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Project Management Improvement via ISO/IEC 29110

This paper discusses the implementation of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard in four small software development companies, focusing on project management improvement. The initiative resulted in a standardized set of processes and the creation of a Process Asset Library to enhance project management practices. The PMBOK® Guide was utilized to complement the ISO/IEC standard, providing detailed insights into project management techniques and best practices.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
5 views9 pages

Project Management Improvement via ISO/IEC 29110

This paper discusses the implementation of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard in four small software development companies, focusing on project management improvement. The initiative resulted in a standardized set of processes and the creation of a Process Asset Library to enhance project management practices. The PMBOK® Guide was utilized to complement the ISO/IEC standard, providing detailed insights into project management techniques and best practices.

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paulo.carvalho
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE: EVOLUTION AND PROCESS

J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854


Published online 5 August 2014 in Wiley Online Library ([Link]). DOI: 10.1002/smr.1665

A project management improvement program according to ISO/IEC


29110 and PMBOK®

Antoni-Lluís Mesquida*,† and Antonia Mas


University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

ABSTRACT
This paper describes the results obtained and the lessons learned from the implementation of the ISO/
IEC 29110 standard in four small software development companies, clustered in a joint process
improvement program. The main results of this initiative have been, on the one hand, the definition
of a standardized set of processes and procedures and, on the other, the development of a Process
Asset Library to support project management good practices within the participant organizations. The
PMBOK® Guide was used to complement the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard, in order to provide
detailed knowledge about project management inputs, outputs, and best techniques. Copyright © 2014
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 11 June 2014; Accepted 16 June 2014

KEY WORDS: software process improvement (SPI); project management; very small entities (VSEs);
process asset; ISO/IEC 29110; PMBOK®

1. INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the obtained results and the lessons learned from the implementation of the ISO/IEC
29110 standard in four very small entities (VSEs). The initial aim of the project was to support a set of
software organizations, both in the definition of the best practices that should follow their software
development processes and in the management of their projects.
In order to optimize resources and reduce the costs of consultancy, generally difficult to afford for this
kind of companies, a program involving four organizations was created. All these organizations belong to
TurisTEC (Cluster of companies and institutions dedicated to the production and implementation of
technological solutions for the Tourism Industry).
Initially, these companies raised no restriction on the adoption of one or other standard because the
certification was not a short-term goal for them. Thus, given that the main interest of the companies
was to improve internally, we should propose a set of best practices to be incorporated into their
projects. From our experience in implementing process improvement programs in small and medium
enterprises [1–3] and given the nature of these organizations [4], we suggested to adopt the ISO/IEC
29110 international standard for software process improvement, Because it is specific for VSEs and
completely fitted their needs [5, 6]. Moreover, if they wish to opt for the certification in the future, they
would be already aligned with a recognized international standard.
It was decided to begin working on the production processes, that is, the software implementation
process activities. Because the companies participating in this program had already showed their
interest in process improvement and taken part in previous quality actions, they did already perform

*Correspondence to: Antoni-Lluís Mesquida, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of the
Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

E-mail: [Link]@[Link]

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ACCORDING TO ISO/IEC 29110 847

many of the tasks proposed by this process. Thus, regarding to implementation processes, our work was
limited to complete/add some best practices, improve some assets, and create some new more. However,
none of these four companies had dedicated resources to management. Therefore, the main goal of our
work supporting these organizations was focused on establishing the project management processes.
For this reason, in this paper, we only present the results related to the implementation of project
management process.
In order to define the set of project management processes and assets that could be used by the
organizations in all their projects, the following standards were used:

