2. ¿What is quality? QUALITY ‘ Quality is fitness for use. That is to say the product meets customer expectations and causes product satisfaction. Quality is having no defects’ JURAN ‘ The quality is defined, from the customer point of view, as anything that increases its satisfaction’ DEMING ‘ The degree at which a set of inherent characteristics complies with a set of requirements’ ‘ The ability of a set of inherent characteristics of a product, service, product component, service component, or process to fulfill requirements of customers’ ISO 9000: 2000 CMMI (S.E.I.)
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4. Government strategy to support certification EVOLUTION OF THE NUMBER OF ENTERPRISES CERTIFIED WITH PLAN AVANZA SUPPORT Plan Avanza 2006-2010 offers support for PYMES TIC in order to get a certification related to software quality
5. CMMI: the model most widely known in Spain 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5 TOTAL 2005 2006 2007 2008 18 31 75 105 NO NO 1 1 PLAN AVANZA 2004 LESS THAN 10 YES YES 49 60 YES YES 21 35 NO NO 1 2 YES YES 3 4 NÚMERO DE EVALUACIONES CMMI EN ESPAÑA Source: Software Engineering Institute ( SEI) NUMBER OF CMMI EVALUATIONS IN SPAIN
6. CMMI in the world MEXICO: 57 BRAZIL: 108 SPAIN: 105 UNITED KINGDOM: 93 FRANCE: 141 NUMBER OF CMMI EVALUATIONS Source: Software Engineering Institute ( SEI)
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12. Traducción de CMMI al castellano Chair ofSoftware Process Improvement for Information Systems in Latin America CMMI Spanish translation initiative
The definition of quality in software has evolved, but somehow in all definitions is present the idea of customer satisfaction. In the current competitive market, business success is determined by getting this satisfaction. The following results, extracted from a research carried out by the American Marketing Association, reveal the relevance of customer satisfaction : For each complaint received, there are 20 customers that think the same but do not bother in making a complaint. The cost of getting a new customer is five times the cost of keeping satisfaid a current one. A satisfied customer comments on its good experience with an average of three other people, whereas an unsatisfaid one does it with nine persons. This satisfaction, key for success, can only be achieve by means of quality products and services, made by entreprises that have adopted quality as a basic principle of their management.
Nowadays, citizens, enterprises and organizations request products and services of continuously increasing better quality. This demand, together with the extreme competitiveness that characterizes current markets, requires a different attitude by organizations, that imposes the search for quality and the adoption of certifications. The benefits for a business extend inside and outside the organization At an inner level, the following advantages can be mentioned: Productivity increment, due to improvements in internal processes. Improvements in the internal organization, thanks to a fluid communication and a clear assignation of responsibilities and objectives. Profitability increase, as a result of the reduction of the product and services production costs. Focus on continual improvement, allowing to identify new opportunities for achieving better results. Greater ability for flexibly answering rapidly changing markets. Increased ability for gaining value, for the organization as well as for suppliers and relevant stakeholders. At an external level: Improvement in the business image, as a result of proving tha customer satisfaction is a major concern for the organization. Reinforcement of the trust and loyalty of current and potential customers, due to the capacity of the business for consistently providing products and/or services. Opening to new markets, thanks to wide renown certifications. Improvement in the competitive position, resulting in an increment in profits and marketshare.
In 2006, as part of the Plan Avanza 2006-2010, the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and for the Information Technology offers a set of support measures to ICT SMEs (small and medium enterprises) with the purpose of helping them in obtaining certifications related to software quality. The results of this plan show a trend towards the consolidation of SMEs interest in approaching quality certifications. The number of enterprises certified by 2008 confirm this trend: 102 SMEs in software quality (62 in CMMI or SPICE levels 2 and 3, and 40 in ISO 9001). 49 SMEs in service management. 118 SMEs in information security management.
Quality certification, understood as the improvement of processes related to software products, has gained great importance worldwide during last years and Spain has not remained apart from these movements. Spanish business perception of existing quality models, based on an study about quality certification as a means of promoting software development industry in Spain, carried out by INTECO, points at CMMI as the best model. The graph shows the evolution of the number of organizations evaluated in CMMI during last years in Spain. The support given by the Plan Avanza has contributed to achieve that the number of organizations evaluated in CMMI in our country reached 105 by the end of 2008. This trend is likely to maintain thanks to Plan Avanza 2, which aims at reinforcing and giving continuity until 2012 these successful results.
According to the information from the SEI at the end of 2008, in Spain there are 105 companies certified in CMMI. Spain gets a place among the more outstanding countries in Europe together with the United Kingdom, 93 and France, 141. The next country in the European ranking is German with 64 certified companies. Among Latin American countries, we find Brazil with 108 certified companies and Mexico with 57.
