George Valença

Requirements engineering for software product lines: A systematic literature review

Context: Software product line engineering (SPLE) is a growing area showing promising results in research and practice. In order to foster its further development and acceptance in industry, it is necessary to assess the quality of the research so that proper evidence for adoption and validity are ensured. This holds in particular for requirements engineering (RE) within SPLE, where a growing number of approaches have been proposed. Objective: This paper focuses on RE within SPLE and has the following goals: assess research quality, synthesize evidence to suggest important implications for practice, and identify research trends, open problems, and areas for improvement. Method: A systematic literature review was conducted with three research questions and assessed 49 studies, dated from 1990 to 2009. Results: The evidence for adoption of the methods is not mature, given the primary focus on toy examples. The proposed approaches still have serious limitations in terms of rigor, credibility, and validity of their findings. Additionally, most approaches still lack tool support addressing the heterogeneity and mostly textual nature of requirements formats as well as address only the proactive SPLE adoption strategy. Conclusions: Further empirical studies should be performed with sufficient rigor to enhance the body of evidence in RE within SPLE. In this context, there is a clear need for conducting studies comparing alternative methods. In order to address scalability and popularization of the approaches, future research should be invested in tool support and in addressing combined SPLE adoption strategies.

Competition and collaboration in requirements engineering: A case study of an emerging software ecosystem

Increasingly, small to medium software producing organisations are working together in collaboration networks to supply complex compositions of their products and services to customers. In this paper, we present a case study of two software companies that are evolving their partnership towards the creation of a software ecosystem. We investigate the impacts of their tightening partnership on software product management, with a focus on requirements engineering practices. We observe that the requirements definition and negotiation processes are directly affected by their fluid collaborative and competitive relationships. Power disputes, volatile roles and mismatches in release synchronisation are also aspects observed in the studied software ecosystem.We extract several observations from the case study that support small to medium software firms in making decisions within their software ecosystem.

A theory of power in emerging software ecosystems formed by small-to-medium enterprises

Abstract In a software ecosystem, partner companies rely on each other to succeed and survive. This scenario of mutual dependence entails a flow of power among companies. Power is an intrinsic property of their relationship and an asset to be exercised with a degree of intentionality. This paper presents a substantive theory to explain how power and dependence manifest in partnerships among small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) building a software ecosystem. We performed exploratory case studies of two emerging software ecosystems formed by SMEs. We interpreted the results in light of a theoretical framework underpinned by French and Ravens power taxonomy. Finally, we performed a cross-case analysis to evaluate our findings and build the theory. The proposed theory highlights the interactions among different forms of power and corresponding sources of power employed by companies. It provides a better understanding on how power and dependence influence the behaviour and coordination of companies within a software ecosystem. The theory is a useful lens for researchers to explore ecosystem partnerships by understanding the structure and impact of power relationships between partners. In addition, it is a valuable tool for companies to analyse power distribution and define sustainable strategies for software ecosystem governance.

Understanding the Factors That Influence the Adoption of BPM in Two Brazilian Public Organizations

While the increasing interest in BPM by private and public organizations confirm the relevance of process-centric philosophy, it also increases the expectations and uncertainties on how to introduce and evolve a BPM initiative. This paper investigates how BPM practices are adopted by Brazilian public organizations. We conducted case studies with two Brazilian public organizations to investigate how the interaction of barriers and facilitators influence the evolution of their BPM initiatives. A System Dynamics approach is proposed as a diagnosis tool to analyze the current performance of BPM initiatives. Systemic archetypes were created to represent specific combinations of virtuous reinforcement and balancing cycles among barriers and facilitators. We identified that support from top management and lack of team skills and competencies in BPM are key factors influencing the evolution of BPM initiatives. The implications for practice lies in the fact that systemic archetypes are generic structures repeatable in different contexts. Due to their predictable behavior, the recognition of archetypes can inspire effective action strategies to handle problematic situations that may occur in BPM initiatives facing similar situations.

Requirements negotiation model: A social oriented approach for software ecosystems evolution

Software Ecosystems is becoming a relevant research topic by analysing the software industry as networked organisations based on a common interest in a central software technology. In this context, appropriately handling Requirements Engineering is a success factor for Software Platform Management. Nevertheless, recent research in this subject does not integrate the ecosystems social dimension to a business view during requirements negotiations. The state-of-the-art is generally concerned with challenges of achieving and agreed requirements understanding. Thereby, this PhD proposes a Requirements Negotiation Model to address the negotiation process through a more holistic perspective. It aims to present an insightful reasoning on how requirements negotiation collaborates to ecosystems health and success, defining negotiation strategies along Software Ecosystem evolution considering the Software Platform Management.

