M2 Survey of Software Best Practice Experience for Small Companies

Transcription

1 M2 Survey of Software Best Practice Experience for Small Companies Project : ESPICE ESPINODE in Iceland Originator : Anita Bjork Lund, Ebba Thora Hvannberg Date : No. of pages : 12 Systems Engineering Laboratory, University of Iceland Synopsis : This report describes the software industry in Iceland, its need for SPI and suggestions on how to meet those needs. Contents: 1 INTRODUCTION LANDSCAPE OF ICELANDIC SOFTWARE INDUSTRY NUMBER OF COMPANIES, SIZES AND EXPORT EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES CHARACTERISTICS SUPPORT AND DISSEMINATION CENTRES NEEDS AND MATURITY OF INDUSTRY ESPITI SURVEY PIE CLUB ESPICE 1999 SURVEY REQUIREMENTS MADE BY THE GOVERNMENT HOW TO MEET THE SPI NEEDS OF SOFTWARE COMPANIES WORKSHOPS AND COURSES BEST PRACTICES CONSULTING CASE STUDIES CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES ANNEX...11 Copy list: History: Version Date Reason to change a First version

2 1 Introduction This report is a summary paper on the Icelandic software industry and its current experiences, needs and weaknesses relating to software process improvement. The guidance to SPI is based on the work carried out so far in the ESPICE project, and on results from ESPITI, a survey carried out in 1995, and a survey of the local software industry conducted in 1999 by the ESPICE project. As not to reinvent the wheel, software best practices already available in Europe from ongoing and completed PIEs were also considered, especially those similar to the SME target audience. Section 2 describes the landscape of the Icelandic software industry in terms of companies characteristics, education, human resources and available SPI support. Section 3 describes the needs and the maturity of the software industry in Iceland as depicted in the two surveys mentioned above and from experiences gained in the ESPICE project. In section 4 possible ways on how to meet the SPI needs of the local software industry is put forward. Section 5 contains the closing remarks. SPI club Workshops Hands-on ESPICE Conferences Mailings Web Icelandic Industry Experience and knowhow ESPINODEs PIE support Info exchange Consultancy Meetings PIE Figure 1. Current clients of the ESPICE project in Iceland. 2 Landscape of Icelandic software industry 2.1 Number of companies, sizes and export According to the Statistics Bureau of Iceland there are 200 companies in Iceland that develop software [5]. Their export in 1998 is estimated about IKR 2073 millions compared to only IKR 25 millions in 1990 [7]. The export of the local software companies in 1998 estimates to about 1% of the total national export. The annual turnover of the largest companies was between 300 and 400 millions but the smaller ones had an annual turnover between 50 and 100 millions. [2] [4] Most software companies in Iceland are small, ranging in size from few developers to several dozen people. The biggest ones all have under 100 employees, but many of them are growing rapidly. Larger companies often operate their own information technology departments developing software as needed. In 1998 around 4000 people were working in information technology in Iceland, which is roughly twice as much as in There of, 44% works in ESPINODE Iceland Page

3 software development and consulting, 30% in telecommunications, 23% in retail, and 3% in IT industry. [2] [4] [7] Icelandic software houses are increasingly exploring the possibilities of exporting their software products and expertise. This is mainly due to the small size of the domestic market. Many seek the possibility for co-operation with foreign companies, through partnership or joint ventures, in order to secure capital and wider distribution of their products. Foreign companies operate freely in Iceland either as subsidiaries or through local service agents. These include for example Microsoft, Oracle, Software AG, Informix, CA, Compaq, Digital Corporation and Novel and many more. [4] [7] 2.2 Education and human resources Iceland has a reputation for being one of the world s most literate nations with over 25 percent of the workforce holding university degrees. In ,1% of people working in software development and consulting had university degrees [7]. University of Iceland offers B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Science, as well as many computer related courses in other university majors. In 1998 over 400 people had graduated from the university with B.Sc. in Computer Science. Other colleges offer shorter software-related studies and qualify approximately 100 new programmers each year. The Continuing Education at University of Iceland as well as privately owned training centres actively offer refresh courses covering both computer basics along with introduction to the latest in information technology. [2][7] Technical expertise of computer professional in Iceland is high. The small, albeit sophisticated society demands an in-depth knowledge spread over the wide field of information technology. 2.3 Characteristics The Icelandic software industry can be divided into 5 different company groups. These are, large companies in software development, large companies in service or running their own software departments for in-house servicing, large companies in industry, small companies developing plastic-wrapped solutions and small companies in the niche market. Common characteristics are: Project duration is typically 6-18 months. Work breakdown structure is fairly simple. Number of developers is less than 5 per task or a project. Can not afford to have a full time dedicated quality manager. Overhead needs to be lean. Demand a short learning curve of new methodologies. The Icelandic software houses have worked on all types of software solutions to meet the demand of the small but technologically advanced home market. This covers diverse fields such as graphical user interfaces, virus detection, object fax, X.25 PAD communications, financial packages, retail systems, visual and real-time interactions, governmental administration and record management to name a few. The innovation lies mainly in software for use in bioengineering and electronics applications for the fishing industry. Design and development for the Web is also an increasing industry in Iceland. On-line publishing and banking have become a part of everyday life for many people as approximately 60% of the nation have access to the Internet. ESPINODE Iceland Page

