Lifecycle standards for very small companies

ABSTRACT 

Very Small Enterprises (VSEs) - those with 25 or fewer employees - have a pressing need to develop their products efficiently, effectively, and with high quality. Quality orientated process approaches and standards are maturing and gaining acceptance in many companies. There are many potential benefits of using standards. From the VSE perspective, the benefits that certification can provide include: increased competitiveness, greater customer confidence and satisfaction, greater software product quality, increased sponsorship for process improvement, decreased development risk, facilitation of marketing, and higher potential to export.

However, at a time when software quality is becoming key to competitive advantage, the use of ISO/IEC systems and software engineering standards remains limited to a few of the most popular ones. Our research shows that VSEs can find it difficult to relate ISO/IEC standards to their business needs and to justify the application of the standards to their business practices.

To help VSEs meet their needs in the global economy, ISO/IEC 29110 Software Engineering Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities, will emerge soon onto the software engineering standards landscape to help these very small organizations to understand and use an appropriate set of the concepts, processes and practices proposed in the international software engineering standards. Lero, has been a key player in the development of this new international standard.

This talk will put ISO standards in context, explain the evolution of ISO 29110 and elucidate the Lero involvement in international efforts to pilot this standard prior to its formal launch.

BIO

Dr. Rory O’Connor is a Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering at Dublin City University and has been a researcher with Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre since its inception. He is also the Irish head of delegation to ISO/IEC JCT1/SC7. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from City University (London). His research interests are centred on the processes whereby software intensive systems are designed, implemented and managed.