Publications
2013
Armbrust, Ove.
Agile Development in the 'Old Economy' - Between the Desirable and Reality.
University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, Center for Systems and Software Engineering - Annual Research Review, March 11-14, 2013. Invited talk. Download slides.
2012
Jeffery, Ross; Raffo, David; Armbrust, Ove; Huang, LiGuo.
2012 International Conference on Software and Systems Process (ICSSP) Proceedings (Eds.)
IEEE, 2012. IEEE Xplore.
Münch, Jürgen; Armbrust, Ove; Soto, Martín; Kowalczyk, Martin.
Software Process Definition and Management.
Textbook, Springer, 2012. Buy on Amazon.
2011
Armbrust, Ove; Rombach, Dieter.
The Right Process For Each Context: Objective Evidence Needed.
In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Software and Systems Process (ICSSP), May 21-22, 2011, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, pp. 237-241, ACM Press, 2011.
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The growing importance of software in ever more technical systems has led to new demands with respect to developing software. The demand for more functionality, higher quality, and faster delivery hence poses major challenges to the software industry. The software process community has responded with a variety of different development processes such as the waterfall model or the incremental commitment model, however, the number of late or failed projects has not decreased as much as it was desired. In the new millennium, agile development approaches promised a new way out of this dilemma. After several years of heated discussions, it is now time to evaluate applicability, advantages, and challenges of different software development approaches based on sound, empirical evidence instead of anecdotes and hearsay. This paper briefly investigates the major differences between agile and traditional approaches, illustrates the difficulties in selecting the “right” approach for a given project, and proposes hypotheses for empirical evaluation, in order to build a solid body of knowledge that can be used for said selection.
Kowalczyk, Martin; Armbrust, Ove; Katahira, Masafumi; Kaneko, Tatsuya; Miyamoto, Yuko; Koishi, Yumi.
Requirements for Process Management Support: Experience from the Japanese Aerospace Industry.
In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Software and Systems Process (ICSSP), May 21-22, 2011, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, pp. 179-183, ACM Press, 2011.
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In recent years, software process management has been a major topic in research and industry. But only few of the proposed research approaches have been transferred into industrial practice and significant challenges remain in practice. Today organizations have to deal with complex process model hierarchies, which are often used in a distributed collaboration context. This experience report outlines current practitioners’ requirements regarding software process management and their use to evaluate and select a suitable technology to support the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s software process management activities.
2010
Armbrust, Ove.
The SCOPE Approach for Scoping Software Processes.
Ph.D. Thesis, University of Kaiserslautern, 2010.
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Having software processes that fit technological, project, and business demands is one important prerequisite for software-developing organizations to operate successfully in a sustainable way. Therefore, process management needs to constantly evaluate the organization's processes to see whether they match the demands. In doing so, not only should the current demands be considered; future demands should also be anticipated and proactive support should be provided. Currently, there is little methodological support for selecting and evolving an organization's processes based on identified current and anticipated future demands. This often leads to unfocused development processes with unnecessary variability that only inadequately support current demands, and whose evolution to meet future challenges is very difficult.
In order to address this problem, a solution should actively identify an organization's current and anticipated future demands. It should therefore analyze its products and projects in terms of their process demands, using existing knowledge where available. Based on this analysis, it should provide explicit support for defining and evolving the organization's processes, and be readily applicable in industrial practice.
This thesis introduces the SCOPE approach for continuously focusing an organization's processes towards the relevant demands. In particular, the SCOPE approach facilitates (a) the determination of the process demands of current and future products and projects, (b) the
analysis of processes for satisfying these demands, (c) scenario-based selection strategies that support decisions as to which processes to keep, which to discard, and how to prioritize process modifications, and (d) a prototype tool supporting the overall approach.
The approach was validated by means of one controlled experiment and two industrial case studies. The validation was aimed at showing that SCOPE (a) allows for a greater reduction in unnecessary process variability than ad hoc selection; (b) allows for selecting processes that cover a broader range of demands than ad hoc selection; (c) allows for reducing process management effort compared to ad hoc methods; and (d) is fit for industrial application.
The validation showed that (a) the application of the SCOPE approach in a controlled experiment led to a 46% reduction in unnecessary process variability compared to ad hoc approaches and allowed for an 82% reduction in an industrial case study; (b) SCOPE users identified 150% more misalignments between processes and demands in a controlled experiment than when working ad hoc; (c) the application of the SCOPE approach allowed for a reduction in process management effort of 83% in a controlled experiment and of 41% in an industrial case study; and (d) the SCOPE approach and results were accepted by the engineers in two industrial case studies as a means for providing adequate support for process management.
