Sven Overhage

On Component Identification Approaches --- Classification, State of the Art, and Comparison

Partitioning a design space to identify components with desired non-functional and behavioral characteristics is a crucial task in the component-based software development process. Accordingly, the issue of how to analyze design models in order to systematically derive a set of components constitutes a research question which has been investigated repeatedly. Component identification approaches that have been published in literature, however, make use of different component definitions and identification strategies. Furthermore, they vary from ad-hoc findings and general recommendations to more formalized methods and techniques which aim at an optimized partitioning. In this paper, we elaborate on the state of the art in component identification and provide a classification of approaches that highlights their respective strengths and weaknesses. To classify component identification approaches, we introduce a classification scheme that contains important distinguishing factors. It is used to compare existing approaches which have been compiled during a literature survey. In addition, it provides the basis to discuss significant differences between them and to identify remaining issues which give information about future research directions.

Quality Marks, Metrics, and Measurement Procedures for Business Process Models

The availability of high-quality business process models is a central prerequisite for a successful process management. Nevertheless, in practice process models exhibit a large number of quality deficits, among them grammatical, content-related, and stylistic defects. In addition, there exist only very few approaches to determine the quality of business process models. In this paper, we present the 3QM-Framework, an analytical approach to systematically determine the quality of business process models. The 3QM-Framework makes three contributions: it provides quality marks, metrics, and measurement procedures to quantify the quality level as elements of a theoretically justified quality model. The applicability of the 3QM-Framework has been empirically evaluated in case studies. The results of a survey that was conducted among experts moreover attest its practical relevance.

Investigating the Long-Term Acceptance of Agile Methodologies: An Empirical Study of Developer Perceptions in Scrum Projects

Agile development methodologies have gained great interest in research and practice. As their introduction considerably changes traditional working habits of developers, the long-term acceptance of agile methodologies becomes a critical success factor. Yet, current studies primarily examine the early adoption stage of agile methodologies. To investigate the long-term acceptance, we conducted a study at a leading insurance company that introduced Scrum in 2007. Using a qualitative research design and the Diffusion of Innovations Theory as a lens for analysis, we gained in-depth insights into factors influencing the acceptance of Scrum. Particularly, developers felt Scrum to be more compatible to their actual working practices. Moreover, they perceived the use of Scrum to deliver numerous relative advantages. However, we also identified possible barriers to acceptance since developers felt both the complexity of Scrum and the required discipline to be higher in comparison with traditional development methodologies.

A Survey of Service Identification Approaches - Classification Framework, State of the Art, and Comparison

Due to their modular nature, the adoption of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) for business applications promises many advantages. The successful introduction of SOA depends on an efficient methodical support of the underlying new development paradigm, though. As the amount of current literature illustrates, especially the development of systematic methods for the identification of suitable services, which can serve as building blocks of business applications, is presently a focal point of interest. The different approaches presented in literature, however, significantly diverge with regard to their concepts and procedures. In this paper, we therefore analyse the current state of the art in service identification and highlight differences between the presented approaches. To evaluate proposed service identification approaches, we introduce a classification scheme with distinguishing factors. We use this scheme to compare and analyse the various approaches. Based on this comparison, we elaborate on individual strengths and weaknesses of approaches from which implications for practice are deduced. Finally, we identify areas of future research that remain to be addressed in order to further advance the state of the art in service identification.

What Makes IT Personnel Adopt Scrum? A Framework of Drivers and Inhibitors to Developer Acceptance

In recent years, the agile Scrum methodology has become a popular software development approach. It significantly differs from traditional approaches as it promotes communication, self-organization, flexibility, and innovation instead of extensive planning and codified processes. While such a paradigm shift promises to better support the timely delivery of high-quality software in turbulent business environments, its success considerably depends on the willingness of developers to adopt the agile methodology. In this paper, we present a framework with drivers and inhibitors to the developer acceptance of Scrum. It combines analytical with empirical findings and can be used as a theoretical basis to empirically evaluate the actual support of Scrum in concrete scenarios. The introduced framework is based on the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which has been proven to be also applicable to describe the intention of developers to use a methodology. Building upon results from qualitative in-depth interviews with six experienced Scrum experts of a German DAX-30 company, we refine the general determinants of adoption contained in the TAM with several observed factors that influence the willingness of developers to use Scrum in practice.

