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Background: Software Process Simulation Modeling (SPSM) is of paramount importance to support quantitative management of software development process. Hybrid process simulation combines multiple simulation paradigms to reflect complex changes in realistic software processes, which brings inherent challenges to process management. Constructing a hybrid model requires more modeling expertise and experience than modeling by solo-paradigm. However, a few studies explicitly discuss the challenges they encountered as a topic, which may discourage practitioners. Objective: Our aim in this study is to present an industrial process modeling project as an exemplar to demonstrate and discuss the technical issues and challenges associated with hybrid process simulation in practice. Method: Based on the collaboration with a global software enterprise, we constructed a hybrid process simulation model that combines System Dynamics (SD) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to predict the project duration and release date for management. Results: Several challenges around hybrid process simulation of software development process are identified and discussed with the proposal of sets of solutions from different perspectives. The model is validated by comparing the simulation result with the actual enactment of the process in industry. In addition, the result confirms the rationality and efficacy of the suggested solutions to some extent. Conclusions: In the collaboration with the enterprise, five-step modeling procedure was adopted for constructing the hybrid process model. The experience reported about the detailed steps of hybrid modeling may offer reference value to the SPSM community.

Software processes are very dependent on human behaviour, creativity and productivity. Business process management (BPM) simulation models are trying to model these properties to provide more precise information about the progress and parameters of the process. This paper describes a method for specifying competencies of resources in the process using competency models. These competencies are used to simulate human resource capability and productivity that influences the duration and allocation of resources to activities in the process. Different allocation strategies are based on this capability and productivity model to determine which resources should be allocated during automatic simulations. This method is then integrated into the BPM method simulation environment that is used to compare these allocation strategies in software process simulations for a middle-sized software development company.

Verification and Validation (V&V) is a critical step in software process modelling to secure the model's quality and credibility. Software Process Simulation Models (SPSMs) that are based on descriptive process models offer the executability that is able to demonstrate the dynamic changes of software process over time. The V&V of process simulation models go beyond static process models and turn to be more complex and challenging to software modelers. This study aims to identify what aspects of process simulation models are verified and validated by using which V&V methods in what conditions in software engineering research. We conducted a systematic literature review (mapping study) on the studies of software process simulation that report of their V&V activities. We identified 72 relevant studies from a pool of 331 papers on SPSM until 2015. These studies can be mapped to ten V&V methods applied for five aspects of process models to be verified and validated, i.e., syntactic quality, semantic quality, pragmatic quality, performance, and value. A systematic map is presented to illustrate the relationships between the identified V&V methods and their supporting aspects of process models. This mapping will provide the community reference value when developing, verifying, and validating software process (simulation) models.

Software Process Simulation Modelling has gained recognition in the recent years in addressing a variety of cloud software project development, software risk management and cloud software project management issues. Using Software Process Simulation Modelling, the investigator draws up real-world problems to address in the software domain, and then a simulation approach is used to develop as-is/to-be models—where the models are calibrated using credible empirical data. The simulation outcome of such cloud system project models provide an economic way of predicting implications of various decisions, helping to make with effective and prudent decision-making through the process. This chapter provides an overview of Software Process Simulation Modelling and the present issues it addresses as well as the motivation for its being—particularly related to agile cloud software projects. This chapter also discusses its techniques of implementation, as well as its applications in solving real-world problems.

A significant problem in modern software engineering is maturity assessment of organizations developing software.

HighlightsA literature review of software process simulation modelling was performed.None of the claimed benefits could be substantiated with evidence.No evidence exists for the claimed impact and adoption in the industrial practice.Cost of simulation-based studies suggests that it is an expensive undertaking. ContextSoftware process simulation modelling (SPSM) captures the dynamic behaviour and uncertainty in the software process. Existing literature has conflicting claims about its practical usefulness: SPSM is useful and has an industrial impact; SPSM is useful and has no industrial impact yet; SPSM is not useful and has little potential for industry. ObjectiveTo assess the conflicting standpoints on the usefulness of SPSM. MethodA systematic literature review was performed to identify, assess and aggregate empirical evidence on the usefulness of SPSM. ResultsIn the primary studies, to date, the persistent trend is that of proof-of-concept applications of software process simulation for various purposes (e.g. estimation, training, process improvement, etc.). They score poorly on the stated quality criteria. Also only a few studies report some initial evaluation of the simulation models for the intended purposes. ConclusionThere is a lack of conclusive evidence to substantiate the claimed usefulness of SPSM for any of the intended purposes. A few studies that report the cost of applying simulation do not support the claim that it is an inexpensive method. Furthermore, there is a paramount need for improvement in conducting and reporting simulation studies with an emphasis on evaluation against the intended purpose.