Armbrust, Ove.
Strategisches Prozessmanagement mit SCOPE.
SQ-Magazin, issue 15 (June 2010), pp. 10-11.
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Eine der Herausforderungen im Software-Prozessmanagement ist es, neben Prozessen, die zu Best-Practice-Standards wie SPICE oder CMMI konform sind, auch solche Prozesse bereitzustellen, die optimal auf die Bedürfnisse einer Organisation eingehen. Bislang ist dafür keine systematische Vorgehensweise etabliert. Der am Fraunhofer IESE entwickelte SCOPE-Ansatz zum Scoping von Softwareprozessen füllt diese Lücke, indem er die Prozessbedarfe der Produkte und Projekte einer Organisation bestimmt, die Prozesse auf ihre diesbezügliche Eignung analysiert und anschließend eine Einschätzung darüber abgibt, welche Prozesse besser und welche weniger gut für die jeweilige Organisation geeignet sind.
Armbrust, Ove; Katahira, Masafumi; Kaneko, Tatsuya; Miyamoto, Yuko; Koishi, Yumi.
Which Processes Are Needed in Five Years? Strategic Process Portfolio Management at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Proceedings of the International SPICE Days 2010, June 21-23, Stuttgart, Germany.
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During the course of a strategic cooperation, a method was developed that supports an organization in adjusting its process scope. The approach systematically analyzes process needs of products and projects, and then evaluates the organization’s processes with respect to the fulfillment of these needs. The result is a recommendation as to which processes to keep and maintain, which ones to discard, and which process to apply in which situation. The method was successfully applied during the development of software development standards for the development of satellite software at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It could be shown that the method can significantly reduce the effort required for creating and maintaining software process standards, while at the same time providing projects with exactly the processes that are needed.
Armbrust, Ove.
Determining Organization-specific Process Suitability.
In: Münch, Jürgen; Yang, Ye; Schäfer, Wilhelm (Eds.): New Modeling Concepts for Today's Software Processes, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Process (ICSP) 2010, July 8 and 9, Paderborn, Germany. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6195, pp. 26-38, Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.
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Having software processes that fit technological, project, and business demands is one important prerequisite for software-developing organizations to operate successfully in a sustainable way. However, many such organizations suffer from processes that do not fit their demands, either because they do not provide the necessary support, or because they provide features that are no longer necessary. This leads to unnecessary costs during the development cycle, a phenomenon that worsens over time. This paper presents the SCOPE approach for systematically determining the process demands of current and future products and projects, for analyzing existing processes aimed at satisfying these demands, and for subsequently selecting those processes that provide the most benefit for the organization. The validation showed that SCOPE is capable of adjusting an organization’s process scope in such a way that the most suitable processes are kept and the least suitable ones can be discarded.
Klaes, Michael; Trendowicz, Adam; Heidrich, Jens; Armbrust, Ove.
3MQM: A Maturity Model for Model-based Quality Management.
3. Workshop zur Software-Qualitätsmodellierung und -bewertung (SQMB '10), February 22, 2010, Paderborn, Germany.
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Managing product quality during the development, operation, and maintenance of software-intensive systems is a challenging task. Although many organizations use quality models to define, control, measure, or improve different quality aspects of their development artifacts, only very little guidance is available on how to assess the maturity of an organization with respect to model-based quality management (MQM). Thus, it is difficult for an organization to improve its usage of quality models. Existing process maturity models such as CMMI or SPICE are too generic to provide specific guidance for the improvement of MQM. This paper presents a Maturity Model for Model-based Quality Management (3MQM) as a first step towards better support for determining the maturity of current MQM and for identifying improvement possibilities with respect to MQM. The model can be applied to provide an integrated overview of the maturity of an organization with respect to the usage of quality models.
2009
Armbrust, Ove.
Welche Prozesse brauche ich in 5 Jahren? Strategisches Prozessportfoliomanagement bei der japanischen Raumfahrtagentur.
Jahrestreffen der Software Technologie Initiative Kaiserslautern e.V., November 12, 2009, Kaiserslautern, Germany.
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Im Rahmen einer strategischen Kooperation wurde mit der Japanischen Raumfahrtagentur JAXA eine Methodik entwickelt, die es erlaubt, aufgrund einer systematischen Analyse der Prozessbedarfe einer Organisation eine Empfehlung für die zukünftige Ausrichtung des Prozessportfolios zu geben (Prozess-Scoping). Die Methodik wurde bei der Ausarbeitung der Standards für die Entwicklung von Satellitensoftware erfolgreich erprobt. Dieser Vortrag erläutert die wesentlichen Schritte der entwickelten Scoping-Methodik und stellt die Ergebnisse der Erprobung vor.
