A mapping study about the standard ISO/IEC29110

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csi.2019.03.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A systematic mapping about the ISO/IEC 29110 and a categorization of the primary studies (184 papers) are carried out.

  • Researchers involved within the ISO working groups are the authors with the highest number of published papers.

  • Since 2016 there is an increasing number of papers published in this field.

  • Authors are focusing their contributions on Solution Proposals and Experience Paper.

  • Education (44) and SPI factors (48) are the major research topics.

Abstract

Context

The ISO/IEC29110 has been studied since its release in 2011, and its impact and evaluation over the recent years have been quite diverse. This standard is structured in five parts describing the business terms, the main Very Small Entities (VSE) profile concepts, process assessment guidelines, specification of all the generic profile group, and implementation management and engineering guide for entry and basic profiles.

Objective

The main purpose of this work is to provide an analysis of the research carried out about the ISO/IEC 29110 during the last ten years, and the literature that has developed around it. Literature is analyzed by using the traditional mapping study of the ISO/IEC29110 and its parts. All these studies are categorized in a set of topics where authors have been contributing. This work helps us on the identification of the main research topics within the primary studies.

Method

The mapping study is conducted as a traditional systematic mapping with a categorization of the primary studies. The main search is enhanced with additional searches for each member of the ISO/IEC 29110 series.

Results

A search strategy is defined to conduct this mapping study. 184 papers were retrieved from the literature and selected as primary studies. Our study identifies the reference studies in this area, it characterizes them, and identifies which aspects have been treated.

Conclusion

The results of this mapping reveal that ISO/IEC 29110 has been used in a broad range of small contexts, and the main contributions are basically from research experiences during the recent last ten years. The literature around this standard is classified based on a well-known classification schema, the activity around this standard, and what types of studies have been carried out. Research topics are diverse, and we have identified the research methods used by the primary studies. As conclusion, more research and experimental outcomes are needed in order to observe how VSEs behave under specific circumstances.

Introduction

Since the first release of the ISO/IEC 29110 series in 2011, several research papers have been published revealing new contributions, studies, and experiences carried out by Very Small Entities (VSE) in the context of software process improvement (SPI). In fact, this standard helps this kind of organizations to adopt or to embark on SPI initiatives from different perspectives. Literature reflects an incipient interest on this standard during these recent years, and several updates have been done during 2018. In fact, there is an increased number of articles and papers related to this standard [1]. However, the number and types of contributions are quite diverse ranging from SPI experiences [2], [3] to project management practices [4], and it is not always evident where the focus is from these main contributions and which improvements are proposed in these articles. Therefore, there is a need to characterize these contributions from a grounded theory point of view [5].

The ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 Software and systems engineering group defined and structured this standard into the following 5 different parts:

  • ISO/IEC TR 29110-1 [6] defines the common terms for the ISO/IEC 29110 series.

  • ISO/IEC 29110-2 [7] introduces the concepts for the framework and taxonomy.

  • ISO/IEC TR 29110-3-1 [8] defines the process assessment guidelines and compliance requirements.

  • ISO/IEC 29110-4-1 [9] outlines the specification for all the profiles of the Generic Profile Group. In fact, it provides a profile specification for the Basic profile.

  • ISO/IEC 29110-5-1 [10] provides management and engineering guide to the intermediate profile described in terms of business management, project management, software implementation and acquisition processes.