4 2.4 Support and dissemination centres The following list of organisations and associations currently offer some kind of support and/or dissemination on issues related to the software industry. The Association of Icelandic Software Houses (Félag íslenskra hugbúnaðarhúsa). The Association of Industry (Samtök Iðnaðarins). The Export Council (Útflutningsráð). Rikiskaup, which is an organisation that carries out all major software procurements by organisation/institutes owned by the state. The Icelandic Council for Standardisation (Staðlaráð Íslands). The Quality Management Association, especially the project management group (Gæðastjórnunarfélagið, verkefnisstjórnunarhópur). The Data Processing Society (Skýrslutæknifélagið). 3 Needs and maturity of industry 3.1 ESPITI survey In 1995 a survey of the local software industry was conducted as a part of ESPITI s European User Survey Analysis [1] [3]. The survey was meant to show the current situation, the problematic areas and training needs in Europe in relation to software development and management. It also tried to facilitate comparison between ISO 9000 certified organisations versus those that are either planning, considering ISO 9000 or think that ISO 9000 is not relevant for their company. The remainder of this section depicts the main results of the local survey. It shall be kept in mind that only 19 responses were retrieved in the survey in Iceland. Problems in software development. Most companies, or 52% state that requirements specification is a major problem. Project management is a major problem with around 48% of the companies. Managing customer requirements, analysis and design and testing is also stated to be a major problem with over 30% of the companies. Status of quality control. Of the companies surveyed 25% claimed to be implementing software process improvement (SPI), 45% were considering it and 18% had SPI actions in planning. The rest considered SPI actions not relevant for their quality control. Software assessment methods were used by 18%, in planning by 5%, under consideration by 42%, and not considered relevant by 35%. 5% of the companies claimed to have ISO-9000 certification, in planning by 20%, under consideration by 45% and not considered relevant by 30%. In 1995 around 30% said that internal management, government and customer pressure were driving forces for ISO-9000 certification. No one thought that increasing competition was a major driving force. Interest in training Most companies or 60% were interested in general information seminars on assessment methods and software process improvement. Training and working groups on the same topics yielded only 20%-25% interest, as well as seminars, training or working groups on ISO-9000 for software. The preferred length of training courses was 2-3 days. ESPINODE Iceland Page

5 3.2 PIE club In the spring of 1998 a mini-pie club was organised by the ESPINODE in Iceland. Call for participation was sent to around 90 companies and departments developing software. Nine companies indicated interest in joining the club. There of five companies became active participants from the start of the club, one decided not to join, while three companies confirmed their interest but wanted to join at a later date. The mini-pie club has been active since spring 1998, with a workshop approximately every other month. The target of the club is to guide the participants step-by-step through mini improvements on selected process of their software life cycle. The companies participating in the mini-pie club in chose one of the following processes: the acquisition process; the documentation process; the management process or the development process. Each workshop or module given had a specific theme such as an introduction to SPI, software best practices, metrics and dissemination. Figure 2 shows the organisation and activities taking place within an SPI module. Table 1 gives a full overview of the modules given by the ESPICE project so far. Slides Assignment References Accompanying material for companies Short problems to work on SPI module next SPI module Participants work on assignment and hand in Suggest next steps based on solutions to assignment Figure 2. Mini-PIE club, SPI modules hands-on experience. Date given Module May 1999 Dissemination of PIEs (PIE-club workshop IV) Measurements and Metrics (PIE-club workshop III) Informal meeting of PIE-club, progress assessment, visit of PIE Software Best Practices (PIE-club workshop II) Introduction to Software Process Improvement (PIE-club workshop I) Kick-off meeting of PIE-club Table 1. Overview of SPI modules given by the ESPICE project in the first project year. The club has not only given the members the support needed to carry out mini SPI actions, but also served as a forum for exchanging ideas and experiences among peers. When asked to list pros and cons of SPI the club participants produced the list in Table 2. It was also important to the companies to get a rough estimation on how much time would be needed to carry out the ESPINODE Iceland Page

