Cultural Issues and Impacts of Software Process in Very Small Entities (VSEs)

Abstract

ISO/IEC29110 is an international standard of software lifecycle for small software companies also known as Very Small Entities (VSEs). While VSEs come from a diversity of cultural backgrounds, the current ISO/IEC29110 for VSEs does not address these cultural variations. VSEs from various cultural backgrounds might therefore find it difficult to adapt such a standard. This paper raises the issue that the current ISO/IEC29110 should recognize the impacts of cultural variation on software processes and cultural suggestions. It also point out one cultural dimension has a significant impact on software processes and their efficacy. Furthermore, the concepts of cultural consideration should not be limited to regions but, also cover the management perspective of individual VSE. In this paper, we identified two opposite cultural types which affect their software processes significantly. We propose that to make software process standards more practical for VSEs from different cultural backgrounds.