Abstract
Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is becoming a vital part of present day research in software process improvement (SPI). Nevertheless, there is no available study that provides detail review of the published software process improvement SLRs. Objective: The aim of this article is to classify the SLRs of SPI in order to identify the main research areas covered and evaluate the quality of the published SLRs. Methodology: A tertiary study was conducted to review the SLRs published by other researchers on the topic of SPI. Results: Twenty-four SLR articles were identified in the field of SPI. Results show that the quality of the selected SLRs on SPI is decreasing over the recent years. The most popular research topics are factors affecting SPI and process models. Conclusions: This study provides the review and state of the art in the context of SPI research. The results of this article would be of great interest for future SPI researchers by providing in depth understanding of various research areas in SPI. The number of process improvement SLRs is increasing and the overall quality is decreasing, which could lessen their potential impact on SPI practice. Currently, SPI literature is weak in the knowledge areas such as quality and software testing process improvement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Zahran, S.: Software process improvement: practical guidelines for business success. J. Softw. Mainten. Res. Pract. 11, 285–291 (1999)
O’Connor, R.V., Basri, S., Coleman, G.: Exploring managerial commitment towards SPI in small and very small enterprises. In: Riel, A., O’Connor, R.V., Tichkiewitch, S., Messnarz, R. (eds.) EuroSPI 2010. CCIS, vol. 99, pp. 268–279. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-15666-3_24
Marques, A.B., Rodrigues, R., Conte, T.: Systematic literature reviews in distributed software development: a tertiary study. In: IEEE Seventh International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE), pp. 134–143 (2012)
Ngwenyama, O., Nielsen, P.A.: Competing values in software process improvement: an assumption analysis of CMM from an organizational culture perspective. IEEE Trans. Eng. Manag. 50(1), 106–144 (2003)
Khan, A.A., Keung, J.: Systematic review of success factors and barriers for software process improvement in global software development. IET Softw. (2016)
Kitchenham, B., Brereton, P.O., Budgen, D., Turner, M., Bailey, J., Linkman, S.: Systematic literature reviews in software engineering a systematic literature review. Inf. Softw. Technol. 51(1), 7–15 (2009)
Kitchenham, B.: Procedures for performing systematic reviews. NICTA Technical Report 0400011T.1, Keele University (2004)
Da Silva, F.Q.B., Santos, A.L.M., Soares, S., França, A.C.C., Monteiro, C.V.F., Maciel, F.F.: Six years of systematic literature reviews in software engineering: an updated tertiary study. Inf. Softw. Technol. 53(9), 899–913 (2011)
Kitchenham, B., Pretorius, R., Budgen, D., Brereton, O.P., Turner, M., Niazi, M., Linkman, S.: Systematic literature reviews in software engineering - a tertiary study. Inf. Softw. Technol. 52(8), 792–805 (2010)
Bano, M., Didar, Z., Naveed, I.: Systematic reviews in requirements engineering: a tertiary study. In: IEEE Fourth International Workshop on Empirical Requirements Engineering, pp. 9–16 (2014)
Imtiaz, S., Bano, M., Naveed, I., Niazi, M.: A tertiary study: experiences of conducting systematic literature reviews in software engineering. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE), pp. 177–182 (2013)
Verner, J.M., Brereton, O.P., Kitchenham, B.A., Turner, M., Niazi, M.: Systematic literature reviews in global software development: a tertiary study. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE), pp. 2–11 (2012)
Kitchenham, B., Pretorius, R., Budgen, D., Brereton, O.P., Turner, M., Niazi, M., Linkman, S.: Systematic literature reviews in software engineering - a tertiary study. Inf. Softw. Technol. 52(8), 792–805 (2010)
Niazi, M.: Software process improvement: a road to success. In: Münch, J., Vierimaa, M. (eds.) PROFES 2006. LNCS, vol. 4034, pp. 395–401. Springer, Heidelberg (2006). doi:10.1007/11767718_34
Wohlin, C., Per, R., Martin, H., Mangus, O.C., Bjorn, R., Anders, W.: Experimentation in Software Engineering. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, About DARE (2015). http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/darefaq.htm. Accessed 12 Nov 2016
Cruzes, D.S., Dybå, T.: Research synthesis in software engineering: A tertiary study. Inf. Softw. Technol. 53(5), 440–455 (2011)
Afzal, W., Torkar, R., Feldt, R.: A systematic review of search-based testing for non-functional system properties. Inf. Softw. Technol. 51(6), 957–976 (2009)
Cochrane Collaboration: Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook. Version 4.2.1 (2003)
Acknowledgment
This work is supported in part by the General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (No. 9042328), and the research funds of City University of Hong Kong (No. 7004683 and 7004474).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix 1
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Khan, A.A., Keung, J., Niazi, M., Hussain, S., Zhang, H. (2017). Systematic Literature Reviews of Software Process Improvement: A Tertiary Study. In: Stolfa, J., Stolfa, S., O'Connor, R., Messnarz, R. (eds) Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 748. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64218-5_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64218-5_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64217-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64218-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)