INCO - Incremental and component-based software development

The high costs and high failure rate of present software projects call for better technologies and work processes for software development and maintenance. In recent years, incremental and component-based development have been proposed as remedies - separ ate or combined - to reduce development time and cost, and to increase software quality (especially usability and reliability). However, there are few validated technologies (methods, models and tools) in these areas in industrial use today, reflecting th e immaturity of these technologies. Ifi, UiO and IDI, NTNU will in INCO propose, refine and validate improved technologies for incremental and component-based software development, focusing on UML and RUP with time-boxing, and COST-based development. Tec hnology for planning and managing incremental and component-based software development projects will also be proposed and evaluated. Moreover, the project will develop guidelines for how to train software developers and achieve organisational learning in incremental and component-based development. Empirical studies will be performed both in industry and at universities.