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For over a decade, software process improvement (SPI) has been promoted as an approach to improve systematically the way software is developed and managed. Mostly this research and the relevant experience reports have been focussed on large software companies.
Conradi and his co-authors have collected the main results from four Norwegian industrial research and development projects on SPI carried out between 1996 and 2005, which, in contrast to other treatments, concentrated on small- and medium-sized companies, typically characterized by fast-changing environments and processes. The presentation is organized in five sections: general principles and methods of SPI, knowledge management for SPI, process modelling and electronic process guides, estimation methods, and object-oriented and component-based systems. A spectrum of empirical methods has been used, e.g. case studies, large-scale experiments, surveys and interviews, and action research.
The book mainly targets researchers and graduate students in (empirical) software engineering, and software professionals working in development or quality assurance.
List of contents
Software Process Improvement - General Principles and Methods.- Lessons Learned and Recommendations from Two Large Norwegian SPI Programmes.- Improvisation in Small Software Organizations.- An Empirical Investigation of the Key Factors for Success in Software Process Improvement.- Evidence-Based Software Engineering for Practitioners.- Challenges and Recommendations when Increasing the Realism of Controlled Software Engineering Experiments.- Knowledge Management for SPI.- Postmortem Reviews: Purpose and Approaches in Software Engineering.- Value-Based Knowledge Management - the Contribution of Postmortem Reviews and Process Workshops.- A Dynamic Model of Software Engineering Knowledge Creation.- An Empirical Study of an Informal Knowledge Repository in a Medium-Sized Software Consulting Company.- An Empirical Study on the Utility of Formal Routines to Transfer Knowledge and Experience.- Process Modelling and Electronic Process Guides.- Tailoring RUP to a Defined Project Type: A Case Study.- A Workshop-Oriented Approach for Defining Electronic Process Guides - A Case Study.- Empirical Investigation on Factors Affecting Software Developer Acceptance and Utilization of Electronic Process Guides.- Six Theses on Software Process Research.- Estimation Methods.- A Review of Studies on Expert Estimation of Software Development Effort.- Reuse of Software Development Experiences - A Case Study.- Effort Estimation of Use Cases for Incremental Large-Scale Software Development.- Empirical Studies in OO and Component-based Systems.- Experiences from Introducing UML-based Development in a Large Safety-Critical Project.- An Empirical Study on Off-the-Shelf Component Usage in Industrial Projects.- Evaluating the Effect of a Delegated versus Centralized Control Style on theMaintainability of Object-Oriented Software.
About the author
Reidar Conradi received his Ph.D. in computer science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 1976. From 1972 to 1975 he worked at SINTEF as a researcher. Since 1975 he has been assistant professor at NTNU and a full professor since 1985. He has participated in many national and EU projects and chaired several workshops. His research interests are in software engineering, object-oriented methods and software reuse, distributed systems, software evolution and configuration management, software quality and software process improvement.
Summary
For over a decade, software process improvement (SPI) has been promoted as an approach to improve systematically the way software is developed and managed. Mostly this research and the relevant experience reports have been focussed on large software companies.
Conradi and his co-authors have collected the main results from four Norwegian industrial research and development projects on SPI carried out between 1996 and 2005, which, in contrast to other treatments, concentrated on small- and medium-sized companies, typically characterized by fast-changing environments and processes. The presentation is organized in five sections: general principles and methods of SPI, knowledge management for SPI, process modelling and electronic process guides, estimation methods, and object-oriented and component-based systems. A spectrum of empirical methods has been used, e.g. case studies, large-scale experiments, surveys and interviews, and action research.
The book mainly targets researchers and graduate students in (empirical) software engineering, and software professionals working in development or quality assurance.
Additional text
From the reviews:
"The continuous improvement of software processes has been a managerial focus for several decades. This book, written by Norwegian academics, ‘mainly targets researchers and graduate students in empirical software engineering.’ … The papers are varied and well written … . Academics in both information technology and software engineering will find a basis for further research projects in this title." (David Bellin, Computing Reviews, December, 2006)
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From the reviews:
"The continuous improvement of software processes has been a managerial focus for several decades. This book, written by Norwegian academics, 'mainly targets researchers and graduate students in empirical software engineering.' ... The papers are varied and well written ... . Academics in both information technology and software engineering will find a basis for further research projects in this title." (David Bellin, Computing Reviews, December, 2006)
