Business Application Software Research Articles

An Investigation of the Relationships between Software Metrics and Defects

Open source software systems are becoming more popular today, and are playing important roles in many scientific and business software applications. Many companies are investing in open source projects and lots of them are also using such software in their own work. But, because open source software is often developed with a different management style than the industrial ones, the quality and reliability of the code needs to be investigated. Hence, more projects need to be measured to obtain information about the characteristics and nature of the source code. In this paper we have evaluated the object-oriented metrics given by Chidamber and Kemerer, and few other static code metrics for two open source projects. We have carried out an empirical study and tried to find out the nature of relationship between these metrics and defects. In other words, it has been investigated whether these metrics are significantly associated with defects or not. For this we have extracted source code, defects processed it for metrics .Two open source java projects of emulators have been taken from source forge and used for this purpose.

MEASURING SOFTWARE FUNCTIONAL SIZE FROM BUSINESS PROCESS MODELS

ISO 14143-1 specifies that a functional size measurement (FSM) method must provide measurement procedures to quantify the functional user requirements (FURs) of software. Such quantitative information, functional size, is typically used, for instance, in software estimation. One of the international standards for FSM is the COSMIC FSM method — ISO 19761 — which was designed to be applied both to the business application (BA) software domain and to the real-time software domain. A recurrent problem in FSM is the availability and quality of the inputs required for measurement purposes; that is, well documented FURs. Business process (BP) models, as they are commonly used to gather requirements from the early stages of a project, could be a valuable source of information for FSM. In a previous article, the feasibility of such an approach for the BA domain was analyzed using the Qualigram BP modeling notation. This paper complements that work by: (1) analyzing the use of BPMN for FSM in the BA domain; (2) presenting notation-independent guidelines for the BA domain; and (3) analyzing the possibility of using BP models to perform FSM in the real-time domain. The measurement results obtained from BP models are compared with those of previous FSM case studies.

The Strategic Imperative For An Integrated Enterprise

Most large organizations today have invested heavily in business software applications over the past few decades. These applications support key elements of sales, manufacturing, customer service, financial operations and have reaped tremendous rewards in productivity gains and competitive advantage. However, these individual applications were often not built or purchased with interoperability in mind. Rather, they evolved over time as a result of the latest technological innovation or hasty business need, leading to extremely complex, incompatible systems. As a result in many large organizations today the IT infrastructure often consists of many islands of automation, characterized by heterogeneous computing platforms, various proprietary information formats and diverse programming models. Against this backdrop competitive pressures are forcing large organizations to improve efficiency through integrating key business operations. E-commerce initiatives are also calling for a more integrated enterprise. This paper first examines the problem of poorly integrated business applications and the inadequacy of the traditional point-to-point integration approach. The paper then presents todays enterprise application technology and discusses the advantages of enterprise application integration and e-commerce or B2B application integration.

Distribution of Integrated Business Applications

New corporate developments, such as globalization, diversification and process orientation, are posing a challenge to the degree of integration of business application software. International standard software designed to meet the requirements of all types of business is acquiring greater strategic significance. The increased need for flexibility, localization, and scalable growth makes it necessary for highly integrated businesses applications to be distributable. Possible scenarios reflect managerial and organizational requirements. Additional mechanisms must be incorporated and business processes adapted to compensate for the increased autonomy of sub-applications. Reprint of an article from WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK 35(5)1993:455–464.

Analysis and Classification of ERP Producers by Business Operations

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) represents a general business application software solution which is applicable in different business operations. Therefore, it covers areas which are common to a certain group of business operations (e.g. manufacturing, services, financial services, public services, etc.). However, business operations, no matter if they belong to the same or different group, have specific areas which are not supported in general ERP solutions. This paper attempts to reveal which business operations are supported by specialized ERP solutions, how to measure the size of specialized ERP producers, how many business operations are supported by ERP producers on average, and whether there are any classifications of ERP producers based on the number of supported business operations.

