Challenges in Systems Engineering in Collaboration Merlin Project and results overview

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Challenges in Systems Engineering in
Collaboration- Merlin Project and results
overview -

• Rini van Solingen
• October 11, 2007
• Rini.van.Solingen_at_LogicaCMG.com

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What is GDSE and why do it?

• What?
• The discipline of design, implementation and
  validation of software components and products on
  at least two distant geographic locations
• Why?
• Faster and round-the-clock development
• Access to scarce resources and expertise
• Lower development cost due to lower wages
• Close geographical distance to customers
• History (mergers and acquisitions)
• No way back

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Making the promise reality
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Globally Distributed Software Engineering
Geographical Timezone Cultural Coordination Virtua
l Teaming Travel
Trust Education Language Communication Motivation
Culture Knowledge Collaboration
Process Technology Development tools Life-cycle Ar
chitecture Infrastructure
Business drivers Overhead Transition Organization
Work distribution Control
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Problems in Globally Distributed Software
Engineering

• Distance
• Short periods of synchronous communication
  (causing delays)
• Different ways of dealing with responsibility and
  escalations
• Misunderstandings due to cultural differences
• People
• Distrust and difficulties in building trust
• Communication difficulties due to non-native
  English
• Lack of informal contacts and inter-personal
  relations
• Management
• Positivistic business cases e.g. neglecting
  transition costs
• Unclear understanding of progress and current
  status
• Engineering
• Lack of transparency within tools across sites
  and engineers
• Different or not synchronized working processes
• Insufficient/slow infrastructure

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The GDSE paradox

• To make large software engineering projects
  successful, intense coordination is necessary
• To make large software engineering projects
  possible, it needs to be carried out on more
  locations
• Software engineering on more locations makes
  coordination more difficult and faulty

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Common Practice Scenario
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Ideal Scenario
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Merlin Project Objective

• Merlin discovers innovative ways for embedded
  systems engineering in collaboration by enhancing
  and improving software engineering processes,
  methods, techniques and tools that fit for
  different forms of collaborative development

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Consortium

• Finland
• Nokia Application partner
• Solid Application partner (SME)
• Oulu University Technology partner
• VTT Technology and exploitation partner
• Incode Application partner (SME)
• Netherlands
• Philips Technology and application partner
• LogicaCMG Application and exploitation partner
• Delft University Technology partner
• Sweden
• Sony Ericsson Technology and application
  partner
• Ericsson Technology and application partner
• Lund University Technology partner

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What does Merlin project do?

• Enabling the collaborative development of
  embedded systems with multiple partners
• Emphasising the advantages of collaborative
  development and neutralising the disadvantages of
  collaboration
• Developing dedicated effective and efficient
  processes and technologies for collaboration
• Increasing deployability by initiating industrial
  cases to validate Merlin solutions
• Enhance project results into exploitable
  solutions for collaborative development

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How we achieve our objective?
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Solution status for problems (year 2005)
Solution status for problems (2006)
Solution status for problems (year 2007)
No solution
Idea
Available
Proven
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Solution status for problems (year 2007)
No solution
Idea
Available
Proven
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9 Exploitable Solutions

• Merlin ToolChain Interconnecting tools between
  partners
• Merlin Handbook Your personal navigator to
  collaboration success
• QUPER Your support in roadmapping performance
  requirements
• Adaptability evaluation AEM Ensure survival and
  succes of your system
• CollabTools Report Your overview on
  collaboration support tools
• SkyFab Build and test your distributed software
  in a minute
• ParSEQ Improve your requirements selection
  quality
• Req. Analyst tool Automated traceability
  reconstruction
• TM1 Benchmark Measure performance in critical
  Telco applications

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Collaboration Handbook
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Merlin ToolChain is customizeable!
Use any combination or subset of the tools
already plugged in
Or, plug-in your own tool according to
instructions!
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QUPER for Quality Roadmapping
Cost view
Quality level
barrier
Roadmap view
Competitor B
Target release n2
Competitor A
Target release n1
Current
Bad Target
Quality Indicator (Feature X, Segment Y)
Utility
Differentiation
Saturation
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Conclusions

• Globally Distrubited SE is topic for the future
• Promising benefits and success stories
• Much issues to solve horror stories are
  available
• No way back limited alternatives
• Merlin had strong and promising results
• The Merlin Handbook has been finalised including
  validation by 14 external testers
• The Merlin ToolChain has been implemented, and
  has been validated in a real-life industrial case
• Merlin web-site up and running
• www.merlinproject.org

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Thank you for your attention!

• Rini.van.Solingen_at_LogicaCMG.com
• http//www.merlinproject.org/