Context Of Software Development Research Articles

Competition-Based Crowdsourcing Software Development: A Multi-Method Study from a Customer Perspective

Crowdsourcing is emerging as an alternative outsourcing strategy which is gaining increasing attention in the software engineering community. However, crowdsourcing software development involves complex tasks which differ significantly from the micro-tasks that can be found on crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk which are much shorter in duration, are typically very simple, and do not involve any task interdependencies. To achieve the potential benefits of crowdsourcing in the software development context, companies need to understand how this strategy works, and what factors might affect crowd participation. We present a multi-method qualitative and quantitative theory-building research study. First, we derive a set of key concerns from the crowdsourcing literature as an initial analytical framework for an exploratory case study in a Fortune 500 company. We complement the case study findings with an analysis of 13,602 crowdsourcing competitions over a ten-year period on the very popular Topcoder crowdsourcing platform. Drawing from our empirical findings and the crowdsourcing literature, we propose a theoretical model of crowd interest and actual participation in crowdsourcing competitions. We evaluate this model using Structural Equation Modeling. Among the findings are that the level of prize and duration of competitions do not significantly increase crowd interest in competitions.

Co-membership, networks ties, and knowledge flow: An empirical investigation controlling for alternative mechanisms

Co-membership has been considered as a major mechanism for knowledge flow. However, alternative mechanisms exist for the observed knowledge flow. One of the effective ways to reduce the possibility of alternative mechanisms is to make use of online settings. However, even at online settings, individuals can still directly watch and learn from each other, resulting in knowledge flow. This study investigates the impact of co-membership under the unique context of open source software (OSS) development at GitHub. It finds that both co-membership and watching are effective for knowledge flow, which further increases OSS development technical success, measured as project commits. Moreover, the impact of co-membership is much stronger than watching. While co-membership is indeed an effective mechanism for knowledge flow, its impact tends to be biased without controlling for alternative mechanisms.

Exploring pair programming beyond computer science: a case study in its use in data science/data engineering

While pair programming has been studied extensively when teaching computer science students, very little has been reported with respect to pair programming in a broader context. To help address this gap, this paper reports on a case study evaluating the effectiveness of pair programming within a data science course. Our findings show that pair programming can be useful for teaching data science students. In addition, while the driver role was similar to what has been described within a software development context, we note that the navigator role had an expanded set of responsibilities, which we termed researcher activities. Further research is required to explore if pair programming is also useful in other engineering domains and if the expanded navigator role is applicable in domains beyond data science/data engineering.

JAMDER: JADE to MULTI-Agent Systems Development Resource

The semantic gap is distinguished by the difference between two descriptions generated using different representations. This difference has a negative impact on the developer productivity and probably, the quality of the written code. In software development context, the coding phase aims at coding the system consistent with the detailed project developed with a group of designed models. This paper presents an endeavor to consolidate different agent type definitions and implementation concepts for Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) involving the adaptation of the JADE framework regarding the theoretical concepts in MAS. Additionally, it contains a standardization of code generation. The main benefit of the proposed extension is to include the agent internal architectures, entities and relationships in an implementation framework and increase the productivity by code generation, ensuring the consistency between design and code. The applicability of the extension is illustrated by developing a multi-agent system for Moodle.

Do modular products lead to modular organisations? Evidence from open source software development

This study examines whether a modular product architecture leads to a modular organisational architecture or the mirroring hypothesis under the context of open source software development. We develop new metrics of product and organisational modularity and provide empirical evidence supporting the mirroring hypothesis. We also extend prior literature by showing that the number of organisational members contributes positively to organisational modularity. Furthermore, we show that organisational modularity is a dynamic concept and tends to vary during different stages of the product development life cycle. Our findings have important theoretical and practical implications.

Challenges and Solutions for Addressing Software Security in Agile Software Development

There has been a surge in the number of software security threats and vulnerabilities in recent times. At the same time, expectations towards software and data security are growing. Thus, there is a need to ensure that security-related tasks are effectively integrated in the software development processes. However, integrating security practices with agile software development is not trivial due to, for instance, differences in process dynamics and the concentration on functional vs non-functional requirements. In this article, the authors present a literature review on the challenges and solutions when adopting security in an agile software development context. Their findings suggest that there are ongoing efforts to integrate security-practices in agile methods, but more research is needed to make the processes more optimized and simpler for developers. A rigor and relevance assessment on primary studies highlights a need for improving the manner in which studies on the topic are performed as well as reported.

