An Empirical Study on Decision making for Quality Requirements

[Context] Quality requirements are important for product success yet often handled poorly. The problems with scope decision lead to delayed handling and an unbalanced scope. [Objective] This study characterizes the scope decision process to understand influencing factors and properties affecting the scope decision of quality requirements. [Method] We studied one company's scope decision process over a period of five years. We analyzed the decisions artifacts and interviewed experienced engineers involved in the scope decision process. [Results] Features addressing quality aspects explicitly are a minor part (4.41%) of all features handled. The phase of the product line seems to influence the prevalence and acceptance rate of quality features. Lastly, relying on external stakeholders and upfront analysis seems to lead to long lead-times and an insufficient quality requirements scope. [Conclusions] There is a need to make quality mode explicit in the scope decision process. We propose a scope decision process at a strategic level and a tactical level. The former to address long-term planning and the latter to cater for a speedy process. Furthermore, we believe it is key to balance the stakeholder input with feedback from usage and market in a more direct way than through a long plan-driven process

Patterns of User Involvement in Experiment-Driven Software Development

Background: Experiments are often used as a means to continuously validate user needs and to aid in making software development decisions. Involving users in the development of software products benefits both the users and companies. How software companies efficiently involve users in both general development and in experiments remains unclear; however, it is especially important to determine the perceptions and attitudes held by practitioners in different roles in these companies. Objective: We seek to: 1) explore how software companies involve users in software development and experimentation; 2) understand how developer, manager and UX designer roles perceive and involve users in experimentation; and 3) uncover systematic patterns in practitioners’ views on user involvement in experimentation. The study aims to reveal behaviors and perceptions that could support or undermine experiment-driven development, point out what skills could enhance experiment-driven development, and raise awareness of such issues for companies that wish to adopt experiment-driven development. Methods: We conducted a survey within four Nordic software companies, inviting practitioners in three major roles: developers, managers, and UX designers. We asked the respondents to indicate how they involve users in their job function, as well as their perspectives regarding software experiments and ethics. Results and Conclusion: We identified six patterns describing experimentation and user involvement. For instance, managers were associated with a cautious user notification policy, that is, to always let users know of an experiment they are subject to, and they also believe that users have to be convinced before taking part in experiments. We discovered that, due to lack of clear processes for involving users and the lack of a common understanding of ethics in experimentation, practitioners tend to rationalize their perceptions based on their own experiences. Our patterns were based on empirical evidence and they can be evaluated in different populations and contexts.Peer reviewe

Technical Debt in Software Development : Examining Premises and Overcoming Implementation for Efficient Management

