Software Processes for Small Teams Developing Scalable Applications in the Cloud

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In the future, more and more software systems are expected to utilize cloud-based infrastructure to address the "big data" challenge. "Big data" applications pose severe software engineering challenges, including:- What design strategies will better accommodate rapid increases in the data size and the number of users? - How can we effectively test scalable service-based cloud applications?- How can we design software applications that rely on external services so that they are easy to evolve? And how can we design software in a way that allows migration of components among different cloud providers?Small teams, as typically found in small & medium sized enterprises (SME), are particularly challenged in developing "big data" applications due to resource constraints imposed from limited budgets.To build on my group's results and research strengths, our research will look at these issues from a software development perspective. Concretely, we will focus on:- Scalable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications: We will work closely with partners to conduct case studies of how cloud-based applications are developed. We plan to investigate software engineering practices that small teams can use to build scalable "big data" applications for the Cloud. - Test-driven development: We will investigate test-driven development for building "big data" software applications in the cloud. We intend to develop rule-bases for common defects of cloud-based applications. - Software design & API usability: We will study design patterns and develop guidelines enabling small teams to design, scale, and evolve cloud-based applications. We also intend to study and evaluate the usability and portability of software APIs for building cloud-based applications.