The Use of Kanban to Alleviate Collaboration and Communication Challenges of Global Software Development

Aim/Purpose: This paper aims to describe how various Kanban elements can help alleviate two prominent types of challenges, communication and collaboration in Global Software Development (GSD). Background: Iterative and Lean development methodologies like Kanban have gained significance in the software development industry, both in the co-located and globally distributed contexts. However, little is known on how such methodologies can help mitigate various challenges in that occur in a globally distributed software development context. Methodology: The study was conducted using a single-case study based on a general inductive approach to analysis and theory development. Through the literature review, collaboration and communication challenges that GSD teams face were identified. Data collected through semi-structured interviews was then inductively analyzed to describe how the case-study teams employed various Kanban elements to mitigate communication and collaboration challenges they face during GSD. Findings: The study found that some Kanban elements, when properly employed, can help alleviate collaboration and communication challenges that occur within GSD teams. These relate to Inclusion Criteria, Reverse Items, Kanban Board, Policies, Avatars, and Backlog. Contribution: The paper contributes to knowledge by proposing two simple concept maps that detail the specific types of communication and collaboration challenges which can be alleviated by the aforementioned Kanban elements in GSD. Recommendations for Practitioners: This paper is relevant to GSD teams who are seeking ways to enhance their team collaboration and communication as these are the most important elements that contribute to GSD project success. It is recommended that relevant Kanban elements be used to that effect, depending on the challenges that they aim to alleviate. Future Research: Future research can investigate the same research questions (or similar ones) using a quantitative approach.

Context Based Software Development Knowledge Map

The rich and complex elements existing across the development process that define the ultimate goal of the developers’ team could be viewed as their context. This can be viewed across different dimensions and is helpful for a team of developers to remain within a predefined limit. In other words, they can easily recognize their boundaries and are able to view the scope of the software under development. This document clearly defines the dimensions that characterize the work environment of developers in context based software development. It also illustrates the knowledge maps by using enduring business themes, business objects and industrial objects, which create a comprehensive pattern in a software development context. These models and design patterns also provide a new dimension for the developer in a context based development. Furthermore, it gives them a clear perspective to use these design patterns to develop a number of applications on top of it. The developer can use extraction, analysis and availability to gain new knowledge, while using context based software development process. The patterns developed also provide a rich working environment to a particular developer and enables him/her to relate to the task that is being developed. The use case section provides a clear example and of how these enduring business themes and business objects can be mapped to an application leading the way for the user to design similar applications and use cases, to make use of these available design patterns and benefit and be more productive in the process of context based software development.

Why Controls Are Used in Platform Ecosystems?

Existing literature on control in software development context considers only the principal-agency relationship between controller and controlee. However, the principal-agency relationship cannot be assumed between ecosystems leader and partners, which are independent organizations. This paper aims to study the critical role played by inter-organizational control mechanisms in a mobile platform ecosystems. Based on an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach with 38 experts with diverse backgrounds, this research aims to identify and prioritise the most important roles of control portfolio in the platform ecosystems. Though traditionally controls are primarily used to coordinate between partners with divergent objectives, ecosystems leaders use control primarily to capture a higher share of value of the service. The findings provide further insights on two other roles of control in platform ecosystems: (i) accessing complementary resources and (ii) managing interdependency between partners. This research extends organizational control theory to the context of emerging platform-based ecosystem.

Innovation Drivers and Outputs for Software Firms: Literature Review and Concept Development

Software innovation, the ability to produce novel and useful software systems, is an important capability for software development organizations and information system developers alike. However, the software development literature has traditionally focused on automation and efficiency while the innovation literature has given relatively little consideration to the software development context. As a result, there is a gap in our understanding of how software product and process innovation can be managed. Specifically, little attention has been directed toward synthesizing prior learning or providing an integrative perspective on the key concepts and focus of software innovation research. We therefore identify 93 journal articles and conference papers within the domain of software innovation and analyse repeating patterns in this literature using content analysis and causal mapping. We identify drivers and outputs for software innovation and develop an integrated theory-oriented concept map. We then discuss the implications of this map for future research.

Continuous planning through the three horizons of growth

This study addresses the topic of continuous planning in the agile and lean software development context. The paper investigates how software companies can achieve various benefits by dividing their product development practices along the three horizons of growth. This approach allows software companies to have different product development and planning practices inside the company, thereby strengthening their positions in well-established businesses as well as creating growth in completely new businesses. Theoretically, the paper draws on the business literature of the three horizon model and on the literature of agile and lean software development. The empirical part is based on a case study with a leading Finnish software company. Altogether, 12 narrative interviews were conducted, involving people with various roles from product manager to chief strategy officer. The research presents a new approach towards continuous planning within multiple business horizons, to address common challenges in managing software product portfolios in different maturity phases.