If we analyze the view of certification in our country in more detail, one of the conclusions of the: ‘Research about quality certification as a mean to promote the industry of software development in Spain’, carried out by INTECO in 2007, indicates that there isn’t a strong reason that will lead a SME to implement an improvement model and this is more evident as the enterprise is smaller. The interviewees considered the need of an intermediate agent that agglutinates the different initiatives. This agent could join together SMEs, different organizations dedicated to standardization and other organisms dedicated to the creation of standards, norms and models. In that respect, INTECO is a key agent. It is a state-owned society promoted by the Spanish MITYC (Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade) through the SETSI (Secretary of State for Telecommunications and for the Information Society) The objectives of INTECO are: - To promote academic proposals that add value to the position of Spain and Europe, regarding the Information Society. - To create a new ICT Cluster in León , defined by its high capacity to innovate. To facilitate the technological transversality between different activity sectors (e.g. Administration, Police, Health, Agri-Foodstuffs, etc.) and/or areas of ICT knowledge based on a high geographical location of intensive knowledge and its connection with other centres of the world. INTECO develops initiatives of technological security, accessibility, software quality and inclusion in the digital society and communications solutions for companies and individuals. INTECO, through its software quality area, promotes strategies of quality in the Spanish software industry, as well as the development and settlement of projects in Spain. The National Software Quality Laboratory acts as technological observatory of quality sector; it offers advice and training to enterprises and facilities services and orientation to the enterprises.
The National Software Quality Laboratory has the intention of resolving different needs of the Spanish industry. This has special relevance in the context of the SMEs. The National Software Quality Laboratory has designed two main lines of action: - Awareness-raising, spreading and training - Tools and services The Laboratory pursues the following objectives: - Reference on the subject of popularization and promotion of standards - To develop and spread the culture of improvement in the software quality - To strengthen the access to useful tools in quality management and software development and their use. - To offer necessary services to complete the current market offer - To increase the visibility of software industry in the international markets - To increase professional training with courses, online tools and support services
The laboratory counts on a team highly qualified in the development of quality management projects, certified in software product quality and IT services management, with experience in software processes improvement and a wide knowledge of engineering and management of software projects. There is a consultancy team responsible for the development and spreading of training materials and those materials which support the services offered and the design and coordination of the services development. On the other hand, there is a development team responsible for the implementation of on-line services. Besides, there is a quality manager responsible for promotion of the standards and normalization activities, with a high involvement in XBRL projects. All the activities are coordinated by a project manager and a technical manager from INTECO.”
From the Laboratory, with the purpose of developing and extending/promoting the improvement quality culture, seminars are given all over the Spanish geography. Besides, the Laboratory offers software quality modules in INTECO technological training. Apart from the organization of specialized seminars, there is an increasing repertory of e-learning courses. These courses deal with different subjects, from an introductory to a higher specialization level. The range of available courses covers software development, service and product acquisition and IT service management fields. On the other hand, on the INTECO web site there is available a wide set of guides about best practices in the areas of software development, services and product acquisition and IT service management, as well as documentation about methodologies, regulation and types of software quality certification.
The Laboratory offers three on-line services, which are available on the INTECO web site. The auto diagnostic service is aimed at software development technological companies. It allows carrying out free self-evaluations against process areas of a validated model. As a result of the evaluation, the service shows the current situation of the organization and improvement recommendations, with the recommendations of supporting tools and artifacts to deploy this improvement. Benefits : It allows companies to do not only a critical checking exercise, but also a tracking/monitoring exercise, with analytical capacity and a comparative of trends and baselines. It offers recommendations in three fields that will help in the improvement on those areas of processes where weaknesses have been found: Practices and activities. Artifacts. Tools. The tool directory service . Tools are a fundamental part of the quality management environment, as they help on the different steps of the process. Nowadays, there is a wide range of products and applications focus on supporting software quality deployment /development process. Nevertheless, the access to those tools is not spread enough within the SMEs because of the economic restrictions and the lack of awareness in the subject. This service is aimed at the recommendation, search and selection of tools used in the development life cycle, giving a neutral and objective sight from a functional point of view. At the moment, the service covers activities related to software engineering and project management. Soon, the service will be also available for the IT services management areas. The documentary repository service is focused on promoting the use and recommendation of artifacts that help to use validated models. It allows the companies to select, search and download different documents like processes, templates, guides, checklist, etc. that can help them to introduce a practice or process. At present, this service covers activities related to software engineering and project management. Soon, the service will be also available for the IT services management and service and product acquisition areas.
This initiative has been promoted by the SEI, sponsored by INTECO, and has counted on the editorial commitment of Pearson Editorial. In the translation of the CMMI-DEV model into Spanish, have taken part the following work teams: A team of the SW Process Improvement Chair from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) who has carried out the translation of the book and who has been made up of: Professors from the Computer Science Faculty of the UPM. Collaborators of the UPM . Students of the SW quality development doctorate of acquisition and services processes, with experts from Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Chile. Both Accenture and Everis collaborator teams of the SW Process Improvement Chair which have checked and validated the whole translation. Give to all of them our recognition.
