STRATOS: Using visualization to support decisions in strategic software release planning

• Main Authors: ASENIERO, Bon Adriel, WUN, Tiffany, LEDO, David, RUHE, Guenther H., TANG, Anthony, CARPENDALE, Sheelagh
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Information visualization; Release planning; Software engineering; Information Security
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/7922
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Software is typically developed incrementally and released in stages. Planning these releases involves deciding which features of the system should be implemented for each release. This is a complex planning process involving numerous trade-offs-constraints and factors that often make decisions difficult. Since the success of a product depends on this plan, it is important to understand the trade-offs between different release plans in order to make an informed choice. We present STRATOS, a tool that simultaneously visualizes several software release plans. The visualization shows several attributes about each plan that are important to planners. Multiple plans are shown in a single layout to help planners find and understand the trade-offs between alternative plans. We evaluated our tool via a qualitative study and found that STRATOS enables a range of decision-making processes, helping participants decide on which plan is most optimal.