Achieving project success is a primary objective for organizations dedicated to software development. Despite the concerted efforts of these organizations, statistics indicate that a significant portion of projects ultimately fail. Numerous authors in the literature have focused on defining success and failure in software projects, as well as the factors contributing to these outcomes. However, it appears that there is no consensus on these terms, and they do not accurately represent the experts’ perspective. This study presents results obtained from semi-structured interviews with 30 professionals in the technology sector, enabling the identification of Critical Success Factors that professionals believe can influence the success of software projects, along with their perception of the concepts of project success and project failure. The article outlines the conducted research, details the application of the thematic analysis methodology for analysing the interview data, and reports the findings of the empirical study. Specifically, the identification of 49 Critical Success Factors that experts deem influential in the success of software projects, providing a more nuanced and precise definition of project success and project failure. Among these 49 Critical Success Factors, grouped into six categories, it is important to highlight Skills, Involvement, Technology maturity, Detailed requirements analysis, and Good communication with all the people involved in the project, as the most frequently mentioned by the interviewees. The findings of this study not only provide a clearer definition of project success and project failure but also suggest that the resulting set of Critical Success Factors can support technology professionals in considering and adequately managing the factors that may increase the likelihood of success in their projects.

ABSTRACT Machine Learning (ML) development introduces challenges that traditional software processes often struggle to address. As ML applications grow in complexity and adoption, various lifecycle models have been proposed to address the unique stages of ML development. This study systematically synthesises these models, mapping their stages and activities to provide an understanding of the ML development landscape. The findings highlight research gaps and opportunities, offering insights for advancing academic research and practical implementation.

ABSTRACT Most software development organizations are project based. However, statistics show that the failure rate of projects is very high. Different authors have identified factors (critical success factors) that can influence the success or failure of software projects, and that must be considered when carrying out a software project. This study is part of a research aimed at defining a framework that allows software development companies to assess the extent of the impact of critical success factors on their projects and increase the probability of project success. To achieve this goal, the first step was to identify the factors influencing software project success as reported in recent literature, as presented in this paper. A systematic literature review was conducted to obtain the list of factors that can influence the success of software projects. The list of 50 critical success factors resulting from this literature review can be used as a guide of critical aspects to be taken into consideration by the project manager when managing a project. Several gaps were identified through the literature review, such as the lack of indicators to measure the level of impact of each factor and the absence of descriptions for these factors.

Software development organisations are interested in adopting new agile methods and techniques. However, they often do not have the time and resources to explore available approaches or to customise them to the current situation at the project or organisational levels. As software companies are usually dealing with significant pressure and have to demonstrate productivity, time for software process improvement (SPI) is very limited. Using serious collaborative games can be helpful for the deployment of certain best practices recommended by agile methods. With the objective of facilitating SPI in organisations, the authors propose a ready‐to‐use collaborative game toolbox that is oriented for practical use in project team meetings. The set of collaborative games included in the toolbox have been designed for agile teams, regardless of the maturity level, to innovate and improve communication and cohesion, and to bring business value out of agile ceremonies.

Abstract Governance, Risk management, and Compliance activities are key challenges faced by organizations. Process Models and Capability Process Assessments are governance instruments that can help organization in assessing and improving their processes. Several ISO standards propose process models for Management System Standards based on ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 20000‐1, and ISO/IEC 27001, and for project management with ISO 21500. The ISO 31000 standard provides guidance for Risk management with a process approach and systemic perspective. This paper presents an ISO 31000‐based Integrated Risk Management Process Assessment Model (PAM) for IT organizations enabling to integrate on an easy way several ISO process‐oriented standards which are often targeted by IT organizations. This PAM integrates risk management dimensions with ISO 9001, ISO 21500, ISO/IEC 20000‐1, and ISO/IEC 27001. It offers a centralized and integrated risk management approach which provides the basis to improve, coordinate, and interoperate risk management activities.

Abstract The culture of traditional organizations favors firmly established processes and standardization. Therefore, the adoption of Agile and Lean approaches in these organizations is a challenging issue. This paper presents an overview and outlook of the most well‐known Agile and Lean approaches in order to identify which kind of continuous software process improvement (SPI) is inherent in these approaches. The main objective of this research is to show that Lean and Agile SPI approaches can be pursued depending on the target environment, both in traditional and in agile organizations.

Abstract Knowledge and experience are not the only prerequisite for a successful project; a well‐performing team using proper tools and techniques ensures efficient project management. Adequate tool is essential to support decision making in management of any organizational business units. TALAIA OpenPPM is an open‐source solution for managing projects, programs, and portfolios. SM2, founder of TALAIA OpenPPM, after 4 years of experience of the tool implementation in companies from different sectors, came to a conclusion that the successful adoption of the tool is strongly affected with existing maturity level of the project management processes established in the organization. Also, this article derives lessons learned by SM2 in expansion and opening of a new business line in the international market.

The growing interest of software companies for improving their internal processes, not just software development processes, but also processes in other domains such as Information Technology (IT) service management or information security management, has encouraged these companies to implement recognized models or standards. Most of the ISO standards that define models for software quality, IT service management or information security management provide their recommendations, guidelines, requirements or good practices under a process approach. Due to this approach, there are a large number of relations between these models as well as many common elements. From the study of these relations, this paper presents MIN-ITs, a new framework that supports the integration of different ISO standards related to IT management.

ABSTRACT This paper describes the results obtained and the lessons learned from the implementation of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard in four small software development companies, clustered in a joint process improvement program. The main results of this initiative have been, on the one hand, the definition of a standardized set of processes and procedures and, on the other, the development of a Process Asset Library to support project management good practices within the participant organizations. The PMBOK® Guide was used to complement the ISO/IEC 29110‐5‐1‐2 standard, in order to provide detailed knowledge about project management inputs, outputs, and best techniques. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

SUMMARY This paper describes a first‐hand experience in Software Process Improvement within a Spanish Company which, since 2002, has been involved in an improvement programme led by our research group. We discuss the experience and the results of this improvement programme, as well as the lessons learned to deal with new future improvement initiatives in other companies of our environment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.