Realities and perspectives of software development in Puerto Rico: a new analysis

Abstract

Currently, within the field of Software Engineering (SE), it has been proposed to integrate four variables to developquality software: i.) A flexible development methodology (traditional, agile, or hybrid) and adapted to the contextparticular to each application, ii.) a work team (trained, experienced, highly innovative, and with leadership), iii.)cutting-edge technologies,represented in the quality of the equipment and tools (automated or semi-automated)facilitating the planning, design, and manufacturing processes of products and, iv.) the inclusion of usabilitytechniques in the process, as a guarantee to manufacture products according to customer needs.A literature search indicates that in Puerto Rico so far,there are no published articles that allow knowing the stateof the art of the SE on the Island and, therefore; the organizational schemes and the type of workgroup thatpredominates in software development companies are unknown. Almost twenty years after the promulgation ofthe Agile Manifesto, in Puerto Rico, the degree of adoption of the new paradigms is still unknown. It is necessaryto search for information within companies to understand what strategies are used by developers and whatbenefits report with their use.This new study seeks to evaluate, synthesize and present the empirical findings on software development inPuerto Rico (PR), to contrast or update the previously collected data and to know the type of applications that arecarried out on the Island, what methodologies of work are the most used, how agile methods are perceived and ifthe approach towards usability techniques has changed in recent decades. These aspects are centralto proposingto software developers an integration framework according to their needs and the demands of their clients.