Commercial Software Development Research Articles

Quantitative Approach to Quality Review of Prenatal Ultrasound Examinations: Fetal Biometry.

Background/Objectives: To evaluate the quality of an ultrasound practice, both large-scale and focused audits are recommended by professional organizations, but such audits can be time-consuming, inefficient, and expensive. Our objective was to develop a time-efficient, quantitative, objective, large-scale method to evaluate fetal biometry measurements for an entire practice, combined with a process for focused image review for personnel whose measurements are outliers. Methods: Ultrasound exam data for a full year are exported from commercial ultrasound reporting software to a statistical package. Fetal biometry measurements are converted to z-scores to standardize across gestational ages. For a large-scale audit, sonographer mean z-scores are compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Scheffe multiple comparisons test. A focused image review is performed on a random sample of exams for sonographers whose mean z-scores differ significantly from the practice mean. A similar large-scale audit is performed, comparing physician mean z-scores. Results: Using fetal abdominal circumference measurements as an example, significant differences between sonographer mean z-scores are readily identified by the ANOVA and Scheffe test. A method is described for the blinded image audit of sonographers with outlier mean z-scores. Examples are also given for the identification and interpretation of several types of systematic errors that are unlikely to be detectable by image review, including z-scores with large or small standard deviations and physicians with outlier mean z-scores. Conclusions: The large-scale quantitative analysis provides an overview of the biometry measurements of all the sonographers and physicians in a practice, so that image audits can be focused on those whose measurements are outliers. The analysis takes little time to perform after initial development and avoids the time, complexity, and expense of auditing providers whose measurements fall within the expected range. We encourage commercial software developers to include tools in their ultrasound reporting software to facilitate such quantitative reviews.

MMORPG-based collaborative design and construction simulation in prefabricated buildings

ABSTRACT This study aims to address the challenges associated with information exchange during the design and construction phases of prefabricated buildings. To overcome these obstacles, we developed a web-based Smart Collaboration System(SCS), which was inspired by Massively Multiplayer Onlinen Role-playing Game (MMORPG) technology. The methodology employed in this study involves a comprehensive literature review, the development of a prototype system, and the application of this system. The study’s results demonstrate that the utilization of MMORPG-based collaboration system improves efficiency in the design and construction process. And compared to conventional systems, the MMORPG-based system developed in this study exhibits a few key distinctions. Firstly, individual stakeholder roles are explicitly designated, enabling more efficient collaborative exchange of design and construction information. Secondly, the system effectively bridges the gap between project stages, such as design to production and production to construction. Lastly, the system introduces an element of enjoyment to the design, production, and construction process, which is typically absent in existing commercial software developers’ offerings. This research contributes to the advancement of collaborative design and construction methods by leveraging the MMORPG-based technology, and provides valuable insights for industry professionals and researchers seeking to improve collaboration and optimize the design and construction process.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OF SOFTWARE DATA SECURITY MONITORING

The article proposes an overview of an information technology of software data security monitoring with the aim of increasing the security of auxiliary and end-user software in run-time using the designed universal architecture with the capabilities of synchronized data security validation processes in client-server interactions and integration into software development technologies using unified interfaces for specifying extensible sets of validation rules. An analysis of the subject area was conducted, during which it was established that the tasks of software data security validation are included in the requirements of well-known data security standards, and the related vulnerabilities are noted as highly important. It was also established that the traditional monitoring of only software input data is not enough, therefore the problem of security monitoring of various categories of software data is relevant. The capabilities of existing tools to monitor security and correctness of software data are incomplete: focus on certain categories of data, platform dependency, narrow integration capabilities with other software development tools, limited usage, complex or limited extensibility, difficult reuse of well-known verified solutions etc. Based on the analysis of the existing software data security monitoring tools, the cons of the existing implementations were identified, and a universal architecture of the software framework was proposed as a solution. The analysis of the vulnerabilities of various categories of software data was conducted along with the recommended methods of implementation of data security. Discovered methods of data security implementation were used in the proposed solution. The article examines the structure of the proposed information technology, provides the universal architecture of the software framework, demonstrates the verification of the work of the developed tool, and provides the assessment of the effectiveness of usage of the data security monitoring framework in software development. The proposed architecture and directions of further improvements of the framework allow significant extension of its functionality and easy integration into popular software development technologies. It is assumed that the developed information technology of software data security monitoring will be widely used in commercial software development as well as in educational and scientific appliance.

