Implementation of Systems Engineering and/or Software Engineering ISO/IEC 29110

Projects Completed

• Improving Project Management for Small Projects in a Canadian Engineering Firm
  

This project was done by a engineering graduate student of ÉTS in a division of an engineering company.

A large Canadian engineering company has developed and implemented project management processes for their small-scale and medium-scale projects. The company was already using a robust project management process for their large-scale projects.

Classification of projects

The objectives of this process improvement project were to reduce cost overruns and project delays, standardize practices to facilitate the integration new managers, increase the level of customer satisfaction and to reduce risk-related planning deviations. For this improvement project, the engineering organization used the new ISO/IEC 29110 standard developed specifically for very small entities.

Business Objectives of the Improvement Project

An internal evaluation of the actual practices against the project management parcatices of ISO/IEC 29110 was performed. The figure below illustrates the results of the evaluation.

Evaluation of actual versus ISO/IEC 29110 project managment practices

An analysis of the cost and the benefits of the implementation of small and medium scale project management processes was performed using the ISO economic benefits of standard methodology.

The ISO methodology to evaluate the impacts of standards

The engineering enterprise estimated that, over a three-year timeframe, savings of over 780,000$ would be realized due to the implementation of project management processes using the ISO/IEC 29110 standard.

Estimated Cost and Savings over a 3 Year Period

• Laporte, C.Y., Chevalier, F., An Innovative Approach to the Development of Project Management Processes for Small-scale Projects in a large Engineering Company, 25th Annual International Symposium of INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering), Seattle, US, July 13-16, 2015.
  

            

• Laporte, C.Y., Chevalier, F., Maurice, J.-C., Improving Project Management for Small Projects, ISO Focus+, International Organization for Standardization, February 2013, pp 52-55.
  
  

• Starting-up an IT enterprise in Canada and in Tunisia Using the Management and Engineering Guide of the ISO/IEC 29110 Basic Profile - Metam Solutions
  

• Development of a Social Network Website Using the Management and Engineering Guide of the ISO/IEC 29110 Basic Profile
  

Two software engineering graduate students used the Management and Engineering guide of the ISO/IEC 29110 Basic profile to manage and develop a website.

The article (see the hyperlink below) presents a software development project carried out by a two-person start-up enterprise.

The objective of the project was to develop a social networking website for travelers. The new ISO/IEC 29110 standard developed specifically for very small entities and start-ups was used to develop the software for a Web application to allow users to collaborate with all members of a network of friends, planning their trips and sharing the details in a simple and easily accessible way.

Managing this project and developing the software for it took about 1000 hours. Using proven software engineering practices set out in the ISO/IEC 29110 standard enabled the two-person team to plan and execute the project expending only 13 percent of the total project effort on rework (that is, wasted effort). About 9 percent of the total project effort was expended on prevention tasks and 6 percent on evaluation tasks, such as desk check peer reviewing and testing.

Effort to prevent, execute, detect, and correct errors by the two-member team of the start-up

The article (see the hyperlink below) presents lessons learned and a list of recommendations for future users of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard and guides.

• Laporte, C.Y., Hébert, C., Mineau, C., Development of a Social Network Website Using the New ISO/IEC 29110 Standard Developed Specifically for Very Small Entities, Software Quality Professional Journal, ASQ, vol. 16, no. 4., pp 4-25.

• Pilot Project in a Young Transportation Organisation

Laporte, C.Y., Laporte, C.Y., Tremblay, N., Menaceur, J., Poliquin, D., Houde, R., Developing and implementing systems engineering and project management processes at CSiT - A small Canadian company in public transportation, 26th Annual International Symposium of INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering), Edinburgh, UK, July 18-21, 2016.

• A Pilot Project and an ISO/IEC 29110 Certification of a 4 people VSE in Peru

Peru, like many other countries, has a large percentage of small companies. As illustrated in the table below, over 99.5 % of Peruvian enterprises are VSEs. Over 63% of Peruvian software enterprises are micro enterprises (i.e. less  than 10 employees) and 27% are small businesses (i.e. less than 50 employees).

Number of Employees	Number of Companies	Percentage
Up to 5	1,296,195	96.7
6 to 10	24,249	1,8
From 11 to 20	12,260	0,9
From 21 to 50	5,600	0,4
From 51 to 250	2,399	0,1

Size of enterprises in Peru (adapted from Produce 2012, Peru)

Bit Perfect, a VSE of 4 people, created in 2012 by two alumni of the software engineering program of Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), was sucessfully audited in 2014 by a Brazilian auditor. The VSE provides software development services and automation of business processes with information systems solutions. During its first two years of existence, the VSE has been involved in over 80 projects of which most have been lasted less than two months. The VSE used agile practices to implement software solutions. The VSE of 4 people implemented the Project Management process and the Software Implementation process of the Basic profile of ISO/IEC 29110.
 
After having implemented the 2 processes of the Basic profile, the VSE signed a contract to develop a software solution that facilitates communication between clients and a legal counsel of one of the most important insurance companies in Peru. The solution should be implemented on a web platform and deployed into a cloud environment. The project was executed in 6 sprints of one week each. The project took 882 hours of effort. The table below illustrates the effort spent in prevention, execution, review and correction.

Effort spent in prevention, execution, review and execution

The rework percentage was 18 percent (i.e. 159 hours/882 hours). It should be noted that it was the first time the VSE executed the new Basic profile processes in a real software development project, so there was a learning curve that resulted in additional hours spent on rework for different project tasks.