Software process simulation (SPS) has been evolving over the past two decades after being introduced to the software engineering community in the 1980s. At that time the SPS technology attracted a great deal of interest from both academics and practitioners in the software process community—even to the extent of being one of the recommended techniques for achieving multiple Key Process Areas of Level 4 of the Capability Maturity Model Integration. However, in recent years, the growth of SPS seems to have slowed along with the number of reported applications in industry. This article summarizes the special panel that was held during ICSSP 2012 whose goals were to assess whether this technology remains applicable to today's software engineering projects and challenges and to point out the most beneficial opportunities for future research and industry application. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

SUMMARY A software maintenance process is important for reducing maintenance effort and for improving software quality. In recent years, the Lean–Kanban approach has been widely applied in software practice including software maintenance. This approach minimizes Work-in-Progress (WIP), which is the number of items that are worked on by the team at any given time, thus improving the maintenance process. In this paper, we describe our simulation studies, which show that the Lean–Kanban approach can indeed help reduce the average time needed to complete maintenance requests. We develop a process simulator that can simulate both existing maintenance processes that do not use a WIP limit and that adopt it. We perform two case studies using real maintenance data collected from a Microsoft project and from a Chinese software firm. The main results of our study are twofold. First, we demonstrate that it is possible to effectively model and simulate, using actors and events, a maintenance process where a flow of issues is processed through a sequence of activities, correctly reproducing key statistics of real data. Second, our results confirm that the WIP-limited process could be useful to increase the efficiency of software maintenance, as reported in previous industrial practices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

At any point of human activity, knowledge and expertise are a key factors in understanding and solving any given problem. In present days, computer systems have the ability to support their users in an efficient and reliable way in gathering and processing knowledge. In this chapter we show how to use Cognitum Ontorion system in this areas. In first section, we identify emerging issues focused on how to represent and inference knowledge. Next, we briefly discuss models and methodology of agent-oriented system analysis and design. In the third section, the semantic knowledge management framework of the system is reviewed. Finally, we recapitulate by discussing the usability of Ontorion based on a case study, in which an instance of software process simulation modelling environment is executed and further discussed. In the last section, we provide future work directions and put forward final conclusions.

A crucial problem in modern software engineering is maturity assessment of organizations developing software, however, research has shown that efficiency is a clearer indicator of agile transformation readiness. We propose utilizing a process model of RUP development methodology, as a pattern for comparing it with the examined process. Two factors were proposed to assess maturity and factor determining the efficiency of the RUP process. The above mentioned RUP model concept is based on a multi-agent based simulation (MABS). It presents goals and behaviours of agents as well as components of the agent system environment. To confirm the usefulness of the method for assessment of organization’s maturity, a two-fold experiment was undertaken. The results confirm the usefulness of the model in efficiency and maturity assessment. First part consisted of tuning the simulation internal parameters to the development process. In the second part we propose three factors that can be used to assess efficiency and maturity of a RUP IT organization. The proposed coefficients are an extension of previous research by the authors, devoted to the assessment of organizational readiness for agile processes transformation.

A crucial problem in modern software engineering is maturity assessment of organizations developing software. We propose utilizing a process model of RUP development methodology, as a pattern for comparing it with the examined process. Percent values of accordance coefficient determine the task accordance of the examined process with the pattern of activities flow. The above mentioned RUP model concept is based on a multi-agent based simulation (MABS). It presents goals and behaviors of agents as well as components of the agent system environment. To confirm the usefulness of the method for assessment of organization’s maturity, a two-fold experiment was undertaken. The results confirm the usefulness of the model in maturity assessment. First part consisted of tuning the simulation internal parameters to the development process. In the second part accordance coefficient values of the sample project were obtained by comparing it with the results of the simulated model.

This paper introduces an executable system dynamics simulation model developed to help project managers comprehend the complex impacts related to requirements volatility on a software development project. The simulator extends previous research and adds research results from an empirical survey, including over 50 new parameters derived from the associated survey data, to a base model. The paper discusses detailed results from two cases that show significant cost, schedule, and quality impacts as a result of requirements volatility. The simulator can be used as an effective tool to demonstrate the complex set of factor relationships and effects related to requirements volatility.

Changes in user requirements or project personnel occur frequently during project execution particularly in long-term and large-size projects. We need a tool which can estimate the effects of changing conditions to effectively manage the project. This paper proposes a simulation method for dynamic project performance in terms of effort, schedule, and defect density changes in a dynamic project environment by combining COCOMO II with system dynamics. We apply expert judgment technique to overcome the lack of empirical data on the effects of dynamic project environment. We develop a simulation tool (available on the authors' website) which has model adjustment parameters to reflect experts' estimation on project characteristics. The simulation experiment on a military application development project demonstrates that the developed model can show the behavioral characteristics of a project suffering unanticipated and uncontrolled requirements creep. This helps project managers understand interactions between project factors and proactively evaluate and control the effects of dynamic project environment.

