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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.

Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) in developing countries require core banking Management Information Systems (MISs) to run their business, serve their clients and provide differentiated products and services to gain competitive advantage. Considering that SACCOs in Kenya lack the necessary resources to acquire the best information systems, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate MISs currently in use in the SACCO subsector to determine how well they are serving.

Using the ISO/IEC 25010 Software Product Quality Model, the quality of MISs operated by 215 Deposit-Taking SACCOs in the Kenya was evaluated to determine their level of performance.

The results indicated that the MISs currently in use by the SACCOs serve them well in terms of functionality, efficiency, reliability, ease of use and portability. However, vendor support, technical training and implementation process are a big concern to the SACCOs.

The SACCOs in Kenya need not look for other MISs as the ones in use satisfied the condition required by the ISO/IEC 25010 Software Product Quality Model. The areas that require attention are vendor support services by entering into contracts technical training and service level agreement; and good project management in software implementation.

The research addresses itself to one of the biggest setbacks faced by a fast growing subsector in adopting ICT with limited capacity and infrastructure.

This paper examines the impact of team factors in software development, such as the domain and language experience of the team members and the personnel capability of the team, on the costs and quality of the software products. The measure of the quality of the software products is based on the number of unique field problems that customers reported. The analysis, based on data collected on 37 software projects from a leading firm in the packaged software industry, indicates that software teams with higher levels of personnel capability exhibit significantly higher productivity and quality in the software products they deliver. A case study of one of the most successful package software development efforts at this firm highlights the important aspects of team dynamics in a highly successful software project.

In this article the following are discussed: (a) the role of quality assurance in the development of computer software systems; (b) factors of a successful quality assurance programme; and (c) the steps required in the development of such a programme. The implications for quality assurance for management are also considered.

Managing quality is a vital aspect in software development world, especially in the current business competition for the fast delivery of feature rich products with high quality. For an organization to meet its intended level of excellence in order to ensure its success, a culture of quality should be built where every individual is responsible of quality and not just the software testing team. However, delivering software products with very few bugs is a challenging constraint that is usually sacrificed in order for a company to meet other management constraints such as cost, scope and scheduling. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors present a Six Sigma DMAIC-based framework for improving software quality. Different phases of DMAIC methodology are applied for quality improvement in one of the largest software applications for “RK” company (name anonymized) in Canada where critical to quality aspects are identified, production bugs classified and measured, the causes of the large number of production bugs were specified leading to different improvement suggestions. Several metrics were proposed to help “RK” company control its software development process to ensure the success of the project under study.

This paper shows how companies can use a systematic approach such as DMAIC to eliminate errors and improve efficiency. It helps them to identify and implement improvements that leads to an increased confidence in the quality of the product produced at all levels.

By applying DMAIC at “RK” company the authors were able to demonstrate how DMAIC can help organizations improve the quality of their software products. As a result, reduce cost and cycle times, achieve customer satisfaction and improve profit margin.

This paper is focused at studying the current state of research involving the four dimensions of defect management strategy, i.e. software defect analysis, software quality, software reliability and software development cost/effort.

The methodology developed by Kitchenham (2007) is followed in planning, conducting and reporting of the systematic review. Out of 625 research papers, nearly 100 primary studies related to our research domain are considered. The study attempted to find the various techniques, metrics, data sets and performance validation measures used by researchers.

The study revealed the need for integrating the four dimensions of defect management and studying its effect on software performance. This integrated approach can lead to optimal use of resources in software development process.

There are many dimensions in defect management studies. The authors have considered only vital few based on the practical experiences of software engineers. Most of the research work cited in this review used public data repositories to validate their methodology and there is a need to apply these research methods on real datasets from industry to realize the actual potential of these techniques.

The authors believe that this paper provides a comprehensive insight into the various aspects of state-of-the-art research in software defect management. The authors feel that this is the only research article that delves into the four facets namely software defect analysis, software quality, software reliability and software development cost/effort.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of quality related to the context of software development using the ISO, TickIT and CMM frameworks. The paper also seeks to stress the fact that the different perspectives of those involved in software development will influence how quality is seen and measured. In the context of software engineering projects, quality takes on a broad meaning that refers not only to the way in which companies manage software engineering projects, but also to the software development process itself.

