Governing Software Process Improvements in

Globally Distributed Product Development

Abstract
Continuous software process improvement (SPI) practices
have been extensively prescribed to improve performance of
software projects. However, SPI implementation mechanisms have
received little scholarly attention, especially in the context of
distributed software product development. We took an action
research approach to study the SPI journey of a large multinational
enterprise that adopted a distributed product development strategy.
We describe the interventions and action research cycles enacted
over a period of five years in collaboration with the firm, which
resulted in a custom SPI framework that catered to both the social
and

technical

needs

of

the

firms

distributed

teams.

Institutionalizing the process maturity framework got stalled

initially because the SPI initiatives were perceived by product line
managers as a mechanism for exercising wider controls by the
firms top management. The implementation mechanism was
subsequently altered to co-opt product line managers, which
contributed to a wider adoption of the SPI framework. Insights that
emerge from our analysis of the firms SPI journey pertain to the
integration

of

the

technical

and

social

views

of

software

development, preserving process diversity through the use of a

multi-tiered, non-blueprint approach to SPI, the linkage
between key process areas and project control modes, and the role
of SPI in aiding organizational learning.
3. SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Existing System:
Most of the existing furthermore, the cycle time and defect density of the
components developed by the distributed teams was more than two times the
existing organizational benchmarks. There was a huge backlog of quality and
reliability complaints from customers that were not resolved by the distributed
product teams (on average about 20 conformance quality complaints.

Proposed System:
The development of the new system contains the following
activities, which try to automate the entire process keeping in view of the database
integration approach.
1. The system makes the overall project management much easier and flexible.
2. The contract signed clients details are readily available at any moment when
the information is necessary.
3. The schedule of the presently working software engineers, Team leaders and
project leaders can be known is a flash of a second.
4. The generic schedules and the future availability of the man power
calculation can take place in a short time.
5. There is no risk of data mismanagement at any level while the project
development is under process.
6. The library search with regard to the previously developed modules will
become much easier and faster.

7. The associated relationship with respect to a module, component or element

design can be found out very easily and very quickly.
8. The application at peak stages can make the Bug tracking and maintenance
to be more specific and more proper.

IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation is the stage of the project when the theoretical design is
turned out into a working system. Thus it can be considered to be the most
critical stage in achieving a successful new system and in giving the user,
confidence that the new system will work and be effective.
The implementation stage involves careful planning, investigation of the
existing system and its constraints on implementation, designing of methods to
achieve changeover and evaluation of changeover methods.

Interaction Model

1. Client-driven interventions
Client-driven interventions are the means to protect customers from
unreliable services. For example, services that miss deadlines or do not
respond at all for a longer time are replaced by other more reliable
services in future discovery operations.
2. Provider-driven interventions
Provider-driven interventions are desired and initiated by the service
owners to shield themselves from malicious clients. For instance,
requests of clients performing a denial of service attack by sending
multiple requests in relatively short intervals are blocked (instead of
processed) by the service.

MODULES
The system after careful analysis has been identified to be presented with
the following modules:
1. Branch Information Module: This module handles the information of
all

the

unique

branches

existing

under

the

organization.

The

information is maintained in branch master table.

It also maintains the employees working under a particular branch,
which can be known a report generated on employee master table
grouping on branch id.
2. Employee information module: It manages the following sub
modules

Employees performance module.

Employees took assignment module

Employees skill set information module.
This

module

maintains

the

total information

related

to the

employees working in the organization. Their designations and the

departments in which they are recruited. It also gives the
information regarding the employees performance within the
organization related to their job targets. It manages a clear history
of employee still sets and defines the role played by the employee
in a project and the area of his interaction in the project i.e., at the
level of project or module component of elements.
It also maintains department master table.
3. Project information management module: It maintains the total
information related to the unique projects that have been signed for
contract

of

development.

The

module

reveals

the

information

regarding which project belongs to which client and the associated

employee who is in charge for the overall project.
The major concentration is surrounded upon the facts table, which
clearly specifies how many modules a project manages with respect to
no. Of components in each module and the no. Of elements in
association to each component.
The module also specifies the duration of each entity with respect to
the role played by each employee and the entity level in charge.
4. Package information module: This module manages the entire
information regarding the different types of packages that are
purposefully used by the organization in their project development
process and specifies the required packages list to complete a signed
project. It also relates itself to know the different packages an
employee can handle, which can serve as an information to recognize
which employee can be resourceful to which type of project.
5. Project documentation Module: This module maintains the overall
information related to all the documents that are produced in course of
project development process by different employees with respect to
different areas of the project.
The module also serves to build on online help like system for the sake
of user convenience and serves as a reference material to the
developers as well as users.
6. Employees performance management module: This module
maintains the specific time levels taken by the employer in completing
his tasks in turn serving the project analysis team to get the history of
employees response towards an assigned task. The information from
this module can be used as a cross referential check to know the rating
levels of the employee as designated within the company.

7. Report designing module: This module practically manges the

descriptive reports that are necessary within the organization as per the
requirements

of

the

information

designations or departments.

System Specification
System Requirements:
Hardware Requirements:

System

: Pentium IV 2.4 GHz.

Hard Disk

: 40 GB.

Floppy Drive : 1.44 Mb.

Monitor

: 15 VGA Colour.

Mouse

: Logitech.

Ram

: 512 Mb.

Software Requirements:

Operating system

: - Windows 7. 32 bit

Coding Language

: C#.net 4.0

Data Base

: SQL Server 2008

format

at

different

levels

of