ISO 29110

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ISO/IEC 29110: Software Life Cycle Profiles and Guidelines for Very Small Entities (VSEs) standards and technical reports are targeted at Very Small Entities (VSEs). A Very Small Entity (VSE) is an enterprise, organization, department or project having up to 25 people. The ISO/IEC 29110 series is a new series of international standards entitled "Software Engineering — Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs)". The standards were developed by working group 24 (WG24) of sub-committee 7 (SC7) of Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) of the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.

In 2011, a new project was approved to develop standards, similar to ISO/IEC 29110, for VSEs developing systems.

Contents

[edit] The need for lightweight Software Engineering standards

Industry recognizes the value of VSEs in contributing valuable products and services. VSEs also develop and/or maintain software that is used in larger systems, therefore, recognition of VSEs as suppliers of high quality software is often required.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)[1] SME and Entrepreneurship Outlook report (2005), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) constitute the dominant form of business organisation in all countries world-wide, accounting for over 95 % and up to 99 % of the business population depending on country. The challenge facing OECD governments is to provide a business environment that supports the competitiveness of this large heterogeneous business population and that promotes a vibrant entrepreneurial culture.

From studies and surveys conducted (,[2][3]), it is clear that the majority of International Standards do not address the needs of VSEs. Conformance with these standards is difficult, if not impossible, giving VSEs no way, or very limited ways, to be recognized as entities that produce quality software in their domain. Therefore, VSEs are often cut off from some economic activities.

It has been found that VSEs find it difficult to relate international standards to their business needs and to justify their application to their business practices. Most VSEs can neither afford the resources, in terms of number of employees, budget and time, nor do they see a net benefit in establishing software life cycle processes.To rectify some of these difficulties, a set of standards and technical reports have been developed according to a set of VSE characteristics.(,[4][5]).The documents are based on subsets of appropriate standards elements, referred to as VSE profiles. The purpose of a VSE profile is to define a subset of international Standards relevant to the VSE context, for example, processes and outcomes of ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 and products of ISO/IEC 15289.

ISO/IEC 29110 series, targeted by audience, have been developed to improve product and/or service quality, and process performance. See Table 1. ISO/IEC 29110 is not intended to preclude the use of different life cycles such as: waterfall, iterative, incremental, evolutionary or agile.

Table 1 - ISO/IEC 29110 target audience
ISO/IEC 29110 Title Target audience
Part 1 Overview VSEs, assessors, standards producers, tool vendors, and methodology vendors.
Part 2 Framework and taxonomy Standards producers, tool vendors and methodology vendors. Not intended for VSEs
Part 3 Assessment guide Assessors and VSEs
Part 4 Profile specifications Standards producers, tool vendors and methodology vendors. Not intended for VSEs.
Part 5 Management and engineering guide VSEs

If a new profile is needed, ISO/IEC 29110-4[6] and ISO/IEC 29110-5[7] can be developed without impacting existing documents and they become ISO/IEC 29110-4-m and ISO/IEC 29110-5-m-n respectively through the ISO/IEC process.

[edit] Profiles

The core characteristic of the entities targeted by ISO/IEC 29110 is size, however there are other aspects and characteristics of VSEs that may affect profile preparation or selection, such as: Business Models (commercial, contracting, in-house development, etc.); Situational factors (such as criticality, uncertainty environment, etc.); and Risk Levels. Creating one profile for each possible combination of values of the various dimensions introduced above would result in an unmanageable set of profiles. Accordingly VSE’s profiles are grouped in such a way as to be applicable to more than one category. Profile Groups are a collection of profiles which are related either by composition of processes (i.e. activities, tasks), or by capability level, or both.

[edit] Generic Profile Group

The Generic Profile Group has been defined as applicable to a vast majority of VSEs that do not develop critical software and have typical situational factors. The Generic Profile Group is a collection of four profiles (Entry, Basic Intermediate, Advanced), providing a progressive approach to satisfying a vast majority of VSEs. The Generic Profile Group is based on the Mexican software process model MoProSoft[8]

[edit] Published Standards and Technical Report

Figure 1 describes the ISO/IEC 29110 series and positions the parts within the framework of reference. ISO/IEC TR 29110-1[9] defines the business terms common to the VSE Profile Set of Documents. It introduces processes, lifecycle and standardization concepts, and the ISO/IEC 29110 series. It also introduces the characteristics and requirements of a VSE, and clarifies the rationale for VSE-specific profiles, documents, standards and guides.

ISO/IEC 29110-2[10] introduces the concepts for software engineering standardized profiles for VSEs, and defines the terms common to the VSE Profile Set of Documents. It establishes the logic behind the definition and application of standardized profiles. It specifies the elements common to all standardized profiles (structure, conformance, assessment) and introduces the taxonomy (catalogue) of ISO/IEC 29110 profiles.

