Influence Software Quality Research Articles

How deadline orientation and architectural modularity influence software quality and job satisfaction

AbstractThe implementation of digital transformation programs requires careful allocation of software developers to a variety of digital products and services with different levels of modularity. This paper investigates how deadline orientation (an individual‐level preference of developers for completing work close to deadlines) and architectural modularity (a characteristic of products) influence central outcomes in software development. We argue that architectural modularity positively interacts with deadline orientation to influence software quality and the job satisfaction of developers. Our empirical analyses, using rare and high‐quality data from 131 software developers and 29 product owners working at a captive software development center in India of a leading global software firm, confirm our hypotheses. We contribute to the literature on software development by showing that the fit between the technological characteristics of the software product (i.e., architectural modularity) and people factors (i.e., the temporal work style preferences of developers) plays an important role in shaping both software quality and job satisfaction. Our study has wider implications for the literature on software development, temporal work styles, and architectural modularity. It is instructive for practitioners tasked with hiring or allocating software developers for software products with varying technological characteristics in their digital transformation efforts.

Influência da aplicação de métodos ágeis e da gestão do conhecimento na qualidade de software: uma análise multivariada

Atualmente, as empresas de tecnologia da informação têm buscado intensamente a produtividade e a melhoria do posicionamento competitivo, mas elas têm consciência de que não podem abrir mão da qualidade do software gerado ou da preservação dos conhecimentos obtidos nesse processo. Nesse contexto, as metodologias ágeis encaixam-se bem e espera-se que conceitos aplicados de gestão do conhecimento tenham importante papel. O presente trabalho apresenta uma modelagem de equações estruturais da influência e da contribuição dos métodos ágeis e da gestão do conhecimento na qualidade de software, com base na percepção obtida por meio da aplicação de um questionário respondido por profissionais de tecnologia da informação (TI). A pesquisa indicou que os métodos ágeis e a gestão do conhecimento, no âmbito do desenvolvimento de software, se influenciam mutuamente, de forma positiva. A pesquisa mostrou, ainda, que tanto os métodos ágeis, quanto a gestão do conhecimento influenciam de forma positiva a qualidade de software, sendo que a influência da gestão do conhecimento foi maior, sugerindo que os gestores deveriam considerar com mais intensidade os fatores associados a colaboração e compartilhamento, criatividade, conteúdos entregues e disseminação de lições aprendidas.

How does object-oriented code refactoring influence software quality? Research landscape and challenges

ContextSoftware refactoring aims to improve software quality and developer productivity. Numerous empirical studies investigating the impact of refactoring activities on software quality have been conducted over the last two decades. ObjectiveThis study aims to perform a comprehensive systematic mapping study of existing empirical studies on evaluation of the effect of object-oriented code refactoring activities on software quality attributes. MethodWe followed a multi-stage scrutinizing process to select 142 primary studies published till December 2017. The selected primary studies were further classified based on several aspects to answer the research questions defined for this work. In addition, we applied vote-counting approach to combine the empirical results and their analysis reported in primary studies. ResultsThe findings indicate that studies conducted in academic settings found more positive impact of refactoring on software quality than studies performed in industries. In general, refactoring activities caused all quality attributes to improve or degrade except for cohesion, complexity, inheritance, fault-proneness and power consumption attributes. Furthermore, individual refactoring activities have variable effects on most quality attributes explored in primary studies, indicating that refactoring does not always improve all quality attributes. ConclusionsThis study points out several open issues which require further investigation, e.g., lack of industrial validation, lesser coverage of refactoring activities, limited tool support, etc.

How Deadline Orientation and Product Modularity influence Software Quality and Job Satisfaction

Because extant work on software development is scarce when it comes to how individuals cope with deadlines, we investigate the effect of individuals’ deadline orientation on software quality and jo...

How Does the Extraversion of Software Development Teams Influence Team Satisfaction and Software Quality?

Team member knowledge and expertise are the aspects typically considered important for software team development formation. However, the authors believe that the formation of teams, as is found in literature, could be based on factors related to the personalities of the members of the development team, and that these factors might affect both the quality of the software product developed and the satisfaction perceived by the development team. In this work they present a controlled experiment, which was carried out during an academic course on Data Bases. The intention of this experiment was to evaluate whether the work team’s level of extraversion influenced, on the one hand, the final quality of the software products obtained and, on the other, the satisfaction perceived while this work was being carried out. The results obtained indicate that when forming work teams, project managers and lecturers should carry out a personality test beforehand in order to balance the amount of extraverted team members with those who are not extraverted. This would permit the team members to feel satisfied with the work carried out by the team without reducing the quality of the software products developed.

