Continuous Rationale Management

Continuous Software Engineering (CSE) is a software life cycle model open to frequent changes in requirements or technology. During CSE, software developers continuously make decisions on the requirements and design of the software or the development process. They establish essential decision knowledge, which they need to document and share so that it supports the evolution and changes of the software. The management of decision knowledge is called rationale management. Rationale management provides an opportunity to support the change process during CSE. However, rationale management is not well integrated into CSE. The overall goal of this dissertation is to provide workflows and tool support for continuous rationale management. The dissertation contributes an interview study with practitioners from the industry, which investigates rationale management problems, current practices, and features to support continuous rationale management beneficial for practitioners. Problems of rationale management in practice are threefold: First, documenting decision knowledge is intrusive in the development process and an additional effort. Second, the high amount of distributed decision knowledge documentation is difficult to access and use. Third, the documented knowledge can be of low quality, e.g., outdated, which impedes its use. The dissertation contributes a systematic mapping study on recommendation and classification approaches to treat the rationale management problems. The major contribution of this dissertation is a validated approach for continuous rationale management consisting of the ConRat life cycle model extension and the comprehensive ConDec tool support. To reduce intrusiveness and additional effort, ConRat integrates rationale management activities into existing workflows, such as requirements elicitation, development, and meetings. ConDec integrates into standard development tools instead of providing a separate tool. ConDec enables lightweight capturing and use of decision knowledge from various artifacts and reduces the developers' effort through automatic text classification, recommendation, and nudging mechanisms for rationale management. To enable access and use of distributed decision knowledge documentation, ConRat defines a knowledge model of decision knowledge and other artifacts. ConDec instantiates the model as a knowledge graph and offers interactive knowledge views with useful tailoring, e.g., transitive linking. To operationalize high quality, ConRat introduces the rationale backlog, the definition of done for knowledge documentation, and metrics for intra-rationale completeness and decision coverage of requirements and code. ConDec implements these agile concepts for rationale management and a knowledge dashboard. ConDec also supports consistent changes through change impact analysis. The dissertation shows the feasibility, effectiveness, and user acceptance of ConRat and ConDec in six case study projects in an industrial setting. Besides, it comprehensively analyses the rationale documentation created in the projects. The validation indicates that ConRat and ConDec benefit CSE projects. Based on the dissertation, continuous rationale management should become a standard part of CSE, like automated testing or continuous integration

Requirements Change Management in Global Software Development: A Multiple Case Study

This thesis reports a comprehensive investigation of the challenges encountered in managing requirements change and investigates the associated role of collaborative technologies in Global Software Development (GSD) . Software has always been considered as malleable. Given this, changes to software requirements are inevitable during the development process. Despite many software engineering advances over several decades, Requirements Change Management (RCM) is a source of project risk that is especially important in GSD, particularly in today's context of rapidly evolving businesses and technologies. Although the effective management of requirements is a critical aspect of GSD, understanding of the challenges and practical approaches to their management are still a contemporary research issue. A key enabler of collaboration in GSD are the collaborative technologies available to geographically dispersed teams. It can be expected that these same technologies also address some of the challenges of RCM in a GSD context, but their role and efficacy is unclear. The repeated experience of dissatisfaction in managing requirements in global collaborations, in spite of the rich body of knowledge and available Collaborative Technologies (CTs) in place, have been the primary motivators for this work. Two GSD cases (one in New Zealand and the other in Pakistan) are explored in depth through a case study methodology that applies a fit-for-purpose research framework, to analyze the challenges of RCM in GSD and the associated role of CTs. A corpus of data based on participant interviews, change-related process and project artefacts as well as observations from the two selected cases is analyzed in depth in this study, through the application of a thematic content analysis technique. Thus a very rich and firmly grounded understanding of RCM processes in practice and the role of CTs is developed. This exploratory study has resulted in several initial conjectures that form the basis for novel theorizations. Conceptually, the results from this thesis are synthesized to represent the first known RCM process model that captures the practices of informal requirements change management - an under-theorized concept in literature. Substantively, the comparison and contrast of the two case studies have resulted in the identification of eight new challenges faced by those responsible for managing requirements change in globally distributed development environments. Through the research findings, the bridging roles of client liaisons and proxies in requirements change management are described in a manner distinct from present understandings in GSD literature. Furthermore, while the research findings confirm the adequacy of CTs in use and their supportive role for those carrying out RCM activities in GSD, several obstacles imposed by CTs are also identified. GSD is defined as "development of a software artifact across more than one location" (Smite et al., 2014

Software Engineers' Information Seeking Behavior in Change Impact Analysis - An Interview Study

Software engineers working in large projects must navigate complex information landscapes. Change Impact Analysis (CIA) is a task that relies on engineers' successful information seeking in databases storing, e.g., source code, requirements, design descriptions, and test case specifications. Several previous approaches to support information seeking are task-specific, thus understanding engineers' seeking behavior in specific tasks is fundamental. We present an industrial case study on how engineers seek information in CIA, with a particular focus on traceability and development artifacts that are not source code. We show that engineers have different information seeking behavior, and that some do not consider traceability particularly useful when conducting CIA. Furthermore, we observe a tendency for engineers to prefer less rigid types of support rather than formal approaches, i.e., engineers value support that allows flexibility in how to practically conduct CIA. Finally, due to diverse information seeking behavior, we argue that future CIA support should embrace individual preferences to identify change impact by empowering several seeking alternatives, including searching, browsing, and tracing.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Program Comprehensio