• ISO/IEC 12207:2008, which establishes a common framework for all the software life cycle
processes. The process map of this standard is very wide, and it may be too ambitious for this kind
of organizations.
• ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2:2011, specific standard for software development companies up to
25 employees that includes a subset of ISO/IEC 12207 processes adapted to the particular needs
of these organizations. It is structured in only two processes, Software Implementation and Project
Management.
• The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide, specific for project manage-
ment processes. It has been promoted and developed by the Project Management Institute, a
not-for-profit professional association, which primary goal is to advance the practice, science,
and profession of project management.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly describes the international standards used in
this work, ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 and the PMBOK Guide. Section 3 presents the existing relation
between these two standards. Section 4 shows the Process Asset Library developed for supporting
the deployment of ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management process. Section 5 discusses the
lessons learned from its application in the companies. Finally, conclusions are summarized in
Section 6.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1. ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2


The ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard [7] is aimed at providing a management and engineering guide,
which is applicable to the vast majority of small and VSEs that do not develop critical software.
This standard defines two processes, Software Implementation and Project Management. The purpose
of the Software Implementation process is the systematic performance of the analysis, design,
construction, integration, and tests activities for new or modified software products according to the
specified requirements. The purpose of the Project Management process is to establish and carry out in
a systematic way the tasks of the software implementation project, which allows complying with the
project’s objectives in the expected quality, time, and cost.
The Project Management process has the four following activities:

• PM.1 Project planning


• PM.2 Project plan execution
• PM.3 Project assessment and control
• PM.4 Project closure
The ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management process is related with a subset of 10 ISO/IEC
12207 [8] processes. Table I shows the relations between the objectives of the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2
Project Management process and these 10 software life cycle processes.
The ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard has adapted these 10 processes to the needs of small and VSEs
to facilitate the introduction of project management best practices. More concretely, and as expected,
this standard covers the activities related to the triple constraint: scope, time, and cost. Because it is
a standard adapted to small organizations, change management and risk management are addressed

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr
848 A.-L. MESQUIDA AND A. MAS

Table I. ISO/IEC 12207 processes related to ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management process.
Objectives of the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management
process ISO/IEC 12207 processes
PM.O1. The Project Plan for the execution of the project is Project planning process
developed according to the Statement of Work and reviewed Measurement process
and accepted by the Customer. The Tasks and Resources
necessary to complete the work are sized and estimated.
PM.O2. Progress of the project is monitored against the Project assessment and control process
Project Plan and recorded in the Progress Status Record. Measurement process
Corrections to remediate problems and deviations from Software acceptance support process
the plan are taken when project targets are not achieved. Software problem resolution process
Closure of the project is performed to get the Customer
acceptance documented in the Acceptance Record.
PM.O3. The Change Requests are addressed through their Software requirements analysis process
reception and analysis. Changes to software requirements
are evaluated for cost, schedule, and technical impact.
PM.O4. Review meetings with the Work Team and the Software review process
Customer are held. Agreements are registered and tracked.
PM.O5. Risks are identified as they develop and during the Risk management process
conduct of the project. Software review process
PM.O6. A software Version Control Strategy is developed. Software configuration management process
Items of Software Configuration are identified, defined,
and baselined. Modifications and releases of the items are
controlled and made available to the Customer and Work
Team. The storage, handling, and delivery of the items
are controlled.
PM.O7. Software quality assurance is performed to provide Software quality assurance process
assurance that work products and processes comply with
the Project Plan and Requirements Specification.

from a more general perspective. However, it does consider neither the issues related to the
organizational management (human resources and infrastructure) nor the aspects related to the
providers (procurement and supply).

