Experimentation for Business-to-Business Mission-Critical Systems: A Case Study
Paper in proceeding, 2020

Continuous experimentation (CE) refers to a group of practices used by software companies to rapidly assess the usage, value and performance of deployed software using data collected from customers and the deployed system. Despite its increasing popularity in the development of web-facing applications, CE has not been discussed in the development process of business-to-business (B2B) mission-critical systems.

We investigated in a case study the use of CE practices within several products, teams and areas inside Ericsson. By observing the CE practices of different teams, we were able to identify the key activities in four main areas and inductively derive an experimentation process, the HURRIER process, that addresses the deployment of experiments with customers in the B2B and with mission-critical systems. We illustrate this process with a case study in the development of a large mission-critical functionality in the Long Term Evolution (4G) product. In this case study, the HURRIER process is not only used to validate the value delivered by the solution but to increase the quality and the confidence from both the customers and the R&D organization in the deployed solution. Additionally, we discuss the challenges, opportunities and lessons learned from applying CE and the HURRIER process in B2B mission-critical systems.

continuous experimentation

mission-critical systems

business-tobusiness

experimentation process

Author

David Issa Mattos

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Software Engineering (Chalmers)

Anas Dakkak

Ericsson

Jan Bosch

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Software Engineering (Chalmers)

Helena Holmström Olsson

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Software Engineering (Chalmers)

Proceedings - 2020 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software and System Processes, ICSSP 2020

Vol. 26 June 2020 95-104
9781450375122 (ISBN)

ICSSP '20: Proceedings of the International Conference on Software and System Processes
Seoul, South Korea,

Subject Categories

Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Software Engineering

Information Science

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

DOI

10.1145/3379177.3388902

ISBN

9781450375122

More information

Latest update

4/21/2023