Once the project had been completed, the VSE initiated a project to obtain an ISO/IEC 29110 certificate of conformity. The audit process was conducted in two phases. During Phase 1, the existing documentation of the software development process lifecycle of the VSE was assessed. During phase 2, the implementation and utilisation of the PM and SI processes of the ISO/IEC 29110 Basic profile was evaluated. At the end of each phase, the certification body issued a report with, if needed, observations and nonconformities.

Certification Process

The VSE spent about 22 hours for Phase 1 of the certification process. In table below we list the cost and the effort of the VSE for Phase 2 of the audit process. The cost of the auditor was $1,000. The audit cost does not include the auditor’s travel expenses. The VSE spent 63 hours for Phase 2 of the certification process.

Cost and effort for Phase 2 of the audit

In July 2014, the Brazilain auditing organisation issued a conformity certificate for the project management and software implementation processes of ISO/IEC 29110 Basic profile. The Peruvian VSE is the first organization in South America (outside Brazil) to obtain an ISO/IEC 29110 certification for their software development processes.

Currently, the VSE continues to optimize its processes as part of its continuous improvement process and will be prepared for the surveillance audits to be carried out in 2015 and in 2016.

The ISO/IEC 29110 conformity certificate has become a major differentiator against the main competitors of the VSE. Bit Perfect has gained access to larger software development projects and increased its customer base. The VSE has also increased its number of workers from 4 to 10 employees (in September 2014).

 ISO/IEC 29110 Conformity Certificate of Bit Perfect Solutions S.A.C. of Peru

Garcia, L., Laporte, C.Y., Arteaga, J., Bruggmann, M., Implementation and Certification of ISO/IEC 29110 in an IT Startup in Peru,
Software Quality Professional Journal, ASQ, vol. 17, no. 2, 2015, pp 16-29.

• Improving Software Engineering Processes of a Canadian Manufacturer
  

TM4, a company of more than 140 people, designs and sells electric powertrain systems in the automotive field. The company plans to increase its production systems in the coming years. Before this increase in production, and for the sake of improvement and compliance with standards, the company wanted to review and improve its software development processes.

ISO/IEC 29110 was used in this effort to improve its processes. A pilot project has been successfully completed in May 2015.

• Pilot Project in a Computer Aided Design Software Support Organisation

This project has been done, in industry, by a software engineering graduate student. This process improvement project was performed, using the draft version of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard for VSEs, in a very small team within a larger organisation. This organisation distributes and supports three types of software products: Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Manufacturing and Computer Aided Engineering. The products serve mainly the aerospace and the automobile industries.

The process improvement project lasted about 4 months. The graduate student was responsible, within the VSE, to define the tasks of 4 developers and improve the following processes with the approval of management:

• Project management
• Software configuration management
• Issue tracking
• Requirements management

A software process improvement approach, adapted to the needs of this VSE, was developed in order to implement, adapt and improve the processes developed by the student.

The graduate student developed a set of step-by-step guides (see the Deployment Package page) for the implementation of version control practices using an Open source tool (SVN), Project management practices using GForge, Requirements management practices using XMLbasedsrs and configuration management practices using SVN.

• Pilot Project Conducted at a School Board of the Montréal Area

This organisation provides a stimulating environment for student learning. It represents 54 primary schools, 14 secondary schools, 2 general training centers and 4 vocational training centers. Over 8,000 employees are working in this organisation. The IT department has a staff of 4 persons: 1 analyst and 3 developers. The IT projects conducted have a duration between 2 weeks and 6 months. The methodology of the pilot projects was as follow:

•         Studied 3 Deployment Packages (DPs)

–        Software Requirements

–        Version Control

–        Project Management

•         Analysed the DPs with regards to the context of the School Board

•         Compared the DPs with current way of doing business

–        Identified improvements needed by the organisation

•         Added components related OpenUp to DPs selected

•         Identified gaps from current processes

•         Prioritized the proposed changes

•         Developed and presented a set of recommendations

The recommendations have been approved by management and are presently being implemented.

• Pilot projects conducted by software engineering graduate students of UQaM (In each team, one student is a staff of the Organisation)

• •Acme Software for Building Maintenance (Case study in French)

–VSE of 8 in Canada and 3 in France. 

–Will pilot verification practices : code review and requirements inspection

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• Acme Insurance (Case study in French)

–About 300 staffs.

–QA department of 20 

–Will pilot configuration management practices

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• Acme Security

–Develop security platforms

–VSE of 29 employees

–Will pilot requirements practices in the R&D group of 9 software developers

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• Acme Web Site Development

–Develop internet sites

–VSE of  25 employees

–Will pilot test practices

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• Acme Communications

–VSE of 25 employees spread in 2 cities

–IT staff of 2

–Will pilot requirements practices

 

Pilot Project Underway

• Pilot Projects in Canada

Centre of Excellence in Neuromics of Université de Montréal - This pilot project involves the development of a software process for a research laboratory and the development and implementation of a Software Design Deployment Package.  The research software allows students to perform various laboratory experiments to understand the functioning of the brain areas used for listening and recognition of sounds.

Pilot project at the Gemalto Company specialized in Security and cryptography

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–Pilot conducted by the Manager of Embedded System Development of 20 developers

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• Pilot Project in France

–A VSE of 14 employees producing pedestrian counters

–VSE of 2 IT staffs

• Pilot Project in Ireland

In Ireland, one pilot project is currently underway and another is shortly about to commence. The initial project involved a VSE of 10 people who are involved in designing software solutions for a range of business types and in addition they have created an in-house development platform. This process improvement project is initially focussing on Project Management process area and is being performed using the draft version of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard for VSEs. For the initial rollout of the pilot project, both the VSE themselves and a major customer are directly involved, with feedback to the pilot project coming from the customer a well.

Bibliography

Professor Claude Y. Laporte's Home page