Towards a Software Factory

The subject of this book is the control of software engineering. The rapidly increasing demand for software is accompanied by a growth in the number of products on the market, as well as their size and complexity. Our ability to control software engineering is hardly keeping pace with this growth. As a result, software projects are often late, software products sometimes lack the required quality and the productivity improvements achieved by software engineering are insufficient to keep up with the demand This book describes ways to improve software engineering control. It argues that this should be expanded to include control of the development, maintenance and reuse of software, thus making it possible to apply many of the ideas and concepts that originate in production control and quality control. The book is based on research and experience accumulated over a number of years. During this period I had two employers: Eindhoven University of Technology and Philips Electronics. Research is not a one-man activity and I would like to thank the following persons for their contributions to the successful completion of this project. First and foremost my Ph. D. advisers Theo Bemelmans, Hans van Vliet and Fred Heemstra whose insights and experience proved invaluable at every stage. Many thanks are also due to Rob Kusters and Fred Heemstra for their patience in listening to my sometimes wild ideas and for being such excellent colleagues.

Offers an analysis of the critical factors involved in software engineering control and the means to achieve greater control of software projects. The central argument advocates an expansion of the current practice to include the control of development, maintenance and re-use of software.

1 Introduction and Definition of the Problem.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Importance of software engineering.- 1.3 Problems of software engineering.- 1.4 Definition of the problem.- 1.5 The Process - Control - Information model.- 1.6 Contents.- 2 Why is Software Late ?.- Empirical studies of reasons for delay in software development.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Surveys on the overrun of development projects.- 2.3 Definition and planning of the study.- 2.4 A systems software department.- 2.5 A diversified software development department.- 2.6 A CAD development project.- 2.7 Summary and conclusions.- 3 Changes in Software Engineering Control.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Basic principles of traditional software development.- 3.3 Traditional control.- 3.4 Changes in software engineering and its control.- 3.5 Summary and conclusions.- 4 Quality and Maintenance; towards product control.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Quality attributes.- 4.3 Quality definitions.- 4.4 Causes of increasing maintenance.- 4.5 A response to the maintenance problem.- 4.6 Consequences for control.- 4.7 Summary and conclusions.- 5 Reuse of Software; towards multiproduct control.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 The necessity of reuse.- 5.3 Reuse in industry.- 5.4 A parallel in software development.- 5.5 Reuse of software.- 5.6 Multiproduct control.- 5.7 A specific software factory.- 6 Towards a Software Factory.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Levels of process control.- 6.3 Steps towards the software factory.- 6.4 Summary and conclusions.- 7 Information Systems in Software Engineering Control and Production Control.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Information systems for software engineering control.- 7.3 Comparison of the systems and assessment with respect to the software factory.- 7.4 Information systems in production control.- 7.5 Assessment with respect to the software factory.- 7.6 Summary and conclusions.- 8 A Data Model for an Information System for Multiproduct Control.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Additional requirements.- 8.3 A data model.- 8.4 A description of some entities.- 8.5 Use of the proposed data model.- 9 First Steps Towards a Software Factory.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Basic principles.- 9.3 Two examples of data collection with regard to time and money.- 9.4 Two examples of data collection with regard to quality.- 10 Conclusions and Recommendations.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 Summary and conclusions.- 10.3 Recommendations for future research.- References.