Guest editorial: introduction to the special section - Software ...

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, VOL. 26,

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NO. 6, NOVEMBEWDECEMBER 1999

Guest Editorial: Introduction to the Special Section Carlo Ghezzi and Bashar Nuseibeh

1 INTRODUCTION

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Transactions on Software Engineering processes. The paper presents a description of and rationale contains ’ . a second special section covering the subject of for process viewpoints, discusses the process of applying Managing Inconsistency in Software Development. Inconsis- process viewpoints for process understanding, and illustency is prevalent in many software engineering processes trates the overall approach using part of a case study drawn and products and, increasingly, researchers have recog- from industrial processes that are part of a safety-critical nized that practitioners learn to live with inconsistency as a system development. The paper by Krishnan and Kelher on ”Measuring matter of course and that they devise ways of managing its Process Consistency: Implications for Reducing Software impact on their work. In response to a special call for papers in September Defects” reports on an empirical study that links software 1997, we received 67 submissions; five papers appeared process consistency with product defect density. The paper in a first special section in November 1998 [l],while five introduces a measurement scale for software process appear in this special section. Two of these papers consistency and then describes the authors’ empirical study address the notion of conflict, two papers address that used this scale to measure consistency in achieving the process inconsistency issues, and one paper addresses CMM goal questions in various Key Process Areas (KPAs) for 45 real projects. The results of the study suggest that standards compliance. consistent adoption of practices specified in the CMM is associated with lower defect density. 2 THEARTICLES In their paper ”Managing Standards Compliance” EmThe articles serve to illustrate the diverse range of software merich, Finkelstein, Montangero, Antonelli, Armitage, and engineering activities in which inconsistency management Stevens address the issue of software engineering standards plays an important role: from managing the artifacts of the and the degree of compliance of software engineering software development process to the software development practices to these standards. The authors’ motivation arises process itself. In all cases, the papers recognize that from the need to manage standards compliance rather than understanding where inconsistencies exist, their impact on impose it. This is achieved by providing a collection of the artifacts in which they exist, and the different ways in modeling capabilities and a policy scheme that triggers which they may be handled are all crucial activities in the compliance checks.This approachis illustrated by applying it inconsistency management process. to requirement documents developed according to an The first two papers deal with what one might be industrial standard and checked using an industrial-strength characterizes as process inconsistency. The paper by Sommer- requirement management environment. ville, Sawyer, and Viller on “Managing Process Inconsistency Robinson and Pawlowski’s paper on ”Managing ReUsing Viewpoints” discusses the notion of process incon- quirements Inconsistency with Development Goal Monisistency and argues that inconsistenciesin software processes tors” focuses on inconsistencies that arise between are inevitable and sometimes desirable. It presents an requirement development goals and requirement developapproach to process analysis that helps discover different ment enactment. The authors present a meta-model that perceptions of a software process and that supports the defines a conceptual framework for dialog goal definition, discovery of process inconsistencies and process improve- monitoring and, in the case of goal failure, dialog goal ments stimulated by these inconsistencies.By analogy with reestablishment. The requirement dialog meta-model is viewpoints for requirements engineering,which allow multi- supported in an automated multiuser World Wide Web ple perspectives on a software product specification to be environment called DEALSCRIBE and illustrated using a managed, the authors develop the notion of process view- case study of its use. Finally, Lupu and Sloman conclude this special section points that provide multiperspective descriptions of software with their paper on “Conflicts in Policy-Based Distributed Systems Management.” The paper addresses conflicts that arise between policies for managing distributed systems. In particular, the paper considers authorization policies that E-mail: ghezzi~eleiet.polimi.it. B. Ntiseibeh is with the Department oJComputing, Imperial College, 180 specify what activities a manager is permitted or forbidden Queen’s Gate, London SW7 282, UK. E-mail: banOdoc.ic.ac.uk. to perform on a set of tareet obiects and oblieation uolicies HISissue of IEEE

