HOSE Lab at SE Division - Chalmers
Software development is relatively young as an engineering discipline and as such has focused on developing the technical tools at its disposal. However, software development is a multi-disciplinary endeavor; it is not only about technology but also about the process with which we work, how we organize ourselves and about the business and economics involved. And, in the end, about the experience of the end users for the software-intensive products being developed.
Common to all of these non-technical aspects is that the humans are in focus. A new process is not effective purely by how it reorders the work but by how it affects the engineers involved and the communication between them. But this human aspect is also central for technical innovation in the field. A new technology cannot affect industrial practice unless its effect on the engineers is understood and taken into account. The Human-fOcused Software Engineering (HOSE) research lab at the division of Software Engineering (SE) at Chalmers focuses on the humans in software development and use, both understanding their performance better and supporting them with better methods and tools.
Themes in our research:
- Human factors (Psychological, social, organizational) in SE and technology
- Alignment between and optimization of Different Areas of SE (Requirements to/from test etc)
- Close Collaboration with Industry/Practitioners
- Search-Based SE and Automation to allow engineers to Focus on their strengths and be Creative
- Agile and Lean Software Practices
- Objective Metrics in combination with Organizational Change and Learning
- Multiple Disciplines/Perspectives are needed for Lasting Improvements
When it comes to specific sub areas in Software Engineering our projects tends to involve testing, requirements and/or processes in some form. Less often our focus is on design/modeling or only on technical issues in isolation from their context. Our lab is on floor 4 in house Jupiter, Hörselgången 5, Chalmers Lindholmen, Gothenburg, Sweden (map of the campus).