Generating a Template for an Educational Software Development Methodology for Novice Computing Undergraduates: An Integrative Review

Aim/Purpose: The teaching of appropriate problem-solving techniques to novice learners in undergraduate software development education is often poorly defined when compared to the delivery of programming techniques. Given the global need for qualified designers of information technology, the purpose of this research is to produce a foundational template for an educational software development methodology grounded in the established literature. This template can be used by third-level educators and researchers to develop robust educational methodologies to cultivate structured problem solving and software development habits in their students while systematically teaching the intricacies of software creation. Background: While software development methodologies are a standard approach to structured and traceable problem solving in commercial software development, educational methodologies for inexperienced learners remain a neglected area of research due to their assumption of prior programming knowledge. This research aims to address this deficit by conducting an integrative review to produce a template for such a methodology. Methodology: An integrative review was conducted on the key components of Teaching Software Development Education, Problem Solving, Threshold Concepts, and Computational Thinking. Systematic reviews were conducted on Computational Thinking and Software Development Education by employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) process. Narrative reviews were conducted on Problem Solving and Threshold Concepts. Contribution: This research provides a comprehensive analysis of problem solving, software development education, computational thinking, and threshold concepts in computing in the context of undergraduate software development education. It also synthesizes review findings from these four areas and combines them to form a research-based foundational template methodology for use by educators and researchers interested in software development undergraduate education. Findings: This review identifies seven skills and four concepts required by novice learners. The skills include the ability to perform abstraction, data representation, decomposition, evaluation, mental modeling, pattern recognition, and writing algorithms. The concepts include state and sequential flow, non-sequential flow control, modularity, and object interaction. The teaching of these skills and concepts is combined into a spiral learning framework and is joined by four development stages to guide software problem solving: understanding the problem, breaking into tasks, designing, coding, testing, and integrating, and final evaluation and reflection. This produces the principal finding, which is a research-based foundational template for educational software development methodologies. Recommendations for Practitioners: Focusing introductory undergraduate computing courses on a programming syllabus without giving adequate support to problem solving may hinder students in their attainment of development skills. Therefore, providing a structured methodology is necessary as it equips students with essential problem-solving skills and ensures they develop good development practices from the start, which is crucial to ensuring undergraduate success in their studies and beyond. Recommendation for Researchers: The creation of educational software development methodologies with tool support is an under-researched area in undergraduate education. The template produced by this research can serve as a foundational conceptual model for researchers to create concrete tools to better support computing undergraduates. Impact on Society: Improving the educational value and experience of software development undergraduates is crucial for society once they graduate. They drive innovation and economic growth by creating new technologies, improving efficiency in various industries, and solving complex problems. Future Research: Future research should concentrate on using the template produced by this research to create a concrete educational methodology adapted to suit a specific programming paradigm, with an associated learning tool that can be used with first-year computing undergraduates.

Improving the efficiency of symbolic execution by clustering the input data based on the complexity of test generation

The object of research is means to increase computational effectiveness for automatic unit test generation process. It provides arguments for developing new method to achieve wider use of symbolic execution in commercial software development. The main task of the research is to create adaptive code clustering method that considers test generation complexity for structural source code elements and available computational resources that will increase effectiveness of computations. It is achieved by estimating test generation complexity and balancing the it for produced clusters during clusterization. As a result, proposed clustering method is adaptive to hardware and source code variability. It is shown that developed approach provides up to 30 % increase in computation effectiveness compared to clustering based on code structural properties alone for selected samples and up to 250 % in separate cases. This is caused by balanced estimated test generation complexity within generated clusters. It limits path explosion to expected levels that match computational resources for every cluster. Estimate of test generation complexity makes it possible to stop the computation when the spent time exceeds the corresponding complexity limit. Consequently, it makes it possible to prevent performing unnecessary computations. Proposed method makes it possible to use symbolic execution in commercial software development due to higher adaptability for source code and hardware variations. It will allow to reduce expenses on early-stage software testing and provide means for determining feasibility of symbolic execution for commercial projects

