This book provides essential insights on the adoption of modern software engineering practices
at large companies producing software-intensive systems where hundreds or even thousands of
engineers collaborate to deliver on new systems and new versions of already deployed ones. It
is based on the findings collected and lessons learned at the Software Center (SC) a unique
collaboration between research and industry with Chalmers University of Technology Gothenburg
University and Malmö University as academic partners and Ericsson AB Volvo Volvo Car
Corporation Saab Electronic Defense Systems Grundfos Axis Communications Jeppesen (Boeing)
and Sony Mobile as industrial partners.The 17 chapters present the Stairway to Heaven model
which represents the typical evolution path companies move through as they develop and mature
their software engineering capabilities. The chapters describe theoretical frameworks
conceptual models and most importantly the industrial experiences gained by the partner
companies in applying novel software engineering techniques.The book's structure consists of
six parts. Part I describes the model in detail and presents an overview of lessons learned in
the collaboration between industry and academia. Part II deals with the first step of the
Stairway to Heaven in which R&D adopts agile work practices. Part III of the book combines the
next two phases i.e. continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) as they are
closely intertwined. Part IV is concerned with the highest level referred to as R&D as an
innovation system while Part V addresses a topic that is separate from the Stairway to Heaven
and yet critically important in large organizations: organizational performance metrics that
capture data and visualizations of the status of software assets defects and teams. Lastly
Part VI presents the perspectives of two of the SC partner companies.The book is intended for
practitioners and professionals in the software-intensive systems industry providing concrete
models frameworks and case studies that show the specific challenges that the partner
companies encountered their approaches to overcoming them and the results. Researchers will
gain valuable insights on the problems faced by large software companies and on how to
effectively tackle them in the context of successful cooperation projects.
