Toward understanding the capability cycle of software process improvement: A case study of a software service company

Abstract

The emergence of a service economy facilitates proliferation of software service companies (SSCs), small firms offering various software services such as software maintenance, testing, and customization. Given the unique characteristics of SSCs (i.e., smallscale projects, limited resources, strong customer dependency, etc.), software process improvement (SPI) in SSCs faces additional challenges. Based on Helfat and Peteraf's framework of a dynamic capability lifecycle, this study aims to understand how dynamic capabilities are developed to facilitate SPI implementation, and how these capabilities can be maintained and transformed in a changing context. An in-depth interpretive case study was conducted in a SSC, namely SGSC, which is the an offshore software service center of a leading U.S. document management company, Xerox Corporation. Drawing insights from the framework, this study demonstrates the evolution of key resources and dynamic capabilities as well as their impacts on the success of the SPI project. © 2008 by International Federation for Information Processing.