  Software Cockpits, also known as Software Project Control Centers, support
the management and controlling of software and system development projects and
provide means for quantitative measurement-based project control. Currently,
many companies are developing simple control dashboards that are mainly based
on Spreadsheet applications. Alternatively, they use solutions providing a
fixed set of project control functionality that cannot be sufficiently
customized to their specific needs and goals. Specula is a systematic approach
for defining reusable, customizable control components and instantiate them
according to different organizational goals and characteristics based on the
Quality Improvement Paradigm (QIP) and GQM. This article gives an overview of
the Specula approach, including the basic conceptual model, goal-oriented
measurement, and the composition of control components based on explicitly
stated measurement goals. Related approaches are discussed and the use of
Specula as part of industrial case studies is described.
