[Back]

F. Stimpfl:
"Bridging the Gap between Management and Engineering:";
Supervisor: S. Biffl, D. Winkler; Institut für Softwaretechnik und interaktive Systeme, 2007.

In today´s business world, a world where globalization, the optimization of processes and
workflows, and the maximization of profit is commonplace, the basic question `Did the
customer get what he wanted?´ is still not sufficiently solved.
Several well known quality standards, such as ISO 9001 or the CapabilityMaturityModel,
have been developed and it has been observed, that every company has developed their
own strategy for planning and developing new products. Despite all of these quality standards,
products are still postponed or even canceled. With the result that customers often
have to cut back on their expectations and requirements and often remain unsure to get
the desired product.
This diploma thesis focuses on the difference between management and engineering.
These two disciplines use differentmodels, which obviously have different fields of expertise
and due to this specialization use a different language each with their own terminology
and idioms - especially engineering.
Management, for example, uses models like the Boston Consulting Group Matrix or a
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis. These models are
located in the business layer of the company. Using these strategic models, management
tries to lead the company into a direction which achieves a maximum of profit for the
company.
Engineering, on the other hand, uses models such as the V-Modell XT, the Software Process
Improvement and Capability Determination model (SPICE) or SCRUM, which are
located at a lower, technical layer of the company. These models are employed especially
during development and reside mainly at the project-level.
Mostly the differences in the vocabulary used and their different focus easily lead to misunderstanding
between management and engineering. The problems in successfully communicating
often manifest themselves in delayed products or products that fail to fall
within the desired specifications.
The goal of this diploma thesis is to combine management and engineering processes
in using one model. Therefore a meta-model, which is then mapped onto an existing process
model, is developed. This meta-model has defined processes and defined interfaces
between management and engineering. There are also defined requirements and deliverables
for both - management and engineering.
One of the current models is the V-Modell XT, which on one hand already has protocols
i
on how a software-system should be developed on the project-level but on the other hand
in the current version has no mechanisms for product management, is chosen to map the
developed meta-model to. Both models are broken down into small phases, and the roles,
products and activities of each phase are analyzed and compared to determine their equality
or to point out their differences. The result is an extension to V-Modell XT, which
completely covers the product planning process.
The second part of this diploma thesis covers the application and integration of the proposed
extension into already existing processes and projects of a small development team.
The application and integration are tested in a case study, which is performed in a software
development project in an academic context. As a result, the team and also companies,
who use this extension, would have one model, which covers the whole procedure, starting
from the idea for a new product to the final rollout. All these steps are covered in this
model and ensure a certain level of quality.
The main benefit for companies using this extension of the V-Modell XT is, that they
can continue to use their well established development models, for example Extreme Programming,
apply a mapping model to their projects, and therefore are able to make their
projects V-Modell XT compliant.
An additional benefit of this model is the simplification of communication and as a result
a decrease of misunderstandings within a company.
While this diploma thesis focuses on the software industry which chronically suffers from
delayed products and to which the resulting model is applied to, the proposed extension
can easily be transfered to other industries. Every company, which has a product management
or a product management department, are most likely to have their own product
management model and therefore will be able to use this extension to the V-Modell XT.
The quality managers, software developers, project managers or product managers are the
target audience of this diploma thesis. They are the ones who adapt and establish this extension
in their companies, to further assure the development of excellent products, which
are delivered on time and within budget.