Context: The role of product management (PM) is key for building, implementing and managing softwareintensive systems. Whereas engineering is concerned with how to build systems, PM is concerned with 'what' to build and 'why' we should build the product. The role of PM is recognized as critical for the success of any product. However, few studies explore how the role of PM is changing due to recent trends that come with digitalization and digital transformation. Objectives: Although there is prominent research on PM, few studies explore how this role is changing due to the digital transformation of the software-intensive industry. In this paper, we study how trends such as DevOps and short feedback loops, data and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the emergence of digital ecosystems, are changing current product management practices. Methods: This study employs a qualitative approach using multi-case study research as the method. For our research, we selected five case companies in the software-intensive systems domain. Through workshop sessions, frequent meetings and interviews, we explore how DevOps and short feedback loops, data and artificial intelligence (AI), and digital ecosystems challenge current PM practices. Results: Our study yielded an in-depth understanding of how digital transformation of the software-intensive systems industry is changing current PM practices. We present empirical results from workshops and from interviews in which case company representatives share their insights on how software, data and AI impact current PM practices. Based on these results, we present a framework organized along two dimensions, i.e. a certainty dimension and an approach dimension. The framework helps structure the approaches product managers can employ to select and prioritize development of new functionality. Contributions: The contribution of this paper is a framework for 'Strategic Digital Product Management' (SDPM). The framework outlines nine approaches that product managers can employ to maximize the return on investment (RoI) of R&D using new digital technologies.

Fast and reliable wireless communication has become a critical demand in human life. In the case of mission-critical (MC) scenarios, for instance, when natural disasters strike, providing ubiquitous connectivity becomes challenging by using traditional wireless networks. In this context, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based aerial networks offer a promising alternative for fast, flexible, and reliable wireless communications. Due to unique characteristics such as mobility, flexible deployment, and rapid reconfiguration, drones can readily change location dynamically to provide on-demand communications to users on the ground in emergency scenarios. As a result, the usage of UAV base stations (UAV-BSs) has been considered an appropriate approach for providing rapid connection in MC scenarios. In this paper, we study how to control multiple UAV-BSs in both static and dynamic environments. We use a system-level simulator to model an MC scenario in which a macro-BS of a cellular network is out of service and multiple UAV-BSs are deployed using integrated access and backhaul (IAB) technology to provide coverage for users in the disaster area. With the data collected from the system-level simulation, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm is developed to jointly optimize the three-dimensional placement of these multiple UAV-BSs, which adapt their 3-D locations to the on-ground user movement. The evaluation results show that the proposed algorithm can support the autonomous navigation of the UAV-BSs to meet the MC service requirements in terms of user throughput and drop rate.

The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) businesses operating within the energy sector are recognizing the increasing importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Many EPC companies and their clients have realized the benefits of applying AI to their businesses in order to reduce manual work, drive productivity, and streamline future operations of engineered installations in a highly competitive industry. The current AI market offers various solutions and services to support this industry, but organizations must understand how to acquire AI technology in the most beneficial way based on their business strategy and available resources. This paper presents a framework for EPC companies in their transformation towards AI. Our work is based on examples of project execution of AI-based products development at one of the biggest EPC contractors worldwide and on insights from EPC vendor companies already integrating AI into their engineering solutions. The paper covers the entire life cycle of building AI solutions, from initial business understanding to deployment and further evolution. The framework identifies how various factors influence the choice of approach toward AI project development within large international engineering corporations. By presenting a practical guide for optimal approach selection, this paper contributes to the research in AI project management and organizational strategies for integrating AI technology into businesses. The framework might also help engineering companies choose the optimum AI approach to create business value.

For years, research on software ecosystems has focused on the many opportunities for stakeholders to engage in collaborative innovation and creation of new customer value. With a common platform as the basis, companies co-evolve capabilities around a shared set of technologies, knowledge, and skills, to develop new products and services that would have been difficult for the involved parties to realize internally. Previous studies present key elements for successful innovation ecosystems and strategies for when and how to align with external partners to accelerate innovation while maintaining competitive advantage. However, while research on innovation ecosystems is important for future value creation, research on ecosystems for managing commodity functionality is limited. Although commodity functionality constitutes a large part of existing systems, strategies for how to maintain, manage and evolve this type of functionality are often neglected and not paid as much attention. In this paper, and based on multi- case study research, we present a strategic framework that allows companies to systematically create a fully developed digital ecosystem around commodity functionality. The framework outlines a sequence of strategies starting from outsourcing and moving on to preferred supplier, supplier network and with the final stage being a fully developed ecosystem. 

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a promising approach for collaborative machine learning, addressing data privacy concerns. As data security and privacy concerns continue to gain prominence, FL stands out as an option to enable organizations to leverage collective knowledge without compromising sensitive data. However, existing FL platforms and frameworks often present challenges for software engineers in terms of complexity, limited customization options, and scalability limitations. In this paper, we introduce EdgeFL, an edge-only lightweight decentralized FL framework, designed to overcome the limitations of centralized aggregation and scalability in FL deployments. By adopting an edge-only model training and aggregation approach, EdgeFL eliminates the need for a central server, enabling seamless scalability across diverse use cases. Our results show that EdgeFL reduces weights update latency and enables faster model evolution, enhancing the efficiency of edge model learning. Moreover, EdgeFL exhibits improved classification accuracy compared to traditional centralized FL approaches. By leveraging EdgeFL, software engineers can harness the benefits of Federated Learning while overcoming the challenges associated with existing FL platforms/frameworks.

