Abstract Today's software industry is global, virtual, and depending more than ever on strong and reliable processes. Stakeholders and infrastructure are distributed across the globe, posing challenges that go beyond those with co‐located teams and servers. Software Engineering continues to be a complex undertaking, with projects challenged to meet expectations, especially regarding costs. We know that Software Engineering is an ever‐changing discipline, with the result that firms and their employees must regularly embrace new methods, tools, technologies, and processes. In 2020, the International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE) and the International Conference on Systems and Software Processes (ICSSP) joined forces aiming to create a holistic understanding of the software landscape both from the perspective of human and infrastructure distribution and also the processes to support software development. Unfortunately, these challenges have become even more personal to many more in 2020 due to the disruption introduced by the COVID‐19 pandemic, which forced both conferences to be held virtually. As an outcome of the joint event, we selected a set of the best papers from the two conferences, which were invited to submit extended versions to this Special Issue in the Journal of Software: Maintenance and Evolution. Dedicated committees were established to identify the best papers. Eight papers were invited and ultimately, seven of these invited papers have made it into this Special Issue.

Abstract On June 26–28, 2020, the International Conference on Software and Systems Processes (ICSSP 2020) and the International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE 2020) were held in virtual settings during the first year of the COVID pandemic. Several submissions to the joint event have been selected for inclusion in this special issue, focusing on impactful and timely contributions to machine learning (ML). At present, many in our field are enthusiastic about the potential of ML, yet some risks should not be casually overlooked or summarily dismissed. Each ML implementation is subtly different from any other implementation, and the risk profile varies greatly based on the approach adopted and the implementation context. The ICSSP/ICGSE 2020 Program Committees have encouraged submissions that explore the risks and benefits associated with ML so that the important discussion regarding ML efficacy and advocacy can be further elaborated. Four contributions have been included in this special issue.

Abstract Although Scrum is one of the most preferred agile development frameworks that guide the development process, measuring sprint productivity is still challenging. In fact, it is hard to provide a continuous measurement during consecutive Scrum sprints, especially selecting the optimal metrics that fit better for real industrial applications. To bridge this gap, we conducted an industrial case study within the TÜBİTAK SAGE software development group to demonstrate the performance and applicability of a systematic selection process for fitting add‐on components using various scrum metrics tools. Next, we analyzed the combination of software developers' preferences of process metrics concerning their characteristics and their defense industry compatibility. Consequently, we assessed the metrics that might likely integrate into the Scrum development using the analytic hierarchy process. The results indicated that the Actionable Agile Add‐on scored the highest, followed by the Screenful Add‐on. Ultimately, this contemporary study presented a novel approach that has increased individuals' participation in metric planning, implementation, and monitoring, therefore moving towards more achievable software development goals.

Abstract Restrictions imposed by the COVID‐19 pandemic have forced many to seek alternative means of training and learning, which ended up with increasing investment in the notion of the metaverse. Metaverse is envisioned as the next iteration of the Internet in which the virtual and the real world are blended to materialize a highly immersive experience. Not surprisingly, perhaps, next‐generation training and education systems are concerned with methods to integrate themselves into metaverse environments. In particular, participants are looking for more interactive and flexible training while maintaining a degree of educational content and high quality for their training plans and interactive workflows. In this paper, we conducted research to explore the role of metaverse in employee training. To this end, we utilized a variant of PlaySAFe (i.e., a 3D game) to investigate its metaverse adoption and usage. A qualitative design was adopted, using semistructured interviews to explore practitioners' experiences using the new version of PlaySAFe. After having it played in an industrial setting, we interviewed a group of software practitioners to compare the actual and expected features. This research has explored the pros and cons of using the current technologies for the practical groundwork of SAFe training. Findings from this research suggest that the metaverse holds the potential to deliver improved practical alignment in training and education programs, but that at the present time, practitioners expect more metaverse compatible features.

