Publication

Goals of this research:

Develop the Demonstration and Analysis Tool for Agile SE Management (DATASEM)—a flexible, web-based modeling and simulation capability to

1.  Enable realistic experiments to understand how governance models, organizational structures and work flows interact across a system of systems 1) Investigate new approaches in a variety of acquisition and development environments 2) Understand implications of mixed governance models across organizations 3) A possible means of measuring the value of systems engineering
2. Provide a framework to calibrate assumptions of performance 1) Build data for increasingly sophisticated experiments 2) Resource capabilities, team maturity, turnover 3) Overhead costs, complexity of work, rate of environmental change
3. Integrated experiment generation tools that provide the user with 1) A selection of experimental patterns for organizations and governance models 2) Sophisticated stochastic support for generating large work item networks 3) Comparison to other similar experiments 4) Graphic demonstration of benefit/cost to convince risk-averse decision makers

DATASEM is intended as an initial instantiation of an evolving and expanding set of integrated tools to support research and transition.

Results:

1. An architecture for DATASEM was developed and evolved
2. A Domain-Specific Language for formalizing the concepts represented in the simulation
3. Software was developed, packaged and delivered for standalone and web-hosted systems
4. Five SERC Technical Reports were published to support DATASEM use and transition:
5. Two conference papers were produced 

Next Steps:

Continue this research with the following goals:

• Enhance the user interface for both standalone and web-based versions
• Partner with industry to validate and evolve the DSL and the simulation capability
• Extend the mechanisms to include social and communication aspects
• Enhance the output products to better illustrate particular aspects 

Once released, the software and all ancillary documentation will be available to anyone on the SERC website. Contact any of the authors if you have questions or would like to participate in the research.