Comparative Study on Agile software development methodologies

Today-s business environment is very much dynamic, and organisations are constantly changing their software requirements to adjust with new environment. They also demand for fast delivery of software products as well as for accepting changing requirements. In this aspect, traditional plan-driven developments fail to meet up these requirements. Though traditional software development methodologies, such as life cycle-based structured and object oriented approaches, continue to dominate the systems development few decades and much research has done in traditional methodologies, Agile software development brings its own set of novel challenges that must be addressed to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software. It is a set of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development process, where requirements and development evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams that allows rapid delivery of high quality software to meet customer needs and also accommodate changes in the requirements. In this paper, we significantly identify and describe the major factors, that Agile development approach improves software development process to meet the rapid changing business environments. We also provide a brief comparison of agile development methodologies with traditional systems development methodologies, and discuss current state of adopting agile methodologies. We speculate that from the need to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software, Agile software development is emerged as an alternative to traditional plan-based software development methods. The purpose of this paper, is to provide an in-depth understanding, the major benefits of agile development approach to software development industry, as well as provide a comparison study report of ASDM over TSDM.Comment: 25 pages, 25 images, 86 references used, with authors biographie

DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AS A TOOL OF SYSTEM CHANGES IN THE TEACHER’S PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

Purpose: Social and cultural prerequisites of Russia’s transition to an open information society have predetermined new requirements for graduates of modern educational organizations, ready for communicative activities in a digital educational environment. Informatization of education is characterized by increasing virtualization of the educational process and, as a consequence, the predominance of fragmented thinking, and increase in the gap between traditional and innovative educational technologies. Methodology: The basis of the digital educational environment in the context of the use of knowledge management technologies can be specialized knowledge management systems that combine knowledge of related scientific disciplines, which should provide integration, accumulation, and support, as well as the organization of access to knowledge of the educational environment. A distinctive feature of the development of mankind at the present stage is the transition to information society in which information and information processes are becoming one of the most important components of human life and society. Result: The development of the global process of informatization of society leads to the formation of not only the new information environment for people but also new, information way of their life and professional activities. Many researchers as the most acute problem of modern education called the mismatch of software, including for educational purposes, to high technical characteristics of computers, resulting in extremely low efficiency of computer use in training. Critically assessing the effectiveness of the existing software of the educational process and the ways of its development, we see the prospects for a radical change in the situation in the orientation to the use of knowledge management technologies that use software products that can be changed, adapting to the needs of the user and, in particular, to the didactic tasks of training. Applications: This research can be used for universities, teachers, and students. Novelty/Originality: In this research, the model of Digital Educational Environment as a Tool of System Changes in the Teacher’s Professional Activity is presented in a comprehensive and complete manner

Identifying critical success factors of ERP systems at the higher education sector

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though the difficulties and high failure rate in implementing ERP systems at university environments have been cited in the literature, research on critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP implementations in this context is rare and fragmented. This paper is part of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP implementations and evaluations in HEIs in the Australasian region; it identifies, previously reported, critical success factors (CSFs) in relation to ERP system implementations and discusses the importance of these factors

An analysis of the requirements traceability problem

In this paper1, we investigate and discuss the underlying nature of the requirements traceability problem. Our work is based on empirical studies, involving over 100 practitioners, and an evaluation of current support. We introduce the distinction between pre-requirements specification (pre-RS) traceability and post-requirements specification (post-RS) traceability, to demonstrate why an all-encompassing solution to the problem is unlikely, and to provide a framework through which to understand its multifaceted nature. We report how the majority of the problems attributed to poor requirements traceability are due to inadequate pre-RS traceability and show the fundamental need for improvements here. In the remainder of the paper, we present an analysis of the main barriers confronting such improvements in practice, identify relevant areas in which advances have been (or can be) made, and make recommendations for research

Managing Process Variants in the Process Life Cycle

When designing process-aware information systems, often variants of the same process have to be specified. Each variant then constitutes an adjustment of a particular process to specific requirements building the process context. Current Business Process Management (BPM) tools do not adequately support the management of process variants. Usually, the variants have to be kept in separate process models. This leads to huge modeling and maintenance efforts. In particular, more fundamental process changes (e.g., changes of legal regulations) often require the adjustment of all process variants derived from the same process; i.e., the variants have to be adapted separately to meet the new requirements. This redundancy in modeling and adapting process variants is both time consuming and error-prone. This paper presents the Provop approach, which provides a more flexible solution for managing process variants in the process life cycle. In particular, process variants can be configured out of a basic process following an operational approach; i.e., a specific variant is derived from the basic process by applying a set of well-defined change operations to it. Provop provides full process life cycle support and allows for flexible process configuration resulting in a maintainable collection of process variants

Planning and implementation of effective collaboration in construction projects

The 21st century is now seen as the time for the construction industry to embrace new ways of working if it is to continue to be competitive and meet the needs of its ever demanding clients. Collaborative working is considered by many to be essential if design and construction teams are to consider the whole lifecycle of the construction product. Much of the recent work on collaborative working has focused on the delivery of technological solutions with a focus on web (extranets), CAD (visualisation), and knowledge management technologies. However, it is now recognised that good collaboration does not result from the implementation of information technology solutions alone. The organisational and people issues, which are not readily solved by pure technical systems, need to be resolved. However, approaches that exclusively focus on organisational and people issues will not reap the benefits derived from the use of technology, especially in the context of distributed teams which are the norm in construction. Work currently being undertaken at Loughborough University aims to bring together the benefits enabled by the technology, with the organisational, and its people issues to provide a framework enabling high level strategic decisions to be made to implement effective collaboration. This paper reports on the initial stages of the project: the background to the project, the methodology used, and findings from the literature survey and the requirements capture survey conducted as part of the project