Value-Based Software Engineering

Ross Jeffery When, as a result of pressure from the CEO, the Chief Information Officer poses the question “Just what is this information system worth to the organization?” the IT staff members are typically at a loss. “That’s a difficult question,” they might say; or “well it really depends” is another answer. Clearly, neither of these is very satisfactory and yet both are correct. The IT community has struggled with qu- tions concerning the value of an organization’s investment in software and ha- ware ever since it became a significant item in organizational budgets. And like all questions concerning value, the first step is the precise determination of the object being assessed and the second step is the identification of the entity to which the value is beneficial. In software engineering both of these can be difficult. The p- cise determination of the object can be complex. If it is an entire information s- tem in an organizational context that is the object of interest, then boundary defi- tion becomes an issue. Is the hardware and middleware to be included? Can the application exist without any other applications? If however the object of interest is, say, a software engineering activity such as testing within a particular project, then the boundary definition becomes a little easier. But the measure of benefit may become a little harder.

Ross Jeffery When, as a result of pressure from the CEO, the Chief Information Officer poses the question "e;Just what is this information system worth to the organization?"e; the IT staff members are typically at a loss. "e;That's a difficult question,"e; they might say; or "e;well it really depends"e; is another answer. Clearly, neither of these is very satisfactory and yet both are correct. The IT community has struggled with qu- tions concerning the value of an organization's investment in software and ha- ware ever since it became a significant item in organizational budgets. And like all questions concerning value, the first step is the precise determination of the object being assessed and the second step is the identification of the entity to which the value is beneficial. In software engineering both of these can be difficult. The p- cise determination of the object can be complex. If it is an entire information s- tem in an organizational context that is the object of interest, then boundary defi- tion becomes an issue. Is the hardware and middleware to be included? Can the application exist without any other applications? If however the object of interest is, say, a software engineering activity such as testing within a particular project, then the boundary definition becomes a little easier. But the measure of benefit may become a little harder.

Value-Based Software Engineering: Overview and Agenda.- An Initial Theory of Value-Based Software Engineering.- Valuation of Software Initiatives Under Uncertainty: Concepts, Issues, and Techniques.- Preference-Based Decision Support in Software Engineering.- Risk and the Economic Value of the Software Producer.- Value-Based Software Engineering: Seven Key Elements and Ethical Considerations.- Stakeholder Value Proposition Elicitation and Reconciliation.- Measurement and Decision Making.- Criteria for Selecting Software Requirements to Create Product Value: An Industrial Empirical Study.- Collaborative Usability Testing to Facilitate Stakeholder Involvement.- Value-Based Management of Software Testing.- Decision Support for Value-Based Software Release Planning.- ProSim/RA — Software Process Simulation in Support of Risk Assessment.- Tailoring Software Traceability to Value-Based Needs.- Value-Based Knowledge Management: the Contribution of Group Processes.- Quantifying the Value of New Technologies for Software Development.- Valuing Software Intellectual Property.