Microservices architecture has gained significant traction, in part owing to its potential to deliver scalable, robust, agile, and failure-resilient software products. Consequently, many companies that use large and complex software systems are actively looking for automated solutions to decompose their monolith applications into microservices. This paper rigorously examines 35 research papers selected from well-known databases using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) protocol and snowballing method, extracting data to answer the research questions, and presents the following four contributions. First, the Monolith to Microservices Decomposition Framework (M2MDF) which identifies the major phases and key elements of decomposition. Second, a detailed analysis of existing decomposition approaches, tools and methods. Third, we identify the metrics and datasets used to evaluate and validate monolith to microservice decomposition processes. Fourth, we propose areas for future research. Overall, the findings suggest that monolith decomposition into microservices remains at an early stage and there is an absence of methods for combining static, dynamic, and evolutionary data. Insufficient tool support is also in evidence. Furthermore, standardised metrics, datasets, and baselines have yet to be established. These findings can assist practitioners seeking to understand the various dimensions of monolith decomposition and the community's current capabilities in that endeavour. The findings are also of value to researchers looking to identify areas to further extend research in the monolith decomposition space.

Together with many success stories, promises such as the increase in production speed and the improvement in stakeholders’ collaboration have contributed to making agile a transformation in the software industry in which many companies want to take part. However, driven either by a natural and expected evolution or by contextual factors that challenge the adoption of agile methods as prescribed by their creator(s), software processes in practice mutate into hybrids over time. Are these still agile? In this article, we investigate the question: what makes a software development method agile? We present an empirical study grounded in a large-scale international survey that aims to identify software development methods and practices that improve or tame agility. Based on 556 data points, we analyze the perceived degree of agility in the implementation of standard project disciplines and its relation to used development methods and practices. Our findings suggest that only a small number of participants operate their projects in a purely traditional or agile manner (under 15 percent). That said, most project disciplines and most practices show a clear trend towards increasing degrees of agility. Compared to the methods used to develop software, the selection of practices has a stronger effect on the degree of agility of a given discipline. Finally, there are no methods or practices that explicitly guarantee or prevent agility. We conclude that agility cannot be defined solely at the process level. Additional factors need to be taken into account when trying to implement or improve agility in a software company. Finally, we discuss the field of software process-related research in the light of our findings and present a roadmap for future research.

Abstract Software development is a complicated process that requires experienced human resources to produce successful software products. Although this process needs experience from the individuals, it is hard to provide this experience without encountering real incidents during the software development process. To fill this gap, this study proposes a Virtual Reality Based Software Development Framework (VR‐SODEF), which provides an interactive virtual reality experience for individuals learning about the tasks of software development starting from requirement analysis through software testing. In the VR‐SODEF, the participant takes on the role of a novice software developer being recruited into a virtual software development organisation who should work alongside five virtual characters, played by artificial intelligence. This exclusive viewpoint draws participants from the 2D separation of the classical experience and virtually into the world of the software development itself. Participants experience the intense dramatic elements created for simulation and confront the challenges of virtual software practitioners in a somewhat uncompromising virtual simulation environment. To examine the efficiency of the VR‐SODEF, it was tested on 32 computing students, with results indicating that virtual reality can be an effective educational medium, especially for skills that might traditionally be acquired through experience rather than traditional classroom‐based teaching.

Abstract Open‐source software (OSS) is a type of computer software wherein the source code is distributed under a special type of licence in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to inspect, alter, and redistribute the software. OSS projects are collaborative endeavours which have multiple contributors who are constantly joining, leaving, or changing their role in the project. This ever‐changing and ever‐transient nature of OSS project contributors contributes to a contributor turnover‐induced knowledge loss in OSS projects. In this case, “knowledge loss” refers to the phenomenon of the loss of project‐specific knowledge, experience, and expertise in an OSS project, caused by contributors regularly joining and leaving the OSS project. This paper describes the design and development of a robust research methodology and contributes towards the formation of proactive knowledge retention practices in OSS projects to transform contributor's use of knowledge and engagement in knowledge‐relevant activities including knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer.