Context: Federated Learning (FL) has gained prominence as a solution for preserving data privacy in machine learning applications. However, existing FL frameworks pose challenges for software engineers due to implementation complexity, limited customization options, and scalability issues. These limitations prevent the practical deployment of FL, especially in dynamic and resource-constrained edge environments, preventing its widespread adoption. Objective: To address these challenges, we propose EdgeFL, an efficient and low-effort FL framework designed to overcome centralized aggregation, implementation complexity and scalability limitations. EdgeFL applies a decentralized architecture that eliminates reliance on a central server by enabling direct model training and aggregation among edge nodes, which enhances fault tolerance and adaptability to diverse edge environments. Methods: We conducted experiments and a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of EdgeFL. Our approach focuses on reducing weight update latency and facilitating faster model evolution on edge devices. Results: Our findings indicate that EdgeFL outperforms existing FL frameworks in terms of learning efficiency and performance. By enabling quicker model evolution on edge devices, EdgeFL enhances overall efficiency and responsiveness to changing data patterns. Conclusion: EdgeFL offers a solution for software engineers and companies seeking the benefits of FL, while effectively overcoming the challenges and privacy concerns associated with traditional FL frameworks. Its decentralized approach, simplified implementation, combined with enhanced customization and fault tolerance, make it suitable for diverse applications and industries.

Data allows companies to transition towards data-driven organizations and this is, in our experience, one of the highest-priority goals that many companies have. However, despite the prominence of data and the many opportunities associated with collection, analysis and use of data, the adoption of data-driven practices is slow. In our experience, companies fail to transition from their current state to a fully data-driven approach as the transformation is perceived as so large, complex and multi-dimensional that it becomes overwhelming and therefore, impossible to achieve in one step. We address this challenge by presenting a step-by-step process for how to transition towards fully data-driven practices. Consequently, the contribution of this paper is a model in which we outline five maturity steps for evolving towards fully data-driven practices.

In the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) sector, accurate cost estimations during the tendering phase are crucial for maintaining competitiveness, especially with constrained project schedules and rising labor expenses. Typically, these estimations are labor-intensive, relying heavily on manual evaluations of engineering drawings, which are often shared in PDF format due to intellectual property concerns. This study introduces an innovative solution tailored for the energy industry, utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) - primarily deep learning (DL) and machine learning (ML) techniques - to streamline material quantity estimation, thereby saving engineering time and costs. Built on empirical data from a large EPC company operating in the energy sector, AI-based product development experiences, and academic research, our approach aims to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of engineering work, promoting better decision-making and resource distribution. While our focus is on enhancing a particular activity within the case company using AI, the method's broader applicability in the EPC sector potentially benefits both industry professionals and researchers. This study not only advances a practical application but also provides valuable insights for those seeking to develop AI -driven solutions across various engineering disciplines.

The role of software product management is key for building, implementing and managing software products. However, although there is prominent research on software product management (SPM) there are few studies that explore how this role is rapidly changing due to digitalization and digital transformation of the software-intensive industry. In this paper, we study how key trends such as DevOps, data and artificial intelligence (AI), and the emergence of digital ecosystems are rapidly changing current SPM practices. Whereas earlier, product management was concerned with predicting the outcome of development efforts and prioritizing requirements based on these predictions, digital technologies require a shift towards experimental ways-of-working and hypotheses to be tested. To support this change, and to provide guidelines for future SPM practices, we first identify the key challenges that software-intensive embedded systems companies experience with regards to current SPM practices. Second, we present an empirically derived framework for strategic digital product management (SPM4AI) in which we outline what we believe are key practices for SPM in the age of AI. 

Continuous deployment has been practiced for many years by companies developing web- and cloud-based applications. To succeed with continuous deployment, these companies have a strong collaboration culture between the operations and development teams. In addition, these companies use AI, analytics, and big data to assist with time-consuming postdeployment activities such as continuous monitoring and fault identification. Thus, the term AIOps has evolved to highlight the importance and difficulty of maintaining highly available applications in a complex and dynamic environment. In contrast, software-intensive embedded systems often provide customer product-related services, such as maintenance, optimization, and support. These services are critical for these companies as they provide significant revenue and increase customer satisfaction. Therefore, the objective of our study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of continuous deployment on product-related services provided by software-intensive embedded systems companies. In addition, we aim to understand how AIOps can support continuous deployment in the context of software-intensive embedded systems. To address this objective, we conducted a case study at a large and multinational telecommunications systems provider focusing on the radio access network (RAN) systems for 4G and 5G networks. The company provides RAN products and three complementing services: rollout, optimization, and customer support. The results from the case study show that the boundaries between product-related services become blurry with continuous deployment. In addition, product-related services, which were conducted in sequence by independent projects, converge with continuous deployment and become part of the same project. Further, AIOps platforms play an important role in reducing costs and increasing postdeployment activities' efficiency and speed. These results show that continuous deployment has a profound impact on the software-intensive system's provider service organization. The service organization becomes the connection between the R&D organization and the customer. In order to cope with the increased speed of releases, deployment and postdeployment activities need to be largely automated. AIOps platforms are seen as a critical enabler in managing the increasing complexity without increasing human involvement.

Business agility is key for companies across industry domains. As a primary mechanism for achieving agility, agile development practices have been successfully adopted by software organizations. However, while agile practices successfully support software agility, business agility also requires system agility. For companies in the embedded systems domain, this is particularly challenging since business agility is achieved only when all technologies in the system, i.e., mechanics, electronics, software, and artificial intelligence (AI) are subject to agile cycles. Although there is prominent research on business agility, industrial best practice shows that effective adoption of these frameworks is scarce. As a result, agility remains at primarily a software level. In this paper, we focus on companies in the embedded systems domain and ways in which these companies can increase system agility. The contribution of the paper is two-fold. First, we identify the limitations of contemporary agile frameworks. Second, we define a quantitative approach for determining the optimal release frequencies for the different technologies that are part of an embedded system.