Armbrust, Ove; Ocampo, Alexis; Soto, Martín; Münch, Jürgen; Katahira, Masafumi; Koishi, Yumi; Miyamoto, Yuko.
Verfolgbarkeit in großen Prozessstandards am Beispiel der Raumfahrtindustrie.
In: Proceedings of the 4th Workshop "Vorgehensmodelle in der Praxis" - Evolution und Wandlungsfähigkeit, September 29, 2009, Lübeck, Germany. Lecture Notes in Informatics P-154, pp. 3552-3565.
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Die Raumfahrtbranche ist bekannt für ihre konsequente Ausrichtung auf hohe Produktqualität, da Hardware- oder Softwarefehler potenziell katastrophale Folgen haben können. Daher regeln viele Standards die Entwicklung von Software für die Raumfahrt. In diesem Paper präsentieren wir einen Ansatz zur systematischen Etablierung und Erhaltung von Verfolgbarkeitsbeziehungen zwischen Standards als Basis für eine langfristige Evolution dieser Standards. Der Ansatz reichert die entsprechenden Textverarbeitungsdokumente mit zusätzlichen Meta-Informationen an, sodass sie für Programme zu verarbeiten sind. Eine Datenbankrepräsentation der Standards erlaubt tiefgehende Analysen. Wir berichten über unsere Erfahrungen aus zwei erfolgreichen Anwendungen des Ansatzes bei der Europäischen Raumfahrtorganisation ESA und der Japanischen Raumfahrtagentur JAXA.
Armbrust, Ove; Ocampo, Alexis; Münch, Jürgen; Katahira, Masafumi; Koishi, Yumi; Miyamoto, Yuko.
Establishing and Maintaining Traceability Between Large Aerospace Process Standards.
In: Proceedings of 2009 ICSE Workshop on Traceability in Emerging Forms of Software Engineering (TEFSE'09), May 18, 2009, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 36-40.
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The aerospace domain is known for its emphasis on product quality, since hardware or software failures may have potentially catastrophic consequences. Therefore, numerous standards govern space software development. In this paper, we present an approach for systematically establishing and maintaining traceability between software development standards. It augments the standards’ word processing files with additional meta-information, thereby making them accessible and understandable for programs, so that a database can be used for advanced analyses. Additionally, we present experience collected during application of the approach at the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Armbrust, Ove; Ocampo, Alexis. Software Process Lines and Standard Traceability Analysis. In: Proceedings of the 7. Workshop of Critical Software, January 14-15, 2009, Tokyo, Japan. Download PDF.
Armbrust, Ove; Katahira, Masafumi; Miyamoto, Yuko; Münch, Jürgen; Nakao, Haruka; Ocampo, Alexis. Scoping Software Process Lines. Software Process: Improvement and Practice, Issue 14, Volume 3, pp. 181-197.
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Defining organization-specific process standards by integrating, harmonizing, and standardizing heterogeneous and often implicit processes is an important task, especially for large development organizations. On the one hand, such a standard must be generic enough to cover all of the organization’s development activities; on the other hand, it must be as detailed and precise as possible to support employees’ daily work. Today, organizations typically maintain and advance a plethora of individual processes, each addressing specific problems. This requires enormous effort, which could be spent more efficiently.
This article introduces an approach to developing a Software Process Line that, similar to a Software Product Line, promises to reduce the complexity and thus, the effort required for managing the processes of a software organization. We propose as majors steps Scoping, Modeling, and Architecting the Software Process Line, and describe in detail the Scoping approach we recommend, based on an analysis of the potential products to be produced in the future, the projects expected for the future, and the respective process capabilities needed. In addition, the article sketches experience from determining the scope of space process standards for satellite software development. Finally, it discusses the approach, and related work, conclusions, and an outlook on future work are presented.
Armbrust, Ove; Münch, Jürgen; Ocampo, Alexis; Katahira, Masafumi; Miyamoto, Yuko; Nakao, Haruka.
Welche Prozesse brauche ich in 5 Jahren? Strategisches Prozessportfoliomanagement bei der Japanischen Raumfahrtagentur.
Software and Systems Quality Conference Germany 2009.
