Software Development Issues Research Articles

Ethics in computer software design and development

Over the past 20 years, computer software has become integral and commonplace for operational and management tasks throughout agricultural and natural resource disciplines. During this software infusion, however, little thought has been afforded human impacts, both good and bad. This paper examines current ethical issues of software system design and development in relation to privacy, accuracy, property, accessibility, and effects on quality of life. These issues are explored in the context of simulation models, databases, geographic information systems and artificial intelligence programs, especially expert systems. New approaches to system development place a much higher emphasis on the effects of system deployment within a complex human environment. Software design decisions often depend on more than one ethical issue, possibly conflicting, where the appropriate ethical choice is not always clear cut. Professional codes of ethics do little to change peoples’ behavior; rather, incentives for using an ethical approach to software development may lie in significantly increased likelihood of system success.

Slicing knowledge-based systems: techniques and applications

Slicing is a process for automatically obtaining subparts of a program responsible for specific computations. It has been employed within conventional procedural programming to solve a number of software development issues. We have adapted and extended slicing techniques originally proposed for procedural languages, to knowledge-based systems. Our techniques comprise a representation proposal for the successful and failed inferences performed by the system, a means to detect and represent the dependences among parts of the system, a formal definition of relevance among these parts and an algorithm proven correct to obtain executable slices of a system. We illustrate the usefulness of the slicing process with practical applications.

HIGHLY SCALABLE PARALLEL COMPUTATIONAL MODELS FOR LARGE-SCALE RTM PROCESS MODELING SIMULATIONS, PART 1: THEORETICAL FORMULATIONS AND GENERIC DESIGN

This article reports the recent development of a highly scalable parallel computational model for process modeling and manufacturing applications of large-scale composite structures with particular emphasis on resin transfer molding (RTM). Fundamental concepts and characteristic features of the proposed scalable parallel algorithms are described and developed in technical detail. The approaches for simulating process modeling and manufacturing applications of composites includes: (1) the traditional, explicit control-volume finite-element (CV-FE) approach, and (2) a recently developed and new, implicit pure finite-element pure (pure FE) approach. SGI Power Challenge and SGI Origin 2000, which are symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) computing platforms, are employed in this study. The issues of implementation and software development of these manufacturing process simulations are parallel algorithm development, data structures, and interprocessor communication strategies, with emphasis on performance and scalability on these symmetric multiprocessors. W ith the motivation for providing effective computational procedures suitable for practical process modeling and manufacturing applications of large-scale composite structures and general finite-element simulations, the proposed developments not only provide a sound theoretical basis but also serve to be ideally portable to a wide range of parallel architectures. W hereas the theoretical formulations and generic design are described in Part 1, the parallel formulation of the theory and implementation will be presented in Part 2, and the techniques developed are applied to large-scale problems using Power Challenge and SGI Origin to demonstrate the effectiveness and the practical applicability, which will be presented in Part 3 of this work.

HIGHLY SCALABLE PARALLEL COMPUTATIONAL MODELS FOR LARGE-SCALE RTM PROCESS MODELING SIMULATIONS, PART 2: PARALLEL FORMULATION THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION

We highlight some key elements of the parallel formulation theory and implementational aspect of process modeling and manufacturing applications of composites with particular emphasis on resin transfer molding (RTM). The approaches for simulating process modeling and manufacturing applications of composites include (1) the traditional explicit control-volume finite-element (CV-FE) approach, and (2) a recently developed and new, implicit, pure finite-element (pure FE) approach. SGI Power Challenge and SGI Origin 2000, which are symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) computing platforms, are employed in this study. The issues in implementation and software development of these manufacturing process simulations are parallel algorithm development, data structures, and interprocessor communication strategies, with emphasis on performance and scalability on these symmetric multiprocessors. Fundamental concepts and characteristic features of the proposed scalable parallel algorithms are described and developed with theoretical analysis

Agile software process model

The article proposes a new software process model, ASP (Agile Software Process) based on a decade-long evolution of software process models inside a Japanese software factory. The Japanese software factory was a successful model in the development of quality software for large-scale business applications in the 1980s. However, the business climate of software development has dramatically changed in the last few years. Development cycle-time was promoted to one of the top issues of software development in the 1990s and then globalization appeared. A new paradigm of software development is required. The RSP model does not implicate any physical office but a virtual collaboration space over the Internet. It enables multiple small teams, which are geographically distributed, to concurrently develop multiple functions for a family of large-scale software systems.

Annex 1: Water-use efficiency on irrigation systems: a review of research carried out under DFID's engineering research programme

Research into water-use efficiency supported by the Department for International Development's Engineering Division is summarised. Technical and physical aspects have been complemented by significant work on the development of improved systems for irrigation planning and management. Related aspects covered include computer software development, gender and socio-economic issues, information dissemination and international collaboration on research.