In recent years, simulation modelling of software development processes has attracted considerable interest in software engineering. Despite the growing interest, there is little literature available that reports on the state-of-practice in software process simulation modelling (SPSM). We report results of a survey of simulation in SPSM and relate it to simulation practice in general. The results of this survey indicate that software process simulation (SPS) modellers are generally methodical, work on large complex problems, develop large models, and have a systematic simulation modelling process in place. However, on the other hand, the simulation modelling process and simulation model evaluation have been identified as the most urgent problems to be addressed in SPSM. The results from this investigation are interesting and bring many problems into focus. The paper helps understand the characteristics of the SPSM and SPS modellers, and highlights areas of interest for further in-depth research in the SPSM.

This article presents an agent-based simulation study that explores the effects of team behavior on the efficiency and effectiveness of software development organizations that pursue incremental and iterative processes such as the Rational Unified Process (RUP). The conceptual model underlying the simulation framework is based on the fundamental tenets of organization theory. We present the simulation framework Team-RUP and use it to examine (a) which team archetypes and associated organizational cooperation mechanisms are effective in incremental and iterative software development strategies such as the RUP and (b) the extent of the impact of turbulence (i.e. change in requirements and employee turnover) on the effectiveness of software development under various team archetypes in small organizations. Using the model, we observe that ‘agility’ via incremental and iterative development strategy is a valid and useful counterbalance to the inevitable change involved in most software projects. Also, we observe that the autonomous and concurrent team archetypes are better suited for large, rather than small, enterprises. We believe that the findings reported in this study form the basis for future hypotheses that will facilitate further empirical studies on software team behavior. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Release planning for incremental software development assigns features to releases such that most important technical, resource, risk and budget constraints are met. The research presented in this paper is an element of a three-staged procedure. In addition to an existing method for (i) strategic release planning that maps requirements to subsequent releases and (ii) a more fine-grained planning that defines resource allocations for each individual release, we propose a third step, i.e. (iii) stability analysis, which analyzes fine-grained plans of individual releases with regard to their sensitivity to planning errors. Planning errors can relate to alterations in expected personnel availability and productivity, feature and task-specific work volume, and degree of task dependency. The focus of this article is on stability analysis of proposed release plans. We present the simulation model Release Plan Simulator, Version 1 (REPSIM-1) and illustrate its usefulness for stability analyses with the help of a case example. (Less)

Software process simulation (SPS) has become an active research area for managing and improving software development processes since its introduction in the last two decades. Hybrid simulation, the combination of simulation paradigms to address a problem, is becoming more popular as the problems we are presented with become more complex. However, integrating multiple simulation paradigms faces the issues of compatibility, interoperatability and synchronization when executing simulation. The objective of this research is to present the state-of-the-art of this research area, the hybrid mechanism when integrating paradigms, and more importantly provide practical support for the effective adoption of hybrid simulation in SPS context. Based on an extended systematic literature review, this paper presents the preliminary results by answering the research questions. Depending upon the way these simulation paradigms represent different aspects and levels of software process and the context in which they can be modeled by SPS, two hybrid mechanisms: Hierarchical Mechanism and Interlinked Mechanism, have been frequently employed. The detailed discussions of integration strategies and recommendations when applying hybrid simulation may offer reference value to the SPS community.

Training and learning are one important purpose of Software Process Simulation (SPS). Some previous reviews showed a noticeable number of studies that combine SPS and Soft- ware Engineering Education (SEE). The objective of this research is to present the latest state-of-the-art of this area, and more importantly provide practical support for the effective adoption of SPS in educational context. We conducted an extended Systematic Literature Review (SLR) based on our previous reviews. The review identified 42 primary studies from 1992 to 2013. This paper presents the preliminary results by answering the research questions. The overall findings confirmed the positive impact of SPS on education. The detailed discussions and recommendations may offer reference value to the community.

The goal of this work is to study the effects of the adoption of agile practices on open source development. In particular, we started to evaluate the effects of TDD (Test Driven Development) since it is easer to apply in a distributed environment than most other agile practices. In order to reach this goal we used the simulation modeling approach. We developed a simulation model of open source software development process. The model was tuned using data from a real FLOSS project: Apache HTTP Server. To introduce the TDD practice in our FLOSS simulation model, we made some assumptions based on empirical results. The two FLOSS development models (nonTDD and TDD) were compared. The one incorporating the agile practice yields better results in terms of code quality.

This article proposes an approach to a hybrid software process simulation modeling (SPSM) using discrete event system specification (DEVS) formalism, which implements the dynamic structure and discrete characteristics of the software development process. Many previous researchers on hybrid SPSM have described both discrete and continuous aspects of the software development process to provide more realistic simulation models. The existing hybrid models, however, have not fully implemented the feedback loop mechanism of the system dynamics. We define the DEVS Hybrid SPSM formalism by extending DEVS to the hybrid SPSM domain. Our hybrid SPSM approach uses system dynamics modeling to convey details concerning activity behaviors and managerial policies, while discrete event modeling controls activity start/completion and sequence. This approach also provides a clear specification, an explicit extension point to extend the simulation model, and a reuse mechanism. We will demonstrate a Waterfall-like hybrid software process simulation model using the DEVS Hybrid SPSM formalism. Copyright  2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.