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Im Rahmen einer strategischen Kooperation wurde mit der Japanischen Raumfahrtagentur eine Methodik entwickelt, die es erlaubt, aufgrund einer systematischen Analyse der Prozessbedarfe einer Organisation eine Empfehlung für die zukünftige Ausrichtung des Prozessportfolios zu geben. Die Methodik wurde bei der Ausarbeitung der Standards für die Entwicklung von Satellitensoftware erfolgreich erprobt.
2008
Armbrust, Ove; Weber, Sebastian. Wiki-basierte Dokumentation von Software-Entwicklungsprozessen – Erfahrungen aus der industriellen Praxis. In: Proceedings of the 3. Workshop: Vorgehensmodelle in der Praxis - Werkzeuge und Anwendung, 38. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Informatik (INFORMATIK 2008), September 8-13, Munich, Germany. Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI), P-134. Download PDF, read abstract.
Nicht nur die verteilte Software-Entwicklung stellt die Softwarebranche vor Herausforderungen. Durch global agierende Unternehmen wird auch die verteilte Dokumentation von Prozessen zunehmend wichtiger. Dem gegenüber stehen strikte Kostenkontrolle und Sparzwang in Zeiten der Konsolidierung. Dieser Artikel beschreibt eine lizenzkostenfreie Lösung zur Dokumentation von (Software-) Entwicklungsprozessen in verteilten Umgebungen. Vorgestellt werden die technische Lösung nebst einigen Erweiterungen. Dabei werden Vorteile und prinzipielle Limitierungen, wie sie sich im industriellen Einsatz dargestellt haben, vorgestellt. Die eingesetzte Lösung erwies sich als attraktive, kostengünstige Alternative zu kostspieligen Spezialwerkzeugen, die sich dank ihrer Erweiterbarkeit sehr weitgehend anpassen lässt.
Weber, Sebastian; Thomas, Ludger; Armbrust, Ove; Ras, Eric; Rech, Jörg; Uenalan, Özgür; Wessner, Martin; Linnenfelser, Marcel; Decker, Björn. A Software Organization Platform (SOP). In: Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Learning Software Organizations (LSO 2008), June 26, Frascati-Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5089/2008, Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. Download PDF, read abstract.
Software engineering is a highly collaborative and complex process involving a large number of different roles. In this process, every activity comprises the development of software artifacts that are created by a specific role or provided by others and that might serve as input for subsequent activities. Hence, software engineering highly depends on efficient management of and access to various kinds of information. This article presents the concept of a Software Organization Platform (SOP), which aims at supporting the creation, storage, and exchange of such information as well as personal or organizational experiences. Furthermore, we introduce our prototypical Wiki-based implementation of the SOP concept, which leverages less formal, innovative technologies from the Web 2.0 domain.
Armbrust, Ove; Ebell, Jan. Organisationsweite Prozesseinführung und –reifung bei Witt Weiden. Software and Systems Quality Conference International 2008. Download Extended abstract (PDF), Download Presentation (PDF), read abstract.
Im Jahre 2005 fiel bei dem großen Versandhändler Witt Weiden die Entscheidung, vom V-Modell 1997 als Entwicklungsstandard auf das neue V-Modell XT zu wechseln. Diese Präsen-tation beschreibt den Weg von der Konzeption zur unternehmensweiten Nutzung eines maß-geschneiderten Vorgehensmodells. Beschrieben werden die Schritte der Aufsetzung eines Witt-spezifischen Vorgehensmodells, dessen Ausarbeitung und Einführung, die nötigen Schulungen der Mitarbeiter, und die Stabilisierungsphase nebst genauen Aufwands- und Zeitdaten. Zudem werden erste Ergebnisse eines im Herbst 2007 gestarteten Messprogramms zur Projektperformance dargestellt, welches je etwa 100 prä-V-Modell XT-Projekte und neue V-Modell XT-Projekte untersucht.
Armbrust, Ove; Katahira, Masafumi; Miyamoto, Yuko; Münch, Jürgen; Nakao, Haruka; Ocampo, Alexis. Scoping Software Process Models - Initial Concepts and Experience from Defining Space Standards. Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Process (ICSP 2008), May 10-11, 2008, Leipzig, Germany. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5007, pp.160-172. Springer Verlag, 2008. Download PDF, read abstract.
Defining process standards by integrating, harmonizing, and standardizing heterogeneous and often implicit processes is an important task, especially for large development organizations. However, many challenges exist, such as limiting the scope of process standards, coping with different levels of process model abstraction, and identifying relevant process variabilities to be included in the standard. On the one hand, eliminating process variability by building more abstract models with higher degrees of interpretation has many disadvantages, such as less control over the process. Integrating all kinds of variability, on the other hand, leads to high process deployment costs. This article describes requirements and concepts for determining the scope of process standards based on a characterization of the potential products to be produced in the future, the projects expected for the future, and the respective process capabilities needed. In addition, the article sketches experience from determining the scope of space process standards for satellite software development. Finally, related work with respect to process model scoping, conclusions, and an outlook on future work are presented.
