Skip to main content

The Impact of Situational Context on Software Process: A Case Study of a Very Small-Sized Company in the Online Advertising Domain

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement (EuroSPI 2018)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 896))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

A primary concern of software development is selecting a suitable methodology to implement a software project. However, this selection is affected by many factors, with evidence suggesting that a specific set of factors defines a specific situational context for a project. This situational context leads to a project-specific software process. In this paper, we report on our analysis of a very small-sized company’s current software process based on a reference framework that identifies the factors of a situational context. The outcome of our case study confirms the earlier findings that a software process is highly dependent on situational factors. The company has a suitable situational context (such as very small-sized, experienced, skilled, cohesive team with low turnover) to apply agile practices and its software process is more close to an agile rather than plan-driven approach. Moreover, the company is continuously adopting its software process to the situational factors changing from project to project and over time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. MacCormack, A., Verganti, R.: Managing the sources of uncertainty: matching process and context in software development. J. Prod. Innov. Manag. 20, 217–232 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Jones, C.: Development practices for small software applications. CrossTalk J. Defense Softw. Eng. 21(2), 9–13 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Rong, G., Boehm, B., Kuhrmann, M., Tian, E., Lian, S., Richardson, I.: Towards context-specific software process selection, tailoring, and composition. In: Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Software and System Process (ICSSP 2014), pp. 183–184. ACM, New York (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Jacobson, I., Ng, P.W., McMahon, P.E., Spence, I., Lidman, S.: The Essence of Software Engineering: Applying the SEMAT Kernel. Addison-Wesley Professional (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kennaley, K.: SDLC 3.0: Beyond a Tacit Understanding of Agile. Fourth Medium Press, (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ryan, S., O’Connor, R.V.: Acquiring and sharing tacit knowledge in software development teams: an empirical study. Inf. Softw. Technol. 55, 1614–1624 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Clarke, P., O’Connor, R.V.: The situational factors that affect the software development process: towards a comprehensive reference framework. J. Inf. Softw. Technol. 54(5), 433–447 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Jeners, S., O’Connor, R.V., Clarke, P., Lichter, H., Lepmets, M., Buglione, L.: Harnessing software development contexts to inform software process selection decisions. Softw. Q. Prof. 16, 35–36 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ng, P., Huang, S., Wu, Y.: On the value of essence to software engineering research: a preliminary study. In: 2nd SEMAT Workshop on a General Theory of Software Engineering (GTSE 2013), pp. 51–58 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kalus, G., Kuhrmann, M.: Criteria for software process tailoring: a systematic review. In: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Software and System Process - ICSSP 2013, pp. 171–180. ACM Press, New York (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Clarke, P., O’Connor, R.V., Leavy, B.: A complexity theory viewpoint on the software development process and situational context. In: Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Software and System Process (ICSSP 2016) (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Marks, G., O’Connor, R.V., Clarke, P.M.: The impact of situational context on the software development process – a case study of a highly innovative start-up organization. In: Mas, A., Mesquida, A., O’Connor, R.V., Rout, T., Dorling, A. (eds.) SPICE 2017. CCIS, vol. 770, pp. 455–466. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67383-7_33

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Clarke, P.M., et al.: Exploring software process variation arising from differences in situational context. EuroSPI 748, 29–42 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  14. O’Connor, R.V., Elger, P., Clarke, P.M.: Exploring the impact of situational context – a case study of a software development process for a microservices architecture. In: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Software and Systems Process – ICSSP 2016, pp. 6–10 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  15. O’Connor, R.V., Laporte, C.: The evolution of the ISO/IEC 29110 set of standards and guides. Int. J. Inf. Technol. Syst. Approach 10(1), 1–21 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Larrucea, X., O’Connor, R.V., Colomo-Palacios, R., Laporte, C.Y.: Software process improvement in very small organizations. IEEE Softw. 33(2), 85–89 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Systems and software engineering –Vocabulary, ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765:2010(E) (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Boehm, B., Turner, R.: Observations on balancing discipline and agility. In: Agile Development Conference, pp. 32–39 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Xu, P., Ramesh, B.: Using process tailoring to manage software development challenges. IT Prof. 10(4), 39–45 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Cockburn, A.: Crystal Clear A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams. Addison Wesley Professional (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ambler, S.W., Lines, M.: Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner’s Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise, 1st edn. IBM Press (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Kruchten, P.: Contextualizing agile software development. J. Softw.: Evol. Process 25(4), 351–361 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research - Design and Methods. SAGE Publications (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Runeson, P., Host, M., Rainer, A., Regnell, B.: Case Study Research in Software Engineering: Guidelines and Examples, 1st edn. Wiley Publishing (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  25. O’Connor, R.V.: Using grounded theory coding mechanisms to analyze case study and focus group data in the context of software process research. In: Mora, M., Gelman, O., Steenkamp, A., Raisinghani M. (eds.) Research Methodologies, Innovations and Philosophies in Software Systems Engineering and Information Systems, chap. 13, pp. 1627–1645. IGI Global (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Basri, S., O’Connor, R.: Organizational commitment towards software process improvement an irish software VSEs case study. In: Proceedings of 4th International Symposium on Information Technology 2010 (ITSim 2010), Malaysia, June 2010

    Google Scholar 

  27. Henderson-Sellers, B., Ralyté, J., Ågerfalk, P., Rossi, M.: Situational Method Engineering. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41467-1

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Görkem Giray .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Giray, G., Yilmaz, M., O’Connor, R.V., Clarke, P.M. (2018). The Impact of Situational Context on Software Process: A Case Study of a Very Small-Sized Company in the Online Advertising Domain. In: Larrucea, X., Santamaria, I., O'Connor, R., Messnarz, R. (eds) Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 896. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97925-0_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97925-0_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97924-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97925-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics