11th IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering

Orange County, California - USA
August 2-5, 2016

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PROGRAM - TUTORIALS


TUTORIAL T1: SCALING AGILE TO LARGE GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED ORGANIZATIONS


INSTRUCTORS

Prof. Casper Lassenius
Aalto University School of Science, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Helsinki, Finland

Dr. Maria Paasivaara
Aalto University School of Science, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Helsinki, Finland


Overview

Agile methods were originally designed for use by single small teams, members of which are collocated, working face-to-face, preferably in team rooms. Nowadays, many companies developing large systems with multiple teams distributed to several geographical locations would like to reap the benefits of agile methods. Thus, it is necessary to scale the agile methods. Scaling involves several challenges, such as coordination between teams, lack of architecture, as well as all challenges of distributed projects. Despite the challenges several companies have already applied agile methods to large projects. They have found their way often by trial and error approach, as proven practices did not exist.

The objective of this tutorial is to share our findings on a) Challenges and success factors for adopting agile to large-scale organizations, and b) Challenges and successful practices for scaling agile to large and globally distributed organizations.

The tutorial is based on our long-term collaboration with several companies adopting and scaling agile in their large and globally distributed organizations. Our collaborator companies such as Ericsson, Nokia and F-Secure have been pioneers in adopting large-scale agile and have thus faced several challenges, experimented different ways to solve them, as well as developed new practices and ways of working both for adopting agile and for scaling it to fit to their challenging environment. During this tutorial we will give multiple real-life examples from these companies. In addition, we have performed a systematic literature review on large- scale agile adoptions, which will serve as basis for the topic of adoption.

This tutorial is planned to be highly interactive, as we expect that at least part of the participants to have already some experiences on trying out agile in globally distributed environment. We plan to have a several team exercises, during which participants can both share their experiences and brainstorm together.


Target Audience

The tutorial is aimed especially to practitioners who are planning to adopt or have adopted agile in their large, globally distributed organization or project. Researchers interested in the topic are also welcome.

Tutorial Level

Intermediate. The audience is expected to have basic knowledge on agile software development

Instructor Bios

Prof. Casper Lassenius is an associate professor of software engineering at the Aalto University School of Science, Department of Computer Science and Engineering in Helsinki, Finland. His research is conducted empirically in close collaboration with industrial partners, trying to minimize the gap between industry and academia. His more specific interests include software product development, agile methodologies, global software engineering, and software testing and quality assurance. He has over 20 years of experience in teaching and delivering workshops and tutorials to both academic and industrial audiences. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.


Dr. Maria Paasivaara is a Research Fellow at Aalto University School of Science, Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Her research interests include global software development, agile software development and scaling lean and agile to globally distributed multi-team projects. She has conducted workshops with industrial participants since the late 90s and several courses to both academic and industrial participants. She has a PhD in Computer Science from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.




TUTORIAL T2: WHAT DID YOU SAY? MINDFUL (INTERCULTURAL) COMMUNICATION FOR SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

INSTRUCTOR

Frederick Zarndt
Global Connexions
Coronado, CA USA


Overview

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, co-founder of London School of Economics, and Nobel Prize in Literature (1925).

Projects are about communication, communication, and communication. B. Elenbass in "Staging a project: Are you setting your project up for success?"

What one says to compatriots in face-to-face conversation is often misunderstood; imagine the possibilities for misunderstandings with someone from halfway around the world, natively speaking another language, and living in a different culture! In such circumstances how can you be sure that your collocutor has understood you in face-to-face (hard), telephone (harder), and email (hardest) conversations? Without being fully present in the conversation -- mindfully aware -- whether it's face-to-face, by Skype or phone, or through email, successful communication is difficult, even more so for intercultural communication.

The ubiquity of English facilitates basic communication, but its use as a common language frequently disguises cultural differences. Furthermore, to say that English (or any other language) can be ambiguous, is an understatement. But regardless of language, clear communication is essential for success in any collaborative undertaking whether done by a small co-located group or by a globally dispersed team.

With the increasing globalization of most everything, can you afford not to learn about cultural differences and how they affect collaboration and communications? This tutorial will not make you expert at cross-cultural communication, but it will make you aware of factors affecting it and give you simple ways to obviate intercultural communication difficulties. Participants will learn basic mindfulness, have the opportunity to practice it, and learn how to mindfully communicate with others in any culture. The tutorial describes frameworks useful in understanding cultural differences and gives real-life examples of misunderstandings due to such differences.

