TOWARDS A GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
MATURITY MODEL
Leonardo Pilatti Jorge Audy
School of Computer Science, 6681 Avenida
Ipiranga, Pontifical University Catholic of Rio Grande do Sul
Keywords: Global Software Development,
Distributed Software Development, Maturity Models Structure
Abstract: Build softwares have always been a challenge. To shape and to implement a computational viable solution
involves a lot of technical and social questions (referring to the interaction between stakeholders). This
complexity increases, significantly, when dispersed global teams are used. The necessity to have a set of
processes better to organize the development strategy appears as one of the main challenges to be explored.
The objective of this article is to present a proposal of structure for a maturity model for global software
development. The study is based on an ample theoretical revision on the structures of the main maturity and
government models of information technology. The empirical base of this study will involve a multinational
organization of software development with branch offices in Brazil, Russia and India.
1 INTRODUCTION
To work with teams globally distributed has been an
activity more frequent during the software
development. While the time-to market tends to be
less using this type of strategy, the necessity to
develop products with quality and speed tends to be
a counterbalance in the scale of this type of work
(Delmonte, 2003). These changes are causing a great
impact in such a way in the market, as well as in the
types of software products that are being created. In
this direction, the global software development
(GSD) has attracted a great number of researches in
some knowledge domains. Because of the great
technical and social complexity, the searches on
models that facilitate the development of software
with teams geographically distributed tend to
increase. There are a lot of efforts that has been done
by researchers and the management with the
intention to understand the factors that allow
multinationals organizations to get success crossing
physical and cultural borders of its countries.
In this context, this article has the objective to
prese
nt the structure of a preliminary model of
maturity for global software development, in order
to organize and to establish processes that facilitate
the adoption of this strategy. The model structure
was the result of an ample analysis of the main
maturity models structure from information
technology. Amongst them, have the SW-CMM, the
CMMI, the SPICE, the ITIL and the CobiT. This
structure is a part of a study in the search for a
maturity model for GSD. It will compose a
preliminary model, with it, cases studies will be
conducted in organizations with software
development units in Brazil, India and Russia.
This article is composed as: section 2 presents
the theoretical base; section 3 descri
bes the research
method; section 4 presents analyses and comments
on the structure of the studied maturity models
structure, section 5 shows the structure of the
preliminary maturity GSD model elaborated and the
section 6 presents the final considerations and
research limitations.
2 THEORECTICAL BASE
2.1 Maturity Models
2.2.1 SW-CMM
The SW-CMM (Software Capability Maturity
M
odel) is a product for organizations that develop
software. Made by the Software Engineer Institute
(SEI) (Paulk, 1995), this model aims to supply
subsidies for a better engineering and quality control
of software products. The structure of CMM consists
of six components, which, are delimitated by a set of
key process areas, in them, there are a common
474
Pilatti L. and Audy J. (2005).
TOWARDS A GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MATURITY MODEL.
In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, pages 474-477
DOI: 10.5220/0002527604740477
Copyright
c
SciTePress
features that need to be address by a key practice to
reach a generic or common goal.
It is composed of five incremental maturity levels
by which an organization establishes and improves
its software development process. Except for level 1,
each maturity level consists of several key process
areas that an organization have overcome to achieve
a maturity level.
2.2.2 CMMI
The CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integrated)
is an evolution of model SW-CMM (Kulpa, 2003).
The main change is at the definition level, being able
to improve areas that the SW-CMM did not attend.
In accordance to (Kulpa, 2003) it is a framework that
can be used from diverse representations,
composition by a series of other models. The CMMI
can be applied in to an organization process or
many. These forms are called continuous and staged,
respectively.
The CMMI model structure is composed by
common process areas, objectives (generic and
specific), elements (common features) and practices
(generic and specific). It has the same levels of SW-
CMM, in essence, with the differentiation that the
CMMI-continuous has a level 0 (incomplete), that
informs that the organization does not implement
any type of process or politics for a key area.
2.2.3 SPICE
In accordance to (Rocha, 2001), the SPICE
(Software Process Improvement and Capability
determination) was the project of future norm
ISO/IEC 15504 for evaluation of software processes.
