A systematic approach for solving the wicked problem of software release planning

Release planning is known to be a cognitively and computationally difficult problem. Different kinds of uncertainties make it hard to formulate and solve the problem. Our solution approach called EVOLVE+ mitigates these difficulties by (i) an evolutionary problem solving method combining rigorous solution methods to solve the actual formalization of the problem combined with the interactive involvement of the human experts in this process, (ii) provision of a portfolio of diversified and qualified solutions at each iteration of the solution process, and (iii) the application of a multi-criteria decision aid method (ELECTRE IS) to assist the selection of the final solution from a set of qualified solutions. At the final stage of the process, an outranking relation is established among the qualified candidate solutions to address existing soft constraints or objectives. A case study is provided to illustrate and initially evaluate the given approach. The proposed method and results are not limited to software release planning, but can be adapted to a wider class of wicked planning problems.