Software engineering is a set of activities that rely not only on the technical tasks but also require abilities focused on social duties such as daily meetings and product introduction presentations. However, engineers may experience elevated levels of anxiety when required to present their work in an unfamiliar environment. More specifically, they may suffer from public speaking anxiety even though they are supposed to be effective in those social tasks as well as in their engineering activities. Fortunately, previous studies suggest that the virtual exposure intervention is an effective strategy to reduce public speaking anxiety. In this study, an interactive three‐dimensional virtual environment similar to real classrooms and auditoriums was developed to examine whether this might decrease the anxiety levels of novice software engineers. To compare the traditional and virtual exposure intervention, the sample set was divided equally into two groups including one experimental group and one control group. For 4 weeks, the virtual exposure intervention was conducted in the experimental group, whereas the cognitive behaviour therapy‐based psychoeducation was used in the control group. The findings from authors’ study illustrate that the virtual exposure intervention may represent an alternative solution to the traditional interventions for software engineers seeking to overcome public presentation anxiety.

Today, one of the challenges in software engineering is utilising application lifecycle management (ALM) tools effectively in software development. In particular, it is hard for software developers to engage with the work items that are appointed to themselves in these ALM tools. In this study, the authors have focused on bug tracking in ALM where one of the most important metrics is mean time to resolution that is the average time to fix a reported bug. To improve this metric, they developed a serious game application based on an auction‐based reward mechanism. The ultimate aim of this approach is to create an incentive structure for software practitioners to find and resolved bugs that are auctioned where participants are encouraged to solve and test more bugs in less time and improve quality of software development in a competitive environment. They conduct hypothesis tests by performing a Monte Carlo simulation. The preliminary results of this research support the idea that using a gamification approach for an issue tracking system enhances the productivity and decreases mean time to resolution.

The Agile Manifesto is a philosophical touchpoint for all agile software development (ASD) methods. We examine the manifesto and certain agile methods in an effort to identify the major impacts of ASD. We have encountered some difficulty in delineating agile and non-agile software processes, which is partially the result of terminological confusion. It is clear from the volume of published research that ASD has made a significant contribution, and we have identified two lasting impacts: a reduction in iteration durations and a push for reduced levels of documentation. We find that the contemporary use of tooling to automate processes may not be wholly congruent with the manifesto and that many organisations may still rely on business contracts despite calls in the manifesto for greater levels of informal customer collaboration.

Software development is a complex process of collaborative endeavour which requires hands-on experience starting from requirement analysis through to software testing and ultimately demands continuous maintenance so as to mitigate risks and uncertainty. Therefore, training experienced software practitioners is a challenging task. To address this gap, we propose an interactive virtual reality training environment for software practitioners to gain virtual experience based on the tasks of software development. The goal is to transport participants to a virtual software development organization where they experience simulated development process problems and conflicting situations, where they will interact virtually with distinctive personalities, roles and characters borrowed from real software development organizations. This PhD in progress paper investigates the literature and proposes a novel approach where participants can acquire important new process knowledge. Our preliminary observations suggest that a complementary VR-based training tool is likely to improve the experience of novice software developers and ultimately it has a great potential for training activities in software development organizations.

Abstract From its earliest days, software development has been beset with challenges in relation to timely delivery, appropriateness of features, and quality of deliverables. Many advances in software development processes have helped to address these concerns. For example, agile software development has helped to deliver working software more frequently, and capability maturity frameworks have brought about improved consistency in quality levels. However, the age‐old challenge of better, cheaper, faster software has continued to beguile developers. In this paper, we discuss an emerging approach to software development, continuous software engineering (CSE), wherein software of operational quality may be delivered on a very frequent basis, up to many times in a given day. This approach uses a complex set of independent tools that together reduce the lead time in delivering commercial‐grade software. Having examined the situational context of one industrial organization applying CSE, we conclude that the approach may not presently be appropriate to all manners of software development. Nonetheless, the authors are of the view that CSE represents a significant progression in software engineering and that software development settings of all types stand to gain from aspects of the CSE approach.

