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Web End = Software Qual J (2016) 24:549570
DOI 10.1007/s11219-015-9282-6
Mary-Luz Snchez-Gordn1 Rory V. OConnor2
Published online: 31 May 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract This paper reports on a grounded theory to study into software developers use of software development processes in actual practice in the specic context of very small companies. This study was conducted in three very small software product companies located in Ecuador. The data collection was based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with software project managers, focus group with software developers and was supplemented by the literature and document studies. We interviewed two types of participants (managers and developers), so as to ensure that we elicited a holistic perspective of how they approached the software development process in actual practice. The goal was to study what practices are actually used and their opinion and attitude toward the potential adopting of an international standard (ISO/IEC 29110) specically designed for very small companies. With the collected data, we performed an analysis utilizing grounded theory coding techniques, as this methodology promotes the focus on uncovering the real concerns of the participants. This study highlighted three areas of concern: customer, software product and development tasks coordination and tracking. The ndings in this study give an insight toward the work products as they relate to software development process practices in very small companies and the important factors that must be considered to assist project success.
Keywords Grounded theory Software process Software process improvement Very
small entity SPI VSE
& Mary-Luz Snchez-Gordn [email protected]
Rory V. OConnor [email protected]
1 Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
2 Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
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Web End = Understanding the gap between software process practices and actual practice in very small companies
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1 Introduction
At a time when technology advances almost daily, software development companies are under increasing pressure to improve productivity while maintaining quality and keeping costs to a minimum. The United Nations Information Economy Report (UNCTAD 2012) noted that to facilitate structural transformation and technological advancement, it is necessary for...