Stefanie Betz

Requirements: The Key to Sustainability

Softwares critical role in society demands a paradigm shift in the software engineering mind-set. This shifts focus begins in requirements engineering. This article is part of a special issue on the Future of Software Engineering.

Sustainability design in requirements engineering: state of practice

Sustainability is now a major concern in society, but there is little understanding of how it is perceived by software engineering professionals and how sustainability design can become an embedded part of software engineering process. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study exploring requirements engineering practitioners’ perceptions and attitudes towards sustainability. It identifies obstacles and mitigation strategies regarding the application of sustainability design principlesin daily work life. The results of this study reveal several factors that can prevent sustainability design from becoming a first class citizen in software engineering: software practitioners tend to have a narrow understanding of the concept of sustainability; organizations show limited awareness of its potential opportunities and benefits; and the norms in the discipline are not conducive to sustainable outcomes. These findings suggest the need for focused efforts in sustainability education, but also a need to rethink professional norms and practices.

Risk-Aware Business Process Modeling and Simulation Using XML Nets

Risk management and business process management are considered key success factors for organizations. Risks are part of every business activity. If a risk occurs it may threaten the organizational goals causing time delays, additional costs or loss of quality. A business process is a set of activities that are executed according to certain rules to achieve a predefined business goal. Thus, if risk occurs it may threaten the execution of business processes. Nevertheless, in traditional business process management approaches risks and business processes are not sufficiently integrated. Risks are usually not explicitly described in the relevant business process model. In order to realize risk-aware business process management, one must have the process risks conceptualized and integrated into business process modeling and simulation. Thus, we present a novel methodology of risk-aware business process modeling and simulation using so-called XML nets, which are a special variant of Petri nets. Additionally, we present a business process modeling tool extended by a risk-aware perspective. Our methodology includes the following four steps: initial modeling of the original business process, discovering the business process risks by applying selected risk identification techniques, integrated modeling of risks and business processes, simulation and evaluation of business process improvements and their systematic selection and transformation of the original business process model into an improved business process model. Our novel methodology enables better risk visibility, improves business processes, and ensures business continuity.

Knowledge Transfer in IT Offshore Outsourcing Projects: An Analysis of the Current State and Best Practices

Knowledge transfer is one of the most critical success factors in IT offshore outsourcing projects and in many cases extremely underestimated. Compared to in-house or onsite projects, a much higher complexity appears in globally distributed projects. Not only language barriers but also other challenges such as cultural differences, diverse time-zones, distinct methods and approaches, as well as varied infrastructural equipment, may cause problems which negatively impact knowledge transfer, and in consequence, the overall success of a project. In order to minimize risks during knowledge transfer, we conducted a research study based on a literature review and expert interviews. The result of our study was a collection and description of best practices and the development of recommendations by linking proven solutions to identified problem areas.

Action research as a model for industry-academia collaboration in the software engineering context

Background: Action research is a well-established research methodology. It is following a post-positivist research philosophy grounded in critical thinking. The methodology is driven by practical problems, emphasis participatory research, and develops practically useful solutions in an iterative manner. Objective: Two objectives are to be achieved: (1) Understanding the state of the art with respect to action research usage in the software engineering literature, and (2) reflecting and providing recommendations of how to foster industry-academia collaboration through action research. Method:} Based on our experience with two action research studies in close collaboration with Ericsson lessons learned and guidelines are presented. Results: In both cases presented action research led to multiple refinements in the interventions implemented. Furthermore, the close collaboration and co-production with the industry was essential to identify and describe the required refinements to provide an in-depth understanding. In comparison with previous studies, we required multiple iterations while previous software engineering studies reported mostly one iteration, or were not explicit regarding the number of iterations studied. Conclusion: We conclude that action research is a powerful tool for industry-academia collaboration. The success of the method highly depends on the researchers and practitioners working in a team. Future studies need to improve the reporting with respect to describing the type of action research used, the iterations, the model of collaboration, and the rationales for changes in each iteration.

Risk Management in Global Software Development Process Planning

We present a methodology for effective risk management in global software development process planning. The proposed methodology starts with a detailed process model which is used for identifying risks based on a risk factor list. By linking the relevant risk factors to the process we seek to ease and improve the planning of the global software development process. Additionally, we built sub-processes for risk treatment. These risk treatments can be used to evaluate process improvements by simulation. Our tool-based methodology includes the following four steps: initial modeling of the original process, discovering the process risks by applying selected risk identification techniques, simulation and evaluation of process improvements, systematic selection and transformation of the original process model into an improved process model.

Offshoring of Software Development - Methods and Tools for Risk Management

Offshoring is a widely used practice in the software development. It is mainly employed to reduce development costs. However, as in a number of studies have been shown, about 40 percent of offshore software development projects are flops. One predominant reason for it is the lack of standardized and practicable methods of risk management due to the inherent complexity of software development offshoring. Therefore, suitable methods and tools for the risk management specific to such projects are required. Firstly, this workshop will provide an insight into various aspects of the risk management of offshore software development. Secondly, tools and methods for the risk management will be discussed and presented. Thirdly, priorities for further research will be identified. The results of this workshop will, on the one hand, benefit companies sharing in the software development offshoring and, on the other hand, academics to identify the demand in the further research.

Software sustainability: Research and practice from a software architecture viewpoint

Part of this work is supported by the Brazilian funding agency FAPESP (Grant: 2017/06195- 9), and the Canadian NSERC through RGPIN2016-06640.

Knowledge Problems in Corrective Software Maintenance--A Case Study

Corrective software maintenance derives its importance not only from the huge costs it induces but also its importance to customer relations and ultimately, the software companys revenues. In this paper, we address the knowledge problems in the corrective software maintenance process by applying the lens of Transactive Memory System (TMS). TMS is a theory of knowledge coordination in groups. We carry out a case study of the troubled corrective software maintenance process of a multinational ICT company. We discuss our empirical case from three key TMS manifestations: specialization, credibility and coordination. Our results show that TMS could offer a fruitful avenue for understanding and managing knowledge problems that lead to poor performance in such a process. Designers of a global software maintenance process should not only pay attention to the process structure and supporting IS but also to facilitating a well-functioning TMS.

On educating globally distributed software development — A case study

Globally distributed software development is widely used in industry, for example, to stay competitive in the market. To achieve competitiveness one needs cost reduction, delivery of best quality, use of latest high-tech skills, as well as reliability and creativity. The key criteria for all these factors is well educated people. Yet, software engineering education hardly focuses the needs of distributed software development. Consequently, the graduated students rarely posses necessary skills and hands-on experience required for such projects; e.g. communication skills, project and process management as well as knowledge management. This paper reports on a collaborative education project between the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, Research Centre for Information Technology (FZI) in Karlsruhe, Germany, and Polytechnic State University of St. Petersburg, Russia. The main goal of that project was to convey necessary skills to our students. The second goal was to investigate how different models of communication impact the project results.