I am a Senior Researcher at XITASO GmbH, a medium-sized software development company in Augsburg, Germany. Our core business is building high-quality, custom software for our clients, including software that will end up in medical devices and manufacturing systems. But we also have a research division which drives publicly-funded research projects together with our industrial and academic partners. Our researchers usually pursue their Ph.D.s in the context of these projects and we are working with many students writing their thesis projects. My research here is focused on cybersecurity, on AI in healthcare, and on the impact of generative AI on development organisations. I also work with our development teams as a cybersecurity expert, a software architect, and a consultant and I support sales, marketing, and our software engineering and security communities of practice.
Before that, I was an associate professor in the joint Software Engineering Division of Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg. My research there was focused on the three areas: making software development more transparent by using traceability techniques, making computer systems more flexible and robust by using techniques of self-adaption and self-organisation, and making software engineering education more effective and enjoyable by using elements of serious games and evidence-guided reflection.
I have been publishing at a steady pace since my dissertation, with papers in top-ranked conferences and journals. My international visibility and impact is reflected in the awards that recent publications have won, the collaborations I have established, and the fact that I publish in the most competitive and selective conferences and journals.
I actively contribute to educational research by using empirical methods to systematically identify areas for improvement and evaluate novel teaching approaches based on qualitative and quantitative evidence. Project-based learning and blended learning are part of my regular teaching toolbox. I run project courses that involve external, industrial stakeholders and in which students create value for these external stakeholders. My aim is to devise teaching methods that let students experience software engineering issues themselves in practical and engaging settings. Serious games, katas, and the flipped classroom methods are some of the tools I use for this. One crucial aspect of this research is the active exchange with peers and exploring the generalisability of these methdos to different courses. This area of my research is also showing promising results with papers receiving international recognition (Best Paper Award at ICSE 2016 SEET).
I am proud that I am often called upon by the community to serve in organising functions for the conferences and workshops that take our field forward and that I am esteemed as a reviewer for conferences and journals.
Winter term 2024/2025
I teach a course on software engineering in data-intensive systems aimed at students in the data science and computer science programs.
September 2022 — present
Research on cybersecurity, AI in healthcare, generative AI, agile methods, and model-driven engineering. Support of researchers in their Ph.D. journey, supervision of bachelor's and master's theses. Work with delivery teams as a cybersecurity specialist and a software architect.
March 2018 — August 2022
Research and teaching in the joint Software Engineering Division of the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. Research interests include software and systems traceability, agile software development of safety-critical systems, self-organising and self-adaptive systems, and software engineering education. Teaching covers software processes, software quality, and entrepreneurship.
September 2014 — March 2018
Research and teaching in the joint Software Engineering Division of the University of Gothen- burg and Chalmers University of Technology.
October 2008 — September 2014
Doctoral thesis defended February 2014. Project coordinator for the research unit OC-Trust (FOR 1085) sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Research interests include Complex Adaptive Systems, Agent-oriented Software Engineering, and Self-Organisation.
2008 — 2014
Equivalent to a Ph.D. degree.
Dissertation "Large-scale Open Self-organising Systems – Managing Complexity with Hierarchies, Monitoring, Adaptation, and Principled Design".
2003 — 2008
Equivalent to a Master’s degree in Computer Science.
See the whole list of my publications on Google Scholar and DBLP.