At the time of writing, there are 16 published standards within the ISO/IEC29110 series, and there are other six under development. The purpose is not to summarize all these standards but to identify primary studies related to ISO/IEC 29110, to categorize them and to analyze the contributions made by the community. In fact, we are performing a systematic mapping which scope is “Broad – all papers related to a topic area are included but only classification data about these are collected” [11], and the expected result is “A set of papers related to a topic area categorized in a variety of dimensions and counts of the number of papers in various categories” [11]. Additionally, Software Engineering (SE) research is quite diverse [12] because the research trends of a standard is not fully reflected with the literature. Therefore, the analysis of a standard in a specific SE topic is a complex task, and a systematic mapping is used as a supporting tool. In fact, some papers are contributing to the assessment guidance, and others are more focused on describing experiences or even proposing. This standard opens an opportunity to specific multiple standards for organizations applying specific approaches such as the ISO/IEC NP TR 29110-5-5 for DevOps [13]. Thus, organizations are going to define their own guidelines considering their specificities. One potential consequence is that organizations are going to reinvent the wheel by defining their own guidelines without paying attention to existing guidelines or profiles.

This study contributes with a systematic mapping to a potential ground theory built up around the ISO/IEC29110 series. By analyzing primary studies, we identify which articles and papers are contributing to ISO/IEC29110, the research topics and its distribution over the years. In addition, we identify which authors are being considered as a reference in this area, and its distribution over the years. Furthermore, we categorize these primary studies, and we identify which areas are the most valuables based on a systematic mapping strategy [14] by defining which researchers are contributing, how much activity is being performed, and what type of studies are being published.

This paper is structured as follows. First, a research background and a motivation are introduced. Second, the research strategy is described and performed. Third, the results from the systematic mapping are analyzed. Fourth, threats to validity are identified. And, finally, a conclusion section summarizes the results and outline future research works.

Section snippets

Research background and motivation

Systematic mappings (SM) [15] have been carried out in a similar way as they are performed by Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) [16]. These approaches require the application of a protocol in a systematic way, and they have been applied to a broad range of domains. For example, it has been applied to review approaches managing architectural knowledge [17], to analyze case based reasoning approaches in software engineering [18], or even in the context of text mining [19]. In addition, SM has

Study planning

Our goal is to provide a classification and thematic analysis of literature on the ISO/IEC 29110 series. According to Wohlin et al. [11], systemic mapping studies are the most appropriate for this kind of goals. In fact, the following section defines a set of research questions which are broad, and the field of study is not too much explored. Therefore, our research methodology follows a systematic mapping approach following the guidelines defined in [29]. Following Fig. 1 depicts the different

Results

The results are analyzed according to the research questions. This paper deals with four research questions which are stated at the beginning of this paper.

Threats to validity

As stated previously, mapping studies are mainly focused on primary studies, and there are inherent threats to take into account during this process. This study is subjected to threats to construct validity, internal validity, external validity and reliability [32].

Discussion

This paper deals with four research questions (RQ). The first RQ (R1 Which researchers are the most relevant in this field?) reveals that Claude Y. Laporte is the author with the most published papers in the field. In fact, he is the main editor of the ISO/IEC 29110, and its presence makes sense to some extent because he has the best knowledge of this standard, and it is assumed its contributions are cutting edge. However, the ideal situation would be that other authors not related directly

Conclusions

Since 2009, several research papers have been published related to the ISO/IEC29110, and its impact and evaluation over the recent years have been quite diverse. This standard is structured in five parts describing the business terms, the main VSE profile concepts, process assessment guidelines, specification of the generic profile group, and implementation management and engineering guide for entry and basic profiles.

The main purpose of this work is to provide an analysis of the research

Conflicts of interest

Authors do not have a conflict of interest.

References (32)

  • J. Corbin et al.

    Basics of Qualitative Research (3rd ed.): Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory

    (2008)
  • Systems and Software Engineering – Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) – Part 1: Overview

    (2016)
  • Systems and Software Engineering – Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) – Part 2-2: Guide for the Development of Domain-Specific Profiles

    (2016)
  • Systems and Software Engineering – Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) – Part 3-1: Assessment Guide

    (2015)
  • Systems and Software Engineering – Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) – Part 4-1: Software Engineering - Profile Specifications: Generic Profile Group

    (2018)
  • Systems and Software Engineering – Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) – Part 5-1-3: Software Engineering – Management and Engineering Guide: Generic Profile Group – Intermediate Profile

    (2017)
  • View full text