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Requirements engineering (RE) and process improvement has been identified as one of the key factors for improving software quality. Despite this, little scholarly work has been done on developing ways to improve the RE process. The situation of RE and process improvement is even worse in small and medium enterprises that produce software. Consequently, the quality of software being produced by these companies has kept deteriorating. The purpose of this paper is to design a framework that will help small and medium software companies improve their RE processes in order to compete favorably with larger software companies, more especially in terms of software quality.

A qualitative research approach was adapted. Four software companies in Uganda were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data were collected using questionnaires. The requirements for designing the framework were gathered and refined from both primary and secondary data.

The key requirements for process improvement in small and medium software companies were identified as user involvement, use of evolutionary requirements engineering process improvement (REPI) strategy, change management, training and education, management support and commitment.

The designed framework was validated to ensure that it can be applied in RE and process improvement in small and medium software companies. Validation results show that the proposed framework is applicable and can be used to improve RE and process improvement in small and medium software companies.

The paper presents an improvement of the systematic approach to REPI by Kabaale and Nabukenya which is decomposed for easy understanding by non-technical readers and users.

Quality improvement is critical to the success of software development organizations. Automated tools can greatly assist in the implementation of quality improvement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of tool support of software process improvement.

The authors first review three quality improvement models that can be used for improving the quality of software products, and then identify the required activities of the quality improvement effort based on those models. These activities identified then serve as a reference list to determine the support provided by commercial tools. The paper then conducts two surveys of software quality improvement tools and presents the results.

The results from two surveys indicate that: there is no tool that supports problem identification; most tools can provide several software process improvement functions to help software organizations to improve their process capability and the quality of their products; and there is no set of tools that can provide a complete coverage of all improvement activities.

Although the authors have conducted a detailed search on the internet to identify SPI tools, such a survey will miss those tools which have no presence on the internet. However, the authors are confident that their results can reflect what is available in the marketplace.

Process practitioners will learn about the state of support available in the marketplace and what they may need to develop on their own to provide complete support for their improvement efforts.

The paper proposes a classification of software process improvement functions and present a first survey of software quality improvement tools. The results will be beneficial to process practitioners.

Notes that quality improvement and management practices involve using tools, which are formulated from industrial practices and quality engineering theory. Points out that the seven old Japanese tools are claimed to be able to solve up to 95 per cent of quality‐related problems and that the seven new Japanese tools are claimed to have started a new era for quality. However, comments that these tools have not been discussed systematically in the context of software sector. Proposes a software process improvement framework, which incorporates the SEI capability maturity model as a self‐assessment tool, and maps these 14 tools to the framework in order to help establish the total quality management culture in software quality practices.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the application of six sigma, software engineering techniques and simulation to software development with a view to improving the software process and product.

This paper attempts to integrate six sigma and simulation to define, analyse, measure and predict various elements of software development (such as cost, schedule, defects) that influence software quality, thereby helping the software personnel take necessary measures early in the development process to improve the software processes and remove defects. Simulation results provide qualitative and quantitative suggestions on the ways to change the software process to achieve six sigma quality. The integration of six sigma and CMM and the role of knowledge management in software organisations have been taken into account.

Most software organisations operate between 2.3 and 3 sigma level. This paper presents a framework for definition, measurement, and analysis of important elements of the software product and process using six sigma tools and exploits the use of simulation in bringing six sigma improvements. Case studies have been presented to demonstrate the findings.

Application of the techniques presented in this paper would definitely improve software organisations' processes and product.

The adoption of methodologies outlined in this paper in software companies would enable them to attain improvements in terms of cost, schedule and quality.

The integration of simulation with six sigma applied to software development is novel in this paper. This paper will be valuable for quality professionals and management personnel in software organisations.

The quality framework necessary to achieve compliance with the ISO 9000 series of standards is to say the least abstract. It is this very generality which allows ISO 9000 to play the role of the universal quality standard. Aims to help practitioners relate their software process to this framework. Discusses the rationale for, as well as ideas and examples of, software and information system development practices that fit the requirement of ISO 9001 standard and ISO 9000‐3 accompanying the guidelines. Reviews related approaches to software process improvement, defines generic requirements for a quality software process and a template for the context of a software quality improvement programme as a software quality manual.

The paper seeks to explore the impact of events in Software Process Improvement (SPI) environments based on a longitudinal study of a requirements management initiative at Ericsson.

The paper presents the initiative from three perspectives – the improvement initiative, the targeted software practices, and the environment.

SPI initiatives easily get interrupted, are side‐tracked, and progress slowly due to changing environments. While most practitioners are painfully aware of this, the SPI literature has so far only touched on the issue. Agility principles would have helped Ericsson respond more effectively to events that impacted the initiative. Development of agile SPI practices requires coordination and alignment with other initiatives to develop agile software organizations.

