Talk by Yvonne Dittrich - Software engineering beyond the project – Sustaining software ecosystems

TITLE:    Software engineering beyond the project – Sustaining software
ecosystems

SPEAKER:  Yvonne Dittrich, Associate Professor at the IT-University of
Copenhagen

HOST:     Ivan Beschastnikh   

DATE/TIME: Wednesday, May 14, at 4:00 pm     

LOCATION:  ICCSX836 (CS Boardroom), 2366 Main Mall

ABSTRACT:

The main part of software engineering methods, tools and technologies
has developed around projects as the central organisational form of
software development. A project organisation depends on clear bounds
regarding scope, participants, development effort and lead-time. What
happens when these conditions are not given? The article claims that
this is the case for software product specific ecosystems.
As software is increasingly developed, adopted and deployed in the
form of customisable and configurable products, software engineering
as a discipline needs to take on the challenge to support software
ecosystems. In the talk I will present a an interview study designed
based on long term research engagement with 4 companies. The analysis
results in a set of common features of product development and
evolution despite differences in size, kind of software and business
models. The findings address the relation to the use context, the
maintenance of the architectural design, and the development
respectively evolution process. The reported practices challenge some
of the very core assumptions of traditional software engineering, but
make perfect sense, considering that the frame of reference for
product development is not a project but continuous innovation across
the product specific ecosystems. The talk provides a number of
concrete points for further research.

BIO:

Dr. Yvonne Dittrich works as an associate professor at the IT-University
of Copenhagen. Her research relates cooperative and human aspects of
software engineering with use orientation in software development and
end-user development. She developed an empirical research approach
‘Cooperative Method Development’ which relates ethnographic research
and problem oriented software process improvement. Most of her
research takes place in collaboration with industry and public
organisations. (www.itu.dk/people/ydi/)