SOFTARAGON

SoftAragón is an initiative of the Department of Science, Technology and University of the Government of Aragón, through the General Directorate of Technologies for the Information Society and, in collaboration with the Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón, with the purpose of improve the quality of the software development processes in the ICT companies in Aragon, thus increasing the competitiveness of Aragon’s ICT companies. of the same.

Description

Duration: 2005 ? 2009 (5 years)

Key words: Process improvement, CMMI, IDEAL method, process modeling, metrics.

The Aragonese companies in the ICT sector whose main activity is the consists of the development and maintenance of software products. face the challenge of achieving greater competitiveness by improving the quality of the software they develop, achieving a greater tolerance to the change and a reduction in the response time to the needs of the market, and increasing their productivity.

The objectives pursued by SoftAragón are:

• Creating a culture of software quality in ICT companies.
• Improving the quality of companies – not simply getting a seal – is a key factor in the quality of the company’s products and services.
• Making companies more profitable by developing software in the most efficient way possible
• Adapt the actions to the reality of the companies, company size, company resources, field of action,…
• Making Aragonese companies more competitive

SoftAragón brings together a wide range of actions in the following areas different phases, starting with a first stage of dissemination, with seminars and workshops, to the design and implementation of improvement plans. of the software development processes in the participating companies.

Activities

The SoftAragon program brings together a set of actions that support and guide organizations on their journey towards process improvement software, grouped into:

• Audit: Determine the maturity of the organization’s software processes through:
  • Initial evaluations to obtain a diagnosis of the status of an organization’s processes, identifying the strengths and opportunities for improvement, in order to define the recommendations for improvement and design the improvement program itself. improvement.
  • Intermediate evaluations to assess progress The company’s improvement program is carried out in the middle of the improvement program, so that it is have objective data to analyze the pace at which the company is program implementation can be carried out and the program can be reconsidered. the objectives defined at the beginning of the project.
  • Final evaluations evaluate the progress made by the company at the end of the improvement program, so that it has data objectives to analyze that the defined objectives have been achieved.
• Consultancy: Maintain the improvement program with the tension necessary to ensure that progress is continuous throughout the year. the time, avoiding the risk that this program will be treated as a as an internal project with lower priority within the organization. A This continuous monitoring, in turn, makes it possible to confirm that the actions taken are carried out by the organization’s working group are aligned with the needs of the model, detecting inconsistencies in the early stages and decreasing ineffective work within the group. Within the consulting activities, we offer:
  • The definition of the target scope useful for your organization:
    • Identification of the model that fits your needs
    • Determining the key process areas for your organization
  • The definition of the improvement program to achieve the defined scope.
    • Definition of the project plan: phases, tasks, persons in charge, milestones, follow-up checkpoints
    • Risk analysis, training needs
    • Seminars on change management in your organization
  • Follow-up of the defined improvement program
    • Problem detection
    • Taking corrective actions
    • Follow-up of the project plan
    • Maintenance of the necessary tension within the project
    • Report on the degree of progress of the organization’s processes with respect to the last diagnosis performed
  • Support in the implementation of improvements
    • Interpretation of the practices of the model within your organization
    • Process modeling
    • Tool recommendations
• Training: Conduct seminars, workshops and technology training courses in the field of CMMI and its process areas.
• Dissemination: Hold regional, national and international events and conferences related to software process improvement.

Fig. IDEAL model proposed by the SEI

Acknowledgments

Software Excellence Award
At the third edition of the European Software Institute Awards for Software Excellence, the SoftAragon program was awarded a double recognition. The Aragonese initiative, promoted by the Aragonese Department of Science, Technology and University of the Government of Aragon was awarded the The Comex Grupo Ibérica won the first prize in the SME category.

Participating companies

The following is a list of the companies that have participated in the different editions of the SoftAragón program:

ACKNOWLEDGMENT, S.A.L. http://www.ack.es ARAGONESA DE SERVICIOS TELEMATICOS http://www.aragon.es AYANET TIC, S.A. http://www.ayanet.es COMEX INTEGRACION, S.L. http://www.grupocomex.com EFOR http://www.efor.es EUROHELP CONSULTING http://www.euro-help.net GÁBILOS SOFTWARE http://www.gabilos.com IA SOFT ARAGON, S.L. http://www.iasoft.es INSTRUMENTACION Y COMPONENTES, S.A. http://www.inycom.es IRITEC, S.L. http://www.iritec.es LASO, S.L. http://www.lasosl.com NET 2 YOU, S.L. http://www.net2u.es TB SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES http://www.tb-solutions.com TRACK-GLOBE, S.L.U. http://trackglobe.com

Representation in process improvement groups

The Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón participates in several associations, congresses and research groups related to software process improvement:

Software Committee of the Spanish Quality Association (Asociación Española de la Calidad)

Software Engineering Group of the Spanish Software and Services Technology Platform (INES).

SEPG Latin America Annual Conference Program Committee

Contact

ITA’s actions in the field of software quality are still open, outside the SoftAragón brand.

If you would like to know more information about all the activities we do, please contact us:

• Paula Peña(ppena@ita.es)
• Pablo Perez(pperez@ita.es)

Official project site: www.ita.es/softaragon