Addressing the software evolution crisis through a service-oriented view of software: a roadmap for software engineering and maintenance research

In the early 1980s there was much reference to the "software crisis": the inability to deliver to software-based systems which met user requirements and were delivered on time and within budget. There is no doubt that since this time, the ability to deliver complex software systems has developed very significantly, but in doing so has created new expectations and pressures which has led to a "software evolution crisis". Whilst there may be many reasons for this crisis, one significant factor has been the appearance of a new type of emergent, organisational structure, in which a business is constantly reorganising, changing its boundaries and reconfiguring its activities. Such "emergent organisations" place new demands on the software development process, in particular on the need for extreme flexibility in software. However, the focus of much software-related research has been on systems with relatively stable boundaries and hence an apparent deterioration in the ability of software to change to new circumstances and need. In recognition of this problem, a project has been running in the UK for a number of years, The key concept emerging from this work is that of software as a service, rather than a product.