Jörg Holtmann, Grischa Liebel, Jan-Philipp Steghöfer: Processes, methods, and tools in model-based engineering — A qualitative multiple-case study. J. Syst. Softw. 210: 111943 (2024)
Salome Maro, Jan-Philipp Steghöfer, Paolo Bozzelli, Henry Muccini: TracIMo: a traceability introduction methodology and its evaluation in an Agile development team. Requir. Eng. 27(1): 53-81 (2022)
Mazen Mohamad, Rodi Jolak, Örjan Askerdal, Jan-Philipp Steghöfer, Riccardo Scandariato: CASCADE: An Asset-driven Approach to Build Security Assurance Cases for Automotive Systems. ACM Trans. Cyber Phys. Syst. 7(1): 3:1-3:26 (2023)
Jan-Philipp Steghöfer, Håkan Burden, Regina Hebig, Gul Calikli, Robert Feldt, Imed Hammouda, Jennifer Horkoff, Eric Knauss, Grischa Liebel: Involving External Stakeholders in Project Courses. TOCE 18(2): 8:1-8:32 (2018)
Jan-Philipp Steghöfer, Eric Knauss, Emil Alégroth, Imed Hammouda, Håkan Burden, Morgan Ericsson: Teaching Agile: addressing the conflict between project delivery and application of Agile methods. ICSE (SEET) 2016: 303-312 (Best Paper Award)
Håkan Burden, Jan-Philipp Steghöfer, Oskar Hagvall Svensson: Facilitating entrepreneurial experiences through a software engineering project course. ICSE (SEET) 2019: 28-37
Chalmers Pedagogical Prize
Chalmers Technical University
"Jan-Philipp Steghöfer at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has worked to develop project-based learning, where project management techniques are practiced with playful methods, which have been very well received by students. In addition, Jan-Philipp has exemplary communicated about course development and pedagogical results in several pedagogical publications."
Best Reviewer Award
30th IEEE International Requirements Engineering 2022 Conference
Challenges of Scaled Agile for Safety-Critical Systems
Jan-Philipp Steghöfer, Eric Knauss, Jennifer Horkoff, Rebekka Wohlrab
Best Paper Award
20th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2019
Challenges of Establishing Traceability in the Automotive Domain
Salome Maro, Miroslaw Staron, Jan-Philipp Steghöfer
Best Paper Award
International Conference on Software Quality 2017
Teaching Agile: addressing the conflict between project delivery and application of Agile methods
Jan-Philipp Steghöfer, Eric Knauss, Emil Alégroth, Imed Hammouda, Håkan Burden, Morgan Ericsson
Best Paper Award
International Conference on Software Engineering 2016, Software Engineering Education Track
Outstanding Dissertation Award
Gesellschaft der Freunde der Universität Augsburg
Here are selected projects I have been involved in lately. Feel free to check them out.
In AMiQuaSy, the consortium addresses how to quantum-proof the software supply chain and how to migrate towards quantum-resistant solutions in an agile, i.e. iterative-incremental way.
Bayerisches Verbundforschungsprogramm (BayVFP) – Förderlinie Lifescience
The aim of the KISPP project funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy is to support the planning of nursing staff with innovative AI techniques to improve the lives of nurses, patients, and hospital administrators.
Traceability Management
Eclipse Capra is a traceability management tool. It allows the creation of trace links between arbitrary artefacts, provides features to edit them and keep them consistent, and visualise the relationships between them. This includes traceability matrices and graph visualisations that are helpful for reporting and change impact analysis.
Interacting over lecturing,
guiding over telling,
experiencing over hearing about.
We usually have a number of thesis topics available, both for Bachelor and Master students. Please check XITASO's jobs page (filter for "Intern / Student") for details.
Provides an introduction to basic software engineering and agile project management techniques in the construction of an application around an existing machine learning model. Students engage with topics ranging from requirements engineering, software architecture, containerisation, to software quality.
Teaches foundational software engineering knowledge with a focus on agile software processes and customer value. Includes external stakeholders that provide industrial cases that students work on.
Addresses the building blocks of software processes, their tailoring and application, as well as structured software process improvement. Uses a highly interactive teaching environment based on flipped classroom, workshops, and peer learning.
Covered a variety of topics in SPI, including different maturity models, continuous improvement, and industrial adaptation of SPI initiatives. Used Flipped Classroom since spring 2016.
Addressed foundational knowledge of software processes, including different method lifecycles, process modelling, and agile principles.
Offered an introduction to research methods that students applied in a study conducted with a company on how a change in the way software is developed impacts the organisational environment.
Covered a range of topics relevant to the engineering of self-organising adaptive systems such as principles of systems, adaptivity, and emergence, feedback loops, bio-inspired algorithms, autonomic computing, and software engineering for self-organising systems. Frequently rated one of the top courses of the faculty. Responsible for design and implementation of the course.
I am a regular reviewer and organiser of scientific community events.
jan-philipp.steghoefer@xitaso.com
I'm happy to connect, listen and collaborate. Let's work together and discover something awesome. Email Me.