A fresh perspective on old problems [software industry

The author documents the lessons he learned while working as an intern at a growing telecommunications company. Though his conclusions are not surprising, they can serve as reminders of how common certain problems are in the software industry and how important basic practices can be. Initially he spent his time debugging, extending and updating the company's in-house billing/provisioning system, and dealt primarily with code, code-level quality, and program documentation issues. Soon, however, opportunities arose for him to contribute ideas that ultimately affected the entire department. These opportunities in turn provided him with valuable lessons about essential yet often overlooked software development issues, from programming practices to team organization.

An integrated estimation and design system for fire protection equipment

Describes the development of an integrated computer‐based system (PROTECT) to aid the design of complex fire protection systems. Explains how PROTECT, developed through the application of object‐oriented technology (OOT), comprises a series of knowledge bases for specific protection environments and is integrated with other business systems. PROTECT enables the optimal design of fire protection systems to specified standards and the accurate estimation of system cost. Presents software development issues, and discusses system operational results and benefits of the PROTECT.

Evolutionary Software Development to Support Organizational and Business process Change: A Case Study Account

This paper addresses the issues of software development in situations of organizational and process change. There is wide agreement in the literature that organizations have to be increasingly flexible in order to survive in the current economic climate. They must innovate, replicate, adapt and extemporize. As they do so, the requirements they have of their software applications are likely to change. Equally, as new software solutions are provided, new opportunities for business change arise. The situation is made still more complex because even if the needs of organizations were stable, we still could not be certain of the validity of an application's functions. This is because the process of program development is inherently uncertain. From this situation arise difficult, practical challenges for those concerned with the deployment of software in organizations. Starting with a consideration of the nature of organizations themselves, this paper takes looks at these problems by moving between three related points. It looks at software development methodologies and suggests that these have in the past tended to assume that discrete IT solutions can be cast for a ‘steady state’ which the organization is attempting to achieve. From the second vantage point it looks at the role of IT staff in supporting the operational needs of the organization. The third is the nature of software systems themselves.

Evolutionary software development to support organizational and business process change: a case study account

This paper addresses the issues of software development in situations of organizational and process change. There is wide agreement in the literature that organizations have to be increasingly flexible in order to survive in the current economic climate. They must innovate, replicate, adapt and extemporize. As they do so, the requirements they have of their software applications are likely to change. Equally, as new software solutions are provided, new opportunities for business change arise. The situation is made still more complex because even if the needs of organizations were stable, we still could not be certain of the validity of an application's functions. This is because the process of program development is inherently uncertain. From this situation arise difficult, practical challenges for those concerned with the deployment of software in organizations. Starting with a consideration of the nature of organizations themselves, this paper takes looks at these problems by moving between three related points. It looks at software development methodologies and suggests that these have in the past tended to assume that discrete IT solutions can be cast for a ‘steady state’ which the organization is attempting to achieve. From the second vantage point it looks at the role of IT staff in supporting the operational needs of the organization. The third is the nature of software systems themselves.

On modification of the relative complexity metric

Software reliability and software complexity are closely related issues in software development. An elegant definition of relative complexity was proposed in [1,2]. The definition given in [1,2] needs modification. Depending on how many factor loadings are used in the factor analysis different complexity results are obtained. Hence the definition of relative complexity given in those papers is subjective. The object of this paper is to suggest a modified definition of relative complexity. Different measures based on the magnitude of the eigenvalues obtained from the correlation matrix are suggested in this paper. The relative complexity of 27 programs given in [3] has been calculated using different factor loadings.

The development of an integrated cost estimation system

The principal aim of software engineering is to help to produce quality software, however, conventional software development methods no longer fulfil software requirements. Many advantages of object-oriented technology (OOT) are claimed over conventional development methods, yet few concrete reports exist to support these claims. To verify the existence of OOT advantages, this paper describes the application of the technology for the development of a company-wide estimation and design system for fire protection systems. After presenting software development issues, operational results are discussed and key issues of OOT raised.

The application of total quality management to software development

Quality is an important issue for software development. Total quality management (TQM) has been suggested as a solution to software quality problems. The key elements of TQM as it has evolved over the last ten years are identified and examined in relation to software development. Discusses some of the adaptations to TQM needed to address the specific nature of software quality. Concludes that TQM can provide a framework to integrate many of the current approaches to software quality, resulting in technically correct systems which solve customers′ business problems.