We Need to Discuss the Relationship - An Analysis of Facilitators and Barriers of Software Ecosystem Partnerships.

Software ecosystems are a promising paradigm to develop and market software systems by means of partnerships among companies. To ensure the healthy evolution of software ecosystems, companies must define strategies that strength their partnerships. In this paper, we investigate the factors that drive the evolution of software ecosystems formed by Small-to-Medium Enterprises. We present an exploratory case study of two emergent software ecosystems in order to analyse the main facilitators and barriers faced by participating companies. We adopt System Dynamics approach to create models expressing causal relations among these factors. By understanding the facilitators that should be reinforced and barriers that should be restrained, we believe that partners are better equipped to catalyse the success of their software ecosystems.

A Power Perspective on Software Ecosystem Partnerships

To address today’s market demands for continuous enhancement of systems capabilities, software producing organisations have increasingly formed or joined software ecosystems. In these complex and networked settings, they define partnerships to complement each other’s features, acquire new skills, divide R&D costs and share customers. Such business model entails mutual dependence on companies for survival and effectiveness. It creates a flow of influence among them and makes the ecosystem resemble power-law distributions. Drawing on established concepts from Social and Behavioural Sciences, we performed an exploratory case study of six software companies to investigate their power-dependence relationships in an ecosystem environment. A prime result of this research is showing that it is possible to understand how power and dependence influence the behaviour and coordination of partner firms within a software ecosystem.

Requirements engineering process improvement: a knowledge transfer experience

In the last decade, research in requirements engineering has achieved great advances. Several methods, techniques and processes have been proposed in the literature. However, the pace of requirements engineering technology transfer has been slow. This paper presents a technology transfer project to improve the requirements engineering process in four software companies. We discuss this experience from the perspective of researchers and practitioners from one participating company.

Exploring the Influence of Organizational Culture on BPM Success: The Experience of the Pernambuco Court of Accounts

(a) Situation faced: This chapter presents a cultural analysis of the BPM initiative conducted by a public organization, the Pernambuco Court of Accounts (TCE-PE). In particular, we look at how organizational culture influences the evolution of our BPM initiative. (b) Action taken: We conducted in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation analyses in order to understand each interviewee’s organizational culture. Then we analyzed the extent to which the TCE-PE culture is aligned with a BPM-supportive culture, as represented by the CERT values (Customer orientation, Excellence, Responsibility, Teamwork). (c) Results achieved: We identified a set of cultural values, practices, and organizational characteristics at TCE-PE that may influence the BPM culture—that is, the aspects of the organizational culture that would act as facilitators of or barriers to our BPM initiative. We present a set of strategies that nurture the cultural values that are supportive of BPM and hinder those that are obstacles of BPM. (d) Lessons learned: During our journey toward establishing a BPM-supportive culture at TCE-PE, we learned that key success factors include investing heavily in communication, understanding who the stakeholders are and what they want, and creating a long-term vision of BPM goals and articulating them with future sponsors. We believe the experience presented in this chapter has value for public organizations that face challenges in aligning their organizational culture with BPM principles.

Strategies for managing power relationships in software ecosystems

Abstract Building a software ecosystem provides companies with business benefits as well as share risks and costs with a network of partners. The ability to establish successful partnerships with other companies can influence the success or failure of the ecosystem. Companies use power to build alliances and strengthen their position in the ecosystem. However, the inappropriate use of power may create tensions that threaten partnerships. To explore the dynamics of power and dependence in software ecosystems, we conducted three case studies of ecosystems formed by small-to-medium enterprises. As a result, we present a set of hypotheses that explain the effects of power on software ecosystems. As theoretical contribution, we present a meta-model that integrates concepts from s o ftware ecosystems literature with constructs from classical power theories. Our practical contribution is a set of strategies that companies can employ to manage power relationships with partners, so that their ecosystems can evolve in a healthy and prosperous manner. By obtaining an understanding of the occurrence of power and dependence, companies can recognise how to exercise power and deal with the power from partners in order to leverage their relationships.