Research Group for Applied Software Engineering
Forschungsgruppe für Angewandte Softwaretechnik

Sebastian Klepper

Dr. Sebastian Klepper

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Former Member of Scientific Staff

Please note I am no longer an active member at the chair.

Not available for in-person meetings.
Please contact me via email instead.

Not available for thesis supervision.
Check out listed theses at the Chair for Applied Software Engineering or Chair for Information Systems.
Also check out this article about approaching a thesis supervisor.

 

Research Topics

My research is centered around continuous software engineering in highly complex problem domains.

Traditional agile development approaches, despite being adaptive to unknowns and changes, often fall short in addressing extremely complex and unpredictable problems. In such projects, it is crucial to work with hypotheses instead of requirements, make data-driven decisions, and continuously validate the proposed solutions.

To achieve this, teams must incorporate an empirical research process into their development workflow. This involves analyzing and decomposing problems, formulating and testing hypotheses, designing experiments (including running them in production, if necessary), evaluating results, and making informed decisions.

These activities, collectively known as "Continuous Experimentation" and "Continuous Innovation," constitute a holistic Continuous Software Engineering approach. Success in this area demands a comprehensive understanding of continuous software engineering workflows, techniques, architectural patterns, infrastructure, and more.

My research concentrates on process models for Continuous Experimentation and Innovation. While some building blocks currently exist, numerous challenges remain in developing an integrated process model. My research goals include devising an integrated, flexible, and tailorable process model, along with the creation of supporting tools and guidelines to facilitate its implementation.

My dissertation introduces Continuous Research & Development as a holistic approach, along with a model for this space, a process framework and a toolchain for knowledge management and decision support. It also outlines further need for research in this area.

Primary fields of research:
Continuous innovation, Continuous experimentation, Hypothesis-driven development, Opportunistic use of new technology

Underlying topics:
Continuous software engineering, Agile and lean development, Continuous software evolution, Continuous delivery, Release management, Evolutionary architectures

 

Publications

See my profile on ResearchGate:

 

 

 

Supervision

2019

  • Decision Support for Continuous Software Engineering in Complex Problem Domains: A Case Study (Master’s Thesis)

2018

  • Workflow for Empirical and Opportunistic Domain Engineering in a Corporate Environment (Master’s Thesis)
  • Continuous Security: Towards unification of security standards and agile methodologies (Master’s Thesis)

2017

  • Applied Machine Learning: A Case Study of Continuous Experimentation (Master’s Thesis)
  • Hypothesis-Driven Development in Multi-Project Organizations (Bachelor’s Thesis)
  • Continuous Software Engineering in Complex Problem Domains (Research Internship)

2016

  • Context-Aware Process Transformation of Anti-Patterns in Agile Software Projects (Bachelor’s Thesis)

 

Teaching

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016