Ivan Aaen

Software process improvement: Blueprints versus recipes

Viewing software processes as blueprints emphasizes that design is separate from use, and thus that software process designers and users are independent. In the approach presented here, software processes are viewed as recipes; developers individually and collectively design their own software processes through facilitation, reflection, and improvisation.

Essence: Facilitating Software Innovation

This paper suggests ways to facilitate creativity and innovation in software development. The paper applies four perspectives – Product, Project, Process, and People – to identify an outlook for software innovation. The paper then describes a new facility – Software Innovation Research Lab (SIRL) – and a new method concept for software innovation – Essence – based on views, modes, and team roles. Finally, the paper reports from an early experiment using SIRL and Essence and identifies further research.

SPI agility: How to navigate improvement projects

In this study, we argue that todays changing business environment calls for agile Software Process Improvement (SPI) practices. The study combines experiences from 18 SPI projects executed from 1998 to 2002 at Ericsson in Gothenburg with insights from SPI and agility theory. We suggest that agile SPI practices are both effective and flexible; they employ adaptive governance mechanisms at the corporate level; and they combine different tactics on the project level. We identify and compare two different tactics for SPI projects. Inspired by procedural thinking, the first tactic, the supertanker, employs process-push and aims for efficient process development and diffusion. On the basis of adaptive thinking, the second tactic, the motorboat, facilitates practice-pull and aims for adaptive process development and diffusion. We also discuss how agile SPI practices require understanding of the different types of waters in which the two tactics navigate effectively. Copyright

Essence : Facilitating Agile Innovation

This paper suggests ways to facilitate creativity and innovation in agile development. The paper applies four perspectives – Product, Project, Process, andPeople - to identify ways to support creative software development based on agile principles. The paper then describes a new facility - Software Innovation Research Lab (SIRL) - and drafts a new method concept for software innovation called Essence. Finally the paper reports from an early discovery experiment using SIRL and Essence and identifies further research.

Problems in CASE introduction: experiences from user organizations

Abstract The paper deals with CASE introduction problems experienced in user organizations based on data from a combined Danish and Finnish questionnaire study. Using principal component analysis the paper illustrates how demographic factors, objectives for acquiring CASE, selection criteria, introduction activities, and the internal diffusion of tools associate with tool related and organizational problems.

Standardizing Software Processes-An Obstacle for Innovation?

Over the last 10 years CMM has achieved widespread use as a model for improving software organisations. Often CMM is used to standardise software processes across projects. In this paper we discuss this standardisation of SPI in relation to innovation, organisational size and company growth. Our discussion is empirically based on years work and experience working with companies on SPI. In the concrete our discussion is enhanced by vignette stories taken from our experience. As a result we find that standardisation focussing on process, metrics, and controls may jeopardize innovative capabilities and company growth. We conclude by identifying and describing four mechanisms that can used to avoid disaster.

Roles in Innovative Software Teams: A Design Experiment

With inspiration from role-play and improvisational theater, we are developing a framework for innovation in software teams called Essence. Based on agile principles, Essence is designed for teams of developers and an onsite customer. This paper reports from teaching experiments inspired by design science, where we tried to assign differentiated roles to team members. The experiments provided valuable insights into the design of roles in Essence. These insights are used for redesigning how roles are described and conveyed in Essence.

CASE user satisfaction-Impact evaluations in user organizations

Evaluations of the impact of CASE in user organizations based on data from a combined Danish and Finnish questionnaire study are discussed. How demographic factors, objectives for acquiring CASE, selection criteria, introduction activities, and the internal diffusion of tools relate to impact evaluations of CASE is illustrated using principal component analysis. The study points to organizational aspects rather than technical aspects as critical factors for favorable impacts of CASE.

Navigating Software Process Improvement Projects

Software process improvement (SPI) is one of the most widely used approaches to innovate software organizations. In this study, we identify and compare two different tactics for SPI projects. The first tactic, the supertanker, is inspired by centralist thinking. It is driven by process-push, and it aims for efficient process development and diffusion. The second tactic, the motorboat, is inspired by decentralist thinking. It facilitates practice-pull, and it aims for adaptive process development and diffusion. Our analysis of 18 SPI projects at Ericsson in Gothenburg shows how the two tactics lead to different practices and outcomes. We discuss on that basis what SPI tactics to use and identify the presence of muddy and unknown waters as the key characteristic that requires motorboat tactics. We suggest that today’s changing business environment calls for agile SPI practices that employ adaptive governance mechanisms at the corporate level and combines motorboat tactics with revised supertanker tactics.

Software Innovation –Values for a Methodology

Innovation is a recurrent theme in public as well as academic debate, and software development plays a major role for innovation in about every sector of our economy. As a consequence, software innovation will play an increasingly important role in software development. The focus in this paper is on how to make innovation more likely to happen in software development at the level of the software team or project. At this level it is important to identify opportunities to create added value in ongoing projects. Changes in software technologies over the last decades have opened up for experimentation, learning, and flexibility in software projects, but how can this change be used to facilitate software innovation? This paper proposes a set of values to guide the development of a methodology to facilitate software innovation.