2.2. The PMBOK guide


The PMBOK Guide [9] is a collection of recognized good practices that are widely applied by project
management professionals and practitioners for the successful management of projects around the
world. The PMBOK Guide provides guidelines for managing projects within an organization and
also promotes a common vocabulary within the project management profession for discussing,
writing, and applying project management concepts.
The project management good practices in the PMBOK Guide cover the entire project lifecycle, from
proposal to delivery, final acceptance, and closing. The standard defines 47 project management
processes, which are grouped into five categories known as Project Management Process Groups:
initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Moreover, the PMBOK Guide
recognizes 10 Knowledge Areas typical of almost all projects:
• Project integration management
• Project scope management
• Project time management
• Project cost management
• Project quality management
• Project human resources management
• Project communications management
• Project risk management
• Project procurement management
• Project stakeholder management

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr
A PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ACCORDING TO ISO/IEC 29110 849

3. RELATION BETWEEN ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 AND THE PMBOK GUIDE

The first step of our work consisted on finding all the existing relations between the tasks of the ISO/
IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management process and the PMBOK Knowledge Areas in order to increase
the knowledge about these tasks and also, to facilitate the development of organizational process assets
to be used in all the projects within the company. As a first conclusion, we observed that the
information of the processes of the following PMBOK management areas should be considered and
used during the development of our project management process asset library:
• Project Integration Management. This area includes the processes and activities of management,
including: formally constitute a project, plan it, monitor it, control it, and direct it to closure. The
Integration Management is a cross-sectional area and basic, whatever the level of management
applied. Therefore, and as might be expected, the specific standard for small and VSEs includes
a reference to such activities.
• Project Scope Management, Project Time Management, and Project Cost Management. Nor is
it surprising that ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 considers the processes related to the triple constraint:
define the work required to complete the project, subdivide it into smaller components
(project activities), develop the schedule, and estimate both the resources and the cost needed
to carry out the project.
The ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard includes the identification of the roles, responsibilities, and
skills required for the necessary profiles of the project team and the selection of the most appropriate
to each profile. In contrast, the standard does not cover other tasks of Project Human Resource
Management, such as training and team member’s performance control.
ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 considers the identification of risks that may affect the project and their
control during the project execution, but in a very general way, without specifically mentioning the
tasks related to the quantitative and qualitative risk analysis addressed by the PMBOK Guide area
Project Risk Management.
The project management good practices of the following PMBOK Knowledge Areas are not
considered by the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard:
• Project Quality Management. While ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 considers as aspects of quality assur-
ance the verification, validation, and review of the products obtained, the PMBOK Project Quality
Management area refers to the processes and activities that establish responsibilities, objectives,
and quality policies for continuous improvement of the processes carried out throughout the
project.
• Project Communications Management. The standard does include neither the identification of the
stakeholders’ information needs nor the definition of the communication plan among all project
stakeholders.
• Project Procurement Management. The standard does not cover any of the processes related to the
purchase or acquisition of products, services, or results to be obtained out of the project team.
• Project Stakeholder Management. The standard does not address any aspect related to the identi-
fication of the persons or organizations affected by the project or with the documentation of
relevant information regarding their interests, involvement, and impact on project success.

4. PROCESS ASSET LIBRARY TO SUPPORT PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN SMALL AND


MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

From the input and output products proposed by the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management
process, and from the inputs, techniques, and outputs proposed by the selected processes of the
PMBOK Guide, a Process Asset Library to support the performance of project management tasks
has been developed. The developed assets are categorized into four groups of assets (that correspond
to the four ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management process activities): project planning, project
execution plan, project assessment and control, and project closure.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr
850 A.-L. MESQUIDA AND A. MAS

4.1. Project planning assets

Table II shows the developed assets that can be used during the planning phase of the project. For each
asset, the table shows the ISO/IEC 291105-1-2 Project Management process tasks that use or produce
that asset (second column) and the processes of the PMBOK Guide, which techniques can be used to
expand the knowledge necessary to use the asset (third column).

Table II. Project planning assets.