Armbrust, Ove; Ebell, Jan; Hammerschall, Ulrike; Münch, Jürgen, Thoma, Daniela. Experiences and Results from Tailoring and Deploying a Large Process Standard in a Company. Software Process: Improvement and Practice (SPIP) 2008; 13: 301-309, John Wiley & Sons. Download PDF, read abstract.
With increasing process maturity of the software-developing companies, an increasing interest in standardized processes can be observed. Company-specific standards are often derived from reference standards such as ISO/IEC 12207 or the German V-Modell XT. Developing and deploying a (new) company-wide standard is a challenging task with many obstacles. Many efforts in defining and deploying standard processes in a company do not result in sufficient adherence between the defined and the lived (i.e., the enacted) process. Such situations have severe consequences, e.g., it is not possible to measure processes. Published experience with process definition and deployment projects is often anecdotal or incomplete. This paper describes the adaptation of a generic process standard to an organization and its deployment to daily practice. In this article, the approach taken for adapting and deploying the V-Modell XT in the data processing department of the German Josef Witt GmbH is described. Additionally, effort data and lessons learned with respect to these activities are given. Finally, effects visible so far are sketched.
2007
Armbrust, Ove; Ebell, Jan; Hammerschall, Ulrike; Münch, Jürgen; Thoma, Daniela. Experiences and Results from Tailoring and Deploying a Large Process Standard in a Company. In: Proceedings of the 14th European Software Process Improvement and Innovation Conference (EuroSPI2 2007), Potsdam, Germany, September 26-28, 2007. ASQF Schriften zur Softwarequalität, pp. 2-15-2.24. Download PDF, read abstract.
With increasing process maturity of the software-developing companies, an increasing interest in standardized processes can be observed. Company-specific standards are often derived from reference standards such as ISO/IEC 12207 or the German V-Modell XT. Developing and deploying a (new) company-wide standard is a challenging task with many obstacles. Many efforts in defining and deploying standard processes in a company do not result in sufficient adherence between the defined and the lived (i.e., the enacted) process. Such situations have severe consequences, e.g., it is not possible to measure processes. Published experience with process definition and deployment projects is often anecdotal or incomplete. This paper describes the adaptation of a generic process standard to an organization and its deployment to daily practice. In this article, the approach taken for adapting and deploying the V-Modell XT in the data processing department of the German Josef Witt GmbH is described. Additionally, effort data and lessons learned with respect to these activities are given. Finally, effects visible so far are sketched.
Armbrust, Ove; Ebell, Jan; Hammerschall, Ulrike; Münch, Jürgen; Thoma, Daniela. Prozesseinführung und -reifung in der Praxis: Erfolgsfaktoren und Erfahrungen. In: Vorgehensmodelle und Projektmanagement - Assessment, Zertifizierung, Akkreditierung. 14. Workshop der Fachgruppe WI-VM der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), Shaker Verlag, 2007. Download PDF, read abstract.
Mit zunehmender Prozessreife der Software entwickelnden Unternehmen ist auch eine zunehmende Hinwendung zu standardisierten Prozessen zu beobachten. Die unternehmenseigenen Standards orientieren sich dabei oft an übergeordneten Standards wie z.B. ISO 12207 oder V-Modell XT. Die Erstellung und Einführung eines (neuen) unternehmensweiten Standards ist jedoch oft mit großen Schwierigkeiten verbunden, so dass das neue Vorgehen häufig nicht wirklich gelebt wird. Zusätzlich sind veröffentlichte Erfahrungen über Anpassungs- und Einführungsprojekte häufig anekdotenhaft oder unvollständig. Dieser Artikel beschreibt die Anpassung eines Prozessstandards an eine Organisation und dessen Einführung in die tägliche Praxis. Anhand der Datenverarbeitung der Josef Witt GmbH wird die Vorgehensweise bei der Anpassung und Einführung des V-Modell XT geschildert. Weiterhin werden Lessons Learned aus dem Projekt beschrieben. Schließlich werden bereits sichtbare Verbesserungen angeführt und ein Ausblick auf die Zukunft des V-Modell XT bei Witt gegeben.
