Abstract
Software product line engineering is an inter-disciplinary concept. It spans the dimensions of business, architecture, process, and the organization. Some of the potential benefits of this approach include cost reduction, improvements in product quality and a decrease in product development time. The increasing popularity of software product line engineering in the software industry necessitates a process maturity evaluation methodology. Accordingly, this paper presents an organizational maturity model of software product line engineering for evaluating the maturity of organizational dimension. The model assumes that organizational theories, behavior, and management play a critical role in the institutionalization of software product line engineering within an organization. Assessment questionnaires and a rating methodology comprise the framework of this model. The objective and design of the questionnaires are to collect information about the software product line engineering process from the dual perspectives of organizational behavior and management. Furthermore, we conducted two case studies and reported the assessment results using the organizational maturity model presented in this paper.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmed, F., Capretz, L. F., & Sheikh, S. A. (2007). Institutionalization of software product line: An empirical investigation of organizational factors. The Journal of Systems and Software, 80(6), 836–849.
Argyris, C. (1977). Double-loop learning in organizations. Harvard Business Review, 55, 115–125.
Bayer, J., Flege, O., Knauber, P., Laqua, R., Muthig, D., & Schmid, K., et al. (1999). PuLSE: A methodology to develop software product lines. In Proceedings of the 5th ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on Software Reusability, (pp. 122–131).
Beckhard, R., & Harris, R. T. (1987). Organizational transitions: Managing complex change. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Birk, G. H., John, I., Schmid, K., von der Massen, T., & Muller, K. (2003). Product line engineering, the state of the practice. IEEE Software, 20(6), 52–60.
Bosch, J. (2000). Design and use of software architectures: Adopting and evolving a product-line approach. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Bosch, J. (2001). Software product lines: Organizational alternatives. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Software Engineering, (pp. 91–100).
Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56(2), 81–105.
Cao, G., Clarke, S., & Lehaney, B. (2000). A systematic view of organizational change and TQM. The TQM Magazine, 12(3), 186–193.
Cattell, R. B. (1966). The scree test for the number of factors. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1, 245–276.
Clements, P. C. (2001). On the importance of product line scope. In Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Software Product Family Engineering, (pp. 69–77).
Clements, P. C., Jones, L. G., Northrop, L. M., & McGregor, J. D. (2005). Project management in a software product line organization. IEEE Software, 22(5), 54–62.
Clements, P. C., & Northrop, L. M. (2002). Software product lines practices and patterns. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.
Comrey, A. L., & Lee, H. B. (1992). A first course on factor analysis. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Crewson, P. (1997). Public service motivation: Building empirical evidence of incidence and effect. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 7, 499–518.
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal consistency of tests. Psychometrica, 16, 297–334.
Dikel, D., Kane, D., Ornburn, S., Loftus, W., & Wilson, J. (1997). Applying software product-line architecture. IEEE Computer, 30(8), 49–55.
El Emam, K. (1999). Benchmarking kappa: Inter-rater agreement in software process assessments. Empirical Software Engineering, 4(2), 113–133.
Gordon, J. R. (2002). Organizational behavior: A diagnostic approach. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Hames, R. D. (1994). The management myth. Sydney: Business and Professional Publishing.
Hellriegel, D., Slocum, J. W., Jr., Woodman, R. W., & Bruning, N. S. (1998). Organizational behavior. Canada: ITP Nelson.
Jacobsen, I., Griss, M., & Jonsson, P. (1997). Software reuse—architecture process and organization for business success. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Jazayeri, M., Ran, A., & van der Linden, F. (2000). Software architecture for product families: Principles and practice. Reading. MA: Addison Wesley.
Jehn, K. A. (1995). A multi-method examination of the benefits and detriments of intra-group conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40, 256–282.
Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 141–151.
Kaiser, H. F. (1970). A second generation little jiffy. Psychometrika, 35, 401–417.
Kilmann, R. H., Saxton, M. J., & Serpa, R. (1985). Gaining control of the corporate culture. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Koh, E., & Kim, S. (2004). Issues on adopting software product line. In Proceedings of the 11th Asia–Pacific Conference on Software Engineering, (pp. 589).
