ICSSP 2016 – Special Issue Introduction

Many of today's major products and services rely on software to deliver their core capabilities and value. Depending on the product and service, companies have to address a complex array of requirements, regulations, and competitive forces.1 These factors imply different business models and means for developing the software. Highly specified, formal processes, and high assurance quality requirements drive missionand safety-critical projects.2–4 On the other end of the spectrum, managers and developers seek lightweight methods allowing for creativity and rapid development and customer value creation.5,6 Through the years, researchers have supported organizations by creating different development life cycle models, maturity models, processes, best practices, testing approaches, development environments, and so forth. These have all had an impact on the engineering of software. As a result, a number of research questions arise, such as