Value-Based Software Engineering for Small Business

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MathurEEC-9905789This project is supported under the initiative on "Research Centers - Small Firms Collaborative R&D." The study concerns joint research between the Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), an IUCRC headquartered at Purdue University that includes the University of Oregon and Portland State University as affiliates, and Timberline Software Corp., a small firm located in Beaverton, OR. The work involves a research component followed by a validation and technology transfer component, and is based on the Value-Based Software Engineering (VBSE) approach being developed by SERC. VBSE systematically seeks to link critical software architecture design decisions to the business goals affected by those decisions; it brings together recent work in Customer Value Analysis (CVA), software architecture, and process modeling and improvement. The goal of the work is to develop and validate a set of lightweight analysis and software development processes that allow small-business software developers to move systematically from an understanding of strategic business goals to a software architecture that supports those goals over the long term. VBSE seeks to provide a systematic process for analyzing customer value, casting the results in terms of architectural quality requirements, and then developing architectural structures that satisfy those requirements. New architectural analysis techniques will support verification of the match between the resulting design and business goals. In th ecurrent study, the collaborators will develop a process model and methodology for small business software development that integrates advanced product-line and architecture technologies from software engineering, with the business administration discipline of customer value engineering. Timberline will provide realistic problems, validate the methods in a realistic setting, and provide feedback to the project on the effectiveness of the approach. Products of this effort will include model processes, products, and metrics applicable to a broad class of small-business software developers as well as SERC's industrial affiliates. To support Oregon's state initiatives in software engineering education, such as the University of Oregon's Master of Software Engineering program, the project will also develop educational materials describing the process and results. This project has the potential to serve as a national model of excellence in research centers - small firms collaborative R&D.