Results of 1997 questionnaire on best practice in software
The European Software Institute (ESI), in close collaboration with the EU's Information Technologies (ESPRIT) research programme and the European Software Systems Initiative (ESSI), has published its third report presenting an analysis of the responses to the Software Best Practice Questionnaire (SBPQ). The questionnaire was completed by organizations submitting project proposals to the European Commission during the ESSI call for proposals in 1997. The SBPQ was aimed at collecting data on software best practices within European organizations, and was designed so that each question addressed a particular best practice. The questionnaire had a total of 42 questions, divided into five sections: - Organizational issues; - Standards and procedures; - Metrics; - Control of the development process; - Tools and technology. A total of 394 valid responses came from 20 different countries and 37 different sectors. Efforts were made to avoid overestimation of best practice adoption within organizations by stating clearly that the evaluation of the questionnaire responses was distinct from, and had no effect on, the assessment of project proposals. It should be noted, however, that as an accompaniment to the call for proposals, and having a yes/no answers format only, respondents may have presented over-optimistic results.