Projects and Tools - Daniel Mendez

In principle, we conduct research projects with a particular focus on applied, empirical Software/Requirements Engineering to address topics of high practical relevance. Our research is of problem-driven and interdisciplinary nature and relies on continuous experimentation, development, and evaluation. Academia-industry collaborations are thus of high priority.

In the following, you find an overview of selected, ongoing research projects and collaborations as well as an overview of selected tools and services we developed as part of our research and teaching activities.

Research Projects

SERT - Software Engineering ReThought (BTH)

The goal of the project is to take on the next generation challenges facing companies developing software intensive systems and products. It is run in close collaboration with our industrial partners as we perform engineering research into topics critical for engineering and business success utilising Value-based engineering, Data-driven evidence based engineering, and Human-based development as major catalysts.

Details can be taken from here!

ACSC (fortiss)

The project Automated Continuous Security Compliance, a close collaboration with Siemens AG, operates in the stress field between continuous software development and the compliance of software intensive-products to security-relevant requirements. We explore challenges and opportunities of automated security compliance activities, design and implement solutions, and we evaluate them in an industrial context.

Details can be taken from here!

RegComp (fortiss)

The project RegComp, a close collaboration with itestra GmbH, seeks the development and continuous evaluation of approaches for semi-automated requirement collection and conformance checks of requirements towards regulatory texts. We rely on natural language processing techniques to analyse and extract requirements from legal texts such as laws. Furthermore, we are developing a compliance check approach that support the verification of the conformance of requirements with regulatory texts. We aim to create a solution that can significantly reduce the time and effort required for compliance checks while ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the results.

Details can be taken from here!

WBO (fortiss)

The project WBO (Work-based Organisation) develops new ways for companies to make their work processes resilient, digitally supported, and human-centered. The project shows how employees can strengthen innovation and rethink value creation sustainably through adaptive forms of organisation.

Details can be taken from here!

GRATA (fortiss)

The GRATA project is developing a modular education and training system for robot-assisted surgery. GenAI based models are being expanded into medical language models and combined with semantic knowledge models to generate instructions and dialogues. The system collects sensor and robot data, checks processes, provides adaptive feedback, and is being validated for ophthalmological procedures..

Details can be taken from here!

Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering (internally funded)

Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering (NaPiRE) is a globally distributed, yearly replicated family of surveys on Requirements Engineering. This research collaboration is the first of its kind and aims at distilling the status quo in industrial practices and contemporary problems in RE to build a first holistic RE theory supporting a problem-driven research. NaPiRE has been founded by me and Stefan Wagner (University of Stuttgart) under the umbrella of the International Software Engineering Research Network (ISERN).

Details can be taken from here!

Completed Research Projects (Selected)

S4KMU (fortiss)

The project Software4KMU, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), aimed at developing a method toolbox to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a low-threshold approach to drive forward the development of their digital services for future digital value creation in an effective and structured manner. Depending on the specific task, the toolbox provides support throughout the software lifecycle, from requirements management and software development to software quality assurance, while the training courses and workshops impart basic specialist and methodological knowledge.

ZNAFlow (fortiss)

The project ZNAFlow, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, focused on the development and evaluation of methods and AI-enabled software tools for a semi-automated control, scheduling, and dispatching of emergency response personnel in hospitals. This project fostered an interdisciplinary collaboration between experts from software/requirements engineering and applied machine learning in a co-production environment with experts from the health sector. The overall goal was to test the use of AI-enabled assistance systems to optimise the process in emergency response in the hospital.

Details can be taken from here!

Coding Public Value (fortiss)

The project Coding Public Value (CPV), funded by BIDT, focused on the development and evaluation of methods for responsible software engineering for the common good and corresponding institutional, political and organisational frameworks for public-service media platforms. The project combined Science & Technology Studies, Media and Communication Research, Legal Studies, and empirical Software Engineering in an interdisciplinary collaboration.

Details can be taken from here!