Software development is a unique field of engineering: all software constructs retain their modifiability — arguably, at least — until client release, no single project stakeholder has exhaustive knowledge about the project, and even this portion of the knowledge is generally acquired only at project completion. These characteristics imply that the field of software development is subject to design decisions that are known to be sub-optimal—either deliberately emphasizing interests of particular stakeholders or indeliberately harming the project due to lack of exhaustive knowledge. Technical debt is a concept that accounts for these decisions and their effects. The concept’s intention is to capture, track, and manage the decisions and their products: the affected software constructs. Reviewing the previous, it is vital for software development projects to acknowledge technical debt both as an enabler and as a hindrance. This thesis looks into facilitating efficient technical debt management for varying software development projects. In the thesis, examination of technical debt’s role in software development produces the premises on to which a management implementation approach is introduced. The thesis begins with a revision of motivations. Basing on prior research in the fields of technical debt management and software engineering in general, the five motivations establish the premises for technical debt in software development. These include notions of subjectivity in technical debt estimation, update frequency demands posed on technical debt information, and technical debt’s polymorphism. Three research questions are derived from the motivations. They ask for tooling support for technical debt management, capturing and modelling technical debt propagation, and characterizing software development environments and their technical debt instances. The questions imply consecutive completion as the first pursued tool would benefit from—possibly automatically assessable—propagation models, and finally the tool’s introduction to software development organizations could be assisted by tailoring it based on the software development environment and the technical debt instance characterizations. The thesis has seven included publications. In introducing them, the thesis maps their backgrounds to the motivations and their outcomes to the research questions. Amongst the outcomes are the DebtFlag tool for technical debt management, the procedures for retrospectively capturing technical debt from software repositories, a procedure for technical debt propagation model creation from these retrospectives, and a multi-national survey characterizing software development environments and their technical debt instances. The thesis concludes that the tooling support, the technical debt propagation modelling, and the software environment and technical debt instance characterization describe an implementation approach to further efficient technical debt management. Simultaneously, future work is implied as all previously described efforts need to be continued and extended. Challenges also remain in the introduced approach. An example of this is the combinatorial explosion of technology-development-context-combinations that technical debt propagation modelling needs to consider. All combinations have to be managed if exhaustive modelling is desired. There is, however, a great deal of motivation to pursue these efforts when one re-notes that technical debt is a permanent component of software development that, when correctly managed, is a development efficiency mechanism comparable to a financial loan investment.Ohjelmistokehitys on uniikki tekniikan ala: kaikki ohjelmistorakenteet säilyttävät muokattavuutensa — otaksuttavasti ainakin — asiakasjulkaisuun asti. Yhdenkään projektiosakkaan tietämys ei kata koko projektia ja merkittävä osa tästäkin tiedosta karttuu vasta projektin suorittamisen aikana. Nämä ominaisuudet antavat ymmärtää, että ohjelmistokehitysala on sellaisten suunnitelupäätösten kohde, joiden tiedetään olevan epätäydellisiä—joko tarkoituksella tiettyjen projektiosakkaiden intressejä painottavia tai tahattomasti projektia vahingoittavia puutteelliseen tietoon perustuvia. Tekninen velka on konsepti, joka huomioi nämä päätökset sekä niiden vaikutukset. Konseptin tarkoitus on havaita, seurata ja hallita näitä päätöksiä sekä tuloksena syntyviä teknisen velan vaikutuksen alla olevia ohjelmistorakenteita. Edellisen kuvauksen valossa ohjelmistokehitysprojekteille on erityisen tärkeää huomioida tekninen velka sekä mahdollistajana että hidasteena. Tämän vuoksi kyseinen väitöskirja perehtyy tehokkaan teknisen velan hallinnan fasilitointiin moninaisille ohjelmistokehitysprojekteille. Väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan teknisen velan roolia osana ohjelmistokehitystä. Tarkastelu tuottaa joukon premissejä, joihin perustuen esitellään lähestymistapa teknisen velan hallinnan toteuttamiselle. Viisi väitöskirjan alussa esitettyä motivaatiota kiinnittävät ne premissit,joille ratkaisu esitetään. Motivaatiot rakennetaan olemassa olevaan teknisen velan sekä ohjelmistotekniikan tutkimustietoon perustuen. Näihin lukeutuvat muun muassa subjektiivisuus teknisen velan estimoinnissa, teknisen velan informaatiolle nähdyt päivitystaajuusvaatimukset sekä teknisen velan polymorfismi. Havainnoista johdetaan kolme tutkimuskysymystä. Ne tavoittelevat työkalutukea teknisen velan hallinnalle, velan propagoitumisen havainnointia sekä mallinnusta kuin myös ohjelmistotuotantoympäristöjen ja niiden velka instanssien kuvaamista. Tutkimuskysymykset implikoivat peräkkäistä suoritusta: tavoiteltu työkalu hyötyy—mahdollisesti automaattisesti arvoitavista—teknisen velan propagaatiomalleista. Valmiin työkalun käyttöönottoa voidaan taas edistää jos kuvaukset kehitysympäristöistä sekä niiden velkainstansseista ovat käytettävissä työkalun räätälöintiin. Väitöskirjaaan sisältyy seitsemän julkaisua. Väitöskirja esittelee ne kiinnittämällä julkaisujen taustatyön aikaisemmin mainittuihin motivaatioihin sekä niiden tulokset edellisiin tutkimuskysymyksiin. Tuloksista huomioidaan esimerkiksi DebtFlag-työkalu teknisen velan hallintaan, retrospektiivinen prosessi teknisen velan kartoittamiselle versionhallintajärjestelmistä, prosessi teknisen velan mallien rakentamiselle näistä kartoituksista ja monikansallinen kyselytutkimus ohjelmistokehitysympäristöjen sekä näiden teknisen velan instanssien luonnehtimiseksi. Väitöskirjan yhteenvetona huomioidaan, että teknisen velan hallinnan työkalutuki, teknisen velan propagaatiomallinnus ja ohjelmistokehitysympäristöjen sekä niiden teknisen velan instanssien luonnehdinta muodostavat toteutustavan, jolla teknisen velan tehokasta hallintaa voidaan kehittää. Samalla implikoidaan jatkotoimia, sillä kaikkia edellä kuvattuja työn osia tulee jatkaa ja laajentaa. Toteutustavalle nähdään myös haasteita. Eräs näistä on kombinatorinen räjähdys teknologia- ja kehityskontekstikombinaatioille. Kaikki kombinaatiot tulee huomioida mikäli teknisen velan propagaatiomallinnuksesta halutaan kattavaa. Motivaatio väitöskirjassa esitetyn työn jatkamiselle on huomattavaa ja sitä kasvattaa entuudestaan edellä tehty huomio siitä, että tekninen velka on pysyvä komponentti ohjelmistokehityksessä, joka oikein hallittuna on kehitystehokkuutta edistävänä komponenttina verrattavissa finanssialan lainainvestointiin.Siirretty Doriast