Continuous deployment aims to reduce the deployment cycle of new software, enabling software development companies to deliver new and improved functionalities to customers faster and more frequently. In software-intensive embedded systems, continuous deployment is often introduced as a subsequent step to continuous integration. While several empirical studies explored the transition from continuous integration to continuous deployment from several aspects, such as challenges, benefits, and success factors, these studies remain limited as they focus on applying continuous deployment to a small subset of the entire customer base. However, as software-intensive embedded systems are often high-volume products used and operated by many different customers, scaling continuous deployment becomes important to ensure that all customers perceive its benefits while at the same time enabling the software development organization to have one release and deployment cycle applicable to the entire customer base. Thus, to further understand the progression of continuous deployment from introduction to scaling, we conducted a longitudinal case study at a multinational telecommunications company producing complex telecommunications software-intensive embedded systems. Our results show that continuous deployment passes through four phases: R&D experiment, R&D core practice, as a service, and finally, continuous deployment supporting a result-oriented business model. Based on the results, we inductively derive a maturity model for continuous deployment, which we discuss based on the four dimensions of the BAPO framework (Business, Architecture, Process, and Organization). © 2024 IEEE.

Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) in engineering is gaining significant traction. AI object detection methods can be applied in the engineering industry to extract information from engineering drawings, offering immense benefits to engineers. A promising application of AI in industrial engineering is symbol recognition applied to engineering drawings. However, these drawings often exhibit areas with a high density of symbols, as well as noise in the form of markups, indicating revisions. These factors could cause symbol misclassification or omission, impacting applications reliant on accurate symbol recognition. This study evaluates the accuracy of a symbol recognition model on engineering drawings called Piping and Instrumen-tation Diagrams (P&IDs) exhibiting varying levels of density and markups causing noise. Despite the assumption that density poses a challenge for accurate symbol recognition in engineering drawings, our study reveals that density has no significant impact on recognition performance when a dense detector is employed. In addition, we quantitatively show that markup-induced noise on engineering drawings negatively influences recognition accuracy. Finally, we provide recommendations regarding the applicability of symbol recognition in engineering applications. The study's findings and recommendations apply to any P&IDs, regardless of the standard used, as they were evaluated on various worldwide projects. Moreover, the research not only contributes to the advancement of symbol recognition on P&IDs, but also can be applied to other types of engineering drawings. Thus, it holds the potential for enhancing symbol recognition in various real-world industrial applications and research.

Companies across various domains increasingly adopt Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) as they recognise the significance of operationalising ML models. Despite growing interest from practitioners and ongoing research, MLOps adoption in practice is still in its initial stages. To explore the adoption of MLOps, we employ a multi-case study in seven companies. Based on empirical findings, we propose a maturity model outlining the typical stages companies undergo when adopting MLOps, ranging from Ad hoc to Kaizen. We identify five dimensions associated with each stage of the maturity model as part of our MLOps framework. We also map these seven companies to the identified stages in the maturity model. Our study serves as a roadmap for companies to assess their current state of MLOps, identify gaps and overcome obstacles to successfully adopting MLOps.

Effective collection and use of data is key for companies across domains and it is only increasing in importance. For companies in the embedded systems domain, data constitutes the basis not only for quality assurance and diagnostics of their systems but also for new service development and innovation. For these companies, data is an enabler for continuous delivery of customer value and hence, a key asset for entirely new and recurring revenue streams. However, effective use of data requires careful collection of different kinds of data depending on the purpose and context for which it is intended to be used. In this paper, we identify the challenges that companies experience in their contemporary data practices and we outline the kinds of data that companies need to collect as they evolve through different maturity stages. In addition, we provide concrete guidance on the specific data to collect during each maturity stage.

The emergence of platform ecosystems has transformed the business landscape in many industries, giving rise to novel modes of interorganizational cooperation and value co-creation, as well as unconventional challenges. The vast traces of data generated by platform ecosystems makes them ripe for the use of analytics and data-driven methods aimed at improving their health, performance, business outcomes, and evolution. However, the research on the application of analytics within platform ecosystems is limited and spread across multiple disciplines. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic literature review on the application of analytics and data-driven methods and practices within platform ecosystems. A total of 56 studies were reviewed, and underwent data extraction, analysis, and synthesis processes. In addition to presenting themes and patterns in the recent and relevant literature on platform ecosystems analytics, our review offers the following outcomes: an actionable overview of the analytics toolbox currently used within platform ecosystems—spanning domains such as machine learning, deep learning, data science, modelling, simulation, among others—; a roadmap for practitioners to achieve analytics maturity; and a summary of underexplored research areas.

In recent years, the interest in applying machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) has been increasing due to their ability to learn to predict and find structure in data. The most common approach of ML and DL is supervised learning. Supervised learning requires the input data to be labeled. However, as reported by many industries, such as the embedded systems domain, fully labeled datasets are difficult to obtain since data labeling is manually intensive. This paper uses a semi-supervised learning approach on real-world Pulse-Doppler data obtained from our industry collaborator Saab to address this challenge. We took inspiration from the FixMatch algorithm. To investigate whether unlabeled data can help improve classification accuracy, we compare FixMatch to a supervised baseline. We use five different settings for the number of available labels per class label to investigate how many labeled instances and how much manual effort is required for optimal accuracy. Bayesian Linear Regression is used to analyze the results. The results show that FixMatch can reach a higher accuracy than the supervised baseline. Furthermore, FixMatch requires more computation time but will help reduce manual effort. In addition, FixMatch will not underfit or overfit. Thanks to this study, practitioners know the benefits of utilizing FixMatch and when it is safe to use to improve a supervised baseline in the industry.

