A software methodology for applied research: eXtreme Researching

Applied research is, by necessity, a distributed, collaborative process. To be useful, research methodologies must not only be applicable in such an environment, but must also be adaptive to the needs of human resources and specific research area requirements. This paper introduces eXtreme Researching (XR), an adaptation of eXtreme Programming (XP) by Ericsson, to support distributed telecommunications research and development. XR builds on XP and tailors it to meet the needs of applied industrial research. It adopts and extends the most useful elements of XP: collective ownership, planning game, continuous integration and metaphor and shows how they are applicable in multi‐site, research projects. XPWeb is developed as a tool to facilitate XR in a distributed research environment. XPWeb and XR are actively used by Ericsson Applied Research and have been shown to significantly increase output and efficiencies in multi disciplinary research projects. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  William L. Kleb,et al.  Exploring XP for Scientific Research , 2003, IEEE Softw..

[2]  John C. Grundy,et al.  Coordinating distributed software development projects with integrated process modelling and enactment environments , 1998, Proceedings Seventh IEEE International Workshop on Enabling Technologies: Infrastucture for Collaborative Enterprises (WET ICE '98) (Cat. No.98TB100253).

[3]  Shari Lawrence Pfleeger,et al.  Preliminary Guidelines for Empirical Research in Software Engineering , 2002, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[4]  Martin Fowler,et al.  Refactoring - Improving the Design of Existing Code , 1999, Addison Wesley object technology series.

[5]  Mohamed Ahmed-Nacer,et al.  Towards a new approach on software process evolution , 2001, Proceedings ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications.

[6]  Walter F. Tichy,et al.  Case study: extreme programming in a university environment , 2001, Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE 2001.

[7]  Barry W. Boehm,et al.  A spiral model of software development and enhancement , 1986, Computer.

[8]  Ivar Jacobson,et al.  Object-Oriented Software Engineering , 1991, TOOLS.

[9]  Ian Sommerville,et al.  Software engineering (6th ed.) , 2001 .

[10]  Michael Kircher,et al.  Distributed eXtreme Programming , 2001 .

[11]  J. Hayes,et al.  Extreme programming: a university team design experience , 2000, 2000 Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering. Conference Proceedings. Navigating to a New Era (Cat. No.00TH8492).

[12]  Richard Hightower,et al.  Java tools for eXtreme Programming: mastering open source tools including, Ant, JUnit, and Cactus , 2001 .

[13]  Martin Fowler. Refactoring.  Improving the Design of Existing Code , 1999 .

[14]  David Collins,et al.  Variations on a Theme of Euclid , 2003 .

[15]  Mark,et al.  XP In A Research Lab: The Hunt For Strategic Value , 2002 .

[16]  Carlo Ghezzi,et al.  Software processes: a retrospective and a path to the future , 1998, Software Process: Improvement and Practice.

[17]  Kent L. Beck,et al.  Extreme programming explained - embrace change , 1990 .