Server-Side Experimentation
Common challenges from 12 organisations in The Netherlands
Kevin Anderson (TU Delft - Software Engineering)
Tom van den Berg (Online Dialogue)
Arie van Deursen (TU Delft - Software Technology)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Background: experimentation is widely adopted within industry. Many large organisations have invested in their own infrastructure to be able to run experiments server-side. Objective: we wanted to investigate why organisations switch to server-side experimen- tation and which challenges they encounter in doing so. Method: a qualitative virtual discussion based on a survey was conducted. Twelve Dutch organisations, represented by twelve interviewees, participated in the study. Results: organisations switch to server- side experimentation to run higher quality, more advanced and cheaper experiments. Challenges organisations face are: a shortage of development resources, no standardized process and a lack of a culture of experimentation. Conclusions: this is the first study that explores why organisations from The Netherlands in transition to continuous experimentation choose for investing in server-side experimentation infrastructure, and the challenges they encounter.