Evaluating performance for procurement: A structured method for assessing the usability of future speech interfaces

Procurement is a process by which organizations acquire equipment to enhance the effectiveness of their operations. Equipment will only enhance effectiveness if it is usable for its purpose in the work environment, i.e. if it enables tasks to be performed to the desired quality with acceptable costs to those who operate it. Procurement presents a requirement, then, for evaluations of the performance of human-machine work systems. This thesis is concerned with the provision of information to support procurers in performing such evaluations. The Ministry of Defence (an equipment procurer) has presented a particular requirement for a means of assessing the usability of speech interfaces in the establishment of the feasibility of computerized battlefield work systems. A structured method was developed to meet this requirement, the scope, notation and process of which sought to be explicit and proceduralized. The scope was specified in terms of a conceptualization of human-computer interaction: the method supported the development of representations of the task, device and user, which could be implemented as simulations and used in empirical evaluations of system performance. Notations for representations were proposed, and procedures enabling the use of the notations. The specification and implementation of the four sub-methods is described, and subsequent enhancement in the context of evaluations of speech interfaces for battlefield observation tasks. The complete method is presented. An evaluation of the method was finally performed with respect to the quality of the assessment output and costs to the assessor. The results suggested that the method facilitated systematic assessment, although some inadequacies were identified in the expression of diagnostic information which was recruited by the procedures, and in some of the procedures themselves. The research offers support for the use of structured human factors evaluation methods in procurement. Qualifications relate to the appropriate expression of knowledge of device-user interaction, and to the conflict between requirements for flexibility and low-level proceduralization

Understanding and Improving Continuous Experimentation : From A/B Testing to Continuous Software Optimization

Controlled experiments (i.e. A/B tests) are used by many companies with user-intensive products to improve their software with user data. Some companies adopt an experiment-driven approach to software development with continuous experimentation (CE). With CE, every user-affecting software change is evaluated in an experiment and specialized roles seek out opportunities to experiment with functionality. The goal of the thesis is to describe current practice and support CE in industry. The main contributions are threefold. First, a review of the CE literature on: infrastructure and processes, the problem-solution pairs applied in industry practice, and the benefits and challenges of the practice. Second, a multi-case study with 12 companies to analyze how experimentation is used and why some companies fail to fully realize the benefits of CE. A theory for Factors Affecting Continuous Experimentation (FACE) is constructed to realize this goal. Finally, a toolkit called Constraint Oriented Multi-variate Bandit Optimization (COMBO) is developed for supporting automated experimentation with many variables simultaneously, live in a production environment.The research in the thesis is conducted under the design science paradigm using empirical research methods, with simulation experiments of tool proposals and a multi-case study on company usage of CE. Other research methods include systematic literature review and theory building.From FACE we derive three factors that explain CE utility: (1) investments in data infrastructure, (2) user problem complexity, and (3) incentive structures for experimentation. Guidelines are provided on how to strive towards state-of-the-art CE based on company factors. All three factors are relevant for companies wanting to use CE, in particular, for those companies wanting to apply algorithms such as those in COMBO to support personalization of software to users' context in a process of continuous optimization