Kottler, J. (1994). Beyond blame: A new way of resolving conflicts in relationships. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kotter, J. P., & Heskett, J. L. (1992). Corporate culture and performance. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Kuvaja, P. J., Simila, J., Krzanik, L., Bicego, A., Saukkonen, S., & Koch, G. (1994). Software process assessment and improvement—the bootstrap approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
Landis, J., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159–174.
Lee, H. Y., Jung, H. W., Chung, C. S., Lee, J. M., Lee K. W., & Jeong, H. J. (2001). Analysis of inter-rater agreement in ISO/IEC 15504-based software process assessment. In Proceedings of the 2nd Asia–Pacific Conference on Quality Software, (pp. 341–348).
Lyles, M. A. (1994). An analysis of discrimination skills as a process of organizational learning. The Learning Organization, 1(1), 23–32.
Macala, R. R., Stuckey, L. D., Jr., & Gross, D. C. (1996). Managing domain-specific, product-line development. IEEE Software, 13(3), 57–67.
Mannion, M. (2002). Organizing for software product line engineering. In Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Software Technology and Engineering Practice, (pp. 55–61).
Marquardt, M., & Reynolds, A. (1994). The global learning organization. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin.
Mathieu, J. E., & Zajac, D. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 171–194.
Medina, F. J., Munduate, L., Dorado, M. A., & Martínez, I. (2005). Types of intra-group conflict and affective reactions. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20(3/4), 219–230.
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernste, I. A. (1994). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw Hill.
O’Reilly, C., & Chatman, J. (1996). Culture as social control: Corporation, cults, and commitment. Research in Organizational Behavior, 8, 157–200.
Osterhof, A. (2001). Classroom applications of educational measurement. NJ: Prentice Hall.
Paulk, M. C., Curtis, B., Chrissis, M. B., & Weber, C. V. (1993). Capability maturity model version 1.1. IEEE Software, 10(4), 18–27.
Rosen, R. (1995). Strategic management: An introduction. London, UK: Pitman.
Schein, E. H. (1988). Organizational psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Stevens, J. (1986). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Todd, A. (1999). Managing radical change. Long Range Planning, 32(2), 237–244.
Toft, P., Coleman, D., & Ohta, J. (2000). A cooperative model for cross-divisional product development for a software product line. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Software Product Lines, (pp. 111–132).
van de Ven, A. H., & Ferry, D. L. (1980). Measuring and assessing organizations. New York: Wiley.
van der Linden, F. (2002). Software product families in Europe: The Esaps & Café projects. IEEE Software, 19(4), 41–49.
van der Linden, F., Bosch, J., Kamsties, E., Känsälä, K., & Obbink, H. (2004). Software product family evaluation. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Software Product Lines, (pp. 110–129).
Verlage, M., & Kiesgen, T. (2005). Five years of product line engineering in a small company. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering, (pp. 534–543).
von Eye, A., & Mun, E. Y. (2005). Analyzing rater agreement manifest variable methods. London: LEA Publishers.
Walls, J. A., & Callister, R. R. (1995). Conflict and its management. Journal of Management, 21(3), 515–558.
Wang, Y., & King, G. (2000). Software engineering processes: Principles and application. New York: CRC Press.
Weiss, D. M., & Lai, C. T. R. (1999). Software product line engineering: A family based software development process. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
White, D. H. (1982). Contemporary perspectives in organizational behavior. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
Wilson, A. M. (2001). Understanding organizational culture and the implication for corporate marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 35(3/4), 353–367.
Wilson, D. C., & Rosenfeld, R. H. (1990). Managing organizations. London: McGraw-Hill.
Witherspoon, P. D. (1997). Communicating leadership—an organizational perspective. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahmed, F., Capretz, L.F. An organizational maturity model of software product line engineering. Software Qual J 18, 195–225 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-009-9088-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-009-9088-5