The Role of Platforms in Reconciling Logic Pluralism? A Study of Indie App Developers on the iOS Platform

The software development field has inherently been identified with two field-level institutional logics: logic of the profession and logic of the markets. Traditionally, information systems development methodologies (ISD) have been utilized to reconcile the competing demands from these two logics. In this paper, we study how these two logics manifest in a platform-centric software development context where significant entrepreneurial opportunities are created for independent third-party app developers (indies). Specifically, we study how indie developers manage the two logics on the iOS platform, under the influence of the platform owner Apple. We first identify practices of indie developers consistent with the two field logics across three entrepreneurial domains: app ideation, execution and marketing. Second, we identify areas where the two field logics may be in conflict as well as in coexistence. We show that indie developers enact logic conflict through disagreement and denunciation of the opposing logic. When logics that are inherently opposed appear to coexist, we investigate how app developers manage these opposing demands through a process that we term logic synthesis. We integrate the platform’s impact on indie developers’ logic enactment and logic synthesis. Using a grounded theory approach, we provide a model of field-level market and professional logics operating in mobile app platforms and the practices reflecting such logics within the indie developer community. Our work contributes to the growing literature on platform governance and platform ecosystems, in addition to furthering the study of institutional logics in technology contexts.

Usability Integration in Agile Development Processes: A Practice-Oriented Best Practice Approach

Abstract Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly rely on agile software development. However, the majority of established usability methods have been developed with traditional software engineering principles in mind. So, one might assume that these methods and tools might not be applicable to agile development projects. In this paper, a possible approach to systematically adapting traditional usability methods to application in agile projects is introduced and documented as best practices. These best practices can be quickly and dynamically employed by agile development team members and can thus contribute to higher quality of software development outputs. The approach described in this paper was developed in the context of a German research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and conducted by one research institute and three software-developing enterprises and will be evaluated throughout the further course of the project. For this purpose, a number of best practices have been adapted to the context of agile software development and described in detail in order to allow inexperienced software developers of small and medium-sized enterprises to successfully apply these best practices. As two examples of these best practices, we illustrate the best practices ‘Contextual Inquiry’ and ‘Template-Based UI Design’ in this paper.

Modelado de procesos en el desarrollo global de software

El modelado de procesos software es una actividad que se consolida como estrategia básica para mejorar la producción de aplicaciones so­ftware. El advenimiento del desarrollo global de software con actores disgregados alrededor de todo el mundo oferta grandes beneficios a la labor de producción de aplicaciones software; sin embargo, impone retos y dificultades a superar para lograr su cometido. El presente artículo presenta GSDModel, un marco de trabajo que pretende guiar el modelado de procesos en el contexto del desarrollo global de software.

Exploiting semantics for filtering and searching knowledge in a software development context

Software development is still considered a bottleneck for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the advance of the Information Society. Usually, SMEs store and collect a large number of software textual documentation; these documents might be profitably used to facilitate them in using (and re-using) Software Engineering methods for systematically designing their applications, thus reducing software development cost. Specific and semantics textual filtering/search mechanisms, supporting the identification of adequate processes and practices for the enterprise needs, are fundamental in this context. To this aim, we present an automatic document retrieval method based on semantic similarity and Word Sense Disambiguation techniques. The proposal leverages on the strengths of both classic information retrieval and knowledge-based techniques, exploiting syntactical and semantic information provided by general and specific domain knowledge sources. For any SME, it is as easily and generally applicable as are the search techniques offered by common enterprise Content Management Systems. Our method was developed within the FACIT-SME European FP-7 project, whose aim is to facilitate the diffusion of Software Engineering methods and best practices among SMEs. As shown by a detailed experimental evaluation, the achieved effectiveness goes well beyond typical retrieval solutions.

What drives knowledge sharing in software development teams: A literature review and classification framework

Although scholars have long studied knowledge sharing drivers within software development teams, our knowledge remains fragmented by the divergent efforts that are based on and contribute to theoretical perspectives. This study provides a review of the extant literature (1993–2011) on knowledge sharing drivers in software teams and establishes a classification framework using an organizational change perspective. A synthesis of the literature uncovers diverse themes and gaps in the existing body of knowledge, suggests several paths for advancing theory on knowledge sharing in software development contexts, and discusses implications for practitioners concerned with knowledge sharing in software development.

Explaining over-requirement in software development projects: An experimental investigation of behavioral effects

One of the major risks associated with software development is related to the phenomenon of over-requirement. Also known as over-specification and gold-plating, over-requirement is manifested when a product or a service is specified beyond the actual needs of the customer or the market. In the software development context, we argue in this work that over-requirement is due partially to the emotional involvement of developers with the software features they specify. Similar involvement has been demonstrated for physical items as a result of the endowment, IKEA, and I-designed-it-myself behavioral effects, when people come to overvalue items they possess or self-create. To explore these behavioral effects and the interactions among them in the context of software development, we conducted an experiment in which over 200 participants were asked to specify a nice-to-have software feature. Our results confirm the existence of these behavioral effects in software development and their influence on over-requirement. The findings contribute to theory by explaining the over-requirement phenomenon and by providing insights into behavioral effects in the context of software development. Also practically relevant, the findings can alert managers of software projects to the over-requirement risk evoked by the behavioral effects explored in this study.

