Complex Software Development Projects Research Articles

50 & 25 Years Ago

Performance Evaluation; Richard R. Shively (p. 12) “Economics is, of course, a primary incentive for performance analysis. Growth in computing service cost as a percentage of the total budget has prompted many corporations and universities to focus attention on this subject.” (p. 14) “The growing flexibility of options and configurations in computer systems has stimulated the user and architect alike to devote more effort to modeling and measurement as a basis for decisions. … Other factors which have influenced interest in performance analysis include a) the necessity of performance projection in hardware development, particularly due to the high initial costs of circuit integration, and b) an analogous need in complex software development projects to establish feasibility and to minimize reprogramming effort.” [Editor’s note: The following articles represent different aspects of performance evaluation. All of them deal with issues that still play a role today.]

Using Design-Based Research to Layer Career-Like Experiences onto Software Development Courses

Using Design-Based Research to Layer Career-Like Experiences onto Software Development Courses

CellS: A Cell-Inspired Efficient Software Framework for AI-Enabled Application on Resources-Constrained Mobile System

Today’s mobile processors generally have multiple cores and sufficient hardware resources to support AI-enabled software operation. However, very few AI applications make full use of the computing performance of mobile multiprocessors. This is because the typical software development is sequential, and the degree of parallelism of the program is very low. In the increasingly complex AI-driven and software development projects with natural human–computer interaction, this will undoubtedly cause a waste of mobile computing resources that are originally limited. This paper proposes an intelligent system software framework, CellS, to improve smart software development on multicore mobile processor systems. This software framework mimics the cell system. In this framework, each cell can autonomously aware changes in the environment (input) and reaction (output) and may change the behavior of other cells. Smart software can be regarded as a large number of cells interacting with each other. Software developed based on the CellS framework has a high degree of scalability and flexibility and can more fully use multicore computing resources to achieve higher computing efficiency.

Enabling lifelong learning: the key to agility at ThoughtWorks India

PurposeThe paper aims to describe the innovative learning culture, practices and processes at ThoughtWorks India (TWI), a software application development company in India. These practices support continual learning and development at the level of employees, project teams and the entire organization.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws upon the unique case of TWI. It describes the need for continual learning at TWI. It then describes how the organization has promoted a culture of continual learning on an individual, team and organizational level. It explains how the learning practices and processes aligns to the project level and organizational goals.FindingsBecause of the complex and difficult nature of software development projects that TWI takes up regularly, it needs its employees to be at the cutting edge of technological skills and know-how. If this was to be attempted through formal training programs, it would turn out to be extremely expensive and inefficient way of learning for TWI. Instead, TWI relies on on-the-job-learning. It does so through a variety of innovative work practices that are described in the paper. It also achieves its learning goals through a culture that supports continual learning and development of employees.Practical implicationsThe learning related practices, processes and mechanisms used at TWI can be emulated by companies in the software development industry. This will ensure that employees learn and develop their skill-sets all the time and remain at the cutting edge of technological developments. This will help organizations pitch for and successfully deliver difficult and complex software development projects that add very high value to their clients.Social implicationsThe social implications of the approach followed by TWI are positive. Employees are motivated to improve themselves every day. They understand the need for doing so. Also, they appreciate the fact that TWI supports continual learning and development. Knowledge sharing among employees is encouraged through the practices followed almost daily in projects.Originality/valueThe paper considers a unique set of learning and development practices, processes and mechanisms in TWI, a software development company in India.

The application of knowledge management to software evolution

In complex software development projects, consistent planning and communication between the stakeholders is crucial for effective collaboration across the different stages in software construction. Taking the view of software development and maintenance as being part of the broader phenomenon of software evolution, this paper argues that the adoption of knowledge management practices in software engineering would improve both software construction and more particularly software maintenance. The research work presents a guidance model for both areas: knowledge management and software engineering, combining insights across corporate software projects as a means of evaluating the effects on people and organization, technology, workflows and processes.