6 mini improvement experiment. The companies were not fond of the idea of having to implement the improvements within specific time and binding resources. Pros Will decrease errors Increase credibility Increase employee s satisfaction Time savings in installation and maintenance Easier to keep schedule Easier to monitor progress Gives base number for more accurate schedule estimates Increase quality Well defined processes are necessary when projects grow in size Well defined processes safe time as they eliminate the need to redefine the work Increase long-term productivity Control over processes and product Table 2. Cons Time consuming Difficult to measure improvements/results Projects too small Cost of implementing improvements Employees reluctant to change their work habits More documentation might lead to more work Risk Pros and cons of SPI according to the participants of the mini-pie club. 3.3 ESPICE 1999 survey A survey of the local software industry was conducted by the ESPICE project in March-April in A questionnaire was sent to 31 companies that are engaged in software acquisition or development. A few days later the questionnaire was followed up with a call from the ESPICE team asking and discussing the questions with the contact person of each company. Apart from the difficulties and time spent reaching the right person within the companies, this proved to be a good method of getting answers and feedback from the target audience of SPI. 21 of the initial 31 companies responded to the survey, which amounts to approximately 10% of the Icelandic software industry. Environment Company category Nr. New Old Stable Unstable Large in: - service domain software development Large in manufacturing Small in plastic wrapped software Small in niche software products Total Table 3. Distribution of software companies participating in the ESPICE survey. ESPINODE Iceland Page

7 Table 3 shows the distribution of the participating companies to the five different company categories and the grouping criteria of new versus old companies and stable versus unstable environment and technology. The categories were assumed to be mutually exclusive. The results of the ESPICE survey indicate that many software companies in Iceland believe they are currently doing software process improvement within their companies. Most of them have created some in-house procedures which they follow, but few if any use international standards to tailor their actions. The standards were by many believed to be too rigid or inflexible to be successfully applied directly to the Icelandic software industry of small to medium enterprises (SMEs). It is however encouraging to see that most of the companies participating in the survey were aware of the necessity of well defined and managed software processes. This was particularly apparent in companies that were in fast expansion concerning both number of employees and variety of projects. The fact that the market does not demand quality certification from its suppliers, inapplicable standards, and lack of time and resources are the most common reasons given for not pursuing SPI in a more structured or determined fashion. The survey showed that there is a demand for seminars or workshops on SPI related material like best practices, use of standards, SPI awareness, and the development process in general. Some expressed interest in case studies and thought it useful to hear about successful deployment of SPI. Companies, playing the role of the acquirer, expressed interest in seminars and consulting regarding the acquisition process, indicating that these companies are more aware of the demands and the constraints they can express towards their suppliers. Fewer see the need for direct consulting especially in relation to quality certification like ISO For a more detailed information on the survey results see the Annex and [8]. 3.4 Requirements made by the government The government publishes a handbook of acquisition for buyers of information technology products, both hardware and software. There are no requirements on ISO 9000 certification but it is pointed out in the handbook that more and more companies manage quality. In the chapter on software, developers are encouraged to review design and source code. Furthermore, the sections on documentation management and configuration management refer to ISO 9001 and to ISO [6] 4 How to meet the SPI needs of software companies 4.1 Workshops and courses Both the ESPITI and the ESPICE surveys indicate a general interest for workshops and courses in material related to software process improvement. According to the ESPICE survey there is a need for workshops demonstrating the benefits of SPI and how to institute best software practices into the software life cycle. These courses should be intended for both managers as well as technical staff. The importance of a trained SPI champion within each SMEs as investigated by the SCATE project [9] should also be considered. Furthermore, the survey indicates that a well-defined management process is in high priority within the software industry. This is partly caused by the rapid growth of many Icelandic software companies in recent years, now managing bigger projects and larger number of employees often with high staff turnover. ESPINODE Iceland Page