Collaborative Environment and Agile Development

Over time, information and communications technology development has made a direct impact on human activity in the individual context as well as familial, economic and social. This has laid the premise for adoption of new and modern paradigms in individual and organizational activity management. The evolutionary climax of the social universe is called nowadays knowledge society. The knowledge society succeeds the information society, emphasizing the development of the opportunities brought by collaborative work environment and agile approach. In this paper we will highlight the use of collaborative environment in agile software development, as an instrument for managing organizations in knowledge society. Thus, we will emphasize the paradigms of agile testing, validation and verification in collaborative environment.Keywords: Collaborative Environment, Knowledge Society, Agile Development, Testing, Validation, Verification, Management, Information and Communication Technology1 General ContextF rom historic perspective, the human society has evolved from agrarian society to craftsman, industrial, capitalist and information society, reaching today the stage of knowledge society. If we were to say what comes next, it would probably be a society of artificial intelligence, limited natural resources consumption or a robot society. We cannot know for sure, but theoretical speculations have been proposed. On the other hand, we can invoke the current context of the knowledge society as a foundation of organizational development on three pillars: collaborative environment, agile approach and modern management based on information and communications technology (ICT).Unlike the old society, today we work and live in a particular technological context, characterized by the global internet network as support for any kind of activity. We can see changes in the nature of work, from traditional office work to telework in virtual offices or telecommuting. These aspects are premises for increasing the exploitation of individual skills and abilities in organizational context and transferring them with the purpose of achieving the business goals. The modern business moves to the sphere of electronic business, strongly relying on technology and internet.Still, the management activity or the management as an activity does not change in the same radical way. Traditional concepts, methods and techniques are re- wrapped, terminologically beautified and launched on the market in a process specific to marketing. Thus, while Phillip Kotler speaks about marketing management in information society [9] (as the Bible of business men), why can't we speak about management marketing in knowledge society? The so called modern paradigms of contemporary management can be identified terminologically in expressions like fractal model, anthropocentric model, holonic model, cloud model, chaotic model etc. Let's not forget that the term fractal was introduced by Benoit Mandelbrot in 1975, the term holon (as organizational structure) was introduced by Arthur Koestler in 1967 and so on.What is new in modern management is the way these fundamental concepts from various sciences (mathematics, philosophy, psychology, structuralism, semiotics, cybernetics etc.) are adopted and adapted the management practice. In this sense of exposure, characterized by ICT and internet and modern management paradigms we invoke the general context of collaborative environment and agile software development (see also the collaborative paradigm of intelligence). The link between the two subjects of current cognitive development is the fact that both collaborative environment and agile development involve the shared participation of several factors of human nature as well as material, financial and temporal. Economic organizations in current society market must be able to adapt quickly to changes on the market. They must have the ability to exploit any new opportunity in their field or related fields. …

A multi-objective optimization approach for the integration and test order problem

A common problem found during the integration testing is to determine an order to integrate and test the units. Important factors related to stubbing costs and constraints regarding to the software development context must be considered. To solve this problem, the most promising results were obtained with multi-objective algorithms, however few algorithms and contexts have been addressed by existing works. Considering such fact, this paper aims at introducing a generic approach based on multi-objective optimization to be applied in different development contexts and with distinct multi-objective algorithms. The approach is instantiated in the object and aspect-oriented contexts, and evaluated with real systems and three algorithms: NSGA-II, SPEA2 and PAES. The algorithms are compared by using different number of objectives and four quality indicators. Results point out that the characteristics of the systems, the instantiation context and the number of objectives influence on the behavior of the algorithms. Although for more complex systems, PAES reaches better results, NSGA-II is more suitable to solve the referred problem in general cases, considering all systems and indicators.

FACTORS AFFECTING DISTRIBUTED AGILE PROJECTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

In the last decade we have witnessed a growth in outsourcing and outshoring development. Following the promise of reducing costs and round-the-clock development, software organizations have grown from local to global enterprises. In the same decade, agile software development methodologies have emerged as a viable alternative to produce software. There is a myriad of agile processes and methodologies now available for any software development organization to choose from. These agile processes follow the values signed in the Agile Manifesto that preaches the exaltation of the individual programmer, high feedback, customer interaction and just enough planning and documentation. But how does global distribution affect these values? Can agile software development be implemented under the global software development context? This paper presents a systematic literature review aimed at identifying factors that affect the adoption of agile factors in global distributed teams. Our findings show that the literature is still in its initial case study publication stage. But most notably, we have found that only a few of the factors found are related to the agile values. Even though more research is clearly needed, this can be a signal that the factors affecting team distribution has more impact on software development than the values and practices preached by the agile processes.