The research literature informs us that a software development process should be appropriate to its software development context but there is an absence of explicit guidance on how to achieve the harmonization of a development process with the corresponding situational context. Whilst this notion of harmonization may be intuitively appealing, in this paper we argue that interaction between a software development process and its situational context is an instance of a complex system. In Complexity Theory, complex systems consist of multiple agents that interact in a multitude of diverse ways, with system outcomes being non-deterministic. Complex systems are therefore noted to be difficult to control, such as is the case with many software development endeavors. If the interaction of software processes with situational contexts is representative of a complex system, then we should not be surprised that the task of software development has proven so resistant to attempts to produce generalized software processes. We should also seek to ameliorate the software development challenge through the adoption of techniques recommended for use in managing complex systems, not as a replacement for the many software process approaches presently in use, but as complement that can aid the task of process definition and evolution.

Over the decades, a variety of software development processes have been proposed, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. It is however widely accepted that there is no single process that is perfectly suited to all settings, thus a software process should be molded to the needs of its situational context. In previous work, we have consolidated a substantial body of related research into an initial reference framework of the situational factors affecting the software development process. Practitioners can consult this framework in order to profile their context, a step necessary for effective software process decision making. In this paper, we report on the findings from a case study involving process discovery in a small but successful and growing software development firm. In this organization, which has a focus on continuous software evolution and delivery, we also applied the situational factors reference framework, finding that context is a complex and key informant for software process decisions. Studies of this type highlight the role of situational context in software process definition and evolution, and they raise awareness not just of the importance of situational context, but also of the complexity surrounding software process contexts, a complexity which may not be fully appreciated in all software development settings.

Much of contemporary scientific discussion regarding factors that influence software development productivity is undertaken in various domains where there is an insufficient empirical basis for exploring socio-technical factors of productivity that are specific to a software development organization. The purpose of the study is to characterize the multidimensional nature of software development productivity and its social aspects as a set of latent constructs (i.e. variables that are not directly observed) for a medium-sized software company. To this end, we designed an exploratory in-depth field study based on the hypothesized productivity constructs, which were modeled by a set of factors identified from literature reviews, and later refined by industrial focus groups. In order to demonstrate the applicability of our approach, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis with the data attained from a questionnaire with 216 participants. To investigate factors of influence further, we analyzed the impact of selected team-based variables over the latent constructs of productivity. Taken together, our findings confirm that such an approach can be used to explore the quantifiable influence of socio-technical factors that would affect productivity of a particular software development organization. Ultimately, the resulting model provides guidance to explore the comparative importance of a set of firm-specific factors that may help to improve the productivity of the organization.

Abstract Software development companies moving into the medical device domain often find themselves overwhelmed by the number of regulatory requirements they need to satisfy before they can market their device. Several international standards and guidance documents have been developed to help companies on their road to regulatory compliance, but working their way through the various standards is a challenge in itself. In order to help software companies in the medical device domain, we have developed an integrated framework of medical device software development best practices called MDevSPICE®. This framework integrates generic software development best practices with medical device standards' requirements enabling consistent assessment of medical device processes. MDevSPICE® can be used by software companies evaluating their readiness for regulatory audits as well as by large medical device manufacturers for selecting suitable software suppliers. In this paper, we describe the development of the MDevSPICE® framework—its process reference model, process assessment model, assessment method and assessor training and certification scheme. We also illustrate the benefits and significance of the framework for the medical device‐manufacturing community as learned from the various MDevSPICE® assessments that we conducted to date. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Software development companies moving into the medical device domain often find themselves overwhelmed by the number of regulatory requirements they need to satisfy before they can market their device. Several international standards and guidance documents have been developed to help companies on their road to regulatory compliance but working their way through the various standards is a challenge in itself. In order to help software companies in the medical device domain, we have developed an integrated framework of medical device software development best practices called MDevSPICE®. This framework integrates generic software development best practices with medical device standards’ requirements enabling consistent and thorough assessment of medical device processes. MDevSPICE® can be used by software companies evaluating their readiness for regulatory audits as well as by large medical device manufacturers for selecting suitable software suppliers. The MDevSPICE® framework consists of a process reference model, a process assessment model, an assessment method, and training and certification schemes. The framework has been validated using expert reviews and through MDevSPICE® assessments in industry. In this paper, we describe the MDevSPICE® process assessment framework focusing on its benefits and significance for the medical device manufacturing community as learned from MDevSPICE® assessments conducted to date.

