Lero celebrates 15 years: Interview with cutting edge software researcher
In 2020, Lero – the Irish Software Research Centre – is celebrating 15 years of excellence in software research. They have invited cutting edge researchers who have worked with Lero over this period to share their stories, challenges and successes in software research. One of these researchers is Pär Ågerfalk.
With ties to the research centre stretching back to 2005, Pär Ågerfalk, professor at the Department of Informatics and Media at Uppsala University, has been involved with Lero since its very inception. Ågerfalk is a former research fellow at Lero and a widely published researcher. Ågerfalk’s areas of research within systems development focus on digital practices, such as open source software development.
As part of the research at Lero, Pär Ågerfalk and his colleagues looked at three different aspects of systems development: global projects, where we had participants from different parts of the world; agile methods, seeing how we could be more flexible in systems development; and open source. They tried combining those three aspects in different ways, looking at how industry partners and organisations use those approaches.
Ågerfalk’s current research focuses on digital practices, which are everywhere. With regards to his research in open source software, one main application is the software’s capability for commercial use. At Lero, the team studied how people use and develop information technology in various practices, which is something that he has been continuing with. The developments today in artificial intelligence and machine learning represent what the near future holds in this research area.
Read the full interview with Pär Ågerfalk at the Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre, website.