Armbrust, Ove; Ebell, Jan; Münch, Jürgen; Thoma, Daniela Stufenweise Optimierung von Software-Entwicklungsprozessen auf der Basis des V-Modell XT. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop „Vorgehensmodelle in der Praxis – Reife und Qualität“, 37. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Informatik (INFORMATIK 2007), September 24-27, pp. 3-15, 2007. Download PDF, read abstract.
Die Verbesserung von Software- und Systementwicklungsprozessen ist eine wichtige Aufgabe zum Erhalt und Ausbau der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Unternehmen. Allerdings ist die praktische Umsetzung entsprechender Verbesserungsmaßnahmen in der Praxis mit großen Schwierigkeiten und Risiken verbunden. Ein hoher Prozentsatz entsprechender Programme scheitert. Entscheidende Erfolgsfaktoren für Prozessverbesserungsmaßnahmen sind neben der ausreichenden Unterstützung durch das Management unter anderem die gestufte Einführung von Maßnahmen, die Ausrichtung an Geschäftszielen, die Nutzung von Feedbackmechanismen, die Schaffung einer intrinsische Motivation zur Verbesserung sowie die nachhaltige Absicherung erzielter Fortschritte durch kontinuierliche Verbesserung. Dieser Artikel skizziert eine vierstufige Vorgehensweise zur systematischen Optimierung von Software-Entwicklungsprozessen und ihre Anwendung auf das V-Modell XT in der zentralen Datenverarbeitung bei Witt-Weiden. Sie umfasst die Analyse der bestehenden Probleme, die daraufhin folgende Erstellung und Einführung optimierter Vorgehensweisen, sowie die Erfassung qualitativer und quantitativer Daten zur weitergehenden, kontinuierlichen Verbesserung der Prozesse. Die Erprobung dieser Vorgehensweise erfolgt zurzeit bei Witt-Weiden. Dieser Artikel beschreibt die bisher gemachten Erfahrungen und die nächsten Schritte.
2006
Armbrust, Ove; Kaiser, Bernhard; Trapp, Mario Overview of Software Development Processes for Safety-Critical Automotive Systems with Particular Consideration of IEC 61508 IESE-Report Nr. 089.06/E.
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Safety in the context of software-controlled automotive systems is an issue of increasing importance and requires car manufacturers and suppliers to adapt their development processes. Standards are important guidelines that describe the required activities to achieve safe systems. A particular important standard is IEC 61508, which is expected to be further refined and adapted to automotive needs in the near future. Safety activities must also be seen in the context of software process improvement. This report gives an overview on software development processes for safety-critical automotive systems with particular consideration of IEC 61508. It discusses different approaches to achieve safety and provides a comparison between the requirements in safety standards and in widely used software process standards. The IEC 61508 standard and the activities required for each process phase are discussed in detail and in contrast to the different activities required by some of today'smost important process standards and maturity models, namely V-Modell XT, (Automotive) SPICE, HIS and CMMI. An overview of the state of the practice is given, as well as an outlook on current trends.
Armbrust, Ove; Dockweiler, Peter; Lindenblatt, Tobias; Scheffler, Sebastian; Schitter, Clemens. Research Lab Rheinland-Pfalz. Testen und Testautomatisierung: Implementierung, Einführung und Evaluation der Lösungen. IESE-Report Nr. 047.06/D. Download PDF, read abstract.
Dieses Dokument beschreibt Teile der Arbeiten, die bei den Projektpartnern im Rahmen des Research Lab Rheinland-Pfalz, Cluster "Testen und Testautomatisierung" durchgeführt wurden. Beschrieben werden die Implementierung eines eigenen, spezialisierten Testwerkzeugs bei der market maker Software AG sowie die Anpassung und Einführung des ausgewählten Testwerkzeugs bei der WIKON Fernwirksysteme GmbH. Weiterhin wird die Integration in die bestehende Werkzeug- und Entwicklungslandschaft bei den Unternehmen und die notwendigen Schulungsmaßnahmen erläutert. Schließlich werden die Maßnahmen evaluiert.
Münch, Jürgen; Armbrust, Ove; Ocampo, Alexis; Soto, Martin; Rausch, Andreas; Bartelt, Christian; Herold, Sebastian; Hammerschall, Ulrike; Ebell, Jan; Thoma, Daniela; Bösl, Alexander; Marek, Harald; Damerau, Rolf-G.; Bergner, Klaus. V-Bench: Prozesseinführung und -reifung in der industriellen Praxis. In: Proceedings of the status conference of the German research program „Software Engineering 2006“, Leipzig, June 26-28, 2006. Download PDF, read abstract.