Commercial software development organisations routinely operate in dynamic environments, with various situational factors that affect the software development approach undergoing recurring change. We therefore suggest that process reflexivity - the ability to reflect upon the suitability of a software process for a given context and to adapt the process according to changing situational circumstances – is an important capability for software development organizations.. In support of this position we conducted an exploratory industrial study of software development in practice. An initial analysis of our data suggests that software process reflexivity may exercise a strong influence over business success. Further work is required to fully examine our data, however, initial findings indicate that software process reflexivity is worthy of greater attention.

Abstract Software that is incorporated into a medical device, or which is a standalone medical device in its own right, is of a safety critical nature and subject to regulation from various jurisdictions. In order to satisfy jurisdictional regulations, developers of medical device software adopt standards and guidance provided by international standards bodies and regulators. However, the various standards and guidance documents are often not developed as a single cohesive set resulting in a complex and costly challenge for medical device software developers when complying with regulation. The aim of this paper is to describe the integration of medical device guidance documents and software engineering standards into a unified framework for medical device software process assessment called MDevSPICE®. The paper illustrates the development of both the process reference model and the process assessment model (PAM) of MDevSPICE®. The MDevSPICE® PAM can help software developers to prepare for the regulatory audits, which they must satisfy as a prerequisite to placing their products on the market. The MDevSPICE® PAM can also assist medical device manufacturers to select competent software suppliers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Software development is a complex socio-technical activity, with the result that software development organisations need to establish and maintain robust software development processes. While much debate exists regarding the effectiveness of various software development approaches, no single approach is perfectly suited to all settings and no setting is unchanging. The capability to adapt the software process is therefore essential to sustaining an optimal software process. We designed an exploratory study to concurrently examine software process adaptive capability and organisational performance in 15 software development organisations, finding that companies with greater software process adaptive capability are shown to also experience greater business success. While our exploratory study of the complex relationship between these phenomena is limited in some respects, the findings indicate that software process adaptive capability may be worthy of further integration into software process engineering techniques. Software process adaptive capability may be an important organisational strength when deriving competitive advantage, and those responsible for the creation and evolution of software process models and methodologies may want to focus some of their future efforts in this area.

SUMMARY Although earlier studies revealed much about software process improvement (SPI) in software small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), no earlier research set out to determine the full extent of SPI being implemented in software SMEs. Therefore, this study was designed from the outset to elicit all instances of SPI, which we term SPI events – no matter how small or informal. We make the important new discovery that SMEs initiate a considerable amount of SPI, albeit in varying quantities in different organisations. No earlier study reported that the practice of SPI was so widespread in software SMEs, and this is perhaps related to the extensive scope of the enquiry adopted in this study. Our study also finds that the significant majority of SPI in software SMEs is minor or moderate in nature, sometimes leveraging the human capital via improvements in tacit knowledge. Software development is an intrinsically human intensive activity, and it therefore follows that the maximisation of the human capital in an organisation is a source of competitive advantage. However, contemporary process maturity frameworks and quality management standards do not fully exploit the capacity of human capital and may therefore diminish rather than improve the competitive advantage of software SMEs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.