From Aristotle to Ringelmann: a large-scale analysis of team productivity and coordination in Open Source Software projects

Complex software development projects rely on the contribution of teams of developers, who are required to collaborate and coordinate their efforts. The productivity of such development teams, i.e., how their size is related to the produced output, is an important consideration for project and schedule management as well as for cost estimation. The majority of studies in empirical software engineering suggest that - due to coordination overhead - teams of collaborating developers become less productive as they grow in size. This phenomenon is commonly paraphrased as Brooks' law of software project management, which states that "adding manpower to a software project makes it later". Outside software engineering, the non-additive scaling of productivity in teams is often referred to as the Ringelmann effect, which is studied extensively in social psychology and organizational theory. Conversely, a recent study suggested that in Open Source Software (OSS) projects, the productivity of developers increases as the team grows in size. Attributing it to collective synergetic effects, this surprising finding was linked to the Aristotelian quote that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts". Using a data set of 58 OSS projects with more than 580,000 commits contributed by more than 30,000 developers, in this article we provide a large-scale analysis of the relation between size and productivity of software development teams. Our findings confirm the negative relation between team size and productivity previously suggested by empirical software engineering research, thus providing quantitative evidence for the presence of a strong Ringelmann effect. Using fine-grained data on the association between developers and source code files, we investigate possible explanations for the observed relations between team size and productivity. In particular, we take a network perspective on developer-code associations in software development teams and show that the magnitude of the decrease in productivity is likely to be related to the growth dynamics of co-editing networks which can be interpreted as a first-order approximation of coordination requirements.

Complex software project development: agile methods adoption

AbstractThe Agile Software Development paradigm has become increasingly popular in the last few years, since it claims lower costs, better productivity, better quality and better business satisfaction. Supply chain management (SCM) is a complex software development project. Owing to its scope and uncertain, complex and unstable requirements, it is not possible to develop it with predictable software development process models. Agile methodologies are targeted toward such kinds of problems that involve change and uncertainty, and are adaptive rather than predictive. How an agile process is introduced will significantly impact the implementation success of the process change. The objective of this paper is to analyze the agile development methodologies and management approach used in developing a complex software project. This further demonstrates how to overcome risks and barriers in each development phase of such complex inventive software projects. It also provides a set of guidelines regarding how the agile methodologies can be adopted, combined and used in these kinds of complex software projects. These findings have implications for software engineers and managers developing software by agile methods. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A project management approach to using simulation for cost estimation on large, complex software development projects

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

A Project Management Approach to Using Simulation for Cost Estimation on Large, Complex Software Development Projects

:An engineering manager can use this article to develop an approach to estimating cost and scheduling for large, complex software development projects that considers the inherent difficulties of developing accurate estimates for such projects. None of the approaches or tools available today can estimate the true cost of software with any high degree of accuracy early in a project. This article provides an approach that uses a software development process simulation model that considers and conveys the level of uncertainty that exists when developing an initial estimate. A NASA project will be analyzed using simulation and data from the Software Engineering Laboratory to show the benefits of such an approach.

MANAGING CRITICAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Software development is a complex, knowledgeintensive, and innovative process that frequently takes place in an extremely competitive and highly uncertain environment. For a long time, software developers have used traditional-structured approaches that are more disciplined and focus on coordinated actions to ensure the software goals are met. Recently, this traditional way of software development has faced challenges by an alternative approach, namely, Agile Method. The essences of Agile Method basically include the incorporation of autonomy into software development to nurture the creativity and resourcefulness of developers. In this paper, we identify the critical knowledge management (KM) issues currently arising in many global software development projects and the methods for their management. We also present a framework for the adoption of an agile method to manage complex software development projects in a global environment. This framework can be characterized as ‘Discipline at the Global Level, Be Agile at the Local Level.’

An Experiential Case Study in IT Project Management Planning

The case covers key issues in information technology project management. It deals with developing a full set of project plans, including milestones, tasks, schedules, staffing, deliverables, and projected costs, for a complex software development project (Gido & Clements, 2003; Kerzner, 2003; Schwalbe, 2002). The essence of this case is the analyzing of a specific organizational setting with critical software needs and the developing of the needed plans. As in many similar situations, this organization is relatively complex, and the situation is not entirely clear. By reviewing the facts of the case, collecting outside information, conducting role playing interviews, analyzing requirements, and estimating schedules and costs, one can collect the information needed to develop baseline project plans for the software development envisioned in this case.