Knowledge4Retail (fortiss)

In the Knowledge4Retail project – K4R for short – partners from IT, retail and research have joined forces to revolutionize brick-and-mortar retail stores. Their common objective was to build an AI-based data platform that connects the digital world with stationary retail environments and makes use of digital solutions for individual customer service – all as open source. Details can be taken from here

Design Thinking for Requirements Engineering (internal)

Given the increasing challenges that arise in the development of innovative, software-intensive products, we systematically integrated Design Thinking (DT) with Software Requirements Engineering (RE) approaches in a collaboration with the University of St. Gallen and ITMP. The goal of DT4RE, lead by Jennifer Hehn, was to actively share knowledge and experiences, and to foster the dialog between practitioners and researchers from both communities (RE and DT) via a method tool box including practical methods, templates, and step-by-step tutorials.

Practical Relevance of RE Research (internal)

The goal of the project RE Pract, jointly lead together with Xavier Franch from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Spain, was to identify the topics and areas of future research (or fine-tune existing ones) in RE. To this end, we studied the perceived practical relevance of RE research outcomes by providing industry participants with the possibility to add their own views and flavours regarding current research in RE. This allowed to discover the lines of current research that are more promising for practitioners.

Simple Secure Sprints (fortiss)

The goal of the project, jointly conducted with Jan Passoth from the Technical University of Munich and in cooperation with Siemens Corporate Technology, was to integrate security-relevant aspects into large-scale agile software development methodologies. To this end, we studied practices, possibilities, and barriers affecting the integration of security-relevant artefacts and methods into the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). The long-term goal was to adopt the method framework in compliance with the IEC 62443-4-1 in a way facilitating a rule-based agile secure software development for non-experts in security based on checklists.

Collaborative Embedded Systems (fortiss)

The goal of the project on Collaborative Embedded Systems (CrESt), funded by DLR/BMBF and having 22 partners from academia and industry, was the development of a comprehensive framework for the model-based development of collaborative embedded systems tackling engineering challenges arising from the development of interconnected systems (with a particular focus on systems’ architectures) in dynamic contexts.

Non-functional Requirements for Model-Driven Development (TUM)

This project constituted a research collaboration between 20 researchers from 8 countries. The goal of this project was to survey industrial practices on the integration of non-functional requirements (NFR) and model-driven development (MDD), called NFR4MDD.

ZD.B Task Force (TUM)

The goal of the ZD.B task force was to support the founding president in the preparation of the launch of the Bavarian Centre for Digitisation. I was responsible for conceptualising the funding programmes for junior research groups and the state-wide Bavarian graduate school.

IT Governance Bayern with the Bavarian Government (TUM)

IT Governance Bayern was a competence center established for a long-term cooperation with further research groups of the TUM and the Bavarian Ministry of Finance, IT department 1. We investigated different research areas in IT governance in the public sector with a particular focus on enterprise architecture management, service-oriented architectures, and the management of IT development projects in those domains. The overall goal was the development the Bavarian IT strategy for the public sector.

Investigation of the Interplay between Business and Requirements Engineering with Siemens CT (TUM)

The research cooperation with Siemens Corporate Technology aimed at the investigation of the interplay between Business, Requirements Engineering, and (solution-driven) Engineering disciplines. The project aimed, in particular, at exploring what phenomena exist, how they relate to each other in (multi-)project environments, and how RE could be efficiently be integrated.

Artefact-based Requirements Engineering Optimisation with Daimler (TUM)

The goal of this project was the identification of potential fields of optimisations in using model-baesd Requirements Engineering to support seamless modelling in the development of software-intensive systems in the automotive sector. To this end, we applied a set of empirical methods as part of a RE improvement framework developed at the research group to conduct a qualitative process analysis and to steer the further development of the RE process in direct response to company-specific goals and problems.

Artefact-based Requirements Engineering Optimisation with Wacker (TUM)

The goal of this project was the implementation of a continuous process improvement approach for Requirements Engineering of software-intensive systems in the chemical sector. One instance application included the the seamless integration of Requirements Engineering and analytical and constructive quality assurance.