What Should a Good Software Requirements Specification Include? Results of a Survey

Abstract Software requirements specification is an important foundation of the software development process. It documents the requirements, expectations, and restrictions for a system to be developed. It should describe what the produced system will offer in detail and unambiguously. It should also provide a realistic basis for estimating product costs, risks, and schedules. Still, it is difficult to prepare a useful specification effectively. We want to propose an approach to creating a good specification. We started the work from scratch by determining what the scope of the specification should be. We asked people who work on IT projects what information is and should be included in the specifications with which they work. This paper presents results from a survey conducted with 163 participants who have experience working on commercial software development projects. The main observation is that the content of requirements specification differs with respect to project characteristics, such as industry or financing method. We also noticed that the information about integration with external systems and functionalities most often appears in the SRS.

Complex Cases of Source Code Authorship Identification Using a Hybrid Deep Neural Network

This paper is a continuation of our previous work on solving source code authorship identification problems. The analysis of heterogeneous source code is a relevant issue for copyright protection in commercial software development. This is related to the specificity of development processes and the usage of collaborative development tools (version control systems). As a result, there are source codes written according to different programming standards by a team of programmers with different skill levels. Another application field is information security—in particular, identifying the author of computer viruses. We apply our technique based on a hybrid of Inception-v1 and Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Units architectures on heterogeneous source codes and consider the most common commercial development complex cases that negatively affect the authorship identification process. The paper is devoted to the possibilities and limitations of the author’s technique in various complex cases. For situations where a programmer was proficient in two programming languages, the average accuracy was 87%; for proficiency in three or more—76%. For the artificially generated source code case, the average accuracy was 81.5%. Finally, the average accuracy for source codes generated from commits was 84%. The comparison with state-of-the-art approaches showed that the proposed method has no full-functionality analogs covering actual practical cases.

Питання вибору і кваліфікації засобів розробки програмного забезпечення для електронних систем автоматичного керування авіаційних двигунів

The introductory part of the article provides information that Element JSC is one of the leading enterprises in Ukraine in the scientific and technical direction "Electronic systems for measuring, parameters monitoring and controlling aircraft engines". Because of cooperation with Ivchenko-Progress SE and Motor Sich JSC, Element JSC has manufactured more than 250 EEC units of the RDC-450M family for various modifications of the AI-450 Turboshaft/Turboprop engines. The software of these EEC units is certified according to the DO-178B/ED-12B. The software of subsequent EEC units under development is planned to be certified according to the state-of-the-art DO-178C/ED-12С guideline, and development tools qualified according to the DO-330/ED-215 guideline will also be used in development. This article is devoted to the issues of selection and qualification of such tools. A review and brief analysis of modern commercial software development tools for embedded systems, including those applied to the STM32 family microcontrollers, which are widely used in the JSC Element products, is given. The qualification of the user required for operating these development tools is indicated. Information is given on software verification tools, features of the interpretation of the “verification” term in DO-178C/ED-12C. As an example, the SPI tool is given, which has been successfully used for many years at Element JSC for the functional development of EEC units. The process of determining the level of qualification of instruments using three special criteria is described, an algorithm for qualification is given, and examples from the practice of Element JSC are given. Information is given on recently appearing commercial DO-178 support packages for embedded software developers in the qualification of tools, an algorithm of operation is given, shortcomings and possible problems are assessed. Finally, it is concluded that the process of selecting and further qualification of tools has a serious impact on labor costs in the certification of software for embedded systems for aviation applications.

Automating process design by coupling genetic algorithms with commercial simulators: a case study for hybrid MABR processes.

