Practice In Software Industry Research Articles

ANALYZING REFACTORING TRENDS AND PRACTICES IN THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

Most of the developers in the software industry though have some instinctive capacity to refactor but the true expertise of this skill is rarely found in real time software development. Thus it is significant to discern the reasons as to how prevalent are the refactoring practices in reality and what are the major factors impacting its role and adoption in software development. This paper tries to explore the actual implementation of refactoring practices in software industry by taking inputs from the software professionals working in different projects and companies. This exploration is basically required to assess the gap between research practices and Industrial norms. An important fact that to this work is also that we try to probe the consequences in absence of refactoring, What are the code rejuvenation practices adopted by the professionals in absence of refactoring or due to non familiarity or lack of expertise in the area.

The Impact of Motivator and Demotivator Factors on Agile Software Development

Since the last decade, Agile software development has emerged as a widely utilized software development method keeping in view the developing countries of South Asia. The literature reports significant challenges and barriers for agile in software industry and thus the area still has significant problems when considered with this domain. This study reports an industrial survey in Pakistani software industry practices and practitioners to elicit the indigenous motivator and demotivators of agile paradigm in Pakistan. This study provides a concrete ranking of motivator and demotivator factors which influence the agile paradigm. A lack of proper training and other identified issues indicate that the adoption of agile is in preliminary phases and serious effort is required to set the direction right for success of agile paradigm and its adopting institutions. The survey is conducted in 23 companies practicing agile organizations and involves 90 agile practitioners. Reports of 67 practitioners were finally selected after careful selection against selection criteria for this study. The results indicate various alarming factors which are different from reported literature on the subject. Tolerance to work is the most important motivating factor among Pakistan agile practitioners, likewise lack of resources is the highest demotivating factor. A detailed ranking list of motivators and demotivators and comprehensive data analysis has been provided in this paper which influences strongly the agile software development issues in Pakistan.

Release and testing stop time of a software using multi-attribute utility theory

Almost all existing studies consider that product release results in the end of testing phase. However, the modern practices in software industry perceive a post release testing during which organization treats the remaining bugs present in the software to improve product experience for customer and at the same time trying to lower down the possibilities of software failure before testing ends. However, continuing testing after software release is not considered cost-effective for firms. Hence, it is essential to decide the optimal testing stop time under the budget. We comprehend this scenario to design a framework for optimal scheduling policy by considering cost and reliability as two attribute using multi-attribute utility theory. Validation of the obtained results is done on real-life software failure data set of tandem computers.

When to Release and Stop Testing of a Software

For several decades both practitioners as well as researchers have contributed immensely towards solving one of the prime concerns of software firms regarding how long to continue testing? Although, efficient testing ensures reliable software but costs a lot to developer in terms of higher testing and market opportunity cost. Hence it’s imperative to obtain optimal testing time of software. Product release marking the end to software testing has been the phenomenon commonly observed in both practice and theory but often leaves customer dissatisfied either in the form of delayed release (prolonged testing phase) or lower reliability (shortened testing phase). To address this issue, current practices in software industry involve a post release testing phase during which organization aims at treating remaining software faults and subsequently enhance product experience for customers. In this paper we present a generalized framework of optimal scheduling policy to determine optimal software release and testing stop time separately, to minimize overall testing cost under reliability and budget constraints. One of the biggest advantages of early release is capitalizing market opportunity while post release testing ensures adequate software reliability. We also propose that software testing & operational phases are governed by different distribution functions in our proposed cost model. Numerical illustration is provided at the end of the paper to validate the proposed cost model.

Software Quality Assurance A Study Based on Pakistan’s Software Industry

<span>This paper investigates the role of quality management practices in software industry of Pakistan.<span> We present a comparison between the more-experienced and less-experienced firms with respect<span> to the critical factors of quality management. The critical factors of quality management<span> practices in the software industry are first identified from the literature survey and validated<span> through an empirical study. The study attempts to probe the influence of “age of quality” and<span> “use of software” over software quality management practices and programs. The results of the<span> study shows that the ‘age of quality” and “use of software” have partial influence over the<span> software quality management.<br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>

REVEDERE Distributed Support System for Code Review Process

review process represents a common practice in software industry for checking product quality and reducing the number of defects deployed to consumers. To integrate well with the current accelerated trend in software development, there is a need for automation and simplicity, through tools, integrated in programmer's workflows. In this paper we present the primary motivations for software inspections and we introduce a support platform for managing this activity. The system is based on core code review concepts and is presented as a middleware for human interaction. Also, a communication framework was implemented, to ease information flow and management in the code review middleware.

Lean quality improvement model for quality practices in software industry in Pakistan

AbstractImplementation of quality and achieving quality culture in small and medium software houses (SMSH) have been a subject of discussion among the industry. The existing software process improvement frameworks are too heavy for SMSH. There is a need of lean quality models that will help SMSH in establishing quality culture with minimal effort and resources. The objective of this research study is to map the environment and culture of SMSH in Pakistan towards quality improvement and process improvement by implementing total quality management philosophy. A lean quality improvement model (LQIM) consisting of four quality constructs and 10 quality practices has been proposed. The LQIM is validated using good fit indices in structural equation modeling. At the end, implementation of the proposed LQIM is explained using the Deming's philosophy of plan, do, check, act cycle for continuous process improvement. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Empirical investigation of agile software development

Technological advancements have contributed to more complex software demands. The Agile approach to software development is widely practiced by the software development industry as it offers faster production with a promise of better software quality. It also provides a flexible process to accommodate changes during the software development life cycle, as per dynamic user requirements. In this paper we characterize the significance of software development models and the role of Agile methodologies in today's dynamic world of technologies. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the choice between two of the Agile methodologies, Scrum and Extreme Programming. The outcome of the investigation based on secondary sources and limited primary sources, reveals that current software industry practices tend to opt for Scrum-based development. This work highlights the benefits of bringing the cloud and Agile methods of software development together, to fully realize the potential of the distributed paradigm.

A business maturity model of software product line engineering

In the recent past, software product line engineering has become one of the most promising practices in software industry with the potential to substantially increase the software development productivity. Software product line engineering approach spans the dimensions of business, architecture, software engineering process and organization. The increasing popularity of software product line engineering in the software industry necessitates a process maturity evaluation methodology. Accordingly, this paper presents a business maturity model of software product line, which is a methodology to evaluate the current maturity of the business dimension of a software product line in an organization. This model examines the coordination between product line engineering and the business aspects of software product line. It evaluates the maturity of the business dimension of software product line as a function of how a set of business practices are aligned with product line engineering in an organization. Using the model presented in this paper, we conducted two case studies and reported the assessment results. This research contributes towards establishing a comprehensive and unified strategy for a process maturity evaluation of software product lines.