Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
A decision-making process-line for selection of software asset origins and components
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6215-1774
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3567-9300
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0460-5253
Swedish Institute of Computer Science, SWE.
Show others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: Journal of Systems and Software, ISSN 0164-1212, E-ISSN 1873-1228, Vol. 135, p. 88-104Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Selecting sourcing options for software assets and components is an important process that helps companies to gain and keep their competitive advantage. The sourcing options include: in-house, COTS, open source and outsourcing. The objective of this paper is to further refine, extend and validate a solution presented in our previous work. The refinement includes a set of decision-making activities, which are described in the form of a process-line that can be used by decision-makers to build their specific decision-making process. We conducted five case studies in three companies to validate the coverage of the set of decision-making activities. The solution in our previous work was validated in two cases in the first two companies. In the validation, it was observed that no activity in the proposed set was perceived to be missing, although not all activities were conducted and the activities that were conducted were not executed in a specific order. Therefore, the refinement of the solution into a process-line approach increases the flexibility and hence it is better in capturing the differences in the decision-making processes observed in the case studies. The applicability of the process-line was then validated in three case studies in a third company. © 2017 Elsevier Inc.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier Inc. , 2018. Vol. 135, p. 88-104
Keywords [en]
Case study, Component-based software engineering, Decision-making, Competition, Concrete pavements, Open source software, Software engineering, Competitive advantage, Decision makers, Decision making process, Open sources, Selection of software, Software assets, Specific ordering, Decision making
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-15512DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2017.09.033ISI: 000418308800006Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85032856583OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-15512DiVA, id: diva2:1163441
Available from: 2017-12-07 Created: 2017-12-07 Last updated: 2022-09-16Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Decision-making support for choosing among different component origins.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Decision-making support for choosing among different component origins.
2018 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Context: The amount of software in solutions provided in various domains is continuously growing. These solutions are a mix of hardware and software solutions, often referred to as software-intensive systems. Companies seek alternatives to improve the software development process to avoid delays or cost overruns related to software development. Component origins such as in-house, outsourcing, Components OffThe-Shelf (COTS) or Open Source Software (OSS) are gaining popularity, therefore, leading to the decision to choose among component origins. Objective: The overall goal of this thesis is to support decisionmaking for selecting component origins. Following a decision-making process including all the key decision-making activities is crucial in making decisions. Therefore, the objective of the thesis is to support the decision-makers to create a decision-making process based on their context. In addition, the objective is to improve the decision-making process by incorporating research results and decision-makers’ opinion and knowledge in practice. Method: We identified the factors that influence the choice to select among different component origins through a systematic literature review using an Snowballing (SB) strategy and a Database (DB) search. We extended the investigation and conducted a case survey of 22 cases. Using design science, we developed solutions including a process-line to support decision-makers, a Bayesian synthesis process to integrate the evidence from literature into practice and a Knowledge Translation (KT) framework to facilitate the implementation of research results in practice. Results: In-house development and alternative component origins (outsourcing, COTS, and OSS) are being used for software development. Several factors such as time, cost and license implications influence the selection of component origins. Solutions have been proposed to support the decision-making. However, these solutions consider only a subset of factors identified in the literature. According to the case survey, the solutions proposed in literature are not aligned with practice.Inpractice,thedecisionsaremostlybasedonopinions.Thedesign objective to support decision-makers with the decision-making process is identified. Therefore, we propose a process-line to address the designobjective.Inaddition,tomakethedecision-makingmoreinformediwe propose a KT framework incorporating Bayesian synthesis to help decision-makers make evidence-informed decisions. Conclusions: The decision to choose among component origins is case dependent. To support the decision-making process, the flexibility and customization of the solution based on the context are important. Therefore, the process-line proposed in the thesis is not prescriptive rather it is customizable to the context. In addition, to facilitate evidence-based decision-making, we provide an application of the KT framework that allows decision-makers to consider research results in addition to their own opinions and knowledge.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlskrona: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, 2018. p. 288
Series
Blekinge Institute of Technology Doctoral Dissertation Series, ISSN 1653-2090 ; 5
Keywords
Component-based software development, component origin, decision-making, snowballing, database search, process-line, Bayesian synthesis and knowledge translation
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-15969 (URN)978-91-7295-351-2 (ISBN)
Public defence
2018-05-08, J1650, Blekinge Institute of Technology – Campus Gräsvik, Karlskrona, 09:30 (English)
Opponent
Available from: 2018-03-26 Created: 2018-03-20 Last updated: 2022-09-16Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1260 kB)1417 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1260 kBChecksum SHA-512
73e65c76c17ee0f0ad2cf7d3434d46d463255346fe66c44e11e4ace887128216be881c1f0ddd0b32060199386c83ffae66fb901cb5dcc8fa700a31cbd27d33fa
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Badampudi, DeepikaWnuk, KrzysztofWohlin, ClaesŠmite, Darja

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Badampudi, DeepikaWnuk, KrzysztofWohlin, ClaesŠmite, Darja
By organisation
Department of Software Engineering
In the same journal
Journal of Systems and Software
Software Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 1417 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 2796 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf