A Comparative Study for Scoping a Software Process Line

Software process lines (SPrL) is an approach for facilitating the adaptation and evolution of a set of related software processes within a software organization. In order to correctly establish the processes and process assets to be reused as well as to typify the situations under which the processes will be used (the process demands) an implicit or explicit scoping activity that is normally performed. There are some methods oriented to support this activity. In this article we explore the definition of the scope of a SPrL of a software company focused on the software testing service through two methods: SCOPE and CASPER Scoping. The main goal of this work is to explore, through an empirical study, the advantages and disadvantages of scope determination in an industrial context by using two methods reported in the literature: SCOPE and CASPER. The developed study allows us to evidence some limitations of these methods in terms of (1) defining a suitable scope granularity level, (2) clarity to systematically conduct the methods (3) lack of an acceptable definition of what the scope of a SPrL is. We consider that it is very feasible to make a proposal that integrates these approaches so that the definition of scope in real contexts is more appropriate.