large language models

Modelling Usability Capability - Introducing the Dimensions

Usability capability is a characteristic of a development organization that predicts the level of usability the development projects are capable of achieving. Our experiments with the existing usability capability models indicate that current process assessment methods do not discover all relevant problems that might impede effective user-centered design (UCD) in development organizations. We propose an enhanced model where the usability capability is analyzed from three dimensions: user-centered infrastructure, implementation of user-centered practices in development projects, and business management commitment to usability as a competitive asset.

The personal software process: experiences from Denmark

The focus of the research and practice in software process improvement (SPI) is shifting from traditional large-scale assessment based improvement initiatives to smaller sized, tailored initiatives where the emphasis is on the development personnel and their personal abilities. Personal software process (PSP/sup SM/) is a method designed for improving the personal capabilities of the individual software engineer. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge within this area by reporting experiences from Denmark. The findings indicate an improvement in effort estimation skills and an increase in the resulting product quality in terms of reduced total defect density. The data shows that even with a relatively small effort (i.e., 10%) used in defect prevention activities (i.e., design and code reviews) almost one third of all defects could be removed and, consequently, the time required for the testing was reduced by 50%. On the basis of this data, the use of the PSP method in the software industry is discussed.

Commitment Nets in Software Process Improvement

Several studies have revealed the fact that nearly two-thirds of all software process improvement (SPI) efforts have failed or have at least fallen short of expectations. Literature and practice have shown that commitment to SPI at all organizational levels is essential for the success of any SPI endeavor. A research model for studying the existence, development and interplay of SPI-related commitment is introduced in this paper. This study suggests that software organizations operate through strategic, operational and personal commitment nets. These nets consist of actors, drivers, concerns, actions, commitment, and outcomes. The commitment nets model is applied in a study of four industrial SPI initiatives. The results from two of these cases are reported here. The results show that SPI is driven through the formation and reformation of commitment nets. The contents of strategic, operational and personal commitment nets are laid out and implications are discussed.

Exploring the Sources of Waste in Kanban Software Development Projects

The application of agile software methods and more recently the integration of Lean practices contribute to the trend of continuous improvement in the software industry. One such area warranting proper empirical evidence is a project’s operational efficiency when using the Kanban method. This short paper takes a new angle and explores waste in the Kanban-driven software development project context. A preliminary research model is presented for helping the consequent replication of the study. The results from the empirical analysis suggest Kanban can be an effective method in visualizing and organizing the current work, but does not prevent waste from creeping in, although the overall project outcome may be successful.

Building blocks for self-organizing software development teams a framework model and empirical pilot study

Agile Project - An Oxymoron? Proposing an Unproject Leadership Model for Complex Space

Perspectives on Global Software Development: special issue on PROFES 2007

The field of software engineering has evolved significantly over the past decades. It can be argued that software has become the vital element of any system or service. Interestingly, even in the field of automotive industry, 90% of recent innovations stem from software and electronics (ITEA2 2005). Ever since the classic NATO conference in 1968, however, software has been argued to be in some state of crisis. From the 1990s, the crisis has been labeled as a chronic one. It is quite evident that several attempts to improve the state of software industry have taken place with varying levels of success. Software process improvement approaches have been developed since many decades ago. The results have been impressive, on the one hand, but many problems still exist. As an example, the business impact of software process improvement endeavors has been difficult to pinpoint, several of the improvement initiatives appear to fall short of their goals, and overemphasis on comparing processes with fixed reference models may lead an organization astray regarding the product or service perspective. The Profes conference series was established in 1999 to provide a venue for industry and academia to present and discuss the shift from model-based improvement to a product-oriented perspective in the field of software engineering and software process improvement. This includes a context-oriented understanding of the process-product relationships. Recently, the focus in practice and, consequently, in research has been on viewing software development as a global endeavor rather than a local one. There are several reasons for this. To name but a few: The distribution of software development enables the optimum use of competence regardless of the geographical location. The large software-intensive organizations operate in the global space and market, which makes distribution a necessity rather than a choice. On the positive side, distribution enables the development of software and services close to the prominent market area. Despite these relatively clear advantages and 2 benefits, global software development has brought with it several challenges due to increased complexity and cultural as well as technology issues. These challenges are now being tackled by means of research taking place in Europe and elsewhere as witnessed by this special issue of Profes conference research papers. Profes Conference series was established at the end of European IST project called PROFES (PROduct Focused Software process improvement) for disseminating the research results of the project area to industry. The PROFES Consortium included …

