Developing software products is a complex and demanding process. Systematic practices are needed, from idea to final product, in order to produce a high quality product. Qualitative software is produced by applying a systematic, disciplined and quantifiable approach to the entire development process. The larger the organization, the higher the demand for a disciplined development process. This includes both technical and managerial aspects of the organization.
This master thesis describes how we have attempted to perform a Software Process Improvement using groupware. Team Sweden is a distributed academic software development organization doing research on artificial intelligence and robotics. Such an organization has a lot to gain from the introduction of a more structured process model. We have investigated the possibility of supporting the development processes of a small software development organization by introducing groupware. Only introducing a groupware tool or technique is not enough to improve the processes of an organization. Process improvement requires an infrastructure and groupware could be a useful tool for establishing it…
Contents
1 INTRODUCTION
2 BACKGROUND
2.1 ROBOCUP
2.2 TEAM SWEDEN
2.3 THE ROBOTS
3 THESIS FRAMEWORK
3.1 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
3.2 HYPOTHESIS
3.3 THESIS OUTLINE
4 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
4.1 SOFTWARE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
4.1.1 THE SOFTWARE PROCESS
4.1.2 SOFTWARE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
4.1.3 SOFTWARE PROCESS ASSESSMENT
4.2 GROUPWARE
4.2.1 DISPARITY IN WORK AND BENEFIT
4.2.2 CRITICAL MASS
4.2.3 LOCAL OPTIMIZATION
4.2.4 DISRUPTION OF SOCIAL PROCESSES AND CURRENT WAY OF WORKING
5 CURRENT SITUATION
5.1 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
5.2 THE SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
5.3 DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
5.4 ORGANIZATIONAL MATURITY
5.5 CURRENT PROCESS INFRASTRUCTURE
6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, PLANNING AND EVALUATION
6.1 ACTION RESEARCH
6.2 INTERVIEW METHODOLOGY
6.3 PROJECT PLAN
6.4 DATA COLLECTION
6.5 DOCUMENTATION OF COLLECTED DATA
6.6 EVALUATION OF RESEARCH METHODS
6.6.1 ACTION RESEARCH
6.6.2 THE UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW
7 PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
7.1 POSITIVE ASPECTS
7.2 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
iv7.2.1 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
7.2.2 SUPPORT PROPOSAL
7.2.3 IMPLEMENTATION
7.2.4 FEEDBACK AND OPINIONS
7.3 COMMUNICATION
7.3.1 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
7.3.2 SUPPORT PROPOSAL
7.3.3 IMPLEMENTATION
7.3.4 FEEDBACK AND OPINIONS
7.4 SOURCE CODE DOCUMENTATION AND TAXONOMY
7.4.1 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
7.4.2 SUPPORT PROPOSAL
7.4.3 IMPLEMENTATION
7.4.4 FEEDBACK AND OPINIONS
7.5 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
7.5.1 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
7.5.2 SUPPORT PROPOSAL
7.5.3 IMPLEMENTATION
7.5.4 FEEDBACK AND OPINIONS
7.6 OTHER PROBLEMS
7.6.1 DEVELOPER TURNOVER
7.6.2 TIME MANAGEMENT
7.6.3 COMPLEX DEVELOPMENT DEPENDENCIES
8 DISCUSSIONS
8.1 EMBRACING CHANGE
8.2 INTRODUCING AND CONDUCTING AN IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
8.3 DISTRIBUTION OF EFFORT
8.4 INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY
8.5 GROUPWARE AND TEAM SWEDEN
8.5.1 DISPARITY IN WORK AND BENEFIT
8.5.2 CRITICAL MASS
8.5.3 LOCAL OPTIMIZATION
8.5.4 DISRUPTION OF SOCIAL PROCESSES AND CURRENT WAY OF WORKING
8.6 METRICS AND MEASUREMENTS
8.7 APPLICABILITY TO OTHER AREAS
9 FUTURE WORK
9.1 CONTINUOUS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
9.2 OPEN SOURCE ORGANIZATIONS
9.3 PERSONAL SOFTWARE PROCESS
10 CONCLUSION
Author: Gustav Nordenskjöld, Harm Andries Kingma
Source: Blekinge Institute of Technology
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