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Purpose: Software modelling and Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is traditionally studied from a technical perspective. However, one of the core motivations behind the use of software models is inherently human-centred. Models aim to enable practitioners to communicate about software designs, make software understandable, or make software easier to write through domain-specific modelling languages. Several recent studies challenge the idea that these aims can always be reached and indicate that human factors play a role in the success of MDE. However, there is an under-representation of research focusing on human factors in modelling. Methods: During a GI-Dagstuhl seminar, topics related to human factors in modelling were discussed by 26 expert participants from research and industry. Results: In breakout groups, five topics were covered in depth, namely modelling human aspects, factors of modeller experience, diversity and inclusion in MDE, collaboration and MDE, and teaching human-aware MDE. Conclusion: We summarise our insights gained during the discussions on the five topics. We formulate research goals, questions, and propositions that support directing future initiatives towards an MDE community that is aware of and supportive of human factors and values.

In model-driven engineering, developing a textual domain-specific language (DSL) involves constructing a meta-model, which defines an underlying abstract syntax, and a grammar, which defines the concrete syntax for the DSL. Language workbenches such as Xtext allow the grammar to be automatically generated from the meta-model, yet the generated grammar usually needs to be manually optimized to improve its usability. When the meta-model changes during rapid prototyping or language evolution, it can become necessary to re-generate the grammar and optimize it again, causing repeated effort and potential for errors. In this paper, we present GrammarOptimizer, an approach for optimizing generated grammars in the context of meta-model-based language evolution. To reduce the effort for language engineers during rapid prototyping and language evolution, it offers a catalog of configurable grammar optimization rules. Once configured, these rules can be automatically applied and re-applied after future evolution steps, greatly reducing redundant manual effort. In addition, some of the supported optimizations can globally change the style of concrete syntax elements, further significantly reducing the effort for manual optimizations. The grammar optimization rules were extracted from a comparison of generated and existing, expert-created grammars, based on seven available DSLs., Comment: 34 pages

Metamodel-based DSL development in language workbenches like Xtext allows language engineers to focus more on metamodels and domain concepts rather than grammar details. However, the grammar generated from metamodels often requires manual modification, which can be tedious and time-consuming. Especially when it comes to rapid prototyping and language evolution, the grammar will be generated repeatedly, this means that language engineers need to repeat such manual modification back and forth. Previous work introduced GrammarOptimizer, which automatically improves the generated grammar using optimization rules. However, the optimization rules need to be configured manually, which lacks user-friendliness and convenience. In this paper, we present our vision for and current progress towards a language workbench that integrates GrammarOptimizer's grammar optimization rules to support rapid prototyping and evolution of metamodel-based languages. It provides a visual configuration of optimization rules and a real-time preview of the effects of grammar optimization to address the limitations of GrammarOptimizer. Furthermore, it supports the inference of a grammar based on examples from model instances and offers a selection of language styles. These features aim to enhance the automation level of metamodel-based DSL development with Xtext and assist language engineers in iterative development and rapid prototyping. Our paper discusses the potential and applications of this language workbench, as well as how it fills the gaps in existing language workbenches., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

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%). 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., Comment: Journal paper, 17 pages, 14 figures

Background: Microservices migrations are challenging and expensive projects with many decisions that need to be made in a multitude of dimensions. Existing research tends to focus on technical issues and decisions (e.g., how to split services). Equally important organizational or business issues and their relations with technical aspects often remain out of scope or on a high level of abstraction. Aims: In this study, we aim to holistically chart the decision-making that happens on all dimensions of a migration project towards microservices (including, but not limited to, the technical dimension). Method: We investigate 16 different migration cases in a grounded theory interview study, with 19 participants that recently migrated towards microservices. This study strongly focuses on the human aspects of a migration, through stakeholders and their decisions. Results: We identify 3 decision-making processes consisting of 22decision-points and their alternative options. The decision-points are related to creating stakeholder engagement and assessing feasibility, technical implementation, and organizational restructuring. Conclusions: Our study provides an initial theory of decision-making in migrations to microservices. It also outfits practitioners with a roadmap of which decisions they should be prepared to make and at which point in the migration., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