The chaos strategy

"What line of code should I write next?" This paper resulted from my search for an answer that reflects my experiences in writing real programs, and reflects both the Chaos model and life cycle. After trying to infer an answer directly from the Chaos life cycle, in fact from any life cycle, I ultimately gave up. I concluded that while life cycles describe what I can do in a project, life cycles do not describe what I should do in a project. For that I need another concept, such as strategy.Strategies are idealized plans of how software development should work. Strategies help us to prioritize the things we do. A general strategy defines an overall approach for solving a problem that must be adapted to meet local circumstances. A specific strategy defines immediate goals. A good specific strategy balances short-term progress with long-term goals.Applying the concept of strategy to software development may seem inappropriate, or even absurd, to software developers who normally worry about concepts like correctness, specification, and quality. Developers have been taught to think of software development as totally predictable, with each step a perfectly understood element. Strategy implies a contest which admits that a developer could lose. On the other hand, developers may be more familiar applying strategy to investments, marketing, elections, and war. People do meaningfully use strategy for complex military and business problems.In The Chaos Model and the Chaos Life Cycle, I argued that each software development project is a chaotic, multi-level sequence of issues that arise and get resolved. Developers repeatedly select an issue to resolve, devise an approach, implement a solution, maintain the resulting program, and so forth. Software development is a project-to-project, situation-to-situation, minute-to-minute process, with many levels. Developers must deal with all levels from the "whole project" level down to the "one line of code" level. In The Complexity Gap, I argued that the middle levels of a project are not addressed by the traditional Stepwise Refinement and Object-Oriented Design strategies. The macro-process and top-down strategies address the top levels of a project. The micro-process and bottom-up strategies address the bottom levels of a project.In this paper, I propose the Chaos strategy to guide development on the levels of a project within the Complexity Gap. I begin by describing parallels between software development and games of strategy, and by defining the Software Development Game. I then define elements of the Chaos strategy, a middle-out, technology-independent strategy. Finally, I show how to adapt the Chaos strategy to fit the various circumstances that arise in complex software development projects.

Software industry entry strategies for developing countries: A “walking on two legs” proposition

Two themes run through the following analysis. First, countries without a relatively active and up-to-date software sector will find it increasingly difficult to “catch up” in terms of capital outlays, labor, skills, and the growing importance of technology changes, organization and management in software production. They will not have, for example, software management experience to undertake increasingly large and complex software development projects; a quality consciousness; and the institutional and support infrastructure for marketing and forming product development alliances with dominant international firms in the sector. Second, the learning curves for domestic and international market activities are quite different, the domestic software market being an important base for skills, experience and establishing a track record that may later be applied to exports. Two developing countries — India and Brazil — have used different development strategies for their software industries and, as could be expected, with disparate results. Both the Brazilian and the Indian software industries are trying to“walk on one leg,” the domestic leg in the case of Brazil and the export leg in the case of India. Both countries have at least some potential for moving to a two-legged model. Assessment of these two industries suggests that countries need to pay more attention to domestic opportunities, since these have high returns in terms of gaining experience and innovation in software production, and provide training that allows a broadening of software exports.

Monitoring an Ada software development project

Abstract : As any science matures, the role of measurement, analysis and experimentation grows. The software engineering community has seen the continued development of new software development methods and tools and their use in various environments. The evaluation of methods and tools began with subjective criteria and has been developing toward more objective data collection, measurement and controlled experiments. While this trend is encouraging, these evaluation studies have largely been on a one-shot basis. What has been missing is a systematic approach which defines a longe-range program for the study, analysis and evaluation of a specific method or tool. The emergence of Ada provides a focal point for developing such a systematic study. As a first step, research teams from the University of Maryland and General Electric have embarked upon an eighteen-month collaborative effort. The purpose of this effort is to monitor the use of Ada on a realistically large and complex software development project within industry.