GHEZZI AND NUSEiBEH GUEST EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL SECTION

are also implementable in that they may be specified initially at the organizational level and then refined to implementable actions. The paper reviews policy conflicts focusing of detection and resolution. It also - on problems discusses various precedence relationships that can be established between policies in order to allow inconsistent policies to coexist and presents a conflict analysis tool to support this process. While some of the papers in this special section address ways of detecting and resolving inconsistency, others demonstrate techniques for living with inconsistency in real projects. The choice of inconsistency handling strategy and the choice of actions to take in the presence of inconsistency remain open research questions. We hope that you enjoy the selection of papers in this special section and that they encourage you to address inconsistency management issues in your own work.

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Lamsweerde, A. Vickers, L. Votta, P.Wallis, A. Wasserman, R. Weiringa, P. Wernick, B. Whittle, J. Wing, J. Woodcock, M. Woodside, J. Yen, P. Zave, D. Zowghi. REFERENCES [l] C. Ghezzi and B. Nuseibeh, "Guest Editorial: Introduction to the

Special Section," Managing Inconsistency in Software Development, IEEE Trans. Soffzuare Eng.,vol. 24, no. 11, pp. 906907, Nov. 1998.

Carlo G h e u l received his DrEng degree in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, where he now holds the position of fuii professor of computer science. Presently, he is also a guest professor at the University of Lugano, Switzerland (USI). Prior to that, he taught at the Universities of Padova, Italy and North Carolina at Chapel Hili. He has been a visitor at the University of California at Los Anodes and the Universitv of California at Santa ~~~,~ Barbara, ESLAI, Argentina, the University of Klagenfurt, and the Technical University of Vienna-TUW, Austria. His research interests are in software engineeringand programming languages. He is currently particularly interested in the theoretical, methodological, and technological issues involved in developing network-wide applications, with sDeciai focus on sumortino OeooraDhicaiiv distributed cooDeration ,, " " " , among people. He is coauthor of more t h a i l 2 0 scientific papers and eight ~ books. Among ~ these, iProgramming ~ Language~ Concepts, M. Jazayeri, coauthor, (John Wiley & Sons, third edition. 1997); Fundamentals of Soffware Engineering, M. Jazayeri and D. Mandrioli, coauthors, (Prentice Hall, 1991); and Theoretical Foundations of Computer Science, D. Mandrioii. coauthor, (John Wiley & Sons, 1987). He has ~ been~ program ~ chair ~or cochair ~ of several international conferences, including the European Software Engineering Conference (ESEC-z), the IEEE Workshop on Software Specification and Design (IWSSD-B), and the international. Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE-14). He will be general chair of iCSE in the year 2000. He is a member of the editorial boards of Trends in Soffware, Theory and Practice of Object Systems, Soffware Process improvement and Practice, and Annals of Software Engineering. ~~~~~~~~~~