Asset ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management tasks PMBOK® processes


Project charter PM.1.1 Review the Statement of Work. 4.1 Develop project charter
5.1 Plan scope management
WBS PM.1.3 Identify the specific tasks to be performed in 5.4 Create WBS
order to produce the Deliverables and their Software 6.1 Plan schedule management
Components identified in the Statement of Work.
Include tasks in the SI process along with verification,
validation, and reviews with Customer and Work Team
Tasks to assure the quality of work products. Identify
the Tasks to perform the Delivery Instructions.
Document the Tasks.
Schedule PM.1.4 Establish the Estimated Duration to perform each task. 6.2 Define activities
PM.1.7 Assign estimated start and completion dates to 6.3 Sequence activities
each one of the Tasks in order to create the Schedule of 6.5 Estimate activity durations
the Project Tasks taking into account the assigned 6.6 Develop schedule
resources, sequence, and dependency of the Tasks.
PM.1.8 Calculate and document the project Estimated
Effort and Cost.
RBS PM.1.5 Identify and document the Resources: human, 6.4 Estimate activity resources
material, equipment and tools, standards, including the 9.1 Plan human resource
required training of the Work Team to perform the project. management
Include in the schedule the dates when Resources and 9.2 Acquire project team
training will be needed.
PM.1.6 Establish the Composition of Work Team
assigning roles and responsibilities according to the
Resources.
Budget PM.1.8 Calculate and document the project Estimated 7.1 Plan cost management
Customer tender Effort and Cost. 7.2 Estimate costs
7.3 Determine budget
Project plan PM.1.11 Generate the Project Plan integrating the 4.2 Develop project
Mind map elements previously identified and documented. management plan
PM.1.12 Include Product Description, Scope, 5.2 Collect requirements
Objectives, and Deliverables in the Project Plan. 5.3 Define scope
PM.1.9 Identify and document the risks that may affect 11.2 Identify risks
the project.
PM.1.10 Document the Version Control Strategy in the
Project Plan.
PM.1.13 Verify and obtain approval of the Project Plan.
Verify that all Project Plan elements are viable and
consistent. The results found are documented in a
Verification Results, and corrections are made until the
document is approved by PM.
PM.1.14 Review and accept the Project Plan. Customer
reviews and accepts the Project Plan, making sure that
the Project Plan elements match with the Statement of
Work.
PM.1.15 Establish the Project Repository using the
Version Control Strategy.
PM, project management; RBS, resource breakdown structure; WBS, work breakdown structure.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr
A PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ACCORDING TO ISO/IEC 29110 851

4.2. Project plan execution assets


Table III shows the assets that can be used to implement the documented plan on the project.

4.3. Project assessment and control assets


Table IV shows the developed assets that can be used to evaluate the performance of the plan against
documented commitment.

4.4. Project closure assets


Table V shows the assets to provide the project’s documentation and products in accordance with
contract requirements.

Table III. Project plan execution assets.


Asset ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management tasks PMBOK® processes

Progress status record PM.2.1 Monitor the project plan execution and record 4.4 Monitor and control
actual data in progress status record. project work
Change request PM 2.2 Analyze and evaluate the Change Request for 4.5 Perform integrated
cost, schedule, and technical impact. The Change change management
Request can be initiated externally by the Customer or
internally by the Work Team. Update the Project Plan,
if the accepted change does not affect agreements with
Customer. Change Request, which affects those
agreements, needs to be negotiated by both parties
(see PM.2.4).
Meeting record PM.2.3 Conduct revision meetings with the Work 4.3 Direct and manage
Team, identify problems, review risk status, record project work
agreements, and track them to closure.
PM.2.4 Conduct revision meetings with the Customer,
record agreements, and track them to closure. Change
request initiated by Customer or initiated by Work
Team, which affects the Customer, needs to be
negotiated to reach acceptance of both parties. If
necessary, update the Project Plan according to new
agreement with Customer.

Table IV. Project assessment and control assets.

