Software Development Process Standards for Very Small Companies

For very small software development companies, the quality of their software products is a key to competitive advantage. However, the usage of software engineering standards is extremely low amongst such very small software companies. A primary reason cited by many such companies for this lack of quality standards adoption is the perception that they have been developed for large multi-national software companies and not with small and very small organizations in mind and are therefore not suitable for their specific needs. This chapter describes the design and development of the software process lifecycle standard for very small entities. This chapter presents a unique insight from the perspective of some of the standards authors on the development of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard, including the rationale behind its development and the innovative design of implementation guides to assist very small companies in adopting the standards, as well outlining a pilot project scheme for usage in early trials of this standard.