Rapid Continuous Software Engineering

Continuous software engineering refers to the organizational capability to develop, release and learn from software in very short rapid cycles, typically hours, days or a very small numbers of weeks. This requires not only agile processes in teams but in the complete research and development organization. Additionally, the technology used in the different development phases, like requirements engineering and system integration, must support the quick development cycles. Finally, automatic live experimentation for different system alternatives enables fast gathering of required data for decision making. The workshop, the second in the series after the first one at ICSE 2014, aims to bring the research communities of the aforementioned areas together to exchange challenges, ideas, and solutions to bring software engineering a step further to being a holistic continuous process. The workshop program is based on eight papers selected in the peer-review process and supplemented by interaction and discussions at the workshop. The topics range from agile methods, continuous software engineering practices to specific techniques, like visualization and testing.

Rapid continuous software engineering refers to the organizational capability to develop, release and learn from software in very short rapid cycles, typically hours, days or very small numbers of weeks. This requires not only agile processes in teams but in the complete research and development organization. Additionally, the technology used in the different development phases, like requirements engineering and system integration, must support the quick development cycles. Finally, automatic live experimentation for different system alternatives enables fast gathering of required data for decision making.

The increasing size of software systems and the emergence of increasingly autonomous systems demands innovative software engineering practices. The way software is being developed and maintained is rapidly changing and must take into account multifaceted constraints like fast-changing and unpredictable markets, complex and changing customer requirements, pressures of shorter time-to-market, and rapidly advancing information technologies, to name just a few of these new aspects. To cope with such constraints, software is increasingly produced according to rapid continuous software engineering development processes. The International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), is the premier platform for academia and industry to join efforts in addressing these challenges, bringing innovative solutions to the problems we face in the software architecture domain.

Software engineers have to cope with uncertainties and changing requirements. Agile methods provide flexibility towards changes and the emergence of continuous delivery has made regular feedback loops possible. The abilities to maintain high code quality through reviews, to regularly release software, and to collect and prioritize user feedback, are necessary for continuous software engineering (CSE). However, there exists no software process metamodel that handles the continuous character of software engineering. In this paper, we describe an empirical process metamodel for continuous software engineering called CSEPM, which treats development activities as parallel running workflows and allows tailoring and customization. CSEPM includes static aspects that describe the relations between specific CSE concepts including reviews, releases, and feedback. It also describes the dynamic aspect of CSE, how development workflows are activated through change events. We show how CSEPM allows to instantiate linear, iterative, agile and continuous process models and how it enables tailoring and customization.

Rapid software development demand in software engineering is increasing with passage of time in all fields of life and in all domains of computer. Agile methodology is result of this rapid software demand and it is focusing on how to balance the ratio of developed software according to user demands. This research paper enlightens the agile methodologies and their conversion into the agile project management tools for ease as well as for rapid software development. This versatile use of agile project management tools systems has also posed new ways for analysis, planning and communication in software development. We reviewed current agile management tools on a set of parameters and compared to analyze systems merits and deficiencies. Based on our analysis, we have provided recommendations for error free rapid development. To support our recommendation we added a visual backlog in agile management tools which in return lessen the communication gap between developer and client. As our own future research work, we intend to study agile management tools from human computer interaction perspective.

From its earliest days, software development has been beset with challenges in relation to timely delivery, appropriateness of features, and quality of deliverables. Many advances in software development processes have helped to address these concerns. For example, agile software development has helped to deliver working software more frequently, and capability maturity frameworks have brought about improved consistency in quality levels. However, the age‐old challenge of better, cheaper, faster software has continued to beguile developers. In this paper, we discuss an emerging approach to software development, continuous software engineering (CSE), wherein software of operational quality may be delivered on a very frequent basis, up to many times in a given day. This approach uses a complex set of independent tools that together reduce the lead time in delivering commercial‐grade software. Having examined the situational context of one industrial organization applying CSE, we conclude that the approach may not presently be appropriate to all manners of software development. Nonetheless, the authors are of the view that CSE represents a significant progression in software engineering and that software development settings of all types stand to gain from aspects of the CSE approach.

Today's advanced agile practices such as Continuous Integration and Test-Driven Development support a wide range of software development activities to facilitate the rapid delivery of high-quality software. However, the reuse of pre-existing, third-party software components is not one of them. Software reuse is still primarily perceived as a time-consuming, unsystematic and ultimately, discontinuous activity even though it aims to deliver the same basic benefits as continuous software engineering - namely, a reduction in the time and effort taken to deliver quality software. However, the increasingly central role of testing in continuous software engineering offers a way of addressing this problem by exploiting the new generation of test-driven search engines that can harvest components based on tests. This search technology not only exploits artifacts that have already been created as part of the continuous testing process to harvest components, it returns results that have a high likelihood of being fit for purpose and thus of being worth reusing. In this paper, we propose to augment continuous software engineering with the rapid, continuous reuse of software code units by integrating the test-driven mining of software artifact repositories into the continuous integration process. More specifically, we propose to use tests written as part of the Test-First Development approach to perform test-driven searches for matching functionality while developers are working on their normal development activities. We discuss the idea of rapid, continuous code reuse based on recent advances in our test-driven search platform and elaborate on scenarios for its application in the future.

Context: Continuous Software Engineering (CSE) involves a set of practices that aims at making software development continuous and integrated to business. However, moving from traditional to integrated, agile and data-driven software development requires changes in the organization´s culture, practices and structure, which may not be easy. Objective: Our focus is to help organizations get an overall view of the CSE practices they perform, identify where they are in the CSE evolutionary path and which areas should be improved. Method: We created a diagnosis instrument, called Zeppelin, to evaluate the adoption of CSE practices and applied it in five Brazilian software organizations. Results: Zeppelin was recognized as a useful tool to help organizations have a more comprehensive view of their CSE practices and envision the evolution and improvement path they can follow. Conclusion: Zeppelin supports software development organizations to get a big picture of CSE practices and identify their position in the CSE evolution path. Moreover, it contributes to identify strategies to advance software development towards a CSE environment.

