The Software Factory is a strategic investment of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki into a new infrastructure supporting software engineering research, education and entrepreneurship.

The factory has been operational since January 15th, 2010 and the plans, future visions, as well as the first results will be published on the opening day March 4th, 2010. The official opening will be held at the Helsinki University Kumpula campus, Department of Computer Science, Gustaf Hällströminkatu 2b, Exactum. Software Factory is a result of the Tekes-funded Tivit’s Cloud Software research project and the collaborators are HIIT, Gearshift Group, Aalto University and Metropolia university of applied sciences. 

The opening day is filled with scientific festivities, talks, presentations, discussions and cocktails. There are more than 150 guests invited from outside the University of Helsinki. Therefore, remember to register for the official opening at www.softwarefactory.cc. The registration opens on February 9th, 2010, at 12:00. The event will be held in Finnish, slides in English. One of the distinguished invited key presenters is Dr. Esko Kilpi [1].

I ‘ve seen the future, and it’s software-shaped

Software is the innovation of the 20th century. Despite rapid advancement in the field since the 1950s we keep referring to the 1968 NATO conference where the slogan “software crisis” was coined. Since then, in every decade, a new set of buzzwords have been proposed with a claim to solve the principal problems of the field. Software development is today predominantly driven by the minds of teams of people solving the problem at hand. The promises made by formal methods, method engineering, object-orientation, automation, case-tools, re-engineering, re-use, component-based software development, universal modeling approaches, process models and frameworks or even agreed sets of standards have fallen short in the hand of software managers, engineers as well as the researchers. New technologies keep emerging and the way we have perceived the very notion of software is becoming somewhat blurred. Indeed, already today, software has become transparent in our daily lives. You find software close to everything you do in your life. Yet, it remains a mystery how the birth of software comes out systematically, innovatively and without too many defects built-in to the first release of the new software-based service. The future, in any case, is full of software.

Having software for breakfast

Unlike other mature disciplines, the field of software engineering continues to lack a research and development infrastructure that supports systematic testing of novel software engineering techniques and tools, the seamless integration of current to-date practices and methods to the educational curriculum as well as the means to support ways to grow entrepreneurs from the students with ideas and mindset supportive of the needs of software business.

Software Factory has the slogan: Learn. Share. Grow. Software factory is a unique infrastructure platform where innovative software is being developed. It is in its essence an experimental software R&D lab. As a platform it serves for multiple purposes. It is a test bed for software engineering ideas and a source for original basic science research on software development. It is an educational vehicle for universities where the artifacts produced in the factory serve as a teaching material. It is a learning experience for students participating to the operations of the factory. It is a build-up environment for students having an entrepreneurial mindset and ambition to create a fully operational business-prototype of their idea.

Factory houses between 10-15 students working in an inspiring environment, which resembles closely to the actual industrial settings. Students are therefore required to adhere to the pressures apparent in the business environment but at the same time they are educated with modern software technologies, development methods and testing techniques. Factory operates 8-10 months a year and aims to produce to business-driven prototypes for services operating in the Internet clouds.

If only everything in life was as reliable as software

Software Factory operates under the umbrella of Tekes-funded and Tivit endorsed research project called Cloud Software, which aims at generating breakthroughs for Finnish industry in the area of cloud technologies, operations and business. Software factory approaches cloud and software engineering from a three distinct perspectives: Education, Research and Entrepreneurship.

The real smell of education. Education strives to integrate its operations in the teaching of several universities offering a wide-range of real-life data and material for university teachers’ use. The global development space makes the learning experience for students something unreachable in typical university settings. In addition to this, the real-life development environment and requirements give the students an opportunity for significant learning gains as opposed to traditional software development projects. Education in Software Factory is lead by Dr. Jaakko Kurhila and Dr. Juha Taina from University of Helsinki.

