Philanthropic Research Chair in Software Product and Project Management
About the Chair
Organizations that develop and upgrade software must respond to increasingly demanding clients in a competitive global marketplace. This is all the more true with the deployment of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computers. However, the management of software products and projects is still a challenge for most organizations, both in the public and private sectors, often with significant budget overruns, major delays, quality levels far from being controlled, and undelivered functions.
Many solutions have been proposed in recent decades, such as tools, models and management techniques. But how robust are they and what knowledge is available to adapt them to the software’s specific field? The mission of this research chair is to develop the knowledge needed to help public and private sector organizations meet these challenges.
Research
The Chair’s research and development objectives are to:
- Identify, assess and synthesize the specific and innovative features of software products and projects that enable managers to monitor them.
- Use generic best practices in engineering management and project management to adapt them to software product and project management.
- Innovate in the area of software measurement to support software product and project management in emerging technologies.
- Tailor to the software the risk sharing and outsourcing management contractual approaches in the software field.
- Upskill highly qualified personnel in software product and project management.
Our research projects
Software product management
Software project management
Our team
Ronald Brisebois
Associate Professor
Department of Software Engineering and Information Technology
Ali Idri
Associate Professor
Department of Web and Mobile Engineering, Mohammed V University, Rabat
Hassan Soubra
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Engineering, École Centrale d’Électronique (ECE Lyon)
Mónica Villavicencio Cabezas
Associate Professor
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Jean-Marc Desharnais
Associate Professor, ÉTS
Department of Software Engineering and Information Technology
Guillaume Bourgeois
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Software Engineering and Information Technology
Tuna Hacaloglu
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Software Engineering and Information Technology
Students
- Fouzia Amar, doctoral student
- Mireille Bishay, doctoral student
- Mathieu Dupuis, doctoral student
- Iannick Gagnon, doctoral student
- Ling Guo, doctoral student
- Adam Jamel, master's student
- Steve Lang, doctoral student
- Sion Israel Sion, doctoral student
- Gaston Cédric Nziou, master's student (project)
Collaborators
- Abdalla Bala
- Sylvain Béland
- Ronald Brisebois
- Laila Cheikhi
- Jean-Marc Desharnais
- Donatien K. Moulla
- Jayakumar Kamala Ramasubramani
- Alexandra Lapointe
- Apollinaire Nadembéga
- Sylvie Trudel
News and Highlights
- New publication: AI of AI Ecosystem (AoA), a hierarchical framework for orchestrating, evaluating, and optimizing multiple autonomous AI systems. The approach combines performance monitoring, structured inter-agent collaboration, and source credibility assessment. The ecosystem also includes adaptive governance and alerting mechanisms to support continuous performance improvement and robust coordination of heterogeneous AI ecosystems.
- Innovation Workshop | Large Software Projects Involving External Suppliers – PMI-Montréal Symposium, March 12, 2026.
- Proposed Harmonization, with the Support of LLMs, of Security, Quality, and Measurement Terminologies within the SWEBOK Framework – ICSE 2026, April 18, 2026, Rio de Janeiro.
- New Publication from the COSMIC Working Group on AI-Based Software Estimation: Investigating the Effectiveness of COSMIC Method for Sizing Chatbots’ Requirements: A Comparative Analysis, by Rahma Becha, Asma Sellami, Nadia Bouassida, and Ali Idri.
- As part of the 47th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025), held from April 27 to May 3, 2025, Professor Alain Abran took part in the SWEBOK Summit, where he gave a talk on measurement across SWEBOK knowledge areas. Watch Professor Abran's presentation: Measurement Across SWEBOK KAs — Coverage Analysis and Suggestions for Improvements.
- Professor Alain April took part in the special consultations and public hearings on Bill 135, Loi renforçant la gouvernance et la gestion des ressources informationnelles des organismes publics et des entreprises du gouvernement. Watch his presentation (in French). Professor April gave this presentation as part of the Commission des finances publiques, held in September 2017 at the Assemblée nationale in Québec City.
Research at ÉTS
ÉTS provides an ideal environment for conceiving and creating the ideas that will shape the world of the future.