1. University of Southern California Center for Software Engineering CSE USC 12/6/01©USC-CSE CeBASE: Opportunities to Collaborate Barry Boehm, USC-CSE Annual Research Review February 6, 2001

2. University of Southern California Center for Software Engineering CSE USC 22/6/01©USC-CSE CeBASE Research Collaborator Activities Coordinate definitions of data, models Coordinate experimental, observational methods data collection & analysis Share data and results (to the extent possible) Improve scoping, composability of results Collaborate on implications, packaging, dissemination of results Participate in research workshops

3. University of Southern California Center for Software Engineering CSE USC 32/6/01©USC-CSE CeBASE Practice Collaborator Activities Coordinate definitions of data, models Provide data; participate in experiments Collaborate on implications, packaging, dissemination of results Use results; provide feedback for improvement Participate in practice workshops –evaluation of results, technology transition –issue identification –priorities for future research

4. Memorandum of Understanding This is a memorandum of understanding between the Center for Empirically based Software Engineering, CeBASE (an NSF sponsored initiative consisting of the University of Maryland, University of Southern California, Fraunhofer Center – Maryland, University of Nebraska Lincoln, Mississippi State University), referred to as the participants, and______________________________________________, referred to as a collaborator. The purpose of this agreement is to foster and make explicit the shared interests of the participants and collaborators in doing empirical research in software engineering, sharing results and methods in whatever ways possible and sharing non- proprietary data. A collaborator may be one or more of the following: a development organization, which develops software products; a research organization, which studies the development of software products; or an educational organization, which teaches appropriate techniques to be used in a development environment. The goal of CeBASE is to support the generation of an empirically based software development process covering high level lifecycle models to low level techniques. The CeBASE participants and collaborators believe this is a necessary step toward a scientific foundation for software engineering in which the effects of development decisions are well understood. An empirically based process would allow us to eventually provide a rigorous foundation for software engineering. The participants and collaborator also agree that a major step in achieving an empirically based process is an experience base that contains validated guidelines for selecting techniques and models and serves as a source of ever evolving empirical evidence that will help us better understand such issues as what variables affect cost, reliability, and schedule. As a first step in building such an empirically-based process and experience base, we will concentrate on integrating existing data and models from the participants and all collaborators and initially focus on two high-leverage areas: COTS based development and defect reduction techniques. Collaborators will actively use information from the experience base or add to the information in the experience base.

5. University of Southern California Center for Software Engineering CSE USC 52/6/01©USC-CSE Development collaborators are expected to 1. Provide feedback on the industrial use of materials made available through CeBASE 2. Offer projects and project data for analysis on a non-proprietary basis 3. Contribute empirical evidence to the CeBASE experience base. Research collaborators are expected to 1. Use artifacts and results from CeBASE in their research activities 2. Contribute the results of this research to the CeBASE experience base. Education collaborators are expected to 1. Use appropriate CeBASE materials in an educational setting 2. Report experiences to the CeBASE experience base. This memorandum will be in place as soon as one of the CeBASE directors and the collaborator signs the memorandum and will remain in place until one year after there is no evidence of collaboration of the collaborator with at least one of the CeBASE participants. Participants and collaborators will separately fund all activities provided for in this memorandum. This memorandum is to foster the exchange of people, ideas, experiments, models, and data. Signed for CeBASE: Victor R. BasiliDate: Co-Director of CeBASE Barry BoehmDate: Co-Director of CeBASE Signed for the Collaborator: Date: