Understanding Differences in Process Perspectives between Developers and Acquirers in Off-the-shelf-based Custom Software Projects Undertaken in Indonesia
Understanding Differences in Process Perspectives between Developers and Acquirers in Off-the-shelf-based Custom Software Projects Undertaken in Indonesia
Author : DANA SULISTYO KUSUMO; Ariadi Nugroho Published on : The 19th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2015)
Abstract
In Off-the-shelf (OTS)-based custom software projects there are common and different processes between software developers and acquirers. Better understanding of these differences may help to initiate reconciling perspectives between these stakeholders for managing the software processes. An online survey was conducted to explore the involvement of two main stakeholders in OTS-based software project, developer and acquirer, and also their roles in decision making in make vs. buy, and in OTS selection. The respondents were 35 software developers and 34 software acquirers of Indonesian background. Then, a follow-up study involving 4 respondents was conducted to investigate differences in process perspective between both stakeholders. Our study found that for common and unique processes, both stakeholders perceive to have high and medium involvement in their stakeholder’s processes. Only for detailed software design and coding, acquirer involvements in OTS-based custom software development were low. This study also found that each stakeholder perceives either themselves or both to make final decision on make vs. buy. In OTS-selection, both stakeholders agreed that developers had higher involvement. Based on the follow-up study findings, we proposed a model comparing and discussing stakeholder involvements, roles and responsibilities to reconcile these differences. A real example from the follow-up study findings was given to demonstrate the proposed model.
