Research And Education In Product Software
Stc
Date: May 6
Time: 11:00
Room: BBL 509
Title: Research and Education in Product Software
Abstract
Usage of standard software products is an everyday phenomenon all over
the world. Text editing, bookkeeping, project management, and
manufacturing cannot be thought of not to be performed using
of-the-shelf products, where just some years ago many organizations had
tailor made software to support these tasks. Thousands of companies,
such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Baan, and Corel, have been established
worldwide to develop and market these software products. Product
software accounts for substantial economic activity all over the world,
according to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development
(OECD). In 2001 (1999) the total market of the product software industry
was estimated to be 196 (154.9) billion USD, which is just 9% of the
overall ICT spending of 2.1 trillion USD worldwide.
We define a
software product as a packaged configuration of software
components with auxiliary materials, which is released for and traded in
a specific market. This implies that a software product may include
code, executables, and web pages, but also user manuals, training
material, brochures and the like. The squeezed concurrent development of
these artifacts and their packaging for a certain target market are
aspects that distinguish product software development from tailor made
software.
Today, very few scientific studies are reported on the development of
product software in particular. We claim that a scientific body of
knowledge for product software still has to be accumulated in the years
to come. We will present an overview of the ongoing research activities
that combines theories from the whole spectrum of computer science,
business sciences, and economy. The educational initiative in a software
incubator, called Netherware, will be discussed where students develop
their own products to establish new businesses. We will also spend some
words on the Platform for Productsoftware (
http://www.productsoftware.nl), the Netherlands knowledge exchange
forum for product software companies.
