VU University Amsterdam: PhD Vacancy

Summary:

Software developers are knowledge workers. They take decisions on design issues, apply patterns, negotiate solutions, and so on. These software developers usually do not operate in a vacuum, but are part of one or more social networks, communities of people they interact with. Such a social network may consist of just the members of the current project, a circle of experts in a specific area, and so on. Social networks can be supported by tools that induce communication, sharing, and exchange of information. For instance, a software architect searching for information on security on the company’s intranet may be pointed to colleagues having experience in that area. 

A new and challenging subfield within software engineering is to study the relation between the social structure of a group of people, and the technical structure of the systems they develop (as phrased in Conway’s Law). For instance, the architecture of a system may be modeled after the way work is split over different development sites. Studying the actual social interaction between people involved may then identify spots where this separation of concerns actually breaks (such as intensive communication about an interface relevant to more than one site). 

We will develop tools to build a service oriented social network for professionals. We will use SOA as architecture paradigm to engineer reusable services that support the social networking activities of professionals. We want to investigate the attributes of the social networks (structure, size, roles of participants, …) themselves and similarities with existing knowledge communities of professionals in companies and professional associations, next to the congruence between the social networks and technical characteristics of systems being developed. 

Sample research questions are:

1. How to represent the knowledge sharing needs of professionals? Are BPM (Business Process Modeling) notations suitable? Are they sufficient? Should we use knowledge patterns as alternatives? E.g. to represent user/professional behaviors/expectations in terms of organizational patterns and map them on the different types of services?2.How would service composition in a social network support environment look like? Are existing service composition techniques suitable for this domain?
2. How would service composition in a social network support environment look like? Are existing service composition techniques suitable for this domain?

3. The same questions hold for service coordination. Further, how can we increase the level of trust between software professionals using coordination mechanisms? (Is trustable coordination, e.g. cross-organizational, possible?)

4. Does this type of social network support differ between SOA software development and non-SOA software development?

Requirements:

• an MSc degree in computer science or equivalent;
• good communication skills in English (both written en oral).

Appointment:

The appointment will be for 4 years. You can visit our website www.vu.nl/vacatures for a review of working conditions at the VU.

Salary:

The salary is determined according to the collective rules (CAO) of the Dutch universities. The salary starts at € 2.000,- gross per month in the first year and grows to € 2.558,- gross per month in the fourth year, based on a full-time employment. You will be enrolled in the research school SIKS (www.siks.nl).

Information and application:

For more information you can contact Patricia Lago, Associate Professor of Software Engineering, tel. (+31) (20) 59 87745, e-mail: patricia(at)cs.vu.nl.

Applicants are requested to send:

• a curriculum vitae;

• supporting material, including a list of publications and a summary of the Master thesis;

• three reference letters and/or reference persons;

• a letter clearly stating the motivation to apply.