Empirical Investigation of Factors that Hamper Pursuing Software Process Improvement: Analyses of Saudi Practitioners’ Views

Software product quality is affected by the quality of the process used to develop it. Improving process quality helps software organizations in developing better software products on time and within budget. To achieve these benefits, software organizations are becoming more interested to pursue Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives. The failure in pursuing such initiatives is affected by several factors. The literature reports many studies that document different factors impacting the success of SPI initiatives. Very few of these studies have been conducted in the Middle East and particularly in Saudi Arabia. In this study, we report the results of a survey-based empirical study that identify factors that hamper the SPI initiatives conducted by 26 organizations located in Saudi Arabia. A survey has been sent to various organizations. Responses have been collected and analyzed. Results from the literature review and from our survey have been synthesized and presented in this study along with a comparative analysis of similar factors reported in similar studies worldwide. Knowing, prioritizing and understanding these factors can help both researchers and software development organizations avoid them to successfully plan and execute SPI initiatives.