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Optimization in Software Engineering: A Pragmatic Approach

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Contemporary Empirical Methods in Software Engineering

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Abstract

Empirical software engineering is concerned with the design and analysis of empirical studies that include software products, processes, and resources. Optimization is a form of data analytics in support of human decision-making. Optimization methods are aimed to find best decision alternatives. Empirical studies serve both as a model and as data input for optimization. In addition, the complexity of the models used for optimization triggers further studies on explaining and validating the results in real-world scenarios. The goal of this chapter is to give an overview of the as-is and of the to-be usage of optimization in software engineering. The emphasis is on a pragmatic use of optimization, and not so much on describing the most recent algorithmic innovations and tool developments. The usage of optimization covers a wide range of questions from different types of software engineering problems along the whole life cycle. To facilitate its more comprehensive and more effective usage, a checklist for a guided process is described. The chapter uses a running example Asymmetric Release Planning to illustrate the whole process. A Return-on-Investment analysis is proposed as part of the problem scoping. This helps to decide on the depth and breadth of analysis in relation to the effort needed to run the analysis and the projected value of the solution.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Discovery Grant RGPIN-2017-03948. The literature analysis of the study was mainly done by Debjyoti Mukherjee. The author is grateful to discussions with and comments received from Maleknaz Nayebi and Julian Harty.

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  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AL, Canada

    Günther Ruhe

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  1. Günther Ruhe
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  1. Institute of Computer Science, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Michael Felderer

  2. Systems Engineering and Computer Science, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Guilherme Horta Travassos

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Ruhe, G. (2020). Optimization in Software Engineering: A Pragmatic Approach. In: Felderer, M., Travassos, G. (eds) Contemporary Empirical Methods in Software Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32489-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32489-6_9

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