Agility without discipline cannot scale, and discipline without agility cannot compete. Agile methods are now mainstream. Software enterprises are adopting these practices in broad, comprehensive delivery contexts. There have been many successes, and there have been disappointments. IBM's framework for achieving agility at scale is based on hundreds of successful deployments and dozens of disappointing experiences in accelerating software delivery cycles within large-scale organizations. Our collective know-how points to three key principles to deliver measured improvements in agility with high confidence: Steer using economic governance, measure incremental improvements honestly, and empower teams with disciplined agile delivery. This paper elaborates these three principles and presents practical recommendations for achieving improved agility in large-scale software delivery enterprises.

Experience in all aspects of software engineering has confirmed the pivotal role of focusing on architectural concerns in the development of complex software-intensive systems. Consequently, the past 20 years has seen significant investments in the theory and practice of software architecture. However, architectural deficiencies are frequently cited as a key factor in the shortcomings and failures that lead to unpredictable delivery of complex operational systems. Here, we consider the art and science of software architecture: we explore the current state of software architecture, identify key architectural trends, and directions in academia and industry, and highlight some of the architectural research challenges which need to be addressed. The paper proposes a detailed agenda of research activities to be carried out by a partnership between academia and industry. While challenges exist in many domains, for this paper we draw examples from one area of particular concern: safety-critical systems.

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Many organizations are moving toward greater use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components in the development of application systems. The development of component based systems introduces fundamental changes in the way systems are acquired, integrated, deployed and evolved. We present a reference model for the assembly of component based systems that can be used as the basis for defining a systematic approach to the development of such systems. This reference model is described, and used to explore a number of fundamental development issues.

Abstract In an effort to find out more about the effectiveness of the tools, procedures, and techniques that project personnel use in their work, the Computer‐Aided Software Engineering (CASE) Environments project at the Software Engineering Institute interviewed personnel in eight software maintenance projects within a U.S. Government organization. These interviews highlighted problems that we believe are typical of many software maintenance organizations and are the subject of this paper. While the interviews discovered a need for maintenance tools to support such areas as reverse‐engineering and regression testing, these problems often had their roots in deeper issues. Such issues were a lack of design for maintenance, ineffective communication and low status of maintenance work. This paper addresses these deeper issues and suggests some approaches for their resolution.