Model-based Process Enactment with Siemens (TUM)

The goal of this project was to empirically analyse, conceptually establish, and implement the linkage between development proces models and their instances to support for the management, controlling, and continuous process enactments.

Requirements Engineering and Optimisation with Deutsche Lufthansa AG (TUM)

The goal of the project concerned improvements of Requirements Engineering at the case of the Deutschen Lufthansa AG (DLH) with a particular focus on large-scale systems with units to change business logic rules at runtime. An analysis included the standard reference model for Requirements Engineering and the Requirements Engineering process performed in an exemplary software development project.

Requirements Engineering Solution 6 with Siemens (TUM)

The project represented a case study hosted by Siemens in which the artefact-based RE approach VM BISA (for the application domain of business information systems / see also Quasar Requirements) was adopted and evaluated for development projects of hybrid systems in the mobility sector.

RE School with Capgemini Technology Services (TUM)

Quasar Requirements is an artefact-based RE approach being developed in a research cooperation with Capgemini Technology Services. The approach was integrated into the architecture framework of Capgemini sd&m (Quasar). The project aimed at the definition of training material for (chief) analysts, architects, and management-specific roles.

Quasar Requirements with Capgemini Technology Services (TUM)

The development of Quasar Requirements was performed in cooperation with Capgemini Technology Services with the goal to develop the company-wide artefact-based reference model for Requirements Engineering for custom software development projects in the domain of business information systems. It incorporates the company-specific architecture principles of Quasar Enterprise and the Capgemini Integrated Architecture Framework, and is integrated into the company-specific development process model, a variant of the Rational Unified Process.

SOA@Innovation Labs with the SOA Innovation Labs and the Deutsche Post (TUM)

The project aims at the definition and evaluation of a semantic foundation of the basic concepts used in the area of service-oriented architecture in a cooperation with the SOA Innovation Labs in general and the Deutsche Post in particular. To reach this aim, the project was performed over two stages. First, an integrated modelling theory of the research group is completed for functional concepts used in process modelling, service modelling and the inference of a logical component architecture. The theory is defined via mathematical models referring to the FOCUS theory. In a second step, a case study was conducted in which we assessed the modelling theory in direct comparison to given modelling techniques developed by the Deutsche Post.

Tools and Services

ReguLens

The ReguLens platform, developed out of the collaboration with itestra GmbH and led by Parisa Elahidoost-Mayr, supports engineers identify, understand, and assess regulatory changes and their affected parts in their source code. The platform results from a multiple year long investigation combining empirical and conceptual research in regulatory requirements engineering, leveraged through the new possibilities of GenAI. Users can make more general assessments of regulatory changes as well as measure their direct impact on their own code bases.

You can find and use the tool here!

SE Toolbox and Learning Platform

The SE Toolbox and Learning platform, resulting from the Software4KMU project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), provides a toolbox to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a low-threshold approach to drive forward the development of their digital services. Depending on the specific task and needs, the toolbox provides support throughout the software lifecycle with templates and suggestions, having a particular focus on requirements engineering and quality assurance. Next to the toolbox itself, it offers learning modules to disseminate the contemporary state of the art in a lightweight manner.

You can find the toolbox here!

RE Quick Check

The Requirements Engineering Quick Check is a web application that allows for a self-assessment of applied RE practices and experienced challenges. It constitutes a benchmark of practices and existing problems and their causes and effects extracted from the NaPiRE initiative and continuously enriched with further (anonymised) live data from ongoing self-assessments. The overall aim is provide a format that allows practitioners to easily (and quickly) position themselves based on a simple questionnaire and identify possible optimisation potential.

Causality in Requirements Engineering (CIRA)

Functional system behaviour is often described in natural language via causal relations (e.g. “A confirmation message shall be shown if the system has successfully processed the data”). Automatically extracting causality information from requirements artefacts allows for a multitude of possibilities, ranging from general reasoning about requirements and their dependencies to the generation of test cases. The CIRA initiative, led by Jannik Fischbach and Julian Frattini, aims at developing tool-supported approaches for the systematic, automatic extraction of information contained in causal relations and comprehends various tools and demos.