M. Spinola

Six Sigma emphasizes the variability causes search. The special causes are more evident, which favors their identification, while the common causes are more difficult to be identified and solved and, for that, they request a specialists' participation. Many software development process variability causes are common and it is not always possible to have Six Sigma specialists to identify them. An

In software development, the effort is the measure of process capacity, while resource relocation is one of the potential causes of its variability. Without appropriate capacity, the developer cannot meet the demand; with capacity excess, it creates an idleness that reduces its profitability. Six Sigma proposes the use of Cp capacity index just with process data and Cpk capacity index, when a certain goal is considered. The article analyzes the use of those indexes for effort calculation in some projects of an ERP software developer organization, in which resource relocation is a condition for the businesses. The use of those indexes makes possible to calculate the opportunity cost, that translates the resource relocation cost- benefit relationship and, for this reason, they are used as exchange currency in business negotiations.

A growing number of software producing companies has adopted the denomination "Software factory", the organizational structure of which facilitates outsourcing by means of segmentation of activities and adoption of a more flexible and dynamic production system. In this environment, one of the main issues to be resolved is how to map processes, clearly identifying what, who and how each work has to be conducted, aligning activities to the company organizational structure. With this purpose, the paper presents a Model for Defining Software Factory Processes, applied in field by means of an action research concerning the process modeling of a system improvement project. The final result provided a clear and defined view of the process, allowing the identification and improvement of critical points, besides aiding the management of service demand, people, processes and outsourcing activities.

The requirements elicitation is essential to the success of software development projects. Many papers have been written that promulgate specific elicitation methods. However, none have yet modeled elicitation in a way that makes clear the critical role played by situational knowledge. This paper presents a unified model of the requirements elicitation process that emphasizes the applying the concepts of patterns

Most Brazilian software development companies focus on the customer's needs, thus creating cells dedicated to these customers both for products that have been built or that are being built. Furthermore, they normally lack the financial resources necessary for investments in specialized technologies and professionals, leading them to use processes that do not adhere to the market's best practices, such as object-oriented technology, standard development methods and procedures such as RUP (rational unified process), UML (unified modeling language), MSF (Microsoft solutions framework) and quality models proposed by SEI/CMMI (Software Engineering Institute / capability maturity model integration). This chapter describes the general concepts of the low and high complexity software development processes and models, the steps that a small Brazilian software development company followed to achieve maturity, parting from a research and development initiative in the aforementioned processes, and finally creating and instituting the customized software engineering process - CSEP and the process support tool - PST. An economic/financial overview of the Brazilian market for software development is also presented, besides historical data concerning the projects before and after the implementation of the processes and tool, as well as the success obtained, and lastly the emerging trends in Brazil's software development market.

Resumo—Gerenciar os requisitos durante o desenvolvimento de software tem sido apontado como fator crítico de sucesso nos projetos. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a técnica chamada revisão baseada em perspectiva e o controle estatístico de processo como ferramentas para monitorar a qualidade dos requisitos em uma empresa de automação bancária. A proposta é desenvolvida a partir de uma pesquisa

Software importance keeps growing fast and consistently for many organizations. The growth of software functionality in manufactured products and the emergence of digital media, convergent spaces including digital content, software, and multi-channels to the market, are recent examples of organizational changes where software assumed a central position for the corporate strategy. This paper analyzes the alignment between strategic objectives and software development processes at software companies and proposes a methodology to ensure that development processes are aligned with the corporate capabilities required to exploit future market opportunities. The methodology includes the categorization of different software companies according to their core capabilities and the customization of the technology roadmapping technique for software companies. The research process included the realization of case studies and a survey