SPP 1593: Design for Future - Managed Software Evolution

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This Priority Programme has been established to develop fundamentally new approaches in software engineering with a determined focus on long-living software systems. Existing research in software engineering does not solve the severe current problems with legacy software, the adaption of software to new platforms and the continuous evolution of software systems with respect to continuously changing requirements, new emerging technologies, and integration of new software, hardware and system components. Hence, new foundations, methods and tools are needed to be able to develop "forever young software", which maintains its initial functionality and quality and is even continuously improved during the whole lifetime. We intend to develop a methodology for the continuous evolution of software and software/hardware systems, thus making systems adaptable to changing requirements and environments. In the discipline of software engineering, several fields are especially suited to contribute to this goal. Without claiming completeness, existing approaches for requirements engineering, architecture design and management, model-based and model-driven software engineering, quality management, artefact management and evolution, and reengineering already have a strong impact on managing software evolution. However, these approaches need to be further developed and integrated with a special focus on long-living software systems. A new paradigm will be established where development, adaptation and evolution of software and their platforms, on the one hand, as well as operation, monitoring and maintenance, on the other hand, are no longer separated but integrated. One aim is to define meta-models for preserving and accessing the knowledge provided and gained during the system development process. Furthermore, methods and process models, as well as suitable infrastructures, have to be provided to comprehensively support the integration of software development and evolution. In this Priority Programme we do not intend to explore approaches isolated from application. We focus here on two application domains: information systems and production systems in automation engineering.