Have research your way. Software factory’s research trains effectively PhD students, performs basic and applied research in its operating context and performs tests for evaluating different research methods. Software factory provides a context for PhD students as well as Master’s students to pursue their thinking further and challenge the common wisdom. The Software Factory is designed for allowing a multitude of different ways to collect data unseen before. Cross-disciplinary research is part of the field of software engineering. Therefore the factory has an open call for research proposals to investigate team dynamics, programming psychology and beyond to fully make use of the opportunity at hand. Software Factory’s research is built upon highest ethical rules and each research endeavor shall follow the Factory’s research protocol as well as the outlined research design. Research in Software Factory is lead by prof. Pekka Abrahamsson from the Department of Computer Science in University of Helsinki.

Got a business? You’re in luck. Finland, Europe and the world needs software entrepreneurs to make business out of software applications developed. Each of the Software Factory’s development initiative strives to develop a business-prototype for an alpha-test phase when released. The business development cycle lasts for a single Software Factory operational cycle, which is 7 weeks. After the business prototype cycle is finished, the team goes into a process supported by our collaborators in which the aim is to launch a high-expectation entrepreneurship. This includes the procedures for setting up a company, seeking for a funding as well as other means for business development support. Entreprenurship in Software Factory is lead by Dr. Jussi Autere from Gearshift Group and Kristo Ovaska from Aalto University.

Stop. This software is not ready yet.

The Software Factory operating in University of Helsinki’s Kumpula Campus is designed to be a reference laboratory and aims include building up similar infrastructures in the global space. If successful, we are launching a fully operating satellite-hub in Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain in the near future. We continue our future build-up endeavor in India, Australia and Canada. We keep looking for other opportunities around the globe in order to set up a fully operational global software factory by the end of 2010. We believe that our unique approach to this software engineering infrastructure will attract companies and other researchers to share data and build up the cumulative understanding on the complexities of software development and services in the cloud.

Made in Finland from software

Software Factory is an ambitious concept where several people from University of Helsinki have contributed to its development to the current state. Fabian Fagerholm operates as the Factory lead and has single- handedly lead the build-up of the Factory. His relentless pursuing for the perfection has made the Factory a world-lead installation. Pekka Tonteri from HIIT had the vision for the development of the technical and physical infrastructure for secured data transfer and protocols. His vision & ambition to secure the data communications as well as connections to the satellite-hubs globally have made the Factory both lucrative and appealing to our collaborators. Petri Kutvonen’s team in the Department of Computer Science’s technical team made a miracle in solving tons of issues regarding the wiring, installation and technical infrastructure administration. There are also a numerous number of hard-working, strong-spirited and mindful experts inside and outside of University of Helsinki’s premises in HIIT and elsewhere, which have shaped the outcome of the Software Factory. We thank them all!

The software factory has interior design has been made by Pentagon Design Oy and the branding as well as the website design was done by Pakkahuone Oy. The initial prototypes fed into the business engine of the Software Factory are implemented by Leonidas Oy.

I’m not gonna pay a lot for this software.

The great opening is free of charge. I welcome you to participate to the March-4th festivities and cocktail to see what the Software Factory can do for you, your company or your research or educational ambitions.

We guarantee an exciting afternoon! Go sign up at www.softwarefactory.cc where the detailed program and other details are found.

In Helsinki, February-9th, 2010

Pekka Abrahamsson

Professor

Department of Computer Science

University of Helsinki

Endnotes

[1] Esko Kilpi is leading research and consultancy firm working with the challenges of knowledge work and digital work environments. The organization is based in Helsinki, Finland. In addition to his work as an executive adviser Esko Kilpi takes part in academic research and lectures on the topics of organizational learning, knowledge based view of the firm and interaction technologies in Nordic countries, Europe, Middle-East, Far-East and USA. Esko Kilpi has been a member of the advisory board of the World Bank on Knowledge Management. He has also been a member of the expert think tank on Knowledge Management for the European Union.