Customer-value engineering in the software development process

Abstract

Summary form only given. This paper describes ongoing work to develop a new software development process we call Value-Based Software Engineering (VBSE). VBSE brings together work in customer value analysis and the architectural branch of software engineering to directly link relevant software design decisions to both tactical and strategic business objectives. VBSE provides a systematic process for analyzing customer value, casting the results in terms of architectural quality requirements, and then developing architectural structures that satisfy those requirements. Architectural analysis techniques support verification of the match between the resulting design and business goals. VBSE institutionalizes the necessary communication between stakeholders in the software development process. It actively involves customers in setting goals and actively involves management and marketing in critical product design decisions. The immediate result is a development process that substantially reduces the risk of mismatch between a product's design and overall market and business objectives. Integrated with advanced software development methods for creating software product lines, VBSE has the potential to improve product flexibility and quality while substantially reducing cost, risk, and time to market over multiple product developments.