Embedded systems are becoming increasingly complex, more diverse, and are frequently expanded to include more features. As a consequence, the software is constantly changing: within Alcatel Bell rates of 10,000 lines of code changed per week are the norm. Unfortunately, high change rates inevitably erode a well-designed well-documented system and quickly turn it into a maintenance nightmare.
Alcatel Bell's internal development processes are certified with CMM level 3. However these processes do not contribute to the long-term evolution of software. Indeed, the addition of new features sometimes introduces unexpected bugs, breaks design decisions, and distorts documentation. Consequently, it is hard to assess which software components should be refactored and to estimate the effort required to do so. Therefore, the SERIOUS project aims to develop methods, metrics and tools to maintain ---even increase--- the quality of the software during its evolution.
In Belgium the project partners are Alcatel Bell and the University of Antwerp, research lab LORE. However, this local consortium participates in a larger ITEA context with other companies in Europe such as Philips and Nokia.
