Practical Experience in Customization of a Software Development Process for Small Companies Based on RUP Processes and MSF

Most Brazilian software development companies focus on the customer´s needs, thus creating cells dedicated to these customers both for products that have been built or that are being built. Furthermore, they normally lack the financial resources necessary for investments in specialized technologies and professionals, leading them to use processes that do not adhere to the market´s best practices, such as object-oriented technology, standard development methods and procedures such as RUP (rational unified process), UML (unified modeling language), MSF (Microsoft solutions framework) and quality models proposed by SEI/CMMI (Software Engineering Institute / capability maturity model integration). This chapter describes the general concepts of the low and high complexity software development processes and models, the steps that a small Brazilian software development company followed to achieve maturity, parting from a research and development initiative in the aforementioned processes, and finally creating and instituting the customized software engineering process - CSEP and the process support tool - PST. An economic/financial overview of the Brazilian market for software development is also presented, besides historical data concerning the projects before and after the implementation of the processes and tool, as well as the success obtained, and lastly the emerging trends in Brazil´s software development market.