Integrating software engineering theory and practice using essence: A case study

Software engineering is complex and success depends on many inter-related factors. Theory Based Software Engineering (TBSE) is about providing a practical way for software teams to understand the relationships and the influence of these factors to thereby adapt the way they work. This paper proposes...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science of computer programming 2015-04, Vol.101, p.66-78
Main Author: Ng, Pan-Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Essence
Kernel
SEMAT
Software engineering
Theory
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Software engineering is complex and success depends on many inter-related factors. Theory Based Software Engineering (TBSE) is about providing a practical way for software teams to understand the relationships and the influence of these factors to thereby adapt the way they work. This paper proposes an approach to TBSE based on Essence, a software engineering kernel distilled by the SEMAT (Software Engineering Method and Theory) initiative. Essence supports TBSE by providing a domain model that is useful for organizing and relating software engineering factors. Essence also helps make recommended practices precise and actionable to software teams. We provide a step-by-step application of our approach on an industrial software process improvement case study. The case study achieved 21% productivity gains and 58% decrease in defects. But more importantly than these results, it demonstrates the value of Essence in supporting TBSE.
ISSN:0167-6423
1872-7964
DOI:10.1016/j.scico.2014.11.009