Abstract
For many small and start-up software companies, implementing controls and structures to properly manage their software development activity is a major challenge. It is commonly agreed that very small software companies, implementing management procedures, and controls to appropriately administer their software development activity is a significant challenge. To help meet the need for VSE-specific systems and software lifecycle profiles and guidelines, the ISO/IEC jointly published ISO/IEC 29110 “Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities” series of standards and guides, with the overall objective being to assist and encourage very small software organization in assessing and improving their software. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a primer on the ISO/IEC 29110 standard focusing on two main process areas of Project Management and Software Implementation.
TopBackground
This section will introduce the problem with standards and explain the specific case of very small entities, before presenting the ISO/IEC 29110 standard as a solution specifically designed to address these problems for very small companies.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Project Management: This is the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals.
Very Small Entity: An enterprise, organization, department, or project having up to 25 people.
Process Assessment: The disciplined examination of the processes by an organisation against a set of criteria to determine capability of those processes to perform within quality, cost and schedule goals.
Software Process Improvement (SPI): Aims to understand the software process as it is used within an organisation and thus drive the implementation of changes to that process to achieve specific goals such as increasing development speed, achieving higher product quality or reducing costs.
Project Implementation: Is defined as a specified set of activities designed to put into practice an activity or program of known dimensions.
Software Process: A set of activities, methods, practices, and transformations that people use to develop and maintain software and the associated products.