The development of commercial software and simulators has progressed to assist engineers to optimize design, operation, and control of wastewater treatment processes. Commonly, manual trial-and-error approaches combined with engineering experience or exhaustive searches are used to find candidate solutions. These approaches are becoming less favorable because of the increasingly elaborate process models, especially for new and innovative processes whose process knowledge is not fully established. This study coupled genetic algorithms (GAs), a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI), with a commercial simulator (SUMO) to automatically complete a design task. The design objective was the upgrade of a conventional Modified Ludzack-Ettinger (MLE) process to a hybrid membrane aerated biofilm reactor (hybrid MABR). Results demonstrated that GAs can (1) accurately estimate five influent wastewater fractions using eleven typical measurements - 3 out of 5 estimated fractions were nearly the same and the other two were within 7% relative errors and (2) propose reasonable designs for the hybrid MABR process that reduce footprint by 17%, aeration by 57%, and pumping by 57% with significantly improved effluent nitrogen quality (TN<3 mg-N/L). This study demonstrated that tools from AI promote efficiency in wastewater treatment process design, optimization and control by searching candidate solutions both smartly and automatically in replacement of manual trial-and-error methods. The methodology in this study contributes to accumulating process knowledge, understanding trade-offs between decisions, and finally accelerates the learning pace for new processes.

Research and development of parametric design platform for series complex cutting tools

The performance of metal cutting tools directly affects the manufacturing efficiency and machining quality of products. With the increasing demands in manufacturing industry of cutting performance, machining efficiency, customization, and quick response, traditional tool design methods can no longer meet the above requirements due to many repetitive work, large amount of calculation, complex process, and low efficiency. Parametric design has become a new development direction of customized tool design because of its fast, stable, and accurate characteristics. Based on the parametric design of cutting tools, this paper develops a tool parametric design platform by using the method of secondary development of commercial CAD software. The platform realizes automatic operation in the background without commercial CAD software interface, completes the parametric modeling process of tools, generates 2D drawings and 3D models conforming to ISO 13399 standard, and realizes the cloud storage function of model data and the parametric design of many kinds of tools. Compare with that traditional modeling method, using this parametric modeling platform, the modeling efficiency is increased by 90% on average. This platform is of great significance to improve the design efficiency of complex customized tools and shorten the original design cycle by 30%.

A Domain-Specific Language for the Document-Based Model-Driven Engineering of Business Applications

To facilitate the development of business applications, a domain-specific language (DSL), called DARC, is introduced in this paper. Business documents including the descriptions of the responsibilities, authorizations, and collaborations, are used as the first-class entities during model-driven engineering (MDE) with DARC. Hence the implementation of the business applications can be automatically achieved from the corresponding document models. The evaluation of using DARC DSL for the development of commercial business software was performed in an international sales, logistics, and service solution provider company. The results showed that the code for all business documents and more than 50% of the responsibility descriptions composing the business applications could be generated automatically by modeling with DARC. Finally, according to the users’ feedback, the assessment clearly revealed the adoption of DARC features in terms of the DSL quality characteristics, namely functional suitability, usability, reliability, maintainability, productivity, extensibility, compatibility, and expressiveness.

Systematic Literature Review of Software as a Service [SaaS] in view of Security and Multitenancy

Abstract: In early days of commercial software development, it was very expensive as multiple components were required such as - hardware, software, infrastructure to support mere an application development and implementation. Industry was using it with a note of burden to manage the support services. Visualizing these specific problems ICT took it as a challenge and introduces cost effective solution and bifurcated in Service components. Broadly a) Infrastructure as a Service b) Platform as a Service c) Software as a Service. Industry welcomed the approach and started handing over these services to market players and were able to focus on their key business areas. In recent development of cloud architecture these are becoming BUZZ word in industry and innovating traditional approaches. Keywords: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, CaaS, Security, Multitenancy, Cloud Architecture

Development of a Modularized Virtual Flight Simulator based on Multiple Discipline Coupled Method

The problem of aircraft control involves multiple subjects and has always been extremely complicated in mechanics modelling. Virtual flight simulation was put forward in order to reduce the cost of full-scale airplane flying test and wind tunnel experiment. A typical virtual flight simulator includes a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver, a structure dynamics (FD) function, and a flight controller. However, existed virtual flight solver usually ignores the universal modelling of dynamics for complex aircraft configuration and the modularization of CFD, FD and flight controller module, which makes it very inconvenient for many in-house virtual flight codes for engineering application and commercial software development. A new framework of virtual flight simulation platform is established with a parallel Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver, a structured moving overlapping grid function, a generic multiple body dynamics (MBD) solver, and a plug-in type flight controller platform. A universal data exchange interface between MBD and flight controller is presented. An X-wing missile flying forward and pitching-up maneuvering validation case is conducted with the current virtual flight simulator, the result is compared with Matlab Simulink solver based on steady aerodynamic database and good agreement is obtained.

