Deploying a software process lifecycle standard in very small companies

In the case of very small software companies, implementing management procedures, and controls to appropriately administer their software development activity is a significant challenge. With this in mind, the ISO/IEC standards body has recently published the ISO/IEC 29110 standard “Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities” with the overall objective being to assist and encourage very small software organization in assessing and improving their software. The purpose of this article is provide a primer on the ISO/IEC 29110 standard focusing on two main process areas of Project Management and Software Implementation. This article will start with an explanation of the rationale and justification for the development of this new standard, followed by an overview of its structure and explain how to deploy ISO/IEC 29110 in a typical very small software company.