Asset ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management tasks PMBOK® processes


Project performance report PM.3.1 Evaluate project progress with respect to the 4.4 Monitor and control
Project Plan, comparing actual Tasks against planned project work
Tasks, actual results against established project 5.6 Control scope
Objectives, actual resource allocation against planned 6.7 Control schedule
Resources, actual cost against budget estimates, actual 7.4 Control costs
time against planned schedule, and actual risk against 11.6 Control risks
previously identified
PM.3.2 Establish actions to correct deviations or
problems and identified risks concerning the
accomplishment of the plan, as needed, document them
in Correction Register and track them to closure.
PM.3.3 Identify changes to requirements and/or Project
Plan to address major deviations, potential risks, or
problems concerning the accomplishment of the plan,
document them in Change Request, and track them to
closure.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr
852 A.-L. MESQUIDA AND A. MAS

Table V. Project closure assets.


Asset ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management tasks PMBOK® processes

Acceptance record PM.4.1 Formalize the completion of the project 5.5 Validate scope
according to the Delivery Instructions established 4.6 Close project or phase
in the Project Plan, providing acceptance support
and getting
the Acceptance Record signed.
Historical information PM.4.2 Update Project Repository. 4.6 Close project or phase

5. LESSONS LEARNED

In this section, the remarks we have made during the implementation of the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2
standard in the four companies in this clustered action are described. Regarding general aspects, we
can state the following:
• These small companies are fully devoted to their productive work and to solve their day-to-day
survival problems. They are often unable and unwilling to devote time and efforts to define pro-
cesses or assets. These companies do not have a quality department, unlike larger organizations,
which is dedicated to these tasks. In small organizations, software engineers are more oriented to
product, service, or management instead of establishing new working practices.
• These companies were unaware of the existence of both the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 and the ISO/
IEC 12207 standards. Some employees knew the PMBOK Guide, but above all, they knew the
existence of the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. In any case, all these stan-
dards seemed very complex and out of reach to them. We fully agree with Boucher et al. [6] when
they state that ‘… it is still needed often requiring intervention from software process consultants’.
We really think these companies need external consultancy that offers support in process development
and improvement, issues that they generally unknown and considered utopian and distant.
• Small entities not only need to know what to do in order to improve their processes, but they need
to have specific procedures describing in detail the work they have to perform, with a clear set of
best practices and a set of assets that will help to carry them out. These procedures should be
simple and applicable to the types of projects that they normally undertake.
• They spend very little effort to improve employee training, and when done, it is not according to a
training plan, but as an ad hoc action derived from a detected short-term need.
• These companies usually have no explicit procedures for the purchase or acquisition of products,
services, or results to be obtained outside of the company. Moreover, it has not been detected any
best practice of the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 Project Management process related to the PMBOK
Guide’s Project Procurement Management area.
• While in the clustered action, different ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 tasks for the identification of potential
risks have been established, the truth is that it was not traditionally accustomed to performing risk
management activities. Incidents were assumed and the companies used to react as they could.
Regarding ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 application aspects, we note that in our case:
• During the definition of the Project Management process, we had to establish a new mechanism
for communication among all the stakeholders in a project. We observed that some of these
practices were informally conducted, but they were not defined in the organizations. Thus,
although the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard does not include the identification of the stake-
holders’ information needs and the definition of the communication plan, these good practices
were considered in our improvement program.
• There were as many project management methods as there were project managers in the
organization. Because there was no an established procedure, each employee used the method
he or she knew and that best suited to his or her way of working. In order to obtain a standard
procedure, we had to consider their good practices and then agree on the most appropriate. It is
well known the change resistance we all have. For this reason, and in order to generate a useful
process, it is much better to reach a consensus than imposing it.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr
A PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ACCORDING TO ISO/IEC 29110 853