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The guest editors would like to thank all authors who section and to the submitted Papers to this referees who reviewed these articles so urofessionallv. The editors also wish to thank IEEE Tyan&ions on Siftware ~ ~Editor-in-Chief, ~ Richard i A. K~~~~~~~ ~ and~fie Society staff at the IEEE for their support. List of Referees: G. Alonso, V. Ambriola, A. Anton, s. Antonelli, M. Ardis, S. Armitage, A. Arnold, R. Baker, S. Bandinelli, N, Barghouti, D, B ~ A, Bertolino, ~ ~ ~J. ~ , i gui, A. L.c. Briand, T. Bruckhaus, 1. Bubenko, 1. Callahan, s. Castanor p. Chatzoglou, Y.-F. Chen, L. Chung, R. Cleaveland, B. Cohen, S. Conrad, R. Conradi, P. Constantopoulos, J, Cook, G, cugola, J, Cunningham, J, cusick, N. das Chagas v, de Antonellis, H, Delugach, J.C. Derniame, F. Despina,. ' l Devenbu, E. di Nitto, E. Dubois, S. Easterbrook, S. Eisenbach, K. El-Emam, W. Emmerich, G. Engels, J. Estublier, M. Feather, L. Fernandez, C. Fernstrom, S. Fickas, J. Fiedeiro, A. Finkelstein, P. Flach, J. Frausto, A. Fuggetta, C. Ghezzi, T. Gilb, M. Goedicke, S.Green, S. Greenspan, V. Gruhn, J. Grundy, A. Hall, W. Hasselbring, M. Heimdahl, G. Heineman, C. Heitmeyer, C . Hogger, A. Hunter, P. Inverardi, L. Jaccherri, D. Jackson, M. Jackson, M. Jaffe, M. Jarke, S. Jones, T. Katayama, M. Kellner, B. Kitchenham, M. Klein, R. Klosch, T. Koch, J. Kramer, M. Krishnan, L. Lavazza, J.C. Leite, D. Le Metayer, Y. Ledru, J. Lee, B. Littlewood, P. Loucopoulos, F. Lunubile, E. Lupu, R. Lutz, P. McBrien, S. McCarron, B. Maguusson, C. Marlin, J. Micallef, B. Michael, N. Minsky, H.A. Muller, S. Nakajima, R. Nebbe, H. Nissen, R.L. Nord, B. Nuseibeh, M. Paulk, S. Lawrence Pfleeger, D. Plexousakis, N. Prakash, J. Magee, T. Maibaum, N. Maiden, S. Matsuura, F. Marcelloni, N. Mead, C. Montangero, S. Morasca, J. Moffett, G. Murphy, J. Mylopoulos, K. Narayanaswamy, B. Nixon, F. Oquendo, D. Parnas, B. Pernici, D. Perry, K. Pohl, V. Rajlich, J. Ram, C.V. Ramamoorthy, D. Robertson, S. Robertson, W. Robinson, C. Rolland, D. Rosenblum, M. Rossi, A. Russo, K. Ryan, M. Ryan, F. Sadri, M. Saeki, P. San Pietro, W. Schachi, W. Shaefer, M. Schaerf, R. Schwanke, M. Sergot, E.M. Sherratt, J. Sifakis, IS. Sigman, M. Sloman, H. Sneed, G. Snelting, I. Sommerville, J. Souquieres, G. Spanoudakis, R. Stevens, N. Srinivas, K. Sullivan, R. Taylor, W. Tichy, D. Till, G. Trasmouth, R. Turner, A. Vickers, B. Warboys, A. van der Hoek, A. van

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Bashar Nuseibeh received his PhD degree in software engineering from the Department of Computing, imperial College, where he is currently head of the Software Engineering Laboratory and director of the new United Kingdom government-funded Centre for Systems Requirements Engineering. His research interests are in requirements engineering, software process technology, and technology transfer. He is the principal investigator for a number of United Kingdom and European research projects, has published more than 50 papers in refereed international journals and conferences, and is coeditor of a book on Soffware Process Modelling and Technology (John Wiley & Sons). He serves on a number of internationalconference program committees, including those of both the symposium and conference on requirements engineering (iCRE-96, ISRE-97, iCRE-98, ISRE-99, and ICRE-2000), the international workshop on software specificationand design (IWSSD-9), and the internationalconferenceon software engineering (ICSE-99 and ICSE-2000).He is editor-in-chief of Aufomated Software Engineering (Kluwer Academic), an associate editor of Requirements Engineering (Springer-Verlag),and chair of the British Computer Society's Requirements Engineering Specialist Group (RESG). He has been general chair of the Sixth EuropeanWorkshop on Software ProcessTechnoiogy (EWSPT-98); programcochair of the 13th IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE-98); and will serve as program chair for the Fifth International Symposium on Requirements Engineering (ISRE-2001), to be held in Toronto, Canada, in September 2001. He also serves on the committee of the iEE ProfessionalGroup A I (Software Engineering), iFlP Working Group 2.9 (Systems Requirements Engineering), and the BCS technical board. He is a chartered engineer.