Expect to take away practical tools to understand your own cultural biases and in-class practice mindful communication with your colleagues from other cultures as well as your own. You will also learn about frameworks for understanding other cultures based on work by Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars, and others as well as on the presenter's own experiences.

Tutorial Level

Anyone can benefit, but especially those who frequently communicate with colleagues from other cultures.

Prerequisites

None, although experience with other cultures is helpful.

Instructor Bio

Frederick Zarndt has lived and worked in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Libya, Argentina, India, and Israel and visited many, many other countries for business and pleasure. Both as an individual contributor and as a manager, he has more than 25 years experience in business and software development at companies ranging from Seismograph Service Corporation in Libya and Argentina, to Siemens-Albis in Switzerland and Germany, to Novell in the USA, to an internet startup in Utah USA, to an Indian outsourcing firm, and as a consultant to Content Conversion Specialists Gmbh (Hamburg, Germany), DL Consulting (Hamilton, New Zealand), Digital Divide Data (New York, Laos, Cambodia, and Kenya).

Frederick has presented similar tutorials at ICGSE 2007, ICGSE 2009, CIRCUS RE 2009, the 2008 74th IFLA General Conference in Quebec, and HICSS 2010, HICSS 2011, and 2012. He has given the tutorial to companies in Germany, India, Singapore, at the Institute of Systems Sciences, National University of Singapore, at Digital Divide Data’s production center in Vientiane Laos, and formal and informal gatherings in the USA. He has co-chaired the Virtual Global Teams track at several Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS). Frederick has taught workshops about personal development and communications since 1988. Frederick has a Master of Science in Physics, Master of Science Computer Science, and undergraduate degrees in physics, mathematics, and computer science. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, and a member of the Governing Board of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).




TUTORIAL T3: ISSUES, CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR GLOBAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Walt Scacchi
Institute for Software Research, University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA USA


Overview

This tutorial serves to introduce and educate software developers, system architects, project managers, educators, and others in the state of the art in open source software development processes, work practices, and project community dynamics. The focus is to examine and review results from empirical studies of OSSD that have appeared in the past 5-10 years. These include studies that examine OSSD projects within both commercial and non-profit environments, as well as those that produce embedded or mission-critical applications, software development and dispersed teamwork collaboration tools. They also include review of recent government policies and initiatives that encourage the acquisition, development, and deployment of mission critical software systems that embody “open architecture” (OA) concepts that include the integration of OSS systems/components with proprietary/closed source software. Overall, this tutorial will help establish a foundation for identifying issues, challenges, and opportunities that can arise when engaging OSSD processes, practices, and project communities that highlight global software engineering concerns.


The remaining topics for presentation and discussion on the proposed tutorial will be drawn from the following unordered list.

• Case studies in OSSD in commercial or non-profit environments

• OSSD versus software engineering, CMMI, and outsourcing

• Understanding when OSSD is faster, better, and cheaper than software engineering, and vice-versa.

• OSSD, OA and software product lines

• Composing OSS components and licenses into an OA with proprietary and/or legacy components

• Observations on the evolution patterns of long-life OSS systems

• Alternative OSSD business models and project management regimes

• Developing a corporate strategy for OSSD

• Areas for future R&D in applying OSSD in commercial environments


In addition, the Tutorial will address related questions, such as:

• How would you decide whether to pursue OSS components rather than any of the alternatives?

• How do you evaluate OSS components?

• What are the risks of OSS (relative to COTS? to in-house developed software? to outsourced software?)

• What are the benefits of OSS (relative to COTS? to in-house developed software? to outsourced software?)

• What is important to know regarding liability and ownership?

• What are the issues with combining OSS components and licenses into a ground system with proprietary and/or legacy components?

• Comparison to COTS integration

• Liability

• Ownership

• Concerns related to code developed by foreign contributors in US Gov. Systems (or any secure system)

• Additional testing requirements (security)

Attendees Can Expect to Learn:

1. The state of the art in OSSD processes, work practices, and project community dynamics, based on review of empirical studies of OSSD.