8 Workshops giving hands-on experience in tailoring the international standards could be useful, in order to get past the resistance of the local software industry to comply with the standards. In-house procedures are preferred over international software standards, which in general are thought to be too rigid and inflexible for the local software industry. The need for a well-defined and structured acquisition process is in increasing demand within the local industry. The companies, playing the role of the acquirer, are becoming more aware of how important a sound acquisition strategy is, not to mention a complete and documented requirements specification. This interest reflects in demand for courses and even consulting focusing on the acquisition process. The main emphasis is on requirement specification, creation of more realistic time schedule and project plan, supplier monitoring as well as carrying out acceptance according to predetermined acceptance strategy. Acquirers demanding certain level of process quality from their suppliers, are probably the best drivers for SPI actions within the local software industry. Figure 1 shows how experience and knowledge can be shared among different sectors within the local and the European community, in order to encourage the use of software best practices. Reusable modules European resources SPI club Software Engineering curriculum Improved modules Dissemination of case studies at conferences and Web Industry Graduates Figure 3. Sharing of experience and knowledge between different parties. 4.2 Best Practices The results from the ESPICE survey indicate that there is an interest for best practices regarding SPI actions and the software life cycle as a whole. This is coherent to the favouritism towards in-house procedures at the cost of institutionalisation of international standards. Best practices are generally believed to be more applicable and easier to tailor to the in-house procedures of individual companies than the international standards. The definition of best practices i.e. procedures that have proven to be successful, imply a certain assurance of usefulness and applicability to the local software industry. It is therefore important to disseminate and give the software industry easier access to software best practices. Software Program Managers Network (SPMN, is an example of this kind of service. The SPIRE handbook [10] has also been written in this spirit, giving indication of current practices and providing tips. The Modelling a Software Quality Handbook (MSQH) [11] is another example of a concise guidance of how to define software processes. ESPINODE Iceland Page

9 4.3 Consulting The ESPINODE in Iceland has for the last year created awareness on SPI within the local industry. This has been done through the mini-pie club and dissemination of its activities, and also via public dissemination of the project s activities and web site of best practices. The success of the mini-pie club demonstrates that small-scale assessments followed by measurable improvement suites the local industry of SMEs. It is also evident that consulting on how to carry out these activities step-by-step and in accordance to the international standards like ISO/IEC and ISO/IEC is needed. Whilst SPI actions gain acceptance of the local software companies the need for consulting and active dissemination is high. Therefore it is important that these tasks will carry on after the ESPICE project closes in May Possible successors could be some of the professional associations like the Quality Council or the Association of Icelandic Software Companies. The need for a consulting company like LOGOS International Inc, ICE (Integrated Computer Engineering) or Delta, focusing on consulting in software process improvement, could also be foreseen in the nearest future. The activities of the mini-pie club are also important, getting other companies to participate and learn from the ones that have already carried out mini assessments and improvements on their software processes. The club could eventually lead to the formation of a group of companies interested in software process improvements, running the club by their own initiative. 4.4 Case studies Concrete examples of SPI in action are a productive way to demonstrate the benefits of software process improvement to the local industry. To address the need of the Icelandic software industry as SMEs, case studies focusing on software process improvements for small companies are listed below. These case studies were collected from the VASIE repository ( the ESSI web site ( and the SPIRE case studies ( Completed PIEs Pr.No. Country Case Title France Small Innovative Team Keeps up to Date Norway ICONMAN: Introduction of Configuration Management in very small Organisations Norway Implementing Configuration Management in small enterprises Germany Q-PRIME: Quality Oriented Software Process Management in small Enterprises Greece MIFOS: Metrics based Improvements for SMEs Norway IMPOSE: Improvement Object Oriented Methods in a very small Enterprise Business Spain Formal Code Inspection on Small Companies Spain FCI-STDE: Formal code inspection in small technical development environments. On-going PIEs Pr.No. Country Case Title Iceland ETSD: Extended Teamwork in Software Development Spain TESIS: Exploiting techniques of software inspection in a SME Sweden PROBAMUS: Improving the testing process for a small company. ESPINODE Iceland Page