A Method to Estimate Function Point at Early Stage of Business Application Software Development(<Special Issue>"Project Planning and Evaluation")

A Method to Estimate Function Point at Early Stage of Business Application Software Development(<Special Issue>"Project Planning and Evaluation")

The first business application

Celebrating the pivotal role of the first business applications software.

Business Software Specifications for Consumers

Commercialized business application software packages have been widely used to implement business information systems. In order to determine whether a software package meets the system needs, consumers must check the software specifications against the target system requirements. Since the commercial software industry does not have a standard format of software specifications for consumers, free-formatted descriptions of application software and ad hoc demos are commonly used in marketing software products, but are often too ambiguous for consumers to uncover the implemented capacity. This paper proposes a model of commercialized business software specifications for consumers. It suggests that software packages need to provide specifications for consumers in four aspects: business operations, user-computer interfaces, user-perceived inputs and outputs, and business rules. Using an example, the paper demonstrates the implementation of the model.

Computer-mediated communication and knowledge sharing in a South African context

An estimated 679,7 million people (Global Internet Statistics 2003) make use of the Internet for sending and receiving electronic mail (e-mail), accessing databases, viewing images, finding various types of information and sharing information with other Internet users (via UseNet, bulletin boards, list-serves and instant messaging systems). Systems managers regularly integrate these facilities into their business environment, thereby saving scarce business resources through the application and incorporation of available networks and network resources (Granger and Schroeder 1996:86, Millen and Dray 2000:170-171). According to Granger and Schroeder (1996:87), the Internet itself offers substantial communication resources to enhance product development and system support as well as provide specific business solutions in the areas of electronic communications (e-mail, videoconferencing, on-line chatrooms and bulletin boards), business application software support, system design and databases.

Applying Strategies to Overcome User Resistance in a Group of Clinical Managers to a Business Software Application

User resistance is a common occurrence when new information systems are implemented within health care organizations. Individuals responsible for overseeing implementation of these systems in the health care environment may encounter more resistance than trainers in other environments. It is important to be aware of methods to reduce resistance in end users. Proper training of end users is an important strategy for minimizing resistance. This article reviews the literature on the reasons for user resistance to health care information systems and the implications of this literature for designing training programs. The other principles for reducing resistance (communication, user involvement, strategic use of consultants) are illustrated with a case study involving training clinical managers on business applications. Individuals responsible for health care information system implementations should recognize that end user resistance can lead to system failure and should employ these best practices when embarking on new implementations.

Determinants of brand equity for banking business application software products

The research on brand equity has focused primarily on consumer goods and, lately, services. However there have been few attempts to explore brand equity for high tech industrial products. The drivers of brand equity for high-tech industrial products (where technology embedded within a product has traditionally assumed a higher profile) is likely to affect the purchase at various stages in the process. This study explored the determinants of brand equity for banking business application software products using semi-structured interview format. The key determinants of brand equity were identified as perceived value and trust. The drivers of perceived value were identified as performance indicators and tangibles, and the drivers of trust as credibility of company, market acceptance of the product and reputation of alliance partners.

Web Services: Enabling Dynamic Business Networks

A Dynamic Business Network is a distinct system of participants (customers, suppliers, complimentors, competitors, service providers) that use the network to achieve customer satisfaction and profitability and where participants and relationships evolve over time. However, unpredictability and rapid change in a Dynamic Business Network creates a significant challenge in implementing and supporting business application software. Traditional information systems implementation methods require an a priori design and are built for a particular purpose for use over an extended period of time. Loosely coupled business networks change interrelationships between nodes both quickly and frequently, thus providing little or no notice for planning, implementing, or changing the supporting applications. The dynamic sourcing capabilities of the emerging Web Services framework provide a key to enabling these complex eco-systems. We explore the strategic and technological dimensions of Web Services and describe how they can be used to support dynamic business networks.

A validation of the end-user computing satisfaction instrument in Taiwan

This article focuses on the psychometric stability of the end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS) instrument by Doll and Torkzadeh when applied to Taiwanese end-users of typical business software applications. Using a survey of 342 users, this research provides evidence that the instrument is a valid and reliable measure in Taiwanese applications. Given this evidence, managers and software product developers can confidently apply the instrument in the investigation of competing tools, features, and technologies in Taiwan.