Alignment of Business and IT Architectures in the German Federal Government: A Systematic Method to Identify Services from Business Processes

Achieving alignment between business and IT is a top priority of information systems management. To facilitate the alignment of business and IT, enterprise architecture management frameworks have been developed. They support the coordination of various architecture types. In this paper, we focus on the alignment of the business and information systems architecture. Specifically, we present a new method to identify services from business process models. The novel contribution of our approach is to show how the business architecture can be used to drive the organization of the information systems architecture and to ensure its alignment with business requirements. The presented method was developed using a design science approach. Its applicability was evaluated in a controlled study. The evaluation results suggest that novice users are able to effectively use the method. It was furthermore perceived as useful and easy to use, which is an indicator that the proposed method will be accepted in practice.

Is BPMN really first choice in joint architecture development? an empirical study on the usability of BPMN and UML activity diagrams for business users

Joint architecture development plays a key role in service-oriented computing as it facilitates the coordination of business processes with the software architectures of applications. To better support business users in the communication of business process semantics, the Object Management Group advises to adopt the newly standardized Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) instead of the UML Activity Diagram. A main reason for this advice is that BPMN is presumed to be more usable for business users than the technically-oriented Activity Diagram. Adopting a new process modeling language, however, is a significant expense factor for businesses and consolidated findings on whether such presumptions hold true in practice are missing. In this paper, we present results from an empirical study, in which we examined the application of BPMN and the UML Activity Diagram by business users during a model creation task. Results indicate that the UML Activity Diagram is at least as usable as BPMN since neither user effectiveness, efficiency, nor satisfaction differ significantly.

A method to support a reflective derivation of business components from conceptual models

To successfully compete in today’s volatile business environments, enterprises need to consolidate, flexibly adapt, and extend their information systems (IS) with new functionality. Component-based development approaches can help solving these challenges as they support the structuring of IS landscapes into business components with a loosely coupled business functionality. However, the structuring process continues to pose research challenges and is not adequately supported yet. Current approaches to support the structuring process typically rely on procedures that cannot be customized to the designer’s situational preferences. Furthermore, they do not allow the designer to identify and reflect emerging conflicts during the structuring. In this paper, we therefore propose a new method that introduces a rational, reflective procedure to systematically derive an optimized structuring according to situational preferences. Using a design science approach, we show (i) how the derivation of business components can be formulated as a customizable multi-criteria decision making problem and (ii) how conceptual models can be used to derive business components with an optimized functional scope. To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method, we describe its application in a complex case that was taken from a German DAX-30 automobile manufacturer.

The Market for Services: Economic Criteria, Immaturities, and Critical Success Factors

Mature service markets, which facilitate the reuse of services by efficiently coordinating service supply and demand, are a cornerstone for the breakthrough of the service-oriented computing (SOC) paradigm. Accordingly, the Web service technology already comprises a standard for the creation of service registries to ease the development of service marketplaces. In parallel with the increasing popularity of SOC, forecasts have moreover prophesied service marketplaces to rapidly evolve and become lucrative. Up to now, however, only very few service marketplaces emerged and managed to establish themselves. To investigate possible reasons, we analyze the structure of todays service markets against the criteria of perfect markets as benchmarks from economic theory. As a result, we identify numerous immaturities of todays service markets which are closely examined. To mitigate identified immaturities, we derive critical success factors and describe how to transform them into marketplace features. In particular, we show the resulting architecture of CompoNex - a model marketplace, which is currently being developed in a design science approach to facilitate the trading of services in todays markets.

How Complete is the USDL

The USDL aims at providing comprehensive descriptions of business and software services which cover all aspects relevant to support their discovery and combination in the envisioned Internet of Services. In this chapter, we specifically evaluate the expressive power of USDL to specify software services. Based on an analysis of literature on software description requirements and related approaches, we derive a theoretically grounded evaluation framework. This framework is used as a benchmark to evaluate the constructs of the USDL. According to the presented evaluation framework, comprehensive descriptions of software services should cover commercial information, implemented business semantics, technical binding information, and service quality. The evaluation shows that the USDL provides the most detailed approach to date to comprehensively describe software services, which nevertheless should be harmonized in some aspects.