An empirical study of software architectures’ effect on product quality

Abstract Software architecture is concerned with the structure of software systems and is generally agreed to influence software quality. Even so, little empirical research has been performed on the relationship between software architecture and software quality. Based on 1141 open source Java projects, we calculate three software architecture metrics (measuring classes per package, normalized distance, and a new metric introduced by us concerning the excess of coupling degree) and analyze to which extent these metrics are related to product metrics (defect ratio, download rate, methods per class, and method complexity). We conclude that there are a number of significant relationships between product metrics and architecture metrics. In particular, the number of open defects depends significantly on all our architecture measures.

Determinants of software quality in COTS products: an exploratory study

More recently, the emphasis has shifted to the ability of vendors in providing high quality rather than low cost software products and services from India. The present research is to explore key organisational and socio-technical factors which influence software quality, through case study of a leading midsize Indian software firm, which offers consulting and software services globally to some of the well known companies, specifically in the context of COTS (ERP) environment. Our research reveals that the factors such as requirements uncertainty, process maturity, communication and control, knowledge transfer and integration, trained personnel and infrastructure facilities have significant impact on achieving product quality. Based on our research, we suggest organisational factors have greater influence on achieving software quality. We present the implications for practice and directions for further research.

An Empirical Study on the Procedure to Derive Software Quality Estimation Models

Software quality assurance has been a heated topic for several decades. If factors that influence software quality can be identified, they may provide more insight for better software development management. More precise quality assurance can be achieved by employing resources according to accurate quality estimation at the early stages of a project. In this paper, a general procedure is proposed to derive software quality estimation models and various techniques are presented to accomplish the tasks in respective steps. Several statistical techniques together with machine learning method are utilized to verify the effectiveness of software metrics. Moreover, a neuro-fuzzy approach is adopted to improve the accuracy of the estimation model. This procedure is carried out based on data from the ISBSG repository to present its empirical value.

Measuring testing as a distributed component of the software life cycle

We study software testing as a distributed component of the software life cycle, developing a technique for estimating testing validity. The goal of this paper is to build measures for testing result estimation, to find how tested properties influence software quality, and to develop means (methodology and algorithms) to achieve better results in testing. To achieve these goals, we suggest using system approach to testing developed in this paper and introduce a system of test efficiency measures, as well as discuss a methodology of how to use these measures. Properties of test efficiency measures oriented at the software engineering domain are studied. We also show (Proposition 1, Theorem 1 and their Corollaries) how logic can increase testing efficiency.

Confluence of six sigma, simulation and software development

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to highlight the application of six sigma, software engineering techniques and simulation to software development with a view to improving the software process and product.Design/methodology/approachThis paper attempts to integrate six sigma and simulation to define, analyse, measure and predict various elements of software development (such as cost, schedule, defects) that influence software quality, thereby helping the software personnel take necessary measures early in the development process to improve the software processes and remove defects. Simulation results provide qualitative and quantitative suggestions on the ways to change the software process to achieve six sigma quality. The integration of six sigma and CMM and the role of knowledge management in software organisations have been taken into account.FindingsMost software organisations operate between 2.3 and 3 sigma level. This paper presents a framework for definition, measurement, and analysis of important elements of the software product and process using six sigma tools and exploits the use of simulation in bringing six sigma improvements. Case studies have been presented to demonstrate the findings.Research limitations/implicationsApplication of the techniques presented in this paper would definitely improve software organisations' processes and product.Practical implicationsThe adoption of methodologies outlined in this paper in software companies would enable them to attain improvements in terms of cost, schedule and quality.Originality/valueThe integration of simulation with six sigma applied to software development is novel in this paper. This paper will be valuable for quality professionals and management personnel in software organisations.

Software Quality Management from a Cross-Cultural Viewpoint

This paper describes our attempts to look at how different cultures influence Software Quality Management (Siakas 1996; Mohamed Walaa-Eldeen and Siakas 1996). Quality of the software product cannot...

A Measure Of Software Quality

This paper presents a software quality questionnaire developed by the Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC) at West Virginia University. The questionnaire is used by an independent testing group to measure the quality of software prototypes as a major input to determining whether or not prototypes should be made available to engineering users. The questions and relative weightings provide a useful insight into factors that influence software quality.