Success Factors of Software Process Improvement for Small and Medium Web Companies

Abstract

This thesis investigates Software Process Improvement (SPI) success factors for small and medium Web companies. It is contended that SPI success factors for Web companies have special characteristics due to the inherent differences between Web engineering and software engineering. SPI strives to improve the maturity and quality of software processes. Identifying the factors that make SPI successful in small and medium Web companies is important yet this topic has not been fully addressed by the literature in this field. To fill this gap, this PhD thesis proposes a theoretical framework of SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies which comprises of a set of eighteen categories, and their associated relationships and properties. The research conducted in the context of this PhD research was multi-phased and employed investigation of both the state of art and state of practice on the research topic. A mixed methods approach was used for the research where both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The research's first phase involved conducting a systematic literature review which also led to the identification of the research gap investigated in this research. In the second phase, a replication study of a generalized framework of SPI success factors within the scope of software projects was conducted to assess its applicability on the domain of small and medium Web companies. In the third phase, a grounded theory-based qualitative research methodology was employed to propose an exploratory framework of SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies. In the fourth phase, a theoretical framework of SPI success factors was obtained by performing comparative analysis and theoretical integration on the results of the first three phases. In the fifth and last research phase, the obtained theoretical framework was validated by carrying out a quantitative investigation of key SPI success factors. This research contributes to both theory and practice by providing an improved understanding of how SPI and company success may be achieved in the unexplored domain of small and medium Web companies with the help of the identified success factors.