Context:While continuous deployment is popular among web-based software development organizations, adopting continuous deployment in software-intensive system-of-systems is more challenging. On top of the challenges arising from deploying software to a single software-intensive embedded system, software-intensive system-of-systems (SiSoS) add a layer of complexity as new software undergoes an extensive field validation applied to individual components of the SiSoS, as well as the overall SiSoS, to ensure that both legacy and new functionalities are working as desired.

Objectives:This paper aims to study how SiSoS transitions to continuous deployment by exploring how continuous deployment impacts field testing and validation activities, how continuous deployment can be practiced in SiSoS, and to identify the success factors that companies need to consider when transitioning to continuous deployment.

Method:We conducted a case study at Ericsson AB focusing on the embedded software of the Third Generation Radio Access Network (3G RAN). The 3G RAN consists of two large-scale software-intensive embedded systems, representing a simple SiSoS composed of two systems. 3G RAN software was the first to transition to continuous deployment and is used as a reference case for other products within Ericsson AB.

Results:Software deployment, in addition to field testing and validation, have transitioned from being a discrete activity performed at the end of software development to a continuous process performed in parallel to software development. Further, our study reveals an orchestrating approach for software deployment, which allows pre/post validation of legacy behavior and new features in a shorter release and deployment cadence. Furthermore, we identified the essential success factors that organizations should consider when transitioning to continuous deployment.

Conclusion:Transition to continuous deployment, in addition to field testing and validation, shall be considered and planned carefully. In this paper, we provide a set of success factors and orchestration technique that helps organization when transitioning to continuous deployment in the software-intensive embedded system-of-systems context.

Deep reinforcement learning has made significant development in recent years, and it is currently applied not only in simulators and games but also in embedded systems. However, when implemented in a real-world context, reinforcement learning is frequently shown to be unstable and incapable of adapting to realistic situations, particularly when directing a large number of agents. In this paper, we develop a decentralized architecture for reinforcement learning to allow multiple agents to learn optimal control policies on their own devices of the same kind but in varied environments. For such multiple agents, the traditional centralized learning algorithm usually requires a costly or time-consuming effort to develop the best-regulating policy and is incapable of scaling to a large-scale system. To address this issue, we propose a decentralized reinforcement learning algorithm (DecRL) and information exchange scheme for each individual device, in which each agent shares the individual learning experience and information with other agents based on local model training. We incorporate the algorithm into each agent in the proposed collaborative architecture and validate it in the telecommunication domain under emergency conditions, in which a macro base station (BS) is broken due to a natural disaster, and three unmanned aerial vehicles carrying BSs (UAV-BSs) are deployed to provide temporary coverage for missioncritical (MC) users in the disaster area. Based on the findings, we show that the proposed decentralized reinforcement learning algorithm can successfully support multi-agent learning, while the learning speed and service quality can be further enhanced.

Companies producing software-intensive products do not only offer products to customers but Product Service Systems (PSS), a combination of the products and services that address customers’ needs. Further, product-related services are key in ensuring customer satisfaction as the service organization represents the company’s interface toward its customers, who operate and use the products. Therefore, while DevOps has been widely adopted in companies developing web-based applications aiming to streamline the Development and Operations activities, the projecting of DevOps as applied in web-based applications to PSS is difficult without considering the role of services. Therefore, based on a two years participant observation case study conducted at a multinational telecommunications systems provider, we propose a new and novel approach called Development-Services-Operations (DevServOps) which incorporates services as a key player facilitating an end-to-end software flow toward customers in one direction and feedback toward developers in the other direction.

Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) play a crucial role in the success of data science projects in companies. However, despite its obvious benefits, several companies struggle to adopt MLOps practices and face difficulty in deciding how to deploy and evolve ML models. To gain a deeper understanding of these challenges, we conduct a multi-case study involving nine practitioners from seven companies. Based on our empirical results, we identify the key trade-offs we see companies make when adopting MLOps. We categorise these trade-offs into four concerns of the BAPO model: Business, Architecture, Process, and Organisation. Finally, we provide suggestions to mitigate the identified trade-offs. By identifying and detailing these trade-offs and the implications of these, this research helps companies to ensure the successful adoption of MLOps.

Data pipelines can be defined as a complex chain of interconnected activities that starts with a data source and ends in a data sink. They can process data in multiple formats from various data sources with minimal human intervention, speed up data life cycle operations, and enhance productivity in data-driven organizations. As a result, companies place a high value on strengthening the maturity of their data pipelines. The available literature, on the other hand, is significantly insufficient in terms of providing a comprehensive roadmap to guide companies in assessing the maturity of their data pipelines. Therefore, this case study focuses on developing a data pipeline maturity assessment model that can evaluate the maturity of data pipelines in a staged manner from maturity level 1 to maturity level 5. We conducted empirical research in order to develop the maturity assessment model on the basis of five different determinants to address the specific needs of each data pipeline maturity level. Accordingly, it aims to support organizations in assessing their current data pipeline maturity, determining challenges at each stage, and preparing an extensive roadmap and suggestions for data pipeline maturity improvement. In future work, we plan to employ the maturity model in different companies as a case study to evaluate its applicability and usefulness.

Deep reinforcement learning has advanced signifi-cantly in recent years, and it is now used in embedded systems in addition to simulators and games. Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms are currently being used to enhance device operation so that they can learn on their own and offer clients better services. It has recently been studied in a variety of industrial applications. However, reinforcement learning, especially when controlling a large number of agents in an industrial environment, has been demonstrated to be unstable and unable to adapt to realistic situations when used in a real-world setting. To address this problem, the goal of this study is to enable multiple reinforcement learning agents to independently learn control policies on their own in dynamic industrial contexts. In order to solve the problem, we propose a dynamic multi-agent reinforcement learning (dynamic multi-RL) method along with adaptive exploration (AE) and vector-based action selection (VAS) techniques for accelerating model convergence and adapting to a complex industrial environment. The proposed algorithm is tested for validation in emergency situations within the telecommunications industry. In such circumstances, three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV-BSs) are used to provide temporary coverage to mission-critical (MC) customers in disaster zones when the original serving base station (BS) is destroyed by natural disasters. The algorithm directs the participating agents automatically to enhance service quality. Our findings demonstrate that the proposed dynamic multi-RL algorithm can proficiently manage the learning of multiple agents and adjust to dynamic industrial environments. Additionally, it enhances learning speed and improves the quality of service.

