STRATOS: Using Visualization to Support Decisions in Strategic Software Release Planning

Software is typically developed incrementally and released in stages. Planning these releases involves deciding which features of the system should be implemented for each release. This is a complex planning process involving numerous constraints and factors—trade-offs that often make decisions difficult. Since the success of a product depends on this plan, it is important to understand the trade-offs between different release plans and to make an informed choice. We present STRATOS, a tool that visualizes several optimized software release plans simultaneously. The visualization shows several attributes about each plan that are important to planners. Multiple plans are shown in a single layout to help planners find and understand the trade-offs between different plans. We evaluated our tool via a qualitative study, finding that STRATOS enables a range of decision-making processes, and ultimately helping our participants optimize their planning.