Ziel des Verbundprojekts V-Bench ist die Entwicklung eines kosteneffizienten Prozesseinführungs- und -reifungsverfahrens, dessen empirische Erprobung im Rahmen von Pilotprojekten, sowie die Sammlung und Aufbereitung von belastbaren Erfahrungen für die industrielle, verteilte Nutzung mittels einer eigens entwickelten internet-basierten Prozessbench. Die Prozessreifung wird zusätzlich unterstützt durch Verfahren und Werkzeuge zum Management von Varianten von Prozessmodellen. Die Forschungsergebnisse sowie die angepassten Versionen und Varianten der Prozessmodelle nebst Erfahrungen werden in direkt verwertbarer Form über ein Internetportal zur Verfügung gestellt. Die angepassten Werkzeuge werden ebenfalls weiterentwickelt und von den jeweiligen Herstellern vermarktet. Die Forschung bezieht Impulse durch Pilotprojekte, welche auch zur Evaluierung der Forschungsergebnisse in der Praxis dienen. Die Pilotprojekte befinden sich zurzeit in der ersten Iteration. Hierbei wird das V-Modell XT in Kooperation mit den Coaches aus Industrie und Wissenschaft unternehmensindividuell angepasst und eingeführt. Die dabei gemachten Erfahrungen fließen direkt in die Forschungstätigkeiten mit ein.
2005
Amiry, Samir; Armbrust, Ove; Berger, Julia; Klinck, Janine; Luttenberger, Konstantin. Research Lab Rheinland Pfalz. Testen und Testautomatisierung: Anforderungen an Testwerkzeuge. IESE-Report Nr. 131.05/D. Download PDF, read abstract.
Software-Systeme werden immer komplexer. Durch diese Komplexitätssteigerung wird auch die Durchführung von Software-Tests zu einer größeren Herausforderung. Um die Zeit bis ein Produkt auf den Markt kommt (Time-to-Market) zu verkürzen, werden immer effizientere Automatisierungstechniken gefordert. Ein Ansatz hierfür ist der Einsatz von automatisierenden Testwerkzeugen. In der Tat existieren eine Vielzahl von Automatisierungsansätze und Implementierungen in Wissenschaft und Industrie. Aufgrund der Tatsache, dass Software-Firmen unterschiedliche Anforderungen bzgl. des Testens haben, wird die Auswahl eines Werkzeuges, das die verschiedenen automatischen Testnotwendigkeiten unterstützt, schwierig.
In diesem Bericht werden typische Anforderungen, die ein Testautomatisierungswerkzeug erfüllen sollte, identifiziert. Gleichzeitig werden im Rahmen einer Fallstudie spezifische Anforderungen der Projektpartner WIKON und market maker festgehalten. In einem zweiten Teil präsentiertdieser Bericht die Ergebnisse einer Marktstudie von Testautomatisierungstools, die dann genutzt werden können, um die Akquise von solchen Tools zu unterstützen. Die Ergebnisse der Marktstudie werden sodann benutzt, um Werkzeuge für die Projektpartner auszuwählen.
Armbrust, Ove; Ocampo, Alexis; Soto, Martin. Tracing Process Model Evolution: A Semi-Formal Process Modeling Approach. In: Oldevik, Jon (Ed.); Aagedal, Jan (Ed.): Proceedings of the ECMDA Traceability Workshop (ECMDA-TW) 2005, Trondheim, pp. 57-66 Download PDF, read abstract.
This paper describes our experiences during the evolution of a text-based process description within the aerospace domain. We describe our tool-assisted way of editing and reviewing the process description and the way we traced elements of the edited process description to a superior standard in order to prove compliance. To achieve this, we created a persistent connection of standard word processor documents to a model of the documents in a relational database, which allowed us to keep arbitrary meta information as well as to automate advanced consistency checks and the collection of review comments. The approach worked well within our environment and was flexible enough to incorporate additional requirements during the project.
Armbrust, Ove; Berlage, Thomas; Hanne, Thomas; Lang, Patrick; Münch, Jürgen; Neu, Holger; Nickel, Stefan; Rus, Ioana; Sarishvili, Alex; Stockum, Sascha van; Wirsen, Andreas. Simulation-based Software Process Modeling and Evaluation. In: Chang, Shi-Kuo (Ed.): Handbook of Software Engineering & Knowledge Engineering: Vol. 3 Recent Advances. World Scientific, Singapore, 2005, pp. 333-364.
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Decision support for planning and improving software development projects is a crucial success factor. The special characteristics of software development aggregate these tasks in contrast to the planning of many other processes, such as production processes. Process simulation can be used to support decisions on process alternatives on the basis of existing knowledge. Thereby, new development knowledge can be gained faster and more cost-effectively.
