Research on STEP Technologies for the Creation of the Digital Twin of the Software Factory of the Future
The vision of the SOFTEP project is to transform the software factory into a self-managing cognitive system, in which a live, comprehensive digital twin of the ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) cycle faithfully represents, in real time, the development processes, artefacts and resources, enabling ‘what-if’ simulations, risk prediction and autonomous action.
The result will be an organisation capable of anticipating problems, optimising decisions and ensuring ethical and legal compliance through cutting-edge STEP technologies, including AI, advanced digital connectivity and autonomous agents.
Period: November 2025 – June 2028
Total budget: €2,410,726.51
Balidea budget: €406,652.96
Project description
The initial hypothesis holds that, if a live digital twin is implemented that integrates events from the DevOps chain in real time and is equipped with simulation engines, predictive models and autonomous AI-based agents, the software factory will be able to anticipate and mitigate bottlenecks, optimise resource allocation and ensure continuous regulatory compliance, generating measurable improvements in productivity and risk reduction compared to conventional management methods, as suggested by the initial findings reported in the literature on Digital Twins applied to software engineering and DevOps.
Partners and collaborators
SOFTEP is a consortium comprising five companies: AYESA (lead partner), COTESA, BALIDEA, TD and AGILIA; and supported by three highly regarded research organisations: the University of Seville, ITCL and Tecnalia.
The SOFTEP project thus brings together an ecosystem of complementary stakeholders who drive innovation in smart, secure and sustainable software factories. Each organisation contributes, drawing on its area of expertise (AI, cybersecurity, automation, data analytics), to the creation of a live digital twin, supported by autonomous agents that optimise software development in real time.
Balidea’s role in SOFTEP
To design autonomous intelligent agents based on large-scale language models (LLMs) and reasoning capabilities, integrated into the digital twin of its software factory.
The aim is to equip development processes with a layer of adaptive intelligence that enables the performance of projects and resources to be monitored, optimised and anticipated in real time, thereby improving overall efficiency.
TD: To design a ‘Compliance Digital Twin’ platform as a service (SaaS) for the automatic and continuous monitoring of regulatory compliance in software development organisations, including critical aspects such as cybersecurity, privacy and ethical regulation (AI Act, Cybersecurity Act, ISO 42001).
Grant
Project funded by the CDTI.
With the support of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
Funded by the European Union.
This project has received funding from the CDTI through the 2021–2027 ERDF under the Innterconecta STEP Regional Consortia grant programme.