Tobias Schlauch, DLR

Tuesday, 15.07.14, 11:45-13:15, B-IT, Lecture Hall

Reviving Brownfield Projects: The term “brownfield project” describes an existing codebase that was previously created and is contaminated by poor practices, structure, and design. In contrast, a “greenfield project” allows starting development without taking such an existing legacy codebase into account. Unfortunately, in practice, the first case is much more common, particularly, in research environments. In this talk, we examine the term “quality” in context of software development. Then we show how continuous refactoring and testing helps to improve and keep the level of quality in a software project. On this basis we explain the brownfield dilemma and sketch an approach to revive such a project. In this context, we particularly address the relationship of testing and good code design.

DLR is the national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its extensive research and development work in aeronautics, space, energy, transport and security is integrated into national and international cooperative ventures. In addition to its own research, as Germany's space agency, DLR has been given responsibility by the federal government for the planning and implementation of the German space programme. DLR is also the umbrella organisation for the nation's largest project management agency. DLR has approximately 7700 employees at 16 locations in Germany: Cologne (headquarters), Augsburg, Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Goettingen, Hamburg, Juelich, Lampoldshausen, Neustrelitz, Oberpfaffenhofen, Stade, Stuttgart, Trauen, and Weilheim. DLR also has offices in Brussels, Paris, Tokyo and Washington D.C.

Tobias Schlauch received a M.Sc. degree in computer science from the University of Hannover. He works as a research scientist at the Simulation and Software Technology Division of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Brunswick. His research fields include software engineering with the focus on software development processes, software configuration management, and software quality assurance. Since 2009 he serves as the representative of the DLR Software Engineering Initiative. In this position he coordinates the DLR-wide adoption and application of state-of-the-art software engineering methods, processes and tools adapted to the requirements of software development in a research environment.