In recent years, Federated Learning, as an approach to distributed learning, has shown its potential with the increasing number of devices on the edge and the development of computing power. The method enables large-scale training on the device that creates the data but with the sensitive data remaining within the data’s owner. In reality, however, the vast majority of enterprises have the problem of low data volume and poor model quality to support the implementation of Federated Learning methods. Learning quality assurance for edge devices is still the major issue which prevents Federated Learning to be applied in industrial contexts, especially in safety-critical applications. In this paper, we propose a quality-based asynchronous Federated Learning algorithm (QuaFedAsync) to address these challenges. We report on a study in which we used two well-known data sets, i.e., DDAD and KITTI datasets, and validate the proposed algorithm on an industrial use case concerned with monocular depth estimation in the automotive domain. Our results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the prediction performance compared to the commonly applied aggregation protocols while maintaining the same level of accuracy as centralized machine learning. Based on the results, we prove the learning efficiency and robustness when applying the algorithm to industrial scenarios.

Continuous experimentation (CE) refers to a set of practices used by software companies to rapidly assess the usage, value, and performance of deployed software using data collected from customers and systems in the field using an experimental methodology. However, despite its increasing popularity in developing web-facing applications, CE has not been studied in the development process of business-to-business (B2B) mission-critical systems. By observing the CE practices of different teams, with a case study methodology inside Ericsson, we were able to identify the different practices and techniques used in B2B mission-critical systems and a description and classification of the four possible types of experiments. We present and analyze each of the four types of experiments with examples in the context of the mission-critical long-term evolution (4G) product. These examples show the general experimentation process followed by the teams and the use of the different CE practices and techniques. Based on these examples and the empirical data, we derived the HURRIER process to deliver high-quality solutions that the customers value. Finally, we discuss the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned from applying CE and the HURRIER process in B2B mission-critical systems. 

Data has been quickly becoming as the fuel, the new oil, of growth and prosperity of companies in the modern age. With useful data and sufficient tools, companies have the ability to enhance their current products, presents new innovations and services as well as generate new revenue streams with a secondary customer base. While there are ongoing efforts to develop machine learning and data science techniques, little attention has been paid to understanding and characterizing data-related business activities in software-intensive companies.This multiple-case study examines four large international embedded system companies to explore how they are utilizing data and how they have proceeded in their journey in the data business. This study identifies six distinct stages, each with unique challenges, that seems to be common for embedded system companies in their data business. As the result, this study presents an initial data business maturity model for software-intensive embedded system companies. Additionally, this research provides a foundation for future efforts to support software-intensive embedded system companies in establishing data businesses.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the use of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) technologies are becoming increasingly popular in companies. These technologies enable companies to leverage big quantities of data to improve system performance and accelerate business development. However, despite the appeal of ML/DL, there is a lack of systematic and structured methods and processes to help data scientists and other company roles and functions to develop, deploy and evolve models. In this paper, based on multi-case study research in six companies, we explore practices and challenges practitioners experience in developing ML/DL models as part of large software-intensive embedded systems. Based on our empirical findings, we derive a conceptual framework in which we identify three high-level activities that companies perform in parallel with the development, deployment and evolution of models. Within this framework, we outline activities, iterations and triggers that optimize model design as well as roles and company functions. In this way, we provide practitioners with a blueprint for effectively integrating ML/DL model development into the business to achieve better results than other (algorithmic) approaches. In addition, we show how this framework helps companies solve the challenges we have identified and discuss checkpoints for terminating the business case.

As industries continue to digitize at a rapid pace, the number of integrations, the connections between different digital systems, is increasing. As a consequence, integration management is becoming increasingly difficult, leading to scalability, stability, and system outage problems that directly affect company performance. For that reason the modern integration management platforms have emerged to offer efficient management of the growing number of integrations, as well as a new way to handle, enrich, and utilize data both inside and outside organizations.This research involved interviews with 20 software vendor professionals and 20 clients who had recently undergone an integration platform project. The study identified key drivers behind integration management projects and recognized different maturity levels in integration management. The results revealed that more mature companies are utilizing modern integration platforms to support their digital transformation. The study also highlighted the growing importance of data management and utilization in integration solutions.To address these findings, a maturity model was developed to help companies evaluate their current integration management status and find ways to progress in their integration management.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming important to businesses because many companies have realized the benefits of applying machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) in their operations. ML and DL have become attractive technologies for organizations looking to automate repetitive tasks to reduce manual work and free up resources for innovation. Unlike rule-based automation, typically used for standardized and predictable processes, machine learning, especially deep learning, can handle more complex tasks and learn over time, leading to greater accuracy and efficiency improvements. One of such promising applications is to use AI to reduce manual engineering work. This paper discusses a particular case within McDermott where the research team developed a DL model to do a quality check of complex blueprints. We describe the development and the final product of this case—AI-based software for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) industry that helps to find the design mistakes buried inside very complex engineering drawings called piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs). We also present a cost-benefit analysis and potential scale-up of the developed software. Our goal is to share the successful experience of AI-based product development that can substantially reduce the engineering hours and, therefore, reduce the project's overall costs. The developed solution can also be potentially applied to other EPC companies doing a similar design for complex installations with high safety standards like oil and gas or petrochemical plants because the design errors it captures are common within this industry. It also could motivate practitioners and researchers to create similar products for the various fields within engineering industry. 

