Abstract

Context: The life cycle of a custom software system involves multiple evolution projects, where each one can be carried out by a different provider, i.e., software development company. When the provider changes, the new one should understand the structure and functionality of the product to evolve, in order to determine the scope, effort, risks and uncertainties of the next evolution project. Regardless of its relevance in practice, product comprehension has received little attention, particularly in multiprovider evolution scenarios. This limits the ability of researchers and practitioners to understand and improve this process. Objective: To understand the process performed by software teams to discover and assimilate the knowledge about the structure, functionality, and quality aspects of a custom system developed by another team. Method: We conducted an exploratory study that answered four research questions considering two particular software evolution scenarios. The study involved interviews with 19 project leaders from Chilean and Brazilian small and medium-sized enterprises, who regularly participate in this type of project. Results: For each evolution scenario, we identified: (1) the underlying structure and dynamic of the product knowledge acquisition process, (2) the knowledge gathering activities and software artifacts used by the development teams, and (3) how effective these teams were when performing these activities. The study also identifies causes of low effectiveness of teams in this process and promising research avenues to address them. Conclusion: The product knowledge acquisition process is usually informal and has low cost-effectiveness. Provider switching results in an important loss of information and knowledge about the structure and functionality of the product, which limits comprehension and evolution of the system. The results show a clear need to change the status-quo in the customer-provider relationship in the study scenarios, and open several research opportunities to improve this process.