An extended systematic review of software process improvement in small and medium Web companies

Objective-The objective of this paper is to present the current state of research in Software Process Improvement (SPI) models and techniques used by small and medium Web development companies. Method-A previously conducted systematic review (Sulayman and Mendes, 2009) has been updated and extended to identify the current state of research on the mentioned topic. Results Eight studies applied SPI techniques or models to small and medium Web companies. The selected studies did not suggest any customized model or technique to measure the SPI of small and medium Web companies. The characteristics of some small and medium companies such as tight budget constraints, tight deadlines and a short term strategy were also identified. The measures of success for small and medium Web companies, as per SR results, include development team and client satisfaction, increase in productivity, compliance with standards and overall operational excellence. Conclusions-The results of this review, like our previously conducted systematic review (Sulayman and Mendes, 2009), show that very few studies have specifically focused on SPI for Web companies, despite the large number of existing Web companies worldwide, and the even larger number of Web applications being currently developed. This clearly indicates a research gap in this area, with numerous avenues for future work.