For decades, product data has been collected and used for quality assurance, for post-deployment defect detection and for informing the next generation of products. Across industry domains, and with the online domain leading the way, companies have adopted experimentation and data driven practices such as A/B testing to evaluate product performance, customer behaviors and for determining what adds value to customers. However, with the rapid changes that new digital technologies bring, companies are moving towards continuous value delivery and monetization models in which they offer their products as-a-service or offer services to complement and extend their existing products. In this transition, the traditional way of post-deployment data collection and use is no longer sufficient. While companies realize this, they experience difficulties in making the changes they need to transition towards continuous practices and new ways of working with data. As a result, companies risk wasting development efforts on functionality that have little or no customer value and they lose out on the competitive advantages that come with insights derived from continuous collection and use of data. In this paper, we explore the challenges companies experience in the transition from traditional towards continuous practices and the implications this shift has on their ways of working with data.

This book celebrates the 10-year anniversary of Software Center (a collaboration between 18 European companies and five Swedish universities) by presenting some of the most impactful and relevant journal or conference papers that researchers in the center have published over the last decade.

The book is organized around the five themes around which research in Software Center is organized, i.e. Continuous Delivery, Continuous Architecture, Metrics, Customer Data and Ecosystems Driven Development, and AI Engineering. The focus of the Continuous Delivery theme is to help companies to continuously build high quality products with the right degree of automation. The Continuous Architecture theme addresses challenges that arise when balancing the need for architectural quality and more agile ways of working with shorter development cycles. The Metrics theme studies and provides insight to understand, monitor and improve software processes, products and organizations. The fourth theme, Customer Data and Ecosystem Driven Development, helps companies make sense of the vast amounts of data that are continuously collected from products in the field. Eventually, the theme of AI Engineering addresses the challenge that many companies struggle with in terms of deploying machine- and deep-learning models in industrial contexts with production quality. Each theme has its own part in the book and each part has an introduction chapter and then a carefully selected reprint of the most important papers from that theme.

This book mainly aims at researchers and advanced professionals in the areas of software engineering who would like to get an overview about the achievement made in various topics relevant for industrial large-scale software development and management – and to see how research benefits from a close cooperation between industry and academia.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) engineering is an engineering discipline that is concerned with all aspects of development and evolution of AI systems (that is, systems that include AI components). AI engineering is primarily an extension of software engineering, but it also includes methods and technologies from data science and AI in general.

Fast and reliable connectivity is essential to enhance situational awareness and operational efficiency for public safety mission-critical (MC) users. In emergency or disaster circumstances, where existing cellular network coverage and capacity may not be available to meet MC communication demands, deployable-network-based solutions such as cells-on-wheels/wings can be utilized swiftly to ensure reliable connection for MC users. In this paper, we consider a scenario where a macro base station (BS) is destroyed due to a natural disaster and an unmanned aerial vehicle carrying BS (UAV-BS) is set up to provide temporary coverage for users in the disaster area. The UAV-BS is integrated into the mobile network using the 5G integrated access and backhaul (IAB) technology. We propose a framework and signalling procedure for applying machine learning to this use case. A deep reinforcement learning algorithm is designed to jointly optimize the access and backhaul antenna tilt as well as the three-dimensional location of the UAV-BS in order to best serve the on-ground MC users while maintaining a good backhaul connection. Our result shows that the proposed algorithm can autonomously navigate and configure the UAV-BS to improve the throughput and reduce the drop rate of MC users.

In recent years, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of a wide range of areas, including software engineering. By analyzing various data sources generated in software engineering, it can provide valuable insights into customer behavior, product performance, bugs and errors, and many more. In practice, however, AI for software analytics and business intelligence often remains at a prototypical stage, and the results are rarely used to make decisions based on data. To understand the underlying causes of this phenomenon, we conduct an explanatory case study consisting of and interview study and a survey on the challenges of realizing and utilizing artificial intelligence in the context of software-intensive businesses. As a result, we identify a vicious circle that prevents practitioners from moving from prototypical AI-based analytics to continuous and productively usable software analytics and business intelligence solutions. In order to break the vicious circle in a targeted manner, we identify a set of solutions based on existing literature as well as the previously conducted interviews and survey. Finally, these solutions are validated by a focus group of experts. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AI in the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) industry has not yet a proven track record in large-scale projects. Since AI solutions for industrial applications became available only recently, deployment experience and lessons learned are still to be built up. Several research papers exist describing the potential of AI, and many surveys and white papers have been published indicating the challenges of AI deployment in the EPC industry. However, there is a recognizable shortage of in-depth studies of deployment experience in academic literature, particularly those focusing on the experiences of EPC companies involved in large-scale project execution with high safety standards, such as the petrochemical or energy sector. The novelty of this research is that we explore in detail the challenges and obstacles faced in developing and deploying AI in a large-scale project in the EPC industry based on real-life use cases performed in an EPC company. Those identified challenges are not linked to specific technology or a company's know-how and, therefore, are universal. The findings in this paper aim to provide feedback to academia to reduce the gap between research and practice experience. They also help reveal the hidden stones when implementing AI solutions in the industry.

Continuous deployment has become a widely used practice in web-based software applications. Deploying a new software version to production is a seamless automated process executed thousands of times per day. Continuous deployment reduces the time between a code commit and that commit is active in production. While continuous deployment promises many advantages to software development organizations, the adoption of continuous deployment in the software-intensive embedded systems industry is limited. Several empirical studies have highlighted the challenges associated with software-intensive embedded systems. However, very few studies, if any at all, have attempted to provide a practical approach to realize continuous deployment to these systems. This paper proposes a Controlled Continuous Deployment (CCD) approach, which considers the constraints software-intensive embedded systems have, such as high reliability and availability requirements, limited possibility for rollback after deployment, and the high volume of in-service systems in the market. We derived the approach by conducting a case study at Ericsson AB, focusing on three Radio Access Networks (RAN) technologies embedded software used in 3G, 4G, and 5G mobile networks.  