Continuous Systems and Software Engineering for Industry 4.0: A disruptive view

This book provides essential insights on the adoption of modern software engineering practices at large companies producing software-intensive systems, where hundreds or even thousands of engineers collaborate to deliver on new systems and new versions of already deployed ones. It is based on the findings collected and lessons learned at the Software Center (SC), a unique collaboration between research and industry, with Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg University and Malm University as academic partners and Ericsson, AB Volvo, Volvo Car Corporation, Saab Electronic Defense Systems, Grundfos, Axis Communications, Jeppesen (Boeing) and Sony Mobile as industrial partners. The 17 chapters present the Stairway to Heaven model, which represents the typical evolution path companies move through as they develop and mature their software engineering capabilities. The chaptersdescribe theoretical frameworks, conceptual models and, most importantly, the industrial experiences gained by the partner companies in applying novel software engineering techniques. The books structure consists of six parts. Part I describes the model in detail and presents an overview of lessons learned in the collaboration between industry and academia. Part II deals with the first step of the Stairway to Heaven, in which R&D adopts agile work practices. Part III of the book combines the next two phases, i.e., continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD), as they are closely intertwined. Part IV is concerned with the highest level, referred to as R&D as an innovation system, while Part V addresses a topic that is separate from the Stairway to Heaven and yet critically important in large organizations: organizational performance metrics that capture data, and visualizations of the status of software assets, defects and teams. Lastly, Part VI presents the perspectives of two of the SC partner companies. The book is intended for practitioners and professionals in the software-intensive systems industry, providing concrete models, frameworks and case studies that show the specific challenges that the partner companies encountered, their approaches to overcoming them, and the results. Researchers will gain valuable insights on the problems faced by large software companies, and on how to effectively tackle them in the context of successful cooperation projects.

Systems engineering processes using pull scheduling methods (kanban) are being evaluated with hybrid modeling and simulation. We are assessing integrated systems and software engineering at the enterprise level, where rapid response software development projects incrementally evolve capabilities of existing systems and/or systems of systems. A kanban-based scheduling system was defined and implemented with connected discrete, continuous and agent-based models. We are simulating the process performance vs. traditional methods of sharing systems engineering services across projects, and whether the overall value of the systems of systems over time is increased.

AimThis study proposes the replacement of all the physical devices used in the manufacturing of conventional prostheses through the use of digital tools, such as 3D scanners, CAD design software, 3D implants files, rapid prototyping machines or reverse engineering software, in order to develop laboratory work models from which to finish coatings for dental prostheses. Different types of dental prosthetic structures are used, which were adjusted by a non-rotatory threaded fixing system.MethodFrom a digital process, the relative positions of dental implants, soft tissue and adjacent teeth of edentulous or partially edentulous patients has been captured, and a maser working model which accurately replicates data relating to the patients oral cavity has been through treatment of three-dimensional digital data.ResultsCompared with the conventional master cast, the results show a significant cost savings in attachments, as well as an increase in the quality of reproduction and accuracy of the master cast, with the consequent reduction in the number of patient consultation visits. The combination of software and hardware three-dimensional tools allows the optimization of the planning of dental implant-supported rehabilitations protocol, improving the predictability of clinical treatments and the production cost savings of master casts for restorations upon implants.

During the "The National Forum on the Future of the Defense Health Information System," a track focusing on "Systems Architecture and Software Engineering" included eight presenters. These presenters identified three key areas of interest in this field, which include the need for open enterprise architecture and a federated database design, net centrality based on service-oriented architecture, and the need for focus on software usability and reusability. The eight panelists provided recommendations related to the suitability of service-oriented architecture and the enabling technologies of grid computing and Web 2.0 for building health services research centers and federated data warehouses to facilitate large-scale collaborative health care and research. Finally, they discussed the need to leverage industry best practices for software engineering to facilitate rapid software development, testing, and deployment.

Software is a critical component of nearly every product or service. Improvements in software can lead to substantial competitive advantages. At the same time, software and surrounding engineering teams have become increasingly complex.The adoption of continuous integration and delivery is a recent trend to radically improve software release speed. However, its adoption is far from straightforward. Specifically, rethinking processes, organizational culture, ways of working, and business models require buy-in from diverse stakeholders that may have conflicting objectives. Such situations are explored by organizational conflict research.This paper reports on early lessons from an ongoing research project in continuous software engineering, specifically investigating adoption challenges from an organizational conflict perspective. We identify catalysts, symptoms, and outcomes of organizational conflicts hindering the adoption process.We conclude that predictable conflicts emerge when adopting continuous engineering. Engineers, managers, and other teams can proactively prepare for and allocate resources to resolve them. Proper analysis and management can help avoid wasted time, impeding processes, and frustration.

Organizations have adopted Continuous Software Engineering (CSE) practices aiming at making software development faster, iterative, integrated, continuous, and aligned with the business. In this context, they often use different applications (e.g., project management tools, source repositories, and quality assessment tools) that store valuable data to support daily activities and decision-making. However, data items often remain spread in different applications that adopt different data and behavioral models, posing a barrier to integrated data usage. As a consequence, data-driven software development is uncommon, missing valuable opportunities for product and process improvement. In this paper, we explore an ontology network addressing CSE aspects to develop a data integration solution in which networked ontologies are the basis to build reusable and autonomous software components that work together in a system federation to provide meaningful integrated data. We achieve a comprehensive and flexible solution that can be used as a whole or partially, by extracting only the components related to the subdomains of interest.