Failure Prediction using the Cox Proportional Hazard Model

Crashes of software systems may have disruptive, and sometimes tragic effects on users. Being able to forecast such failures is extremely important, even when the failures are inevitable – at least recovery or rescue actions can be taken. In this paper we present a technique to predict the failure of running software systems. We propose to use log messages to predict failures running devices that read log files of running application and warns about the likely failure of the system; the prediction is based on the Cox Proportional Hazards (PH) model that has been applied successfully in various fields of research. We perform an initial validation of the proposed approach on real-world data.

A Web-based modeling tool for the SEMAT Essence theory of Software Engineering

As opposed to more mature subjects, software engineering lacks general theories that establish its foundations as a discipline. The Essence Theory of software engineering (Essence) has been proposed by the Software Engineering Methods and Theory (SEMAT) initiative. The goal of Essence is to develop a theoretically sound basis for software engineering practice and its wide adoption. However, Essence is far from reaching academic- and industry-wide adoption. The reasons for this include a struggle to foresee its utilization potential and a lack of tools for implementation. SEMAT Accelerator (SematAcc) is a Web-positioning tool for a software engineering endeavor, which implements the SEMAT’s Essence kernel. SematAcc permits the use of Essence, thus helping to understand it. The tool enables the teaching, adoption, and research of Essence in controlled experiments and case studies.

Are Happy Developers more Productive? The Correlation of Affective States of Software Developers and their self-assessed Productivity

For decades now, it has been claimed that a way to improve software developers’ productivity is to focus on people. Indeed, while human factors have been recognized in Software Engineering research, few empirical investigations have attempted to verify the claim. Development tasks are undertaken through cognitive processing abilities. Affective states – emotions, moods, and feelings - have an impact on work-related behaviors, cognitive processing activities, and the productivity of individuals. In this paper, we report an empirical study on the impact of affective states on software developers’ performance while programming. Two affective states dimensions are positively correlated with self-assessed productivity. We demonstrate the value of applying psychometrics in Software Engineering studies and echo a call to valorize the human, individualized aspects of software developers. We introduce and validate a measurement instrument and a linear mixed-effects model to study the correlation of affective states and the productivity of software developers.

Affordable and Energy-Efficient Cloud Computing Clusters: The Bolzano Raspberry Pi Cloud Cluster Experiment

We present our ongoing work building a Raspberry Pi cluster consisting of 300 nodes. The unique characteristics of this single board computer pose several challenges, but also offer a number of interesting opportunities. On the one hand, a single Raspberry Pi can be purchased cheaply and has a low power consumption, which makes it possible to create an affordable and energy-efficient cluster. On the other hand, it lacks in computing power, which makes it difficult to run computationally intensive software on it. Nevertheless, by combining a large number of Raspberries into a cluster, this drawback can be (partially) offset. Here we report on the first important steps of creating our cluster: how to set up and configure the hardware and the system software, and how to monitor and maintain the system. We also discuss potential use cases for our cluster, the two most important being an inexpensive and green test bed for cloud computing research and a robust and mobile data center for operating in adverse environments.

Making Sense out of a Jungle of JavaScript Frameworks: towards a Practitioner-friendly Comparative Analysis

The field of Web development is entering the HTML5 and CSS3 era and JavaScript is becoming increasingly influential. A large number of JavaScript frameworks have been recently promoted. Practitioners applying the latest technologies need to choose a suitable JavaScript framework (JSF) in order to abstract the frustrating and complicated coding steps and to provide a cross-browser compatibility. Apart from benchmark suites and recommendation from experts, there is little research helping practitioners to select the most suitable JSF to a given situation. The few proposals employ software metrics on the JSF, but practitioners are driven by different concerns when choosing a JSF. As an answer to the critical needs, this paper is a call for action. It proposes a research design towards a comparative analysis framework of JSF, which merges researcher needs and practitioner needs.