Holger Schackmann

A Cost-Based Approach to Software Product Line Management

The evolution of a software product line requires different product management practices compared to a single product since the diverging requirements of different customers must be coordinated to preserve the common product line architecture. Allowing too much variability leads to substantial follow-up costs during the lifecycle. This paper describes the challenges of product management for an evolving software product line. A costing approach is proposed to enable more transparency on the costs of variability, support sound decisions on the appropriate amount of variability and gain control on the development process.

Evaluating process quality in GNOME based on change request data

The lifecycle of defects reports and enhancement requests collected in the Bugzilla database of the GNOME project provides valuable information on the evolution of the change request process and for the assessment of process quality in the GNOME sub projects. We present a quality model for the analysis of quality characteristics that is based on evaluating metrics on the Bugzilla database, and illustrate it with a comparative evaluation for 25 of the largest products within GNOME.

QMetric - a metric tool suite for the evaluation of software process data

Configuration and change request management systems offer valuable information for the assessment of process quality characteristics. The definition of appropriate metrics that address the information needs of an organization is an intricate task. We present the QMetric tool suite which provides a general infrastructure for specifying metrics, relating them to organization-specific quality models, and automatic evaluation based on empirical comparison data.

Comparison of Process Quality Characteristics Based on Change Request Data

The evaluation of metrics on data available in change request management (CRM) systems offers valuable information for the assessment of process quality characteristics. The definition of appropriate metrics that consider the underlying change request workflow and address the information needs of an organization is an intricate task. Furthermore CRM systems usually provide only a number of predefined metrics with limited adaptability. The tool BugzillaMetrics offers a more flexible approach that simplifies defining and adjusting new metrics. However a systematic approach for deriving an appropriate metric in a target-oriented way is needed. This paper describes a corresponding procedure on how to develop and validate metrics on CRM data applicable for the comparison of process quality characteristics.

Attracting the community's many eyes: an exploration of user involvement in issue tracking

A community of users who report bugs and request features provides valuable feedback that can be used in product development. We compare the community involvement in issue tracker usage between the open source project Eclipse and the closed source project IBM Jazz to evaluate if publicly accessible issue trackers work as well in closed source projects. We find that IBM Jazz successfully receives user feedback through this channel. We then explore the differences in work item processing in IBM Jazz between team members, project members and externals. We conclude that making public issue trackers available in closed source projects is a useful approach for eliciting feedback from the community, but that work items created by team members are processed differently from work items created by project members and externals.

Evaluating Process Quality Based on Change Request Data --- An Empirical Study of the Eclipse Project

The information routinely collected in change request management systems contains valuable information for monitoring of the process quality. However this data is currently utilized in a very limited way. This paper presents an empirical study of the process quality in the product portfolio of the Eclipse project. It is based on a systematic approach for the evaluation of process quality characteristics using change request data. Results of the study offer insights into the development process of Eclipse. Moreover the study allows assessing applicability and limitations of the proposed approach for the evaluation of process quality.

Process assessment by evaluating configuration and change request management systems

This paper presents an approach for assessing process qualities based on evaluating metrics on change request and configuration management systems. It is based on user-defined quality models to enable quality evaluations customized to the information needs of an organization. Further on the concept of declarative metric specifications is introduced, which enables a precise definition of metrics on an appropriate abstraction level. With the corresponding tool support given in the QMetric tool suite, this concept simplifies development and validation of the metrics needed for quality evaluations.