SPI has been adopted by many organizations to help them to deliver quality software. However, its success is a matter of debate and this paper deals with the issues involved.

The purpose of this paper is to address the development of a conceptual framework to drive and assess the quality of software production in the digital ecosystem domain.

This research used action research paradigm, the soft methodology SSM and the framework PRO2PI-MFMOD. The methodologies were applied at Brazilian Public Software Ecosystem.

The results of this research shows: the dimension of the capacity, as suggested by ISO/IEC 15504, is insufficient for quality treatment in certain domains; SSM methodology is suitable for scope and domain clarification in digital ecosystems; and PRO2PI-MFMOD framework is suitable to create a reference model process for digital ecosystems software production.

A complete SSM cycle was conducted, but with only one research cycle. In that sense, the results obtained in this research can be interpreted as boundaries to reflections regarding the learning occurred in the system.

The research offers an empirical contribution, mapping and defining maturity framework elements that can be used by the software production digital ecosystems, aiming the description and understanding of the phenomenon through the theoretical views of complexity theory, systemic thinking, digital ecosystems and maturity models.

The contributions can be summarized in the following aspects: the maturity models evolution, shifting from command and control basis to cooperation and connection basis; the maturity models scope, drifting from organizational units to collaborative networks of software production; the assimilation and broadcast of digital ecosystems concept by MCTI; and the maturity levels introduced in the research can be used as a particular case of capacity dimension of the further ISO/IEC 33000 standards.

Through the results obtained with systematic revision of the literature, one can notice the absence of publications that approach all the four axes that ground this research simultaneously. The proposed subject is original and relevant to the software community in the matter of software process improvement and to the current and further public digital ecosystems of software development.

While the literature on software process improvement (SPI) offers a number of studies of small software firms, little is known about how such initiatives evolve over time. On this backdrop, this paper aims to investigate how adoption of SPI technology was shaped over a ten year period (1996‐2005) in a small Danish software firm.

The investigation is based on a longitudinal, interpretative case study of improvement efforts over a ten‐year period. To help structure the investigation, we focus on encounters that impacted engineering, management, and improvement practices within the firm. The study contributes to the SPI‐literature and the literature on organizational adoption of technology.

The paper finds the improvement effort fluctuating and shaped between management's attempt to control SPI technology adoption and events that caused the process to drift in unpredictable directions.

The experiences suggest that managers of small software firms remain flexible and constantly negotiate technology adoption practices between control and drift, creating momentum and direction according to firm goals through attempts to control, while at the same time exploring backtalk, options, and innovations from drifting forces inside and outside the firm.

Based on the research, the paper recommends substituting the “from control to drift” perspective on organizational adoption of complex technologies like SPI with a “negotiating control and drift” perspective.

Explores the issues surrounding process improvements in the software development function of product development, an area traditionally neglected by corporate quality programmes. Explains the need for implementation of software process improvement, the current state of such initiatives in industry, and cites a case study of successful implementation at Hewlett Packard. Provides guidelines on identifying the need for such a programme in an organization, information on Carnegie Mellon University′s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and instructions for receiving additional information.

The purpose of this paper is to address the need of a reengineering of the software development process in a Mexican technology services company. In general, the main risk faced by small- and medium-sized software developers (SMEs) is the inability to meet delivery times or to adjust to project requirements, whether through lack of follow-up on the critical activities of the development process or through an inadequate distribution of workloads among members of the project team.

The methodology used to carry out the reengineering of the software development process is Hammer and Champy, which consists of six stages: introduction to the current situation of the company and the need for change; identification of the business processes; selection of the business process to be redesigned; understanding of the process selected; proposal for reengineering the business process selected; and the results of the comparison between the current situation of the process and the proposed reengineering of the process through the use of Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN 2.0).

Based on the results, the paper shows the importance of the analysis and implementation of the reengineering in a software development company. It describes step-by-step how to apply the methodology of Hammer and Champy in a business process through simulated scenarios, using BPMN 2.0. By carrying out the implementation of the proposed reengineering, the company would therefore save 45.12 percent of costs, 41.17 percent of time, and a better distribution of resources, at the same time guaranteeing the satisfaction of its clients.

The study addresses the current needs of small- and medium-sized software developers, providing a step-by-step guide to the implementation of a process reengineering methodology, performing an analysis and modeling of processes in BPMN 2.0 and providing results through a simulation of the critical process, with the aim to observe the flow of activities and the significant improvements that would be achieved by implementing the reengineering proposal. This simulation schema allows business owners to observe the potential of the changes and to verify the positive impact they would have on the company before beginning to make operational changes in the organization.