Analysis. In: 7th Int. Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology (QUATIC), pp. 418–423. IEEE (2010)
Arent, J., Iversen, J.H., Andersen, C.V., Bang, S.: Project Assessments: Supporting Com-mitment, Participation, and Learning in Software Process Improvement. In: Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), pp. 1–10. IEEE (2000)
Assessment of Organizational XYZ company, a.s., http://dae-projects.cz/2012/assessment-of-organizational-maturity-of-xyz-company-a-s/
Baldwin, L.P., Tillal, E., Ray, J.P.: Business Process Design: Flexible Modelling with Multiple Levels of Detail. Bus. Proc. Manage. J. 11(1), 22–36 (2005)
Bateman, N., David, A.: Process Improvement Programmes: A Model for Assessing Sus-tainability. Int. J. Oper. Prod. Man. 22(5), 515–526 (2002)
Caivano, D.: Continuous Software Process Improvement through Statistical Process Control. In: 9th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR), pp. 288–293. IEEE (2005)
Christiansen, M., Jørn, J.: ImprovAbilityTM Guidelines for Low Maturity Organizations. Soft. Proc. Improv. Pract. 13(4), 319–325 (2008)
Comparing Total Quality Management and the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) in an Organizational Change Perspective, http://asq.org/qic/display-item/?item=11247
Durdik, Z., Klatt, B., Koziolek, H., Krogmann, K., Stammel, J., Weiss, R.: Sustainability Guidelines for Long-living Software Systems. In: 28th International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), pp. 517–526. IEEE (2012)
Dyba, T.: An Empirical Investigation of the Key Factors for Success in Software Process Improvement. IEEE T. Software Eng. 31(5), 410–424 (2005)
Ekdahl, F., Larsson, S.: Experience Report: Using Internal CMMI Appraisals to Institution-alize Software Development Performance Improvement. In: 32nd EUROMICRO Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), pp. 216–223. IEEE (2006)
Emam, K.E., Drouin, J.-N., Melo, W.: SPICE: The Theory and Practice of Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (1998)
Ferguson, P., Leman, G., Perini, P., Renner, S., Seshagiri, G.: Software Process Improve-ment Works! Carnegie Mellon, Software Engineering Institute, CMU/SEI-99-TR-027 (1999)
Foster, R., Wright, L., McRae, P.: Leading and Sustaining School Improvement Initiatives: A Review of Site-based Research from AISI Cycles 1, 2, and 3. Alberta Education, Edmonton (2008)
Glover, W.J., Farris, J.A., Van Aken, E.M., Doolen, T.L.: Critical Success Factors for the Sustainability of Kaizen Event Human Resource Outcomes: An Empirical Study. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 132(2), 197–213 (2011)
Halvorsen, C.P., Conradi, R.: A Taxonomy to Compare SPI Frameworks. In: Ambriola, V. (ed.) EWSPT 2001. LNCS, vol. 2077, pp. 217–235. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Hardgrave, B.C., Armstrong, D.J.: Software Process Improvement: It’s a Journey, Not a Destination. Commun. ACM 48(11), 93–96 (2005)
Herbsleb, J., Zubrow, D., Goldenson, D., Hayes, W., Paulk, M.: Software Quality and the Capability Maturity Model. Commun. ACM 47, 30–40 (1997)
ISO/IEC: ISO/IEC 15504-1 Information Technology – Process Assessment – Part 1: Con-cepts and Vocabulary. ISO, Geneva (2004)
Jha, A.: Beyond CMMI, KPMG Business Excellence Report, http://www.kpmg.com/in/en/services/advisory/performance-technology/itas/spi_docs/beyond%20cmmi.pdf
Krasner, H.: Accumulating the Body of Evidence for the Payoff of Software Process Improvement (1997), http://www.utexas.edu/coe/sqi/archive/krasner/spi.pdf
Kuvaja, P., Similä, J., Krzanik, L., Bicego, A., Saukkonen, S., Koch, G.: Software Process Assessment & Improvement – The Bootstrap Approach. Blackwell, Oxford (1994)
Lapham, M.A., Woody, C.: Sustaining Software-Intensive Systems. Carnegie Mellon, Software Engineering Institute, CMU/SEI-2006-TN-007 (2006)
Liesener, T.: Why Do Continuous Improvement Fail to Sustain, http://www.kaizen-factory.com/2013/05/19/why-do-continuous-improvement-initiatives-fail-to-sustain/
