Goal-oriented setup and usage of custom-tailored software cockpits

Software Cockpits, also known as Software Project Control Centers, support the management and controlling of software and system development projects and provide means for quantitative measurement-based project control. Currently, many companies are developing simple control dashboards that are mainly based on Spreadsheet applications. Alternatively, they use solutions providing a fixed set of project control functionality that cannot be sufficiently customized to their specific needs and goals. Specula is a systematic approach for defining reusable, customizable control components and instantiate them according to different organizational goals and characteristics based on the Quality Improvement Paradigm (QIP) and GQM. This article gives an overview of the Specula approach, including the basic conceptual model, goal-oriented measurement, and the composition of control components based on explicitly stated measurement goals. Related approaches are discussed and the use of Specula as part of industrial case studies is described.