Supporting customers after they acquire the product is essential for companies producing and selling software-intensive embedded systems products. Generally, customer support is the first interaction point between the product users and the product vendor. Customer support is often engaged with answering customers' questions, troubleshooting, fault identification, and fixing product faults. While continuous deployment advocates for closer cooperation between the ones operating the software and the ones developing it, the means of such collaboration in general and the role of customer support, in particular, has not been addressed in the context of software-intensive embedded systems. Therefore, to better understand the impact that continuous deployment has on customer support and the role customer support should play in this context, we conducted a case study at a multinational company developing and selling telecommunications networks infrastructure. We focused on the 4th and 5th Generation (4G and 5G) Radio Access Networks (RAN) products, which can be considered a high volume product as they cover more than 80% of the world's population. Our study reveals that customer support needs to transition from a transaction-based and passive function triggered by customer support requests, to take an active role characterized by being proactive and preemptive to cope with the shorter operational time of a software version introduced by continuous deployment. In addition, customer support plays an essential role in making the feedback actionable by aggregating and consolidating feedback data to the R&D organization.

Deep learning (DL) based software systems are difficult to develop and maintain in industrial settings due to several challenges. Data management is one of the most prominent challenges which complicates DL in industrial deployments. DL models are data-hungry and require high-quality data. Therefore, the volume, variety, velocity, and quality of data cannot be compromised. This study aims to explore the data management challenges encountered by practitioners developing systems with DL components, identify the potential solutions from the literature and validate the solutions through a multiple case study. We identified 20 data management challenges experienced by DL practitioners through a multiple interpretive case study. Further, we identified 48 articles through a systematic literature review that discuss the solutions for the data management challenges. With the second round of multiple case study, we show that many of these solutions have limitations and are not used in practice due to a combination of four factors: high cost, lack of skill-set and infrastructure, inability to solve the problem completely, and incompatibility with certain DL use cases. Thus, data management for data-intensive DL models in production is complicated. Although the DL technology has achieved very promising results, there is still a significant need for further research in the field of data management to build high-quality datasets and streams that can be used for building production-ready DL systems. Furthermore, we have classified the data management challenges into four categories based on the availability of the solutions.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Reinforcement learning, particularly deep reinforcement learning, has made remarkable progress in recent years and is now used not only in simulators and games but is also making its way into embedded systems as another software-intensive domain. However, when implemented in a real-world context, reinforcement learning is typically shown to be fragile and incapable of adapting to dynamic environments. In this paper, we provide a novel dynamic reinforcement learning algorithm for adapting to complex industrial situations. We apply and validate our approach using a telecommunications use case. The proposed algorithm can dynamically adjust the position and antenna tilt of a drone-based base station to maintain reliable wireless connectivity for mission-critical users. When compared to traditional reinforcement learning approaches, the dynamic reinforcement learning algorithm improves the overall service performance of a drone-based base station by roughly 20%. Our results demonstrate that the algorithm can quickly evolve and continuously adapt to the complex dynamic industrial environment.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are increasingly broadly adopted in industry, However, based on well over a dozen case studies, we have learned that deploying industry-strength, production quality ML models in systems proves to be challenging. Companies experience challenges related to data quality, design methods and processes, performance of models as well as deployment and compliance. We learned that a new, structured engineering approach is required to construct and evolve systems that contain ML/DL components. In this chapter, we provide a conceptualization of the typical evolution patterns that companies experience when employing ML as well as an overview of the key problems experienced by the companies that we have studied. The main contribution of the chapter is a research agenda for AI engineering that provides an overview of the key engineering challenges surrounding ML solutions and an overview of open items that need to be addressed by the research community at large. 

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. 

In many ways, digitalization has confirmed that the success of new technologies and innovations is fully realized only when these are effectively adopted and integrated into the daily practices of a company. During the last decade, we have seen how the speed of technology developments only accelerates, and there are numerous examples of innovations that have fundamentally changed businesses as well as everyday life for the customers they serve. In the manufacturing industry, automation is key for improving efficiency as well as for increasing safety. In the automotive domain, electrification of cars and autonomous drive technologies are replacing mechanical power and human intervention. In the telecom domain, seamless connectivity and digital infrastructures allow systems to adapt and respond within the blink of an eye. In the security and surveillance domain, intelligent technologies provide organizations with the ability to detect, respond, and mitigate potential risks and threats with an accuracy and preciseness we could only dream about a few decades ago. While these are only a few examples, they reflect how digital technologies, and the ever-increasing access to data, are transforming businesses to an extent that we have only seen the beginnings of. 

For companies in the embedded systems domain, digitalization and digital technologies allow endless opportunities for new business models and continuous value delivery. While physical products still provide the core revenue, these are rapidly being complemented with offerings that allow for recurring revenue and that are based on software, data and artificial intelligence (AI). However, while new digital offerings allow for fundamentally new and recurring revenue streams and continuous value delivery to customers, the creation of these proves to be a challenging endeavour. In this paper, we study how companies explore ways to create new or additional value with the intention to complement their product portfolio with offerings that allow for recurring revenue. Based on multi-case study research, we identify the key challenges that companies in the embedded systems domain experience and we derive four organizational patterns that we see slow down innovation. Second, we present a framework outlining alternative types of offerings to customers. Third, we provide a value taxonomy in which we detail the different types of offerings and the value these provide to customers. For each value offering, we indicate whether this offering is (1) static or evolving, (2) bundled or unbundled, (3) free or monetized, and we provide examples from the case companies we studied.

