Prof. Dr. Holger Giese

In this lecture we want review how software adaption is addressed at several levels and how far these approaches are able to cope with the need for cost-effective software adaption. We will at first review the need for adaption and study which different forms of adaption are relevant. We will then look into the classical software maintenance lifecycle phase and how required adaption due to changes in the environment is handled there. Then, we will look into approaches that contribute to better adaptable software where the costs for later adaption steps are reduced by taking the need for adaption into account upfront. Both directions are highly relevant, but cannot prevent that still major costs result due to the required adaption. Even worth, it seems that we can only limit the effects of the changes but cannot prevent aging in general. Therefore, also the idea to automate software adaption in form of self-adaptive software has been raised and we will look into such self-adaptive software.