A Study on Management of Software Engineering Capability in Japan: Panel Analysis on Independent Vendors

The survey on software engineering excellence (SEE) was designed and conducted in 2005, 2006 and 2007 with Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan. In the survey the software engineering capability was measured from the seven viewpoints, i.e., deliverables, project management, quality assurance, process improvement, research and development, human development, and customer contacts. For the panel analysis, based on the SEE surveys we integrated 233 valid responses for the three years into a new database and identified 151 unique IT firms. In this paper we focus on the 76 independent vendors and investigate the relationships among the factors of SEE for the three years. And we conducted panel analysis of the seven factors of SEE for the three years to clarify how the previous factors of SEE influence the following factors of SEE in a year, year by year, and mid-term. Based on the result of panel analysis, first, most of factors of SEE in the previous year had significant positive influence on the same factors of SEE in the following year. Second, in a year there are some missing paths in the downstream toward deliverables as the terminal factor from research and development, contact with customers, and process improvement. Third, some factors of SEE in the previous year had significant positive influence on the different factors of SEE in the following year. Fourth, however, there were some negative paths, which implied that the effort on the factor did not pay off in the short term.