OPS

Open Software Engineering

OPS will study the relationship and tension between open collaboration and measurable innovative outputs in software engineering. It will develop an open engineering methodology, maturity model and web-based assessment facility for Evolving Critical Systems (ECS) in software engineering. This methodology incorporates an empirical investigation of how software development practices and efforts can be structured to optimise innovative outcomes, at the inter- and intra-team levels as well as the inter-firm level.

The central idea behind Open Innovation is that, in a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot afford to rely on in-house innovation, but should also actively scout for and exploit the discoveries of others outside their own R&D structures.

The Open Innovation paradigm is gaining cultural acceptance in the consumer goods (Dodgson, Gann and Salter 2006) and automotive industries (Ili et al 2010), while also attracting much interest from software developers (Whelan et al 2010; West and Gallagher, 2006). Yet there is a dearth of research, which has explored how Open Innovation principles can be integrated with agile and lean methods to optimise software engineering. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research on project management practices to support high quality open innovation in agile information systems development. Exploring the notion of Open Innovation and its applicability and implications in an agile methods environment is timely.

This work programme has three specific objectives:

To develop a new software engineering methodology and extend existing methodologies to incorporate Open Innovation principles. Current development practices, such as Scrum, XP and Crystal, tend to place a heavy emphasis on the advantages of small co-located teams in delivering efficiencies. However, some researchers have called for the integration of Open Innovation principles in software development environments (Conboy and Morgan 2010a, 2010b). We argue that the boundaries of a systems development entity need to be opened up to include multiple stakeholders located outside the firm.
To evaluate the leanness of these open methodologies. Given that systems development is a field plagued with poor performance in terms of budget, systems quality, user satisfaction and ultimate business value, there is a need to ensure that open innovation practices are ‘lean’. However, there is limited research that focuses on incorporating either lean or open innovation principles in software engineering environments. An examination of the literature reveals a rapidly growing body of research on Open Innovation, including different models (e.g. crowdsourcing, open sourcing), processes (e.g. outside-in, inside-out, coupled), and descriptive cases (e.g. Procter & Gamble, British Telecom, Philips, Cisco, Sun, DuPont, etc.). However, none of this research focuses on the evaluation of Open Innovation in lean initiatives and how this model can assist in the reduction and elimination of waste. Chesbrough & Garman (2009) describe how Open Innovation can be used “in lean times”, in that Open Innovation can be used to cut costs and add value in a constrained environment. Nevertheless, there are no frameworks or assessments for evaluating Open Innovation in lean initiatives, and little research has focused on this to date.
To develop/extend software engineering methodologies and practices to improve collaboration within and between software engineering teams. Using Organisation Network Analysis (ONA) techniques, this work programme will examine the structure of inter-personal connections within and between software engineering teams (i.e. collocated and globally dispersed teams) and relate these to measures of innovative outcomes. This will enable software engineering firms to address such questions as: Does information flow smoothly across formal boundaries and thus allow an organisation to leverage scale and expertise in software product offerings? Is innovation spurred at key points by effective networks bringing together functions, offerings, or technical capabilities? Is the organisation overly focused on a few key decision-makers, roles, or experts that are slowing the work and efficiency of many others? Once social networks become visible, leaders can address these and other questions in ways that have an immediate impact on performance.

References

Allen, T. J. (1977). Managing the Flow of Technology. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Chesbrough, H. (2003) Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Conboy, K. and Morgan, L. (2010a) Combining Open Innovation and Agile Approaches: Implications for IS Project Managers, in Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Univeristy of Pretoria, South Africa, June

Conboy, K. and Morgan, L. (2010b) Future Research in Agile Systems Development: Applying Open Innovation Principles within the Agile Organisation, Agile Software Development: Current Research and Future Directions, Springer Verlag.

Conboy, K. and Fitzgerald, B. (2010) Method and Developer Characteristics for Effective Agile Method Tailoring: A Study of XP Expert Opinion, The Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), forthcoming.

Dodgson, M., Gann, D., and Salter A. The management of technological innovation: strategy and practice, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Lli, S., A. Albers, and S. Miller (2010). Open innovation in the automotive industry, R&D Management, 40, 3, pp. 246-255.

Powell, W., K. Koput, et al. (1996). Interorganizational collaboration and the locus of innovation: Networks of learning in biotechnology, Administration Science Quarterly 41: 116-145.

Stephens, M. and Rosenberg, D. (2003) Extreme Programming Refactored, Apress, ISBN 1-59059-096-1.

Tripsas, M. (1997). Surviving radical technological change through dynamic capability: Evidence from the typesetter industry, Industrial and Corporate Change 6(341-377)

Whelan, E., R. Teigland, B. Donnellan, and W. Golden (2010). How Internet technologies impact information flows in R&D; reconsidering the technological gatekeeper, R&D Management, 40(4): 400-414.

West, J. and Gallagher (2006) Challenges of Open Innovation: the Paradox of Firm Investment in Open Source Software, R&D Management (36:3): 319-331.