The approach and methodology adopted for this paper were a review of the literature and best practice in software engineering. It is argued that users of software systems are more interested in how easy the software is to use than in the underlying application code that is used to generate the system. Using the body of knowledge that is software quality the basic characteristics of software quality are described and compared in terms of quality standards such as ISO, TickIT and CMM. Each of these standards is decomposed further in order to clarify its usefulness.

The findings in the paper suggest that, whilst there are many differences in the quality standards used, there are a number of similar characteristics. In essence the underlying philosophies of ISO and CMM have at the core the same goals. Some academics see CMM as being technically over‐engineered; a CMM‐compliant quality system is in many respects far in advance of ISO.

This paper helps define the strengths and weaknesses within ISO, TickIT and CMM from a software engineering practitioner perspective.

The paper shows that software engineers need to pay more attention to the performance and conformance issues in software projects and to be proactive rather than reactive to quality issues.

It may be argued that the importance of this paper lies in the assertion that those engaged in the software engineering are in need of a multi‐perspective view on quality and, with that in mind, this paper should appeal to practitioners and members of the academic community with an interest in software quality.

Quality is an important issue for software development. Total quality management (TQM) has been suggested as a solution to software quality problems. The key elements of TQM as it has evolved over the last ten years are identified and examined in relation to software development. Discusses some of the adaptations to TQM needed to address the specific nature of software quality. Concludes that TQM can provide a framework to integrate many of the current approaches to software quality, resulting in technically correct systems which solve customers′ business problems.

The paper aims to present a conceptual framework that helps in incorporating sustainability into software projects, highlights the importance of project sustainability and provides an extensive review of recent relevant contributions across various fields.

The authors carried out a systematic bibliographic search on relevant published materials to analyse links between the two disciplines (sustainability and software projects). Furthermore, content analysis was applied to the final selected publications to identify and classify relevant triple bottom line (TBL) aspects to develop the framework.

The inclusion of TBL-related aspects is the most efficient and effective method used to incorporate sustainability into projects. Most of the relevant contributions in the software literature have focussed on either project product or project process or on one or two dimensions of sustainability rather than the three dimensions of the TBL theory. This study contributes by proposing a conceptual framework that encompasses TBL-related aspects for incorporating sustainability into processes and products of software projects.

Validating the proposed framework empirically could be an interesting research issue. In addition, future works may focus on different types of industries, such as information systems, telecommunications and service sectors, which have seldom been studied in the literature.

Software companies – or other relevant organisations – may use the proposed framework as a measurement tool to evaluate the environmental and social impacts of their current products and project management practices. Consequently, these organisations may pay more attention to incorporating sustainability into their project management practices.

The proposed framework may contribute towards a more sustainable orientation by providing a unique combination of TBL-related aspects that gives academics and practitioners a better understanding of how software projects can be managed sustainably.

Due to the increasing complexity of decision environments, suitable multi-criteria methods are gaining importance for the decision support function in management accounting. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a well-known and established OR method for solving complex decision settings, is accompanied by the ongoing development of suitable software solutions. Especially for practical issues, software support can reduce barriers to applying AHP and can enhance acceptance by managers. For this reason, five heterogeneous software products are evaluated from a management accounting perspective. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Based on the increasing relevance of AHP and the major changes in the field of AHP software solutions, the study of Ossadnik and Lange was replicated, with modifications. Five leading software products that use AHP were selected and evaluated with regard to their quality for solving decision problems. Pairwise comparisons were generated and integrated into an AHP-based decision model. The relevant criteria contained in this model were developed from the international standard norm for software evaluation.

In addition to revealing the necessity for further research on the development of appropriate software for multi-criteria decision problems, the result also shows that, under certain assumptions, “ Make It Rational” is the preferred software product.

Originating from different demands, the evaluation reveals the strengths and weaknesses of various software solutions for practical purposes.

This study shows that characteristics of software products using AHP vary, enabling users to select an appropriate software solution.