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Researchers at the UPC's Department of Service and Information System Engineering are working on the project Supporting Evolution and Adaptation of Personalised Software by Exploiting Contextual Data and End-User Feedback (SUPERSEDE), which offers significant advances in software development (particularly mobile applications) by using information from stakeholders (mainly end users and developers). This information can be collected from opinions and assessments of these applications and by monitoring their use to detect patterns of behaviour. It will help adapt applications to the real needs of their users.

SUPERSEDE aims to improve the life cycle of applications (optimal version planning) and to adapt runtime to contextual information (dynamic self-adaptation and customisation). Collaboration between developers and users will allow applications and IT services to evolve in the most optimal way for the users.

The project, which began in May 2015 and is expected to be completed by April 2018, has a budget of more than €3 million. The initiative was set up because software vendors now face two main challenges, according to Anna Perini, a researcher at the Italian research institute Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and the project coordinator: "First, it is difficult for software vendors to predict users' acceptance of the services and applications they are working on. Second, the great diversity of operating contexts, with different user profiles, changing environmental conditions, etc., make it difficult to customise software for all conditions that may arise".

The project is led and coordinated by the FBK. UPC researcher Xavier Franch is the scientific coordinator, with the support of Alberto Abelló and David Ameller in charge of two lines each. All three belong to the Department of Service and Information System Engineering of the UPC and are attached to the Barcelona School of Informatics. Also participating in the project are the Austrian branch of Siemens, the Spanish company ATOS, the German SEnerCon, the Italian Delta Informatica, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, and the University of Zurich. SIEMENS, ATOS and SEnerCon provide case studies in the fields of smart cities, broadcasting of major sporting events and efficient energy use, respectively.

The SUPERSEDE project is carried out in the section of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the pillar Industrial Leadership of the Horizon 2020 programme, which has a budget of over €74 million for the period 2014-2020 to promote research, technological development, demonstration and innovation in Europe.

The picture shows a diagram of how the toolkit can help develop applications and software within the SUPERSEDE project, taking into account user feedback to make decisions of all types on the final product.