SPICE model approaches the concept of evolution in
the capacities level of an organizational process.
When the processes are being implemented, the
organization can reach new levels of model
usability, thus exceeding, for new levels. The levels
of model SPICE are classified as: Level 0:
Incomplete; Level 1: Executable; Level 2: Managed;
Level 3: Established; Level 4: Predictable; Level 5:
Optimized. The structure of the model is composed
by maturity levels that are similar to the SW-CMM
model.
2.2.4 ITIL
The ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure
Library) is a framework of better practical developed
in the end of the 80’s for the Standard British for IT
Service Management. It is a set of documents whose
objective is to implement a service of IT assets
management (ITIL, 2004). This framework can be
customized, and defines how the services will be
carried through inside of the organization for the IT
area.
Its structure is not connected to a set of processes
or practical, but to better organize the processes and
procedures that the organization must implement.
The levels of the ITIL are identified as, Level 0:
Non-existent, Level 1: Initial, Level 2: Repeatable,
Level 3: Defined, Level 4: Managed, Level 5:
Optimised.
2.2.5 CobiT
Currently being kept by the ISACA (Information
Systems Audit and Association Control), the CobiT
(Objectives Control will be Information and related
Technology), is a reference model that it
structuralizes the processes and procedures in the
sector of information technology. Figure 1 presents
the elements of the CobiT. Composed of domains,
processes and activities, that must be lined up with
the processes, the resources and the IT criteria
(Ridley, 2004).
As long the objectives of the processes are being
reached, and the usability of the model is increased,
the organization advances in maturity levels. This
evolution is represented by a scale of 0 the 5 which
represent the levels of maturity of the model. In the
same way as the ITIL, the maturity levels evaluate
the degree of usability and integration that the
guidelines prescribe for the organization. The CobiT
defines has some guidelines in each process
dimension that can be customized by the
organization, facilitating its implementation.
Figure 1: CobiT model structure
3 RESEARCH METHOD
The research is organized in 2 stages (A and B).
Each stage has 3 dependent phases. The Figure 2
presents the relationship between the stages and
phases.
TOWARDS A GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MATURITY MODEL
475
Stage A:
- Phase 1: Consists in a theoretical revision on
the maturity models structures;
- Phase 2: Does a detailed analysis on the models
structure;
- Phase 3: Presents the GSD preliminary maturity
model structure.
Stage B:
- Phase 1: Has the objective to propose a GSD
maturity model.
- Phase 2: Looks to lead case studies in some
organizations that use the GSD strategy.
- Phase 3: aims to elaborate improvements and to
provide feedback for a new version for the model
structure.
4 MATURITY MODELS
STRUCTURE ANALYSIS
Some properties were identified as common in the
models structures, as:
a) The models structures are iterative, or either, a
time is necessary until reaching definitive level of
qualification or maturity;
b) The maturity levels are composed by a set of
processes or documents that satisfy it;
c) The maturity levels serve to have an
impression, at some moment, on the usability of the
model in the organization. Its evolution is always
referring itself exactly and not to other variable.
d) The processes that compose the maturity
levels aim to reach objectives or to establish politics
and standards;
e) In the structures that use key processes areas,
there is a checklist to validate if the objectives of
each process or norm had been reached;
f) Maturity models are not restricted to processes
definitions and guidelines. They have other
components such as people and tools;
g) The model structures affects and changes the
processes management, people and the organization
assets.
The SW-CMM has one of the simplest structures
used of the models presented here. Moreover, it was
created to look for the necessities of organizations
that develop software. However, as presented for
(Nolan, 1999), it has limitations on its generic
definition. It also didn’t specify the relationship
between the software development and the IT
governance, did by ITIL and CobiT. In this aspect,
using these models structures could complement this
lack, can be a solution, in terms of GSD.
Between the ITIL and the CobiT, there is an
alignment into the business needs, the resources and
the IT processes. The ITIL encloses the governance,
but does not represent the involved elements, leaving
this to the organization. The SW-CMM does not
possess flexibility to reach the maturity in definitive
areas without reaching all items of the current level.