"They Can Only Ever Guide"

Unlike in commercial software development, open source software (OSS) projects do not generally have managers with direct control over how developers spend their time, yet for projects with large, diverse sets of contributors, the need exists to focus and steer development in a particular direction in a coordinated way. This is especially important for "infrastructure" projects, such as critical libraries and programming languages that many other people depend on. Some projects have taken the approach of borrowing planning tools that originated in commercial development, despite the fact that these techniques were designed for very different contexts, e.g. strong top-down control and profit motives. Little research has been done to understand how these practices are adapted to a new context. In this paper, we examine the Rust project's use of roadmaps: how has an important OSS infrastructure project adapted an inherently top-down tool to the freewheeling world of OSS? We find that because Rust's roadmaps are built in part by summarizing what motivated developers most prefer to work on, they are in some ways more a description of the motivated labor available than they are a directive that the community move in a particular direction. They allow the community to avoid wasting time on unpopular proposals by revealing that there will be little help in building them, and encouraging work on popular features by making visible the amount of consensus in those features. Roadmaps generate a collective focus without limiting the full scope of what developers work on: roadmap issues consume proportionally more effort than other issues, but constitute a minority of the work done (i.e issues and pull requests made) by both central and peripheral participants. They also create transparency among and beyond the community into what central contributors' plans are, and allow more rational decision-making by providing a way for evidence about community needs to be linked to decision-making.

Wind turbine wake models' evaluation for different downstream locations

The land use limitations, especially for onshore applications, have led modern Wind Turbines (WTs) to be aggregated in wind parks under the scope of minimizing the necessary area required. Within this framework, the trustworthy prediction of the wind speed deficiency downstream the WTs' hub (known also as the “wake effect”) and the meticulous wind park micrositing are of uppermost importance for the optimized WTs siting across the available land area. In this context, substantial effort has been made by the academic and research community, contributing to the deployment of several analytical, numerical and semi-empirical wake models, attempting to estimate the wind speed values at different locations downstream a WT. The accuracy of several semi-empirical and analytical wake models, serving also as the basis for pertinent commercial software development, is investigated in the present work, by comparing their outcome with experimental data from a past research work that concerns the wake flow. The dimensionless streamwise distance (known also with the term “downstream distance”) from the WT's hub is used as benchmark in order to categorize and evaluate the calculation results. A dedicated comparison between the wind speed cases investigated is conducted, striving to properly assess the wake models' prediction accuracy. The notable findings obtained for the wake models examined designate the requirement for subsequent research to enlighten the wake effect dynamic behavior.

Agile Fitness of Software Companies in Bangladesh: An Empirical Investigation

With the mandate of light-weight working practices, iterative development, customer collaboration and incremental delivery of business values, Agile software development methods have become the de-facto standard for commercial software development, worldwide. Consequently, this research aims to empirically investigate the preparedness and the adoption of agile practices in the prominent software companies in Bangladesh. To achieve this goal, an extensive survey with 16 established software companies in Bangladesh is carried out. Results exhibit that the Scrum agile methodology is the highest practiced one. Alongside, to a great extent these software companies have the readiness to effectively adopt the Scrum methodology. However, with regard to practicing the Scrum principles, they fall short in many key aspects.

ICT and education in Brazil - NGO, local government administration, business and higher education expert perspective

The paper aims to present the conditions surrounding the use of ICTs in Brazilian schools. The goal of the study was to offer a wide perspective that included the opportunities, barriers, transfer of knowledge, and challenges related to introducing information technology into education. The technique used was qualitative - an expert interview with four experienced respondents. The individuals interviewed represented different areas of professional activity: the academic sector, the implementation of practical activities in schools, pedagogical supervision, and the development of commercial software. The study was conducted in 2019, as part of the expert conference CBIE (Congresso Brasileiro de Informática da Educação – Brazilian Conference on Computers in Education). The results of the analyses reveal that the challenges of implementing ICT in educational processes are similar to those found in the global perspective. According to these experts, Brazil faces similar issues to those found in other countries, namely: the appropriate preparation of teachers in the use of ICT, supplying schools with high-speed and up-to-date hardware and software, encouraging teachers to use ICT, the re-constitution of educational policies, and changes in administering IT resources within schools.&#x0D; Keywords: ICT; Brazil; school; computers; Internet; information society; experts; interview; SELI;