With the increased availability of new and better computer processing units (CPUs) as well as graphical processing units (GPUs), the interest in statistical learning and deep learning algorithms for classification tasks has grown exponentially. These classification algorithms often require the presence of fully labeled instances during the training period for maximum classification accuracy. However, in industrial applications, data is commonly not fully labeled, which both reduces the prediction accuracy of the learning algorithms as well as increases the project cost to label the missing instances. The purpose of this paper is to survey the current state-of-the-art literature on machine learning algorithms that are used for assisted or automatic labeling and to understand where these are used. We performed a systematic mapping study and identified 52 primary studies relevant to our research. This paper provides three main contributions. First, we identify the existing machine learning algorithms for labeling and we present a taxonomy of these algorithms. Second, we identify the datasets that are used to evaluate the algorithms and we provide a mapping of the datasets based on the type of data and the application area. Third, we provide a process to support people in industry to optimally label their dataset. The results presented in this paper can be used by both researchers and practitioners aiming to improve the missing labels with the aid of machine algorithms or to select appropriate datasets to compare new state-of-the art algorithms in their respective application area.

Data has been claimed to be the new oil of the 21st century as it has seen to be able both to improve the existing products and services as well as to create new revenue streams for its utilizing company with a secondary customers base. However, while there is active streams of research for developing machine learning and data science methods, considerably less has been done to understand and characterize data business activities in the software-intensive companies. This study uses a multiple case study approach in the software-intensive embedded system domain. Four large international embedded system companies were selected as the case study subjects. The objective is to understand how the case companies are developing their activities for successful utilization of the data. The study identifies six distinct stages with their own challenges. In addition, this study serves as a starting for further work for supporting software-intensive embedded system companies to start data business.

Software development companies are increasingly aiming to become data-driven by trying to continuously experiment with the products used by their customers. Although familiar with the competitive edge that the A/B testing technology delivers, they seldom succeed in evolving and adopting the methodology. In this paper, and based on an exhaustive and collaborative case study research in a large software-intense company with highly developed experimentation culture, we present the evolution process of moving from ad-hoc customer data analysis towards continuous controlled experimentation at scale. Our main contribution is the “Experimentation Evolution Model” in which we detail three phases of evolution: technical, organizational and business evolution. With our contribution, we aim to provide guidance to practitioners on how to develop and scale continuous experimentation in software organizations with the purpose of becoming data-driven at scale. 

Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming important to businesses since many companies have realized the benefits of applying Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) into their operations. Nevertheless, ML/DL technologies' industrial development and deployment examples are still rare and generally confined within a small cluster of large international companies who are struggling to apply ML more broadly and deploy their use cases at a large scale. Meanwhile, current AI market has started offering various solutions and services. Thus, organizations must understand how to acquire AI technology based on their business strategy and available resources. This paper discusses the industrial experience of developing and deploying ML/DL use cases to support organizations in their transformation towards AI. We identify how various factors, like cost, schedule, and intellectual property, can be affected by the choice of approach towards ML/DL project development and deployment within large international engineering corporations. As a research result, we present a framework that covers the trade-offs between those various factors and can support engineering companies to choose the best approach based on their long-term business strategies and, therefore, would help to accomplish their ML/DL project deployment successfully.  

Modern release engineering practices such as continuous integration and delivery have allowed software development companies to transition from a long release cycle to a shorter one. The shorter release cycle has led to more software releases available to customers. At the same time, companies developing high-volume software-intensive embedded systems often deliver patch releases and maintenance releases on top of major and minor releases to customers who pick and choose what releases apply to them and decide when to upgrade the system, if to upgrade at all. While release engineering has been studied before in web-based, desktop-based, and embedded software, the focus has been on pre-release activities. Few studies have investigated what happens after the release, particularly the role of tracing software from release to deployment in high-volume software-intensive embedded systems. To address this gap, we conducted a qualitative case study at a multi-national telecommunications systems provider focusing on Radio Access Network (RAN) software. RAN software is a complex and large-scale embedded software used in mobile networks Base Stations (BS), providing software functionality for RAN mobile technologies ranging from 2G to 5G. Our study shed light on post-release software traceability and how it is used in the release engineering process.

In recent years, with more edge devices being put into use, the amount of data that is created, transmitted and stored is increasing exponentially. Moreover, due to the development of machine learning algorithms, modern software-intensive systems are able to take advantage of the data to further improve their service quality. However, it is expensive and inefficient to transmit large amounts of data to a central location for the purpose of training and deploying machine learning models. Data transfer from edge devices across the globe to central locations may also raise privacy and concerns related to local data regulations. As a distributed learning approach, Federated Learning has been introduced to tackle those challenges. Since Federated Learning simply exchanges locally trained machine learning models rather than the entire data set throughout the training process, the method not only protects user data privacy but also improves model training efficiency. In this paper, we have investigated an advanced machine learning algorithm, Deep Neural Decision Forests (DNDF), which unites classification trees with the representation learning functionality from deep convolutional neural networks. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm, AF-DNDF which extends DNDF with an asynchronous federated aggregation protocol. Based on the local quality of each classification tree, our architecture can select and combine the optimal groups of decision trees from multiple local devices. The introduction of the asynchronous protocol enables the algorithm to be deployed in the industrial context with heterogeneous hardware settings. Our AF-DNDF architecture is validated in an automotive industrial use case focusing on road objects recognition and demonstrated by an empirical experiment with two different data sets. The experimental results show that our AF-DNDF algorithm significantly reduces the communication overhead and accelerates model training speed without sacrificing model classification performance. The algorithm can reach the same classification accuracy as the commonly used centralized machine learning methods but also greatly improve local edge model quality.