10 5 Conclusions The objective of this report was to give a concise overview of the Icelandic software industry with emphasis on its current practices and needs in relation to software process improvement. The following can be concluded. Awareness of SPI benefits is increasing in the local software industry and many companies believe they are practising SPI actions on some of their processes. Lack of support for the international standards is common. A wider acceptance could be gained by introducing the standards and their successful deployment through case studies or workshops. There is interest for seminars and courses on SPI material especially concerning processes like management, development, documentation and acquisition. There is also interest for material on software best practices and case studies tailored for SMEs. The step-by-step and hands-on approach of the PIE club proved to be a successful way to guide SMEs through a small improvement experiment. The club s activities have gained attention within the local software industry and could serve as a foundation for a forum of companies interested in pursuing software process improvement further. There is an increasing awareness among software acquirers in the importance of having a sound acquisition process. The need for SPI support could be a possible business opportunity for consulting firms in the nearest future. The information put forward in this report, demonstrate the need and importance of continued dissemination and counselling of software process improvement within the software industry. The first awareness of SPI has been successful. It is therefore crucial to follow with active support in order for SPI to permanently entrench the Icelandic software industry. 6 References 1. Baldur Már Bragason, Könnun á íslenskum hugbúnaðariðnaði, B.Sc. thesis,1995. B.Sc. thesis based on the Icelandic results of the ESPITI survey. 2. Iceland Review, Iceland s Software Industry 98-99, Iceland Business, Special Edition , Iceland Review. 3. ESPITI European User Survey Analysis, ESI-1996-TR Páll Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, Litlir risar, Frjáls verslun, 3. Tbl An article about the Icelandic software industry. 5. Statistics Bureau of Iceland. 6. Innkaupahandbók um upplýsingatækni, RUT nefndin Guidelines for IT procurements. 7. The Association of Industry, 8. ESPICE, Results of the ESPICE survey, deliverable of the ESPICE project, May SCATE Project, Small Company Action Training and Enabling, Mid Term Report, June SPIRE Project, The SPIRE Handbook Better, Faster, Cheaper Software Development in Small Organisations, INSTA/IT, Modelling a Software Quality Handbook MSQH, The Icelandic Council for Standardisation ESPINODE Iceland Page

11 7 Annex Question 1. Are your company currently doing or planning to do process improvement in the area of software development (SPI)? Company category Yes No S M S Large in: - software development 3 - service domain 6 1 Large in manufacturing 2 2 Small in plastic wrapped software 2 2 Small in niche software products Answers for NO companies: Question Small 1 2 Not relevant at this stage as the company is mainly in servicing software developed by other companies. The company has no software department, so far only off-the-shelf software has been acquired. The company has no software department, has acquired few small software systems tailored to its needs, otherwise off-the-shelf software. Lack of time. Does not apply to the field in which the company operates. 3 With continuing education of staff and management. Not applicable as there is no software development currently taking place. (2) Use in-house procedures mainly for software testing. (2) Good staff. 4 Workshops/seminars (2) for staff e.g. on how to use and tailor international standards to the local software industry, on design, configuration management, documentation, on the acquisition process. None. (3) 5 Yes, especially if the company starts developing more of their own software. No. (3) Yes, especially if the company grows in terms of number of employees. 6 The market, the customer (3). Not applicable. (2) Increase good will. Increase quality of product Keep their market share and get contacts with international companies in hope of future cooperation. Increase market share, increase profit (4). Enjoy their work. New technological challenges. 10 Managing director (2) Manager of IT department (3) 11 24, 4 180, 0 160, 0 8, , 15 ESPINODE Iceland Page

12 Answers for YES companies: Question Small Medium 1 7 Increase quality of product (9), increase quality of service (2). Increase competitiveness, better organisation within company (2). Make changes in staff easier by using well defined processes (2) and to keep good employees. Decrease development schedule. Decrease number of software errors. Make the integration of software systems easier. To boost the ego of the manager of the technical department (apparently no support from top management)! Increase secure operation of software. Create quality of project plan. Increase productivity. 8 Seminars/workshops on SPI related matters (11). Best practices (3), use of standards (2), SPI awareness (1), acquisition process (4), development process (2), case studies (2). Counselling on how to get ISO certification. (2) 9 Fulfil user requirements in a good and cost effective way. Increase good will, increase user satisfaction. Increase profit (4). Grow, increase productivity. Be leading in their field. Increase quality of customer service (4). Increase market share. Keeping up with changes in technology. Increase quality of product. Be able to deal with competition. Reach business goals and increase good will, keep time schedule. Shorten the time of development, increase reusability of software components (2), better utilisation of staff. Improve the flow of information, especially bottom-up. Increase productivity, increase skill of staff, increase product quality. Decrease number of software errors, better project overview, fulfil user requirements. Do not need any assistance. Know already what kind of improvements are needed only lack time to carry them out. Want assistance in choosing a standard that suits the company needs with the goal of an eventual quality certification. Seminars/workshops on best practices concerning software processes. Seminars/workshops if the topic is interesting (didn t want to give any specific perferences regarding topic). Increase profitability (2), increase user basis (2). Think global, invest in knowledge, keep up with the fast evolution in the IT field (2). Grow(2), increase productivity, service the customer in a better way. Leading in their field, get into international market. ESPINODE Iceland Page