This chapter gives a short introduction to experimental software engineering, describes simulation approaches within that area, and introduces a method for systematically developing discrete-event software process simulation models. Advanced simulation modeling techniques will point out key problems and possible solutions, including the use of visualization techniques for better simulation result interpretation.
2004
Armbrust, Ove; Ochs, Michael A.; Snoek, Björn. Stand der Praxis von Software-Tests und deren Automatisierung: Interviews und Online-Umfrage. IESE-Report Nr. 093.04/D. Download PDF, read abstract.
Dieser Bericht fast die Ergebnisse einer Analyse des aktuellen Standes der Praxis von Software-Tests und deren Automatisierung zusammen. Die Analyse basiert auf einer Unternehmens-Umfrage und auf gleichzeitig durchgeführten Interviews mit einigen ausgewählten Unternehmen, welche als typische Vertreter kleiner und mittelständiger Unternehmen (KMU) angesehen werden können. Der Report greift die aktuelle Situation in der Praxis auf und nimmt dazu Stellung. Weiter wird auf die Fragenbereiche der Umfrage sowie die Fragen selbst eingegangen. Die Ergebnisse der Umfragen und der Interviews werden dann anhand von Auswertungen der Antworten und zusätzlichen Informationen aus den Interviews detailliert besprochen. Abschließend sind im Anhang die Fragen des Fragebogens noch einmal so aufgelistet, wie sie den Befragten gestellt wurden.
Armbrust, Ove; Ochs, Michael A.; Snoek, Björn Stand der Forschung von Software-Tests und deren Automatisierung IESE-Report Nr. 068.04/D. Download PDF, read abstract.
Dieser Report untersucht aktuelle Forschungsansätze im Themengebiet Testen und Testautomatisierung. Vorgestellt werden jeweils Ansätze, die exemplarisch für ihre Klasse stehen. Betrachtet wird die vollautomatische Testfallgenerierung aus formalen Anforderungen, die Testfallerstellung aus halbformalen Anforderungen wie z.B. UML, sowie die Testdatengewinnung. Testdurchführung und Testauswertung werden nur kurz gestreift, intensiver behandelt wird dafür die Wiederverwendung von Testfällen, die Optimierung von Testsuiten für Regressionstests, sowie Teststrategien für objektorientierte Software.
2003
Münch, Jürgen; Armbrust, Ove. Using Empirical Knowledge from Replicated Experiments for Software Process Simulation: A Practical Example. In: Proceedings of the 2003 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ISESE 2003). IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp. 18-27. Download PDF, read abstract.
Empirical knowledge from software engineering studies is an important source for the creation of accurate simulation models. This article describes the development of a simulation model using empirical knowledge gained from an experiment at the NASA/GSFC Software Engineering Laboratory and from two replications at the University of Kaiserslautern. Data and analysis results are used to identify influence dependencies between parameters, and to calibrate models. The goal of the model is the determination of the effects (i.e., defect detection efficiency) of a requirements inspection process under varying contexts. The purpose is to provide decision support for project managers and process engineers when planning or changing a development process. This article describes the systematic model development with a focus on the use of empirical knowledge. Additionally, limitations of the model, lessons learned, and research questions for future work are sketched. The model performed well in an initial validation run, with only little deviation from experimental values.
Armbrust, Ove.
Using Empirical Knowledge for Software Process Simulation: A Practical Example.
Diplomarbeit, Universität Kaiserslautern, Fachbereich Informatik, 2003.
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This thesis describes the combination of real experiments with software process simulation. It introduces different types of real experiments and simulations and describes three main possibilities of combining them: using empirical knowledge for simulation, using simulation for real experiments, and online simulations. The first possibility is explored further by the systematical development and calibration of an executable discrete-event simulation model of a requirements inspection process. The model supports an arbitrary number of documents, each inspected by an arbitrary number of reviewers.
The model was developed systematically by following an existing method. The following steps were conducted: the creation of a static process model, the collection and analysis of empirical data, the subsequent creation of an influence diagram, and the final creation and calibration of the dynamic model. The model was calibrated with data from a requirements inspection experiment and two replications.
Furthermore, the thesis explains model limitations and lessons learned, and gives a detailed description of how to use the model. A first model validation with real-world data that was not used for the model development suggests that the model indeed reflects reality decently: The deviation between simulation results and real-world data averages 3.3 percent. Conclusions on possible further usage of the simulation model and modeling results complete this work.