A Framework for Process Assessment of Software Product Line

Software product line has emerged as an attractive phenomenon within organizations dealing with software development process. It involves assembly of products from existing core assets, commonly known as components, and continuous growth in the core assets as production proceeds. Organizations trying to incorporate the concept of software product line to reduce development time and cost require certain rules to be followed for successful development and management, they also require a direct procedure to evaluate the current maturity level of the process. In this work certain rules for developing and managing a software product line are put forward. Additionally, a fuzzy logic based software product line process assessment tool (SPLPAT) has been designed and implemented on the basis of developed rules for software product line process assessment. SPLPAT can be used to assess the process maturity level of software product line, and it provides an opportunity to handle imprecision and uncertainty present in software process variables. Four case studies were conducted to validate the framework, and results show that SPLPAT provides a direct mechanism to evaluate current software product line process maturity level within an organization. The results of the developed software product line process assessment approach were compared with the existing CMM-level of the organization in order to evaluate the reliability of the presented approach and to find out how effectively an organization can execute software product line process when it has already achieved a certain CMM level

A Model-Based Approach to Managing Feature Binding Time in Software Product Line Engineering

Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) is a software reuse paradigm for developing software products, from managed reusable assets, based on analysis of commonality and variability (C & V) of a product line. Many approaches of SPLE use a feature as a key abstraction to capture the C&V. Recently, there have been increasing demands for the provision of flexibility about not only the variability of features but also the variability of when features should be selected (i.e., variability on feature binding times). Current approaches to support variations of feature binding time mostly focused on ad hoc implementation mechanisms. In this paper, we first identify the challenges of feature binding time management and then propose an approach to analyze the variation of feature binding times and use the results to specify model-based architectural components for the product line. Based on the specification, components implementing variable features are parameterized with the binding times and the source codes for the components and the connection between them are generated

A Process Framework for Semantics-aware Tourism Information Systems

The growing sophistication of user requirements in tourism due to the advent of new technologies such as the Semantic Web and mobile computing has imposed new possibilities for improved intelligence in Tourism Information Systems (TIS). Traditional software engineering and web engineering approaches cannot suffice, hence the need to find new product development approaches that would sufficiently enable the next generation of TIS. The next generation of TIS are expected among other things to: enable semantics-based information processing, exhibit natural language capabilities, facilitate inter-organization exchange of information in a seamless way, and evolve proactively in tandem with dynamic user requirements. In this paper, a product development approach called Product Line for Ontology-based Semantics-Aware Tourism Information Systems (PLOSATIS) which is a novel hybridization of software product line engineering, and Semantic Web engineering concepts is proposed. PLOSATIS is presented as potentially effective, predictable and amenable to software process improvement initiatives

An integrated core competence evaluation framework for portfolio management in the oil industry

Drawing upon resource-based theory, this paper presents a core competence evaluation framework for managing the competence portfolio of an oil company. It introduces a network typology to illustrate how to form different types of strategic alliance relations with partnering firms to manage and grow the competence portfolio. A framework is tested using a case study approach involving face-to-face structured interviews. We identified purchasing, refining and sales and marketing as strong candidates to be the core competencies. However, despite the company's core business of refining oil, the core competencies were identified to be their research and development and performance management (PM) capabilities. We further provide a procedure to determine different kinds of physical, intellectual and cultural resources making a dominant impact on company's competence portfolio. In addition, we provide a comprehensive set of guidelines on how to develop core competence further by forging a partnership alliance choosing an appropriate network topology

The Managed Service Paradox

This paper examines the contrasts in the provision of managed service in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. It highlights the polarization between infrastructure services that are growing in scale and increasingly becoming a commoditized, and customized or even one-of-a-kind service projects. The paper refers to the approaches taken by three highly innovative advanced service companies, IBM, Ericsson, and Cable & Wireless, to package and deliver ICT service on a more industrialized basis. The authors identify the six-stage process that describes these companies’ journeys to date from. They explore the challenges these companies faced on that journey as well those currently facing them as they move to a higher degree of industrialization. To address these challenges, the authors propose a model with three axes: offering development, service delivery, and go to market. The model demonstrates how the increasing industrialization of managed service requires an approach integrating all three of these dimensions. They also show that strong governance is required to address the impacts of technological evolution, marketplace dynamics, and corporate culture. The paper has formed the basis of the academic and executive education programs taught at both Imperial College and is the heart of the new service design masters program at the Royal College of Art. Because of its relevance to large industrial companies seeking to transition from an industrial offering to a service or solution led offering, the paper has been turned into a course that has been delivered to Arup, Vodafone, Finmeccanica, Telefonica, Samsung and Laing O’Rourke to date and this programme has been delivered by the authors in Korea, Taiwan, US and the UK