Software Evolution and Feedback: Theory and Practice

Society is becoming increasingly dependant on software at all levels of human activity. At the same time, software needs to be kept up–to–date, that is, evolved, if it is to satisfy its purpose in a changing world. However, evolution of software has long been recognized as one of the most problematic, challenging and expensive areas in the field of software engineering.  Software Evolution and Feedback is a comprehensive reference to concepts, phenomena, and techniques to assist the maintenance, management and understanding of very large and long–lived software systems.  The book provides an up–to–date scientific overview of what software evolution is, shows why it is inevitable for real–world applications, how to technically and managerially deal with it, and demonstrates the role of feedback in software development and maintenance.
Read on to find out more about:the theoretical underpinnings and conceptual understanding of software evolution,how requirements change over time due to external factors,the characteristics of proprietary and open–source software evolution,the relationship between software architectures and software evolution,the evolution of object–oriented frameworks,feedback and system dynamics issues in the software process,the use of policies to guide software evolution,the role of metrics that characterise the risk of making changes … and much more.
Software Evolution and Feedback will provide practitioners and managers in the software industry, as well as academics, graduate students and researchers in the area of software engineering, with sound scientific insight into software evolution and feedback.

Spis treści:
List of Contributors.
PART ONE SOFTWARE EVOLUTION.
1 Software Evolution (Meir Lehman and Juan Fernandez Ramil).
2 A Nontraditional View of the Dimens ions of Software Evolution (Dewayne E. Perry).
3 IT Legacy Systems: Enabling Environments That Reduce the Legacy Problem:
A Complexity Perspective (Eve Mitleton–Kelly).
4 Facets of Software Evolution (Roland T. Mittermeir).
5 Evolution in Software Systems: Foundations of the SPE Classification Scheme )Stephen Cook, Rachel Harrison, Meir M. Lehman and Paul Wernick).
6 A Simple Model of Software System Evolutionary Growth (Władysław M. Turski).
7 Statistical Modelling of Software Evolution Processes (Tetsuo Tamai and Takako Nakatani).
8 A Case Study of Software Requirements Changes Due to External Factors (Vic Nanda and Nazim H. Madhavji).
9 Understanding Open–Source Software Evolution (Walt Scacchi).
10 Structural Analysis of Open Source Systems (Andrea Capiluppi, Maurizio Morisio and Juan Fernandez–Ramil).
11 A Study of Software Evolution at Different Levels of Granularity (Elizabeth Burd).
12 The Role of Ripple Effect in Software Evolution (Sue Black).
13 The Impact of Software–Architecture Compliance on System Evolution (R. Mark Greenwood, Ken Mayes, Wykeen Seet, Brian C. Warboys, Dharini Balasubramaniam, Graham Kirby, Ron Morrison and Aled Sage).
14 Comparison of Three Evaluation Methods for Object–Oriented Framework Evolution (Michael Mattsson).
15 Formal Perspectives on Software Evolution: from Refinement to Retrenchment (Michael Poppleton and Lindsay Groves).
16 Background and Approach to Development of a Theory of Software Evolution (Meir M Lehman and Juan Fern´andez Ramil).
17 Difficulties with Feedback Control in Software Processes (Meir M. Lehman, Dewayne E. Perry and Wlad Turski).
18 Policy–Gu ided Software Evolution (Nazim H. Madhavji and Josee Tasse).
19 Feedback in Requirements Discovery and Specification: a Quality Gateway for Testing Requirements (Suzanne Robertson).
20 Requirements Risk and Software Reliability (Norman F. Schneidewind).
21 Combining Process Feedback with Discrete Event Simulation Models to Support Software Project Management (David Raffo and Joseph Vandeville).
22 A Feedforward Capability to Improve Software Reestimation (William W. Agresti).
23 Modelling the Feedback Part of the Software Process in Software Resource Estimation (Juan Fernandez–Ramil and Sarah Beecham).
24 Value–Based Feedback in Software and Information Systems Development (Barry Boehm and LiGuo Huang).
25 Expert Estimation of Software Development Cost: Learning through Feedback (Magne Jørgensen and Dag Sjøberg).
26 Self–Adaptive Software: Internalized Feedback (Robert Laddaga, Paul Robertson and Howard Shrobe).
27 Rules and Tools for Software Evolution Planning and Management (Meir M (Manny) Lehman and Juan Fernandez Ramil).
Index.


Okładka tylna:
Society is becoming increasingly dependant on software at all levels of human activity. At the same time, software needs to be kept up–to–date, that is, evolved, if it is to satisfy its purpose in a changing world. However, evolution of software has long been recognized as one of the most problematic, challenging and expensive areas in the field of software engineering.  Software Evolution and Feedback is a comprehensive reference to concepts, phenomena, and techniques to assist the maintenance, management and understanding of very large and long–lived software systems.  The book provides an up–to–date scientific overview of what software evolution is, shows why it is inevitable for real–world applications, how to technically and managerially deal with it, and demonstrates the role of feedback in software development and maintenance.
Read on to find out more about:the theoretical underpinnings and conceptual understanding of software evolution,how requirements change over time due to external factors,the characteristics of proprietary and open–source software evolution,the relationship between software architectures and software evolution,the evolution of object–oriented frameworks,feedback and system dynamics issues in the software process,the use of policies to guide software evolution,the role of metrics that characterise the risk of making changes … and much more.
Software Evolution and Feedback will provide practitioners and managers in the software industry, as well as academics, graduate students and researchers in the area of software engineering, with sound scientific insight into software evolution and feedback.