The complexity gap

The Complexity Gap defines a new way to think about software development. We have all heard that developers need to be more productive and to work harder. But what does this mean exactly? The Complexity Gap defines a structure in which to explore concepts of process and productivity and to show how these concepts relate to conventional software development issues of tools and training.Software development is complex. This paper expands on the principles of the Chaos model that suggest that the top-level user requirements and bottom-level hacking are connected through many intermediate levels, and that every level of software development affects quality and productivity to the same degree. In The Chaos Model and the Chaos Life Cycle, I make these points.To clarify the possibilities and limitations of software development, I compare software development to assembly-line work. In the software engineering community, we compare software development to assembly lines for a variety of reasons. Some managers want to acquire the same sense of control over software development as factory managers have over assembly lines. Other managers want to apply assembly-line techniques, such as Statistical Quality Control, to software development. I use both the definition of the Complexity Gap and the assembly-line analogy to suggest ways to improve the software development process.

Object-based modeling of parallel programs

The Parse Project has been investigating software development issues covering a range of parallel applications. Parse itself is an object-based design methodology that incorporates design management strategies based on data and function encapsulation, hierarchical decomposition, and staged refinement. Parse represents parallel software designs with a graphical notation called process graphs. After capturing a design's important structural features, this notation systematically derives the design's skeletal dynamic properties. For this, it can use either a behavioral specification language or formal methods such as CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes) or Petri nets. Parse builds on existing parallel software design techniques that are based on dataflow and object-oriented approaches. Parse attempts to capture precise object interactions and synchronization in an abstract, architecture-independent notation. To do so, it combines the strengths of various object-oriented techniques and extends the abilities of real-time design methodologies. The Parse project has tried to promote recognized software engineering techniques and extend them to incorporate high-level abstractions for parallel software design. Using systematic transformation techniques, system designers then can methodically refine their designs into formal notations to promote verification and into programming languages for easy implementation. >

A MANIFOLD GROWTH MODEL THAT UNIFIES SOFTWARE RELIABILITY GROWTH MODELS

Ensuring software reliability is one of the most important issues in software development. High-precision fault rate prediction is a powerful method for ensuring reliability. A variety of highly accurate methods have been proposed to date, the most widely used being software reliability growth models (SRGMs) based on how the cumulative number of faults detected varies over time. This paper presents a manifold model that unifies existing SRGMs. This model, in addition to reducing the labor in selecting the most suitable model for each growth curve, makes it possible to predict the number of remaining faults for complicated fault growth curves with higher accuracy than previously. Using the manifold model, this paper clarifies the relationships between the existing SRGMs. Then, using actual data, it compares the fault estimation accuracy of the manifold model and representative SRGMs, showing the usefulness of this model.

Implementing a Computer-Assisted Cooperative Learning Model for Introductory Psychology

This article describes the process involved in creating a computer-assisted course in introductory psychology. Brief overviews of facilities and hardware acquisition, software development, and research and development issues provide a skeletal guide for instructors thinking about computer-assisted instruction for their own classes. A guiding educational model was central to successful implementation of this project.

CSTRUCT: Computer Environment for Design of Steel Structures

CSTRUCT is a recently developed interactive computational environment for the design and analysis of structures. This paper summarizes a recently developed CAD design methodology; briefly outlines some of the software development issues that have been considered in the planning of CSTRUCT; and describes the features of a prototype version of CSTRUCT. A command language and graphical tools have been developed to describe the design problem, define attributes of the design problem, identify critical frame actions and frame displacements, and determine the overall adequacy of a design. The paper presents a summary of recent developments in earthquake-resistant design philosophy and emphasizes the strong need for a computational environment to support this design philosophy, as well as traditional approaches to design.

Datalogy — The copenhagen tradition of computer science

Since the middle of the 1960s, computer science has been practised in Denmark under Peter Naur's termdatalogy, the science of data processes. Starting at Regenecentralen and the University of Copenhagen, the Copenhagen Tradition of Computer Science has developed its own special characteristics by means of a close connection with applications and other fields of knowledge. The tradition is not least visible in the area of education. Comprehensive project activity is an integral part of the curriculum, thus presenting theory as an aspect of realistic solutions known primarily through actual experience. Peter Naur early recognized the particular educational challenges presented by computer science. His innovations have shown their quality and vitality also at other universities. There is a close connection between computer science training as it has been formed at Copenhagen University, and the view of computer science which has characterized Peter Naur's research. We illustrate how the study of programming and system development conceived as a human activity has been an all-pervasive theme in Naur's work. This approach has set the scene for central research issues in software development which today seem more topical than ever.

Issues and strategies for online documentation

The author surveys many of the issues involved in designing online documentation. She covers choosing a goal for online documentation, understanding the constraints on a design, and understanding the implications of a design for writers and users., The survey is mostly from the perspective of a designer or project planner concerned with issues in both software development and document development.