Webtek program, area: Programming and system development methodologies

Contact person: Professor Reidar Conradi,
e-mail: conradi@idi.ntnu.no, phone: +47 73.593444, fax: +47 73.594466.

General information of the research area:

IDI has had a software engineering group for 15 years, lead by professor Reidar Conradi.

The scientific profile is:

Software quality: safety and reliability, software process modeling and improvement, experience bases. Special challenges: combining conflicting qualities and in unstable business conditions.
Component-based development and software architecture: object-orientation, software architecture, evolution, versioning and configuration management. Special challenges: the relation between incremental and component-based development, impact of COTS.
Cooperative work: Web-based development and CSCW using agents and XML. Special challenges: how to support integration, evolution and customization, how to assess usage, and on applications in above processes.

In all the above, we apply systematic empirical studies -- our laboratory is industry and students. The share of papers based on empirical studies are 50% over the last 3 years, and 25% have an international co-author. Special challenges: how to combine quantitative and qualitative methods, and to use own students in this. Both basic and industrial research projects in the above topics contribute to creating and sustaining a research-based education. That is, we mobilize M.Sc./Ph.D. students in ongoing projects (lighthouse effect of factor 3), and we exploit industrial results and scenarios back into in our education.

The group has four faculty members (Reidar Conradi, Tor Stålhane, M. Letizia Jaccheri, Monica Divitini), two Post.Doc.s (Alf Inge Wang, Marco Torchiano), and six active Ph.D. students. Since 1990 the group has produced 14 Ph.D. candidates (plus two in the near future) and tutored 150 M.Sc. theses. The group now teaches eight M.Sc.-level and two Ph.D.-level courses.

Direct link to ongoing research areas:

PROFIT, PROcess Improvement for IT industry (2000-2002):
Industrial project on software process improvement (SPI). It is a SPIQ successor project, focusing on 1) SPI under uncertainty and big changes, 2) knowledge management and learning organizations, and 3) systematic trials of of novel software engineering technologies.
Project manager: Tor Ulsund at Bravida Geomatikk. Ca. 10 cooperating companies, with research institutions SINTEF, Univ. of Oslo, and NTNU. Supported by the Norwegian Research Council, budget ca. 6 MNOK per year.
See Reidar Conradi: "Keynote of Recent trends and activities around SPI", IT-PRO seminar, Sandefjord, 22. Nov. 2000. (.ppt -- 450 KB) (as .pdf -- 9415 KB)
INTER-PROFIT, "International" add-on to PROFIT above (2001-2003):
Emphasis on research and internationalization. One PhD student.
Project manager: Tor Ulsund at Bravida Geomatikk. Ca. 10 cooperating companies (as in PROFIT), with research institutions SINTEF, Univ. of Oslo, and NTNU. Supported by the Norwegian Research Council, budget ca. 2 MNOK per year.
INCO, INcremental and COmponent-based development (2001-2004):
INCO is a basic research project supported by the Norwegian Research Council in its IKT-2010 program. The partners are Univ. of Oslo (prof. Dag Sjøberg, coordinator) and NTNU (prof. Reidar Conradi). The incremental development studies will be lead by Univ. of Oslo and the component-based development studies by Trondheim, with joint resposibilities for dependencies and synergies. An active industrial cooperation is foreseen, and close contact will be maintained with the new SIMULA Research Lab (SFF-Fornebu) outside Oslo and with the PROFIT project.
Budget: 7 MNOK in total over four years, one postdoc and two PhD students.
MOWAHS, Mobile WOrk Across Heterogeneous Systems (2001-2004):
MOWAHS is a basic research project supported by the Norwegian Research Council in its IKT-2010 program. The project is carried out jointly by the IDI's groups for software engineering (prof. Reidar Conradi, coordinator) and database technology (prof. Mads Nygård). The project will, respectively, have two parts: process support for mobile users using heterogeneous devices (PC, PDA, mobile phones) and support for cooperating transactions/workspaces holding work documents. The project will build upon CAGIS technology and an industrial cooperation is planned.
Budget: 5 MNOK in total over four years, two postdocs and two PhD students.
One postdoc and one PhD student position will be advertised ca. March 2001.
SIMULA Research Lab (Centre of Excellence) at Fornebu (SFF-Fornebu, Senter for Fremragende Forskning), subfield Software Engineering (2001-2010):
The Simula Research Lab will be started in 2001 to work closely with the new national IT and competence centre at Fornebu (Oslo's old airport, 8 km west of the city), with an estimated workforce of 15.000 IT professionals. The Simula Research Lab will have four subcentres, with professor Morten Dæhlen as general scientific director. The SU group will be co-responsible with Univ. of Oslo for the subcentre of Software Engineering, lead by prof. Dag Sjøberg from UiO (director) and prof. Reidar Conradi from NTNU (co-director).
Budget: 7 MNOK in 2001, increasing in later years.
WebSys, Web-based Systems -- Time-to-Market vs. Reliability (2001-2004):
This is a basic research project at IDI, NTNU (prof. Tor Stålhane coordinator). An active industrial cooperation is foreseen, and close contact will be maintained with the new Simula Research Lab outside Oslo and with the PROFIT project.
Budget: 5 MNOK in total over four years, funded by the Norwegian Research Council.
WebTek, NTNU's strategic program for ICT (2000-2010).
Webtek is a cooperative effort between the FIM and ET faculties, coordinated by prof. Arne Sølvberg at IDI.
The SU group is responsible for the subarea of Programming and system development methodologies.

ESERNET (2001-2003):
Tematic network on Experimental Software Engineering, lead by Fraunhofer IESE in Kaiserslautern. Six main partners and ca. 25 cooperating partners. Focus on empirical methods, experience bases, OO technology, exploitation and dissemination (where NTNU is responsible).