How Do Designers Deal With Uncertainty

Uncertainty touches most aspects of life and cannot be avoided, anybody is frequently presented with situations wherein a decision must be made when he/she is uncertain of exactly how to proceed. Narrow down into Information Systems (IS) field, uncertainty could be regarded as a basic but difficult problem that every HCI designer need to deal with within their design process. The purpose of this thesis is to find out how do human-computer interaction (HCI) practitioners deal with the uncertainty in their daily work. Based on this purpose, we assume that design approaches could be the methods for the designers to deal with uncertainty. There is however very few existing research on how to deal with uncertainty. In this study, we firstly categorized the uncertainty into a logical taxonomy, also ranked four design approaches by the extent of user involvement. We interviewed five HCI practitioners in different organizations that are or were working as designers. We found that most uncertainties are resulted from their customers, which can also be the most difficult to handle by them. In order to solve uncertainty, the designers need to make a good communication with others in specific situation, and some of them also proposed other practical solutions, such as “Role Play” and “Instinct Follower”. Additionally, the designers all proposed that the relationship between uncertainty and design approaches can be weak or inexistent. Interestingly, modest user involvement can be a helper for designers to solve or avoid uncertainty in the design process

Managing technical knowledge to enhance organisational best practice

In recent years the construction industry has become increasingly aware of the potential of the technical knowledge held by construction professionals and the need to manage it effectively. However, organisations have experienced numerous problems in implementing and sustaining Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives. A key reason for this, which has been cited both within industry and academia, is a lack of understanding of the best-suited KM approaches available and how to adopt them. In particular, the importance of people-orientated KM practices, specifically in the case of construction firms who have a high level of dependence on the tacit knowledge of their employees, has been well documented with many KM authors calling for further research in this area. The research undertaken for this study was initiated in response to the need for further research and an improved understanding of KM (people-orientated KM in particular) best practice. The research was also focussed on establishing an effective KM initiative within Ramboll Whitbybird; the sponsoring organisation. The central aim of the research was therefore to “deliver a framework that facilitates the retention and reuse of knowledge, which will increase Ramboll Whitbybird’s potential to drive engineering best practice and respond appropriately to conventional and emerging business opportunities.” To achieve this an action research approach was adopted, facilitated through the use of literature reviews, interviews, focus groups, and other data collection methods, to enable the findings to be implemented within an industrial setting. Through extensive industry involvement the research highlighted the core components necessary for a successful KM initiative, and the actions necessary from those involved in implementing, managing and sustaining KM activities within construction firms. The findings demonstrated that an organisation wishing to realise effective KM needs to establish a clear definition and understanding of KM across the business, which can be achieved through the compilation of a KM strategy (statement) and action plan. It also needs to acknowledge the importance of addressing the critical factors that will determine the success of its KM initiative such as the need for KM champions and a supporting team, a fit with the way people work and an alignment with business objectives. The research also highlighted the importance of people-orientated KM practices, and that construction organisations in particular should identify and prioritise KM activities such as Communities of Practice (CoPs), due to their reliance on tacit knowledge transfer. However, in order to maximise the benefits to individuals and the business, the organisation will need to take a ‘light touch’ approach to the management of CoPs. Supporting people-based KM activities with the right technology is an important factor, particularly as organisations expand and become more geographically dispersed. To ensure that this technology is an effective supporter of KM it needs to be tailored to fit with the KM needs of the business, and will need to become de-centralised in its operation. Finally, the research outlined the importance for the organisation to consider the integration of KM within the daily operation of the business by incorporating KM effectively into communication and reporting structures, while also ensuring that it becomes a core aspect of its Quality Assurance (QA) procedures

Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2020, which was planned to be held during June 8-12, 2020, at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was postponed until an undetermined date. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a hybrid forum where agile researchers, academics, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends. Following this history, for both researchers and seasoned practitioners XP 2020 provided an informal environment to network, share, and discover trends in Agile for the next 20 years. The 14 full and 2 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 37 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: agile adoption; agile practices; large-scale agile; the business of agile; and agile and testing