Lepmets, M., Ras, E., Renault, A.: Organizational Support for Process Improvement – Results of an International Survey. In: O’Connor, R.V., Rout, T., McCaffery, F., Dorling, A. (eds.) SPICE 2011. CCIS, vol. 155, pp. 133–144. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Mathiassen, L., Pries-Heje, J., Ngwenyama, O. (eds.): Improving Software Organizations: From Principles to Practice. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2002)
Näslund, D.: Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Sigma: Fads or Real Process Improvement Methods? Bus. Proc. Manage. J. 14(3), 269–287 (2008)
Naumann, S., Dick, M., Kern, E., Johann, T.: The Greensoft Model: A Reference Model for Green and Sustainable Software and its Engineering. Sust. Comp.: Informatics and Systems 1(4), 294–304 (2011)
Penzenstadler, B., Bauer, V., Calero, C., Franch, X.: Sustainability in Software Engineering: A Systematic Literature Review. In: Evaluation & Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE), pp. 32–41 (2012)
Persse, J.R.: Process Improvement Essentials: CMMI, Six Sigma, and ISO 9001. O’Reilly, Sebastopol (2006)
Phalpher, R.: Sustaining Organisational Change, http://peo.on.ca/index.php/ci_id/20846/la_id/1.htm
Pillet, M., Maire, J.L.: How to Sustain Improvement at High Level: Application in the Field of Statistical Process Control. TQM J. 20(6), 570–587 (2008)
Pries-Heje, J., Johansen, J.: SPI Manifesto (2010), http://www.iscn.com/Images/SPI_Manifesto_A.1.2.2010.pdf
Pries-Heje, J., Johansen, J.: Change Strategy for ISO/IEC 33014: A Multi-case Study on Which Change Strategies Were Chosen. In: Barafort, B., O’Connor, R.V., Poth, A., Messnarz, R. (eds.) EuroSPI 2014. CCIS, vol. 425, pp. 317–330. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)
Quesada-Pineda, H.J., Madrigal, J.: Sustaining Continuous Improvement: A Longitudinal and Regional Study. Int. J. Eng. Bus. Manag. 5(43), 1–153 (2013)
Ray, S.: Green Software Engineering Process: Moving Towards Sustainable Software Product Design. J. Global Res. Comp. Sc. 4(1), 25–29 (2013)
Repenning, N.P., Sterman, J.D.: Nobody Ever Gets Credit for Fixing Problems that Never Happened. Calif. Manage. Rev. 43(4), 64–88 (2001)
Ross, N.C., Haddad, H.M.: Software Process Improvement and Metrics Adoption in Small Organizations. J. Inf. Syst. Technol. Plan. 3(6), 6 (2010)
Sara, S., Mahmoud, S.S.M., Imtiaz Ahmad, I.A.: A Green Model for Sustainable Software Engineering. Int. J. Softw. Eng. Ap. 7(4), 55–74 (2013)
Scott, L., Jeffery, R.: Practical Software Process Improvement - The IMPACT Project. In: Proceedings of the Australian Software Engineering Conference, pp. 182–189 (2001)
Seacord, R.C., Elm, J., Goethert, W., Lewis, G.A., Plakosh, D., Robert, J., Wrage, L., Lindvall, M.: Measuring Software Sustainability. In: International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), pp. 450–459. IEEE (2003)
SEI: Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development, Version 1.3: Improving Processes for Developing Better Products and Services (CMMI-DEV, V1.3), Carnegie Mellon, Software Engineering Institute, CMU/SEI-2010-TR-033 (2010)
Sihvonen, H., Jantti, M.: How Does Training Support Software Process Improvement in Organizational Changes? In: Proceedings of 5th International Conference on New Trends in Information Science and Service Science (NISS), vol. 1, pp. 8–15. IEEE (2011)
Smith, L., Ahern, J.: Sustaining e-Learning Innovations: Literature Review - Australian Flexible Learning Framework (2002)
Wartena, C., Brussee, R.: Topic Detection by Clustering Keywords. In: 19th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Application (DEXA), pp. 54–58. IEEE (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Khurshid, N., Bannerman, P.L. (2014). Modeling SPI Sustainment in Software-Developing Organizations: A Research Framework. In: Mitasiunas, A., Rout, T., O’Connor, R.V., Dorling, A. (eds) Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination. SPICE 2014. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 477. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13036-1_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13036-1_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-13035-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13036-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)