2. Understand the roles and relationship of OA and OSSD.

Target Audience

Software developers, system architects, project managers, program managers, and others who anticipate the acquisition, adoption, implementation, or integration of OSS systems, components, processes, practices or project communities in current/future system development efforts.

Prerequisites

None

Instructor Bio

Walt Scacchi is senior research scientist and research faculty at the Institute for Software Research (ISR), and also research director of the institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games, both at the University of California, Irvine. He received a Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science from UCI in 1981, and was on the faculty at the University of Southern California from 1981-1989, before joining ISR in 1999. Dr. Scacchi’s research interests include free/open source software development, computer games and virtual worlds, acquisition and electronic commerce, software/business process (re)engineering, and computer-supported cooperative work environments. He is an active researcher with more than 170 publications, including 70 addressing OSS research topics. He has developed and directed more than 65 externally funded research projects, and has consulted for dozens of firms on a regional, national and international basis. He currently serves as Principal Investigator on a research project with funding from the Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program focusing on how best to achieve better buying power through the acquisition of open architecture software systems, in collaboration with The MITRE Corporation and the C3CB Office within the OUSD (AT&L).

Get Slides Here!




TUTORIAL T4: DISTRIBUTED DEVELOPMENT – LESSONS FROM INDUSTRY

INSTRUCTOR

Christof Ebert
Vector Consulting Services
Stuttgart, Germany


Overview

Successfully managing distributed projects on an industry scale has rapidly become a key competence for any engineering manager. Challenges vary, be it collaborating in distributed teams, handling cultural diversity and multisite projects, optimizing remote capacities, or managing suppliers. The vast majority of global activities do not deliver to targets, and half of them fail. The diversity of cultures, suppliers and products require dedicated practices and tools to overcome these challenges. This tutorial by renowned industry expert Christof Ebert summarizes concrete experiences and guidance from industry. It looks to techniques and tools for successfully handling global software development and sourcing. Dr. Ebert offers many practical hints and concrete explanations to make distributed teams and projects a success. Attendees can raise specific questions from industry practice or academic research to get first-hand insight into state of practice as well as new thoughts and trends that will shape the future of global software and IT.

The tutorial addresses in detail:

• Developers and engineers working in global development projects to make their collaboration more effective.

• Software and IT managers on all levels from the individual working in a distributed team to the senior manager who has to decide where to open a new site and what it means to be successful.

• Project managers and project teams who want to succeed with distributed activities.

• Product managers and R&D managers taking advantage of globalization.

• Procurement interested in making sourcing of development partners more effective.

• Suppliers trying to understand best practices and what needs drive their clients.

It covers topics such as managing people in distributed sites, managing a project across locations, mitigating the risk of offshoring, processes for global development, practical outsourcing guidelines, communication and effective collaboration technologies. Based on the author’s experiences through the past two decades in setting up and managing global engineering sites, it shares best practices from companies of different size, organization layout, cultures and industries around the globe. Perhaps most relevant, the tutorial highlights means and strategies to survive in a globally dispersed work environment.

This tutorial is useful for several purposes, namely:

• Hands-on experiences with opportunities, lessons learned, and risks.

• Practical insights for industry practitioners and managers.

• Helping each attendee to improve his global software activities.

Target Audience

Software engineers, team leads, project managers, line managers, experts and managers from procurement / sourcing and quality, consultants.

This tutorial specifically addresses industry persons who want to fast ramp up on best practices in GSE.

Tutorial Level

Basic – Intermediate

Prerequisites

None

Instructor Bio

Christof Ebert is managing director at Vector Consulting Services. He supports clients around the world to sustainably improve product strategy and product development and to manage organizational changes. He serves on a number of advisory and industry bodies and is a professor at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and Sorbonne in Paris. Prior to that, he held engineering and management positions for fifteen years in IT, transportation and aerospace.

Dr. Ebert is a worldwide leading expert in GSE and distributed teams. Over the years he had set up several offshoring sites and supported numerous companies in mitigating global software engineering and outsourcing risks and thus getting concrete benefits from such programs. He is the author of the best-selling book "Global Software and IT" published by Wiley and IEEE in 2012. He serves on the executive board of the IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE) series, and is an SEI certified CMMI Instructor.