• Organizations need to have tools to become more efficient and productive in their daily work.
Therefore, it was necessary to select, propose, and agree a set of tools to support both collabora-
tive work and project management tasks. Because some of the participant companies had already
developed some internal software tool to support some of these aspects, each company selected
the subset of tools that best suited their needs; from the list, we had proposed Wiggio, TeamLab,
Teambox, and Zoho, among others.
• Although it seems that ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 does not establish any specific practice related to the
performance monitoring of team members, a core set of performance indicators and the way of
monitoring them were established.
The valuation of this initiative for ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 implementation, pioneer in our country, is
totally positive. As key strengths for the success of the project, it is worth highlighting the following:
• The active participation, motivation, and consciousness of all the participant companies.
• The willingness to share knowledge among companies. It is important to note that these compa-
nies are in the same sector, and they sometimes compete to obtain a new project/client.
• The establishment of a detailed plan and its compliance with only some slight deviations. The
program had a very clear schedule with periodical monitoring in all the companies. Without these
joint reviews and the understanding of the improvement actions to take by the team, the cost of the
implementation of the standard would have been much higher.
Now, from a technical point of view, we could point out the following:
• The selection of a representative in each company. This person channeled the needs and requirements
of his or her company and raised them to the meetings held between all the representatives and con-
sultants. The agreements made in these meetings needed subsequent approval by each organization.
• The selection of a collaborative work tool (TeamLab) to support the communication and file
sharing between all the representatives and consultants.

6. CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER WORK

This paper has described the activities performed during a clustered plan of four small software
development companies, which the main objective was the implementation of the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2
standard. Because the Software Implementation process was already quite deployed in all the
participant organizations, the article focuses on the Project Management process. The main result of
this process improvement program has been the definition of a standardized set of processes and
procedures and the creation of a library of process assets that are useful for the projects that are carried
out within the participant organizations. The PMBOK Guide was used to complement the ISO/IEC
29110-5-1-2 standard, in order to provide detailed knowledge about the inputs, outputs, and best
techniques for each Project Management task.
The implementation of the processes defined in the grouped plan has enabled the participant companies
to increase or generate new knowledge on the projects carried out within the organization. It has
represented a big innovation on their former way of working before incorporating these processes.
Traditionally, the knowledge generated by projects used when developing new tenders was only in the
minds of project managers or the top manager (often also the company’s owner). Now, the knowledge
is transferred to the company. There is a basic but decisive set of indicators that enable the company to
improve new tenders, optimize the work, and, as a result, increase their competitiveness.
Regarding future actions, we want to mention that some of the actions identified at the beginning of the
project need to change some aspect that has not provided the expected result when it has been applied in
everyday projects. These future actions that are planned include the development of new assets, the
changes in some of the existing ones, and the addition of some new good practices to certain processes.
Although certification was not the main objective of the participant organizations, a company that
has implemented the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard, besides the fact that it will have met its goal of
improving its internal operations, it may even choose to be certificated according to an international
standard for software process improvement. We consider that it is more reasonable that these

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr
854 A.-L. MESQUIDA AND A. MAS

companies will select a standard created specifically for this type of organizations rather than a general
purpose standard, such as ISO/IEC 15504 or Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). Because
project management good practices must be implemented to increase the maturity of a company, this
paper recommends the use of the ISO/IEC 29110-5-1-2 standard as a starting point for small and VSEs
to establish contact with project management and/or organizational maturity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology with ERDF
funds under grants TIN2013-46928-C3-2-R and TIN2010-20057-C03-03.

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AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Dr Antoni-Lluís Mesquida is an assistant lecturer in computer science at the University


of the Balearic Islands. He is teaching in the area of Software Engineering. His research
interests include software process improvement and service management. He has partici-
pated in the QuaSAR project, a software process improvement program in software small
companies at the Balearic Islands. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the
University of the Balearic Islands.

Dr Antonia Mas is a university lecturer of software engineering and project management


at the University of the Balearic Islands. Her research interests include software process
improvement, project management, and service management. She has promoted and co-
ordinated the QuaSAR Project, a software process improvement initiative in small
software companies at the Balearic Islands. She is a member of the Software Quality
Group of ATI Spain from 1998, and she acts as the editorial board member in the REICIS
journal.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Softw. Evol. and Proc. 2014; 26:846–854
DOI: 10.1002/smr

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