A gestão da informação voltada à certificação de processos de desenvolvimento de software: um estudo de caso

Abstract

At the beginning of the 80s, with adoption of the PRA/1980 (Paperwork Reduction) in the U.S. by the Federal Paperwork Commission, the concept of Information Resources Management came up, whose evolution resulted in the current theory of Information and Knowledge Management. In parallel, to deal with the complexity of software projects ever more complex, it has become essential to have a software Development process, along with maturity models (such as CMMI), which confers certificates of various levels according to requirements that are served by a particular process. This has been the focus of Software Engineering since then. Recently began to emerge studies linking these two areas, where the main focus are the contributions that the information and knowledge management can give to the software development processes. This work follows this approach, looking specifically to answer the following question: How can an organization manage theinformation in such a way to address the informational needs to meet the requirements for certification of software development processes? This research work, which has a descriptive, qualitative and quantitative character, was based on a case study held at MSA, a CMMI certified software company in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Interviews were conducted, questionnaires were applied, and a documentary analysis was made, beyond observations in thecompany and informal conversations. As a general result of this research, it has been prooved that the Information Management presents itself as a key player in the certification processes for softwaredevelopment, showing up several relationships between Information Management and this context in the light of the Davenports model. This result also suggests thatthe period of adequacy of the Software Development Process for certification in CMMI model could have been shorter if the Information Management had beenexplained, studied and planned from the outset.