Geoteknik Mühendisliğinde Açık Kaynaklı Yazılım Geliştirme Araçlarının Kullanımı: Hidrometre Deneyi Örneği

Geoteknik mühendisliğinde, araştırma konuları kapsamında başvurulan arazi ve laboratuvar deneylerinin çözümlenmesinde, yazılımlar yaygın olarak kullanılmaktadır. Arazi ve laboratuvar deneylerinin çeşitliliği, araştırma ölçeğine göre çok sayıda deney verisinin olabilmesi ve çözümleme sonucu bulgulara bağlı olarak bazı görsel ögeler sunma gerekliliği; ticari amaçlı yazılım geliştirme hizmetlerinin ve kapalı kaynak uygulamaların çoğul hale gelmesine neden olmuştur. Bu çalışmada, geoteknik mühendisliğinde zemin endeks özelliklerini tanımlamada kullanılan laboratuvar deneylerinden biri olan hidrometre deneyinin; veri alma, değerlendirme ve çözümleme süreçleri, birtakım bütünleşik açık kaynaklı yazılım geliştirme araçlarında kodlanarak, internet tabanlı bir uygulama geliştirilmiştir. Bilimsel yayınlardan derlenen hidrometre deneyi verilerinin sanal çözümlemesi gerçekleştirilerek, yazılımın hesap doğrulaması sağlanmıştır. Yazılımdaki girdi veriler, akış yolu adımları içerisinde çözümlenerek uluslararası standart esasına uygun çizelgeler ve grafikler olarak, internet tarayıcısı üzerinden kullanıcılara sunulmuştur. Sonuç olarak, mevcut ticari yazılımların yaygınlığına ve erişim yoğunluğuna karşı, açık kaynaklı yazılım geliştirme araçlarının, bu çalışmadan hareketle, geoteknik mühendisliği uygulama geliştirme alanında son derece kullanılabilir olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır.

Experiences with a Flexible User Research Process to Build Data Change Tools

Scientific software development processes are understood to be distinct from commercial software development practices due to uncertain and evolving states of scientific knowledge. Sustaining these software products is a recognized challenge, but under-examined is the usability and usefulness of such tools to their scientific end users. User research is a well-established set of techniques (e.g., interviews, mockups, usability tests) applied in commercial software projects to develop foundational, generative, and evaluative insights about products and the people who use them. Currently these approaches are not commonly applied and discussed in scientific software development work. The use of user research techniques in scientific environments can be challenging due to the nascent, fluid problem spaces of scientific work, varying scope of projects and their user communities, and funding/economic constraints on projects. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences undertaking a multi-method user research process in the Deduce project. The Deduce project is investigating data change to develop metrics, methods, and tools that will help scientists make decisions around data change. There is a lack of common terminology since the concept of systematically measuring and managing data change is under explored in scientific environments. To bridge this gap we conducted user research that focuses on user practices, needs, and motivations to help us design and develop metrics and tools for data change. This paper contributes reflections and the lessons we have learned from our experiences. We offer key takeaways for scientific software project teams to effectively and flexibly incorporate similar processes into their projects.

Interior Ballistic Characteristics of Electromagnetic Rail Launcher Under Continuous Firing

According to the characteristics of an actual electromagnetic rail launcher (EMRL), this article points out defects in the traditional dynamic response model of EMRL, proposes an improved dynamic response model, and analyzes its dynamic and stopping response characteristics. On this basis, it presents a fast and accurate numerical calculation method for three-dimensional transient electromagnetic (EM) force of the EMRL and an order-reduced model of EMRL dynamic response. Furthermore, the second development of commercial software leads to the establishment of an interior ballistic simulation model with EM-structural coupling. The model is used to analyze the interior ballistic characteristics of the EMRL under sequential discharge and continuous firing. The finding is that the dynamic response of the first launching rail will cause a deformation in the second launching rail, in which a greater fluctuation happens. When the time interval between successive launches reaches 1.0 s, the deformation of the second launching rail will no longer be affected by the dynamic response of the first launching rail.