Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Building an Observatory of Course-of-Action in
Software Engineering: Towards a Link between ISO/IEC
Software Engineering Standards and a
Reflective Practice
François-Xavier Bru
1
, Gaëlle Frappin
2
, Ludovic Legrand
1
, Estéban Merrer
1
,
Sylvain Piteau
3
, Guillaume Salou
4
, Philippe Saliou
5
, and Vincent Ribaud
5
1
Thales Airborne System, 29283 Brest Cedex 2
{François-Xavier.Bru,Ludovic.Legrand,
Esteban.Merrer}@thalesgroup.com
2
Teamlog, Rue Fulgence Bienvenüe, 22300 Lannion
Gaëlle.Frappin@teamlog.com
3
Direction des Constructions Navales - DCNS, route de la corniche, 29200 Brest
Sylvain.Piteau@dcnsgroup.com
4
Groupe Arkéa, 32 rue Mirabeau 29480 Le Relecq Kerhuon
Guillaume.Salou@arkea.com
5
University of Brest, CS 93837, 29238 Brest Cedex, France
Vincent.Ribaud@univ-brest.fr, Philippe.Saliou@univ-brest.fr
Abstract.
As a help to compete in an evolving market, small software compa-
nies may use an observatory of their course-of-action. The course of action
considers the observable aspect of the actor's activity. Its analysis provides a
description of actors' activity and it can express recommendations concerning
both the individual situations and the collective situation. The observatory is an
articulated set of data collecting methods supported with semantic wikis and a
dedicated application. A case study, based on the activity of a team of 6 young
software engineers, depicts some aspects of the building and the filling of the
course-of-action observatory. As primary results of this work, we may think
that observing and analyzing software engineer's activity help to reveal his/her
theory-in-use - what governs engineers' behavior and tends to be tacit struc-
tures - That may help engineers to establish links between “Project Processes-
in-use” and a simplified Process Reference Model and contribute to reduce the
fit between a project-in-action and espoused SE standards.
Keywords:
Course-of-action, theory-in-use, espoused theory, reflective practi-
tioner, software engineering processes.
1 Introduction
For many small software companies, software process improvement (SPI) is often out
of reach due to prohibitive costs and lack of SPI knowledge. However, to survive in
this competitive market, software developers must improve their productivity, time to
