S-Cube, the European Network of Excellence in Software Services and Systems, will establish an integrated, multidisciplinary, vibrant research community. This will enable Europe to lead the software-services revolution, thereby helping shape the software-service based Internet which is the backbone of our future interactive society. 

In the initial stages, S-Cube researchers, including those from Lero, developed the S-Cube life-cycle for services.  Lero’s subsequent research has been focusing on further development of this life cycle.  We have developed the Adaptation cycles through studying relevant elements from the Maintenance process and combining them with Adaptation.  We have also been considering how Configuration Management can be integrated into the Operations and Management process.

We are also interested in understanding how we can exploit codified HCI and codified context knowledge for SBA engineering.  End-users often communicate their needs and wishes using natural language. These statements are then used as input to start requirements elicitation and negotiation supported by requirements analysts.. Our current research supports end-users in specifying requirements and tailoring a software solution to their specific needs. We emphasize end-user focused product configuration techniques that allow them to customize service-oriented software systems without the help of analysts and software engineers.

We are also developing measures and analysis techniques for use within IT-enabled business processes, thus supporting businesses in eliminating uncertainty about their value.    This is being carried out through the implementation of Social Network Analysis to help us identify where weaknesses exist.  We are also studying the concept of agility across virtual organisational technology environments. Our current plan is to do this within the context of the education sector, developing ways to exploit network structuring and prediction within agile service networks (ASNs).