A Systematic Review on the Harmonization of Reference Models

At present, there are wide ranges of reference models that are available to improve the way to develop and manage the software development in an organization, e.g. there are models to improve quality management, such as ISO 9001, for Software Quality Management there is ISO 90003, to improve the capacity of models there are CMMI and ISO 12207, for the IT Governance, there are ITIL, PMBOK and COBIT, Information Security Management Systems such as 27000 and Bodies of Knowledge such as SWEBOK, amongst others. However, the heterogeneity of the models available, together with the need to solve problems from many dimensions and organizational hierarchies, means that organizations face problems in improvement process projects which have to deal with different models at the same time. In this article, a systematic review is presented of works, initiatives and projects published and carried out on the harmonization of multi-model environments. Another objective stemming from the above is to discuss the significant issues related to this area of knowledge, providing an up-to-date state of the art and identifying possible related research streams.