This paper outlines the details of seven case studies involving the pilot usage of the new standard ISO/IEC 29110standard ‘Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities’, which was specifically designed by Working Group 24 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 to address the standardization needs of Very Small Entities (VSEs). The purpose of this paper is to add substantially to the body of knowledge and the literature on the rollout and implementation of this new and evolving standard and to act as guidance for other researchers in the design and implementation of ISO/IEC 29110 case studies. Furthermore it is hoped that that the lessons learnt from these case studies will help promote the adoption of this new standard in an industrial setting.

This article presents the implementation of ISO/IEC 29110 in a four-person IT startup company in Peru. After completing the implementation of the ISO/IEC 29110 project management and software implementation processes using an agile approach, the next step was to execute these processes in a project with an actual customer: software that facilitates communication between clients and legal consultants at the second-largest insurance companies in Peru. Managing the project and developing the software took about 900 hours. Using ISO/ IEC 29110 software engineering practices enabled the startup to plan and execute the project while expending only 18 percent of the total project effort on rework (i.e., wasted effort). In this article, the authors also describe the steps and the effort required by the VSE to be granted an ISO/IEC 29110 certificate of conformity. The startup became the first Per...