Exploring the evolution of software practices

Yvonne Dittrich; Christian Bo Michelsen; Paolo Tell; Pernille Lous; Allan Ebdrup

doi:10.1145/3368089.3409766

Exploring the evolution of software practices

Yvonne Dittrich
, Christian Bo Michelsen
, Paolo Tell
, Pernille Lous
, Allan Ebdrup

Software Engineering

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Abstract

When software products and services are developed and maintained over longer time, software engineering practices tend to drift away from both structured and agile methods. Nonetheless, in many cases the evolving practices are far from ad hoc or chaotic. How are the teams involved able to coordinate their joint development?This article reports on an ethnographic study of a small team at a successful provider of software as a service. What struck us was the very explicit way in which the team adopted and adapted their practices to fit the needs of the evolving development. The discussion relates the findings to the concepts of social practices and methods in software engineering, and explores the differences between degraded behavior and the coordinated evolution of development practices. The analysis helps to better understand how software engineering practices evolve, and thus provides a starting point for rethinking software engineering methods and their relation to software engineering practice.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ESEC/FSE '20: 28th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Virtual Event, USA, November 8-13, 2020
Editors	Prem Devanbu, Myra B. Cohen, Thomas Zimmermann
Number of pages	12
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Publication date	2020
Pages	493-504
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3368089.3409766
Publication status	Published - 2020
Event	European Software Engineering Conference - VIRTUAL Duration: 8 Nov 2020 → 13 Nov 2020 Conference number: 28

Conference

Conference	European Software Engineering Conference
Number	28
City	VIRTUAL
Period	08/11/2020 → 13/11/2020

Keywords

Software engineering practices
Agile methods
Software as a service
Ethnographic study
Coordinated development

Access to Document

10.1145/3368089.3409766

FSE2020_Evolving_Practices-author version for the webSubmitted manuscript, 510 KB

Cite this

Dittrich, Y., Michelsen, C. B., Tell, P., Lous, P., & Ebdrup, A. (2020). Exploring the evolution of software practices. In P. Devanbu, M. B. Cohen, & T. Zimmermann (Eds.), ESEC/FSE '20: 28th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Virtual Event, USA, November 8-13, 2020 (pp. 493-504). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3368089.3409766

Dittrich, Yvonne ; Michelsen, Christian Bo ; Tell, Paolo et al. / Exploring the evolution of software practices. ESEC/FSE '20: 28th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Virtual Event, USA, November 8-13, 2020. editor / Prem Devanbu ; Myra B. Cohen ; Thomas Zimmermann. Association for Computing Machinery, 2020. pp. 493-504

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title = "Exploring the evolution of software practices",

abstract = "When software products and services are developed and maintained over longer time, software engineering practices tend to drift away from both structured and agile methods. Nonetheless, in many cases the evolving practices are far from ad hoc or chaotic. How are the teams involved able to coordinate their joint development?This article reports on an ethnographic study of a small team at a successful provider of software as a service. What struck us was the very explicit way in which the team adopted and adapted their practices to fit the needs of the evolving development. The discussion relates the findings to the concepts of social practices and methods in software engineering, and explores the differences between degraded behavior and the coordinated evolution of development practices. The analysis helps to better understand how software engineering practices evolve, and thus provides a starting point for rethinking software engineering methods and their relation to software engineering practice.",

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author = "Yvonne Dittrich and Michelsen, \{Christian Bo\} and Paolo Tell and Pernille Lous and Allan Ebdrup",

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doi = "10.1145/3368089.3409766",

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pages = "493--504",

editor = "Prem Devanbu and Cohen, \{Myra B.\} and Thomas Zimmermann",

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publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

note = "European Software Engineering Conference ; Conference date: 08-11-2020 Through 13-11-2020",

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Dittrich, Y, Michelsen, CB, Tell, P, Lous, P & Ebdrup, A 2020, Exploring the evolution of software practices. in P Devanbu, MB Cohen & T Zimmermann (eds), ESEC/FSE '20: 28th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Virtual Event, USA, November 8-13, 2020. Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 493-504, European Software Engineering Conference , VIRTUAL, 08/11/2020. https://doi.org/10.1145/3368089.3409766

Exploring the evolution of software practices. / Dittrich, Yvonne; Michelsen, Christian Bo; Tell, Paolo et al.
ESEC/FSE '20: 28th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Virtual Event, USA, November 8-13, 2020. ed. / Prem Devanbu; Myra B. Cohen; Thomas Zimmermann. Association for Computing Machinery, 2020. p. 493-504.

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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Dittrich Y, Michelsen CB, Tell P, Lous P, Ebdrup A. Exploring the evolution of software practices. In Devanbu P, Cohen MB, Zimmermann T, editors, ESEC/FSE '20: 28th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Virtual Event, USA, November 8-13, 2020. Association for Computing Machinery. 2020. p. 493-504 doi: 10.1145/3368089.3409766

Exploring the evolution of software practices

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