An evaluation of the business object approach to software development

In this paper, we report the result of an evaluation of the use of business objects and business components for developing business application software. This evaluation was a replicated product ca...

An evaluation of the business object approach to software development

In this paper, we report the result of an evaluation of the use of business objects and business components for developing business application software. This evaluation was a replicated product case study in which a part of an existing product was re-implemented using an UML-based development process. In order to assess the impact of re-use, a second related product was implemented using the new technology. We found that producing software from scratch using UML was less productive during the development lifecycle, but productivity improved when substantial reuse (48%) was achieved. Time to market was not much affected by the new technology but was greatly improved when substantial reuse was achieved. Defect rates appeared substantially lower for the new technology irrespective of reuse levels. The technology also had other benefits including provision of documentation and less reliance on individual members of staff.

Maintainable systems with a business object approach

The concept of Business Objects (BOs) has been recently promoted as a new way of exploiting objectdorientation for achieving largedgrain reuse. In this paper, we address the issue of how to effectively redengineer business software applications using BOs as a reuse technique. To this end, we first identify the reuse features of business objects and then compare them with other reuse techniques. In addition, we show that software redengineering can be more economical when business objects are used. Our work also provides guidance on how to develop and use a Business Object Architecture (BOA), which is shared by a group of interrelated and interdependent software applications. We argue that such architecture allows for more efficient reuse and better maintainability and it is illustrated by means of a case study in a realistic manufacturing environment.

Best practices in business software integration and the Open Applications Group

The issues associated with integrating business software applications have been with the IT community for almost 30 years. Until the last few years however, the approach to integrating business software has remained unchanged. This work has focused on enabling enterprises to compete more effectively by dramatically improving the processes, the architecture and the technologies associated with business software integration. This paper will describe the business problem of - software integration, enterprise operational factors driving the need for a better way of assembling business software, financial drivers, a vision for assembling business software components, a cost comparison for methods of a business software integration, how the Open Applications Group is contributing to the solution, a methodology for integrating business software, and a conceptual architecture for achieving the vision.

Standardsoftware und organisatorische Flexibilität

In recent years the deployment of standard business application software (SAS) in companies has strongly increased. However, there are not few people who argue that cost savings due to the use of standard products have involved restrictions concerning the set of possible organizational options and restrict the range of feasible competitive advantages. This paper investigates these theses by the example of the Siemens AG. It is shown that the use of SAS is not appropriate for all the problems under consideration. But if there is a situation that justifies the use of SAS, then one can recognize a differentiation potential in form of the depth and breadth of use as well as the speed of implementation. Furthermore, it is shown that certain restrictions concerning the organizational scope of action are actually present, but similar restrictions appear if individual software is used. In addition we show that by means of standardization a firm can reach significant cost savings for company wide processes like human resources or consolidation.

A role interaction approach to support manufacturing enterprise integration

Enterprise integration can be described as involving business process integration, business data integration, business software application integration and business computer system integration. In addition, these four must also be interlinked to achieve a truly integrated enterprise. This paper describes a ‘role interaction’ approach to meeting these integration needs of manufacturing enterprises. In short, ‘role interaction’ refers to the interaction that occurs between roles played by enterprise participants when performing their assigned tasks. An example showing this role interaction approach is discussed, using an enhanced form of the IDEF3 process description capture method.

計装 紙パルプ操業管理支援システム 将来の紙パルプ操業管理に向けて

The pulp and paper plants operation control system is a package software for the pulp and paper industry. The pulp and paper industry has been many problems, such as severe competition, increase of fixed costs, unstable exchange quotations. This package software solves these problems. This package provides an integration of process control and Operation control, combination of standard equipment, easy customized function of business application software, and remote operation function. This package software runs on open platform computer. This package consists of the operation database, communication adapter subsystem, optimal plan subsystem, quality control subsystem, roll handling subsystem, and remote operation subsystem.In the future, we will plans the extension of pulp and paper plants operation control system, such as feedback function of process data and performance data of operation and integration of production system and sale system.