Software development methods are usually not applied by the book. Companies are under pressure to continuously deploy software products that meet market needs and stakeholders' requests. To implement efficient and effective development processes, companies utilize multiple frameworks, methods and practices, and combine these into hybrid methods. A common combination contains a rich management framework to organize and steer projects complemented with a number of smaller practices providing the development teams with tools to complete their tasks. In this paper, based on 732 data points collected through an international survey, we study the software development process use in practice. Our results show that 76.8% of the companies implement hybrid methods. Company size as well as the strategy in devising and evolving hybrid methods affect the suitability of the chosen process to reach company or project goals. Our findings show that companies that combine planned improvement programs with process evolution can increase their process' suitability by up to 5%., Comment: Conference, 10 pages, 4 figures, 10 tables

Software engineering educators are continually challenged by rapidly evolving concepts, technologies, and industry demands. Due to the omnipresence of software in a digitalized society, higher education institutions (HEIs) have to educate the students such that they learn how to learn, and that they are equipped with a profound basic knowledge and with latest knowledge about modern software and system development. Since industry demands change constantly, HEIs are challenged in meeting such current and future demands in a timely manner. This paper analyzes the current state of practice in software engineering education. Specifically, we want to compare contemporary education with industrial practice to understand if frameworks, methods and practices for software and system development taught at HEIs reflect industrial practice. For this, we conducted an online survey and collected information about 67 software engineering courses. Our findings show that development approaches taught at HEIs quite closely reflect industrial practice. We also found that the choice of what process to teach is sometimes driven by the wish to make a course successful. Especially when this happens for project courses, it could be beneficial to put more emphasis on building learning sequences with other courses., Comment: Conference, 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

Selecting a suitable development method for a specific project context is one of the most challenging activities in process design. Every project is unique and, thus, many context factors have to be considered. Recent research took some initial steps towards statistically constructing hybrid development methods, yet, paid little attention to the peculiarities of context factors influencing method and practice selection. In this paper, we utilize exploratory factor analysis and logistic regression analysis to learn such context factors and to identify methods that are correlated with these factors. Our analysis is based on 829 data points from the HELENA dataset. We provide five base clusters of methods consisting of up to 10 methods that lay the foundation for devising hybrid development methods. The analysis of the five clusters using trained models reveals only a few context factors, e.g., project/product size and target application domain, that seem to significantly influence the selection of methods. An extended descriptive analysis of these practices in the context of the identified method clusters also suggests a consolidation of the relevant practice sets used in specific project contexts., Comment: 11 pages, Conference, 5 figures, 9 tables

The use of autonomous bots for automatic support in software development tasks is increasing. In the past, however, they were not always perceived positively and sometimes experienced a negative bias compared to their human counterparts. We conducted a qualitative study in which we deployed an autonomous refactoring bot for 41 days in a student software development project. In between and at the end, we conducted semi-structured interviews to find out how developers perceive the bot and whether they are more or less critical when reviewing the contributions of a bot compared to human contributions. Our findings show that the bot was perceived as a useful and unobtrusive contributor, and developers were no more critical of it than they were about their human colleagues, but only a few team members felt responsible for the bot., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. To be published at 12th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2020)

Problem: The involvement of external stakeholders in capstone projects and project courses is desirable due to its potential positive effects on the students. Capstone projects particularly profit from the inclusion of an industrial partner to make the project relevant and help students acquire professional skills. In addition, an increasing push towards education that is aligned with industry and incorporates industrial partners can be observed. However, the involvement of external stakeholders in teaching moments can create friction and could, in the worst case, lead to frustration of all involved parties. Contribution: We developed a model that allows analysing the involvement of external stakeholders in university courses both in a retrospective fashion, to gain insights from past course instances, and in a constructive fashion, to plan the involvement of external stakeholders. Key Concepts: The conceptual model and the accompanying guideline guide the teachers in their analysis of stakeholder involvement. The model is comprised of several activities (define, execute, and evaluate the collaboration). The guideline provides questions that the teachers should answer for each of these activities. In the constructive use, the model allows teachers to define an action plan based on an analysis of potential stakeholders and the pedagogical objectives. In the retrospective use, the model allows teachers to identify issues that appeared during the project and their underlying causes. Drawing from ideas of the reflective practitioner, the model contains an emphasis on reflection and interpretation of the observations made by the teacher and other groups involved in the courses. Key Lessons: Applying the model retrospectively to a total of eight courses shows that it is possible to reveal hitherto implicit risks and assumptions and to gain a better insight into the interaction..., Comment: Abstract shortened since arxiv.org limits length of abstracts. See paper/pdf for full abstract. Paper is forthcoming, accepted August 2017. Arxiv version 2 corrects misspelled author name