The GSD maturity model can not have this
limitation, because it may be interesting for the
organization not reach certain maturity in definitive
process for political or strategy questions.
5 TOWARD A GSD MATURITY
MODEL
Based on the maturity models structure analysis, it
was defined that the basic format that composes the
preliminary GSD maturity model, based on the SW-
CMM and the CobiT.
The SW-CMM presents an adequate structure of
organization and relations between the components.
The aggregated components of the SW-CMM are:
- Structure format;
- Elements Composition, guided by a maturity
level.
The CobiT did not limit to organize in processes
areas, moreover, it explores in a bigger depth, the
use of guidelines to drive the processes that can be
implemented and institutionalized. So, from this
model, the structure will aggregate the following
components:
-Orientation of implementation based on
guidelines;
-Relations at the domain level, which means
there will exist domains inside the model that could
be composed by processes.
Phase 3: GSD structure
p
ro
p
osal
Phase 1: GSD maturity model
proposal
Phase 2: Case studies
Phase 2: Models structure anal
y
sis
Phase 1: Theoretical Revision
Phase 3: Results analyses
S
T
G
B
S
T
G
F
E
E
D
B
A
C
K
A
Figure 2: Research Phases
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476
Based on these components, it was possible to
compose the structure represented on Figure 3.
The maturity levels are grouped in domains.
They represent the capacity for each domain or set
of domains.
The domain capability delimits the target that
must be done in each level of maturity.
The domains, which grouped, compose a
maturity level, are related to the dimensions that are
worked in global development projects (Evaristo,
2003). Domains like trust; levels of dispersion;
synchronization; stakeholders involved; culture;
type of Projects and development process can be
considered as part of GSD organizations.
The processes will compose the domains. Each
process has an objective that it must be reached so
that it attends a domain. The domains can be
composed for one or more processes and must
inform, as it is possible to reach definitive objective.
For example, the organization can have 2 processes
to make the synchronization in the global
development projects. The guidelines are used to
drive the way the processes should be implemented.
They supply subsidies to support the processes. In
the same way, they can guide as an activity or
infrastructure must be used to implement a process.
The activities and/or infrastructures aim to allow
the processes reach the objectives that they must
reach. A set of activities will compose one or more
processes.
The Implementation and Institutionalization aim
to characterize the way as the organization is leading
its domains.
6 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The studies in this area offer excellent chances of
research. In accordance to (Ridley, 2004), the
research GSD area will approximately have a growth
of 65% up to 2006, presenting great changes in the
economic politician scene in countries that will
adopt this type of practical.
The ample theoretical revision did not identify
analyses on the maturity models structure, and as
they could compose a generic model for GSD. In
this direction, this research looked to explore this
space. A study on the main software development
maturity models and technological management was
carried through, composing a structure that will
serve as base for a GSD maturity model.
Future works will evaluate this study and use
cases studies to validate the implemented model. It’s
necessary also, apply the model in organizations that
develop software globally to investigate its
effectiveness.
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Software Development: Is the benefit worth the risk?
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Evaristo, J. R., Scudder, R., Desouza, K., Sato, O. A
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ITIL Service Management. The ITIL Framework. In:
http://www.itil-service-management-
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Kulpa, Mararet K. Interpreting the CMMI: a process
improvement approach. Auerbach, 2003.
Nolan, R. Managing the Crisis in Data Processing. In:
Harvard Business Review, vol 57, no. 2, 1999.
Paulk M. C. et al. The Capability Maturity Model:
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Addison Wesley, 18
th
Edition, 1995.
Ridley, Gail; Young, Judy; Carroll, Peter. COBIT and its
Utilization: A framework from the literature. In:
Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences, 2004.
Rocha, Ana R.; Maldonado, José; Weber, Kival. Software
Quality Assurance. Sao Paulo, Prentice Hall, 2001.
Composed by
Maturit
y
Levels
Capability
Domains
Indicate
s
Grouped by
Domains
Goals
Achieves
Processes
Implementation and/or
Institutionalization
Addresses
Infrastructures
or Activities
Im
p
lements
Guidelines
n
Can drive
Figure 3: Preliminary GSD model structure
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