ISO/IEC TR 29110-3[11] defines the process assessment guidelines and compliance requirements needed to meet the purpose of the defined VSE Profiles. ISO/IEC TR 29110-3 also contains information that can be useful to developers of assessment methods and assessment tools. ISO/IEC TR 29110-3 is addressed to people who have direct relation with the assessment process, e.g. the assessor and the sponsor of the assessment, who need guidance on ensuring that the requirements for performing an assessment have been met.[12]

ISO/IEC 29110-4-1 provides the specification for all the profiles of the Generic Profile Group. The Generic Profile Group is applicable to VSEs that do not develop critical software products. The profiles are based on subsets of appropriate standards elements. VSE Profiles apply and are targeted at authors/providers of guides and authors/providers of tools and other support material.

ISO/IEC 29110-5-m-n provides an implementation management and engineering guide for the VSE Profile described in ISO/IEC 29110-4-m.

[edit] Deployment Packages

A Deployment Package (DP) is a set of artefacts developed to facilitate the implementation of a set of practices, of the selected framework, in a Very Small Entity (VSE). The Deployment Packages, described below, have been developed to help implement the processes of the Generic Profile Group. The Generic profile group is applicable to VSEs that do not develop critical software. The Generic profile group is composed of 4 profiles: Entry, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. The Generic profile group does not imply any specific application domain.

The content of a typical deployment package is listed in table 2. The mapping to standards and models is given as information to show that a Deployment Package has explicit links to Part 5 and to selected ISO standards, such as ISO/IEC 12207, or models such as the CMMI from the Software Engineering Institute. By implementing a deployment package, a VSE can see its concrete step to achieve or demonstrate coverage to ISO/IEC 29110 Part 5. Deployment Packages are designed such that a VSE can implement its content, without having to implement the complete framework at the same time.

Table 2. Content of a Deployment Package (ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2)
1. Technical Description
         Purpose of this document
         Why this Topic is important?
2. Definitions
3. Relationships with ISO/IEC 29110
4. Overview of Processes, Activities, Tasks, Roles and Products
5. Description of Processes, Activities, Tasks, Steps, Roles and Products
         Role Description
         Product Description
         Artefact Description
6. Template
7. Example
8. Checklist
9. Tool
10. References to other Standards and Models (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 12207, CMMI®)
11. References
12. Evaluation Form

The basic profile describes software development of a single application by a single project team with no special risk or situational factors. The set of DPs for the Basic profile is illustrated in figure 2.

Figure 2. Deployment Packages to support the Basic Profile

Deployment packages as well as other support material, such as a plug-in, are available at no cost on Internet (see below).

[edit] Status

[edit] In preparation

  • For the Entry Profile: ISO/IEC IS 29110 Part 4-1 and ISO/IEC TR 29110-5-1-1 an engineering and management guide - publication expected in late 2012 or early 2013.
  • For the Intermediate Profile: ISO/IEC IS 29110 Part 4-1 and ISO/IEC TR 29110-5-1-3 an engineering and management guide - publication expected in 2013.
  • For the Advanced Profile: ISO/IEC IS 29110 Part 4-1 and ISO/IEC TR 29110-5-1-3 an engineering and management guide - publication expected in 2013.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Oecd Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Outlook Report, 2005
  2. ^ Land, S. K., Results of the IEEE Survey of Software Engineering Standards Users. Software Engineering Standards Symposium and Forum, 1997. Emerging International Standards. ISESS 97, Walnut Creek, CA, June 1–6, pp. 242 – 270, 1997.
  3. ^ Laporte, C.Y., Alexandre, S., O’Connor, R., A Software Engineering Lifecycle Standard for Very Small Enterprise, in R.V. O’Connor et al. (Eds.): EuroSPI 2008, CCIS 16, pp. 129–141
  4. ^ Habra, N., Alexandre, S., Desharnais, J-M, Laporte, C.Y., Renault, A., Initiating Software Process Improvement in Very Small Enterprises Experience with a Light Assessment Tool, Information and Software Technology, Volume 50, June 2008, Pages 763-771. (Draft Version)
  5. ^ O'Connor, R., Sanders, M., Software Lifecycle Standards for Very Small Software Companies, Software and Systems Quality Conference, Dublin, Ireland, March 4, 2009.
  6. ^ ISO/IEC 29110-4-1:2011, “Software Engineering -- Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) - Part 4-1: Profile specifications: Generic profile group”. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2011.
  7. ^ ISO/IEC TR 29110-5-1-2:2011, “Software Engineering - Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) - Part 5-1-2: Management and engineering guide: Generic Profile Group: Basic Profile”. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2011.
  8. ^ Oktaba, H., Felix G., Mario P., Francisco R., Francisco P. and Claudia, A.; Software Process Improvement: The Competisoft Project, IEEE Computer, October 2007, Vol. 40, No 10
  9. ^ ISO/IEC TR 29110-1, “Software Engineering - Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) - Part 1: Overview”. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2011.
  10. ^ ISO/IEC 29110-2:2011 Software Engineering - Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) - Part 2: Framework and taxonomy, Geneva: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2011.
  11. ^ ISO/IEC TR 29110-3, “Software Engineering - Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) - Part 3: Assessment Guide”. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2011.
  12. ^ Varkoi, T., Makinen, T., A Process Model for Very Small Software Entities, SPICE conference, 18–20 May 2010 - Pisa, Italy
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