Software Development Industry Research Articles

Categorization and Visualization of Issue Tickets to Support Understanding of Implemented Features in Software Development Projects

Background: In most software projects, new members must comprehend the features already implemented since they are usually assigned during the project period. They often read software documents (e.g., flowcharts and data models), but such documents tend not to be updated after they are created. Herein we focus on tickets issued because they are created as a project evolves and include the latest information of the implemented features. Aim: The purpose of this paper is to clarify the way of helping new members understand the implemented features of a project by using tickets. Methodology: We propose a novel method to categorize tickets by clustering and visualizing the characteristics of each category via heatmapping and principal component analysis (PCA). Our method estimates the number of categories and categorizes issue tickets (tickets) automatically. Moreover, it has two visualizations. Ticket lifetime visualization shows the time series change to review tickets quickly, while ticket feature visualization shows the relationships among ticket categories and keywords of ticket categories using heatmapping and PCA. Results: To evaluate the effectiveness of our method, we implemented a case study. Specifically, we applied our method to an industrial software development project and interviewed the project members and external experts. Furthermore, we conducted an experiment to clarify the effectiveness of our method compared with a non-tool-assist method by letting subjects comprehend the target project, which is the same as that of the case study. These studies confirm our method supports experts’ and subjects’ comprehension of the project and its features by examining the ticket category lifetimes and keywords. Implication: Newcomers during project onboarding can utilize tickets to comprehend implemented features effectively if the tickets are appropriately structured and visualized. Conclusions: The original contribution of this paper is the proposal of the project feature comprehension method by visualizing the multi-dimensional nature of requirements in an organized and structured way based on available tickets and the result of its application to the industrial project.

Implementation of Model View Controller Architecture in Object Oriented Programming Learning

This study aims to provide an overview of the application of software design patterns, namely Model View Controller (MVC) in object-oriented programming learning. In the software development industry, most application development uses frameworks. MVC architecture is a design pattern that is widely used by various frameworks. Students as prospective programmers or software developers must master and be able to translate object-oriented programming concepts into programming languages. In this study, the Java programming language is used to apply the object-oriented concept and implement the MVC architecture. This research resulted in an increase in students' programming skills and abilities as well as being able to apply the MVC architecture in developing applications using Java.

The use of incentives to promote technical debt management

When developing software, it is vitally important to keep the level of technical debt down since, based on several studies, it has been well established that technical debt can lower the development productivity, decrease the developers' morale and compromise the overall quality of the software, among others. However, even if researchers and practitioners working in today's software development industry are quite familiar with the concept of technical debt and its related negative consequences, there has been no empirical research focusing specifically on how software managers actively communicate and manage the need to keep the level of technical debt as low as possible.

New non‐homogeneous Poisson process software reliability model based on a 3‐parameter S‐shaped function

Software reliability modelling is the mathematical technique used to evaluate the reliability of a software system. The non-homogeneous Poisson process is a prominent approach in this field. More than half of the models in this group are based on S-shaped functions, primarily the 2-parameter S-shaped function. This paper proposes a new model based on the 3-parameter S-shaped function, which is an expanded form of the 2-parameter S-shaped function obtained by adding a growth rate controller. Real data from industrial software development projects are used to verify the usability of the proposed model. The proposed model is shown to perform better than the existing models, especially with respect to the predictive performance. Furthermore, the rate of convergence of the proposed model is acceptable, with a rate of 76.47%.

Design and Implementation of Medical Searching System Based on Microservices and Serverless Architectures

Microservices and Serverless computing are promising cloud-based architectural models in the software development industry that have many advantages over previous technology models. The benefit of adopting these more novel models, however, is dependent on the volume of the application workload and the execution behavior. ScanMedicine is a new searching system dedicated to providing health care professionals, patients and researchers with easy access to intelligence underpinning health technology innovations. We present the design and implementation of ScanMedicine’s framework using AWS lambda functions and microservices. We incorporated a layered architectural style where each layer run on separate hardware and adopt different architectural technique.

Intelligent Model Library for Nonferrous Metal Industry: Construction Method and Application

Nonferrous metal industry is the foundation of China’s substantial economy and plays a key role in national economy and defense construction. Industrial software is crucial for the high-quality development of the nonferrous metal industry and is associated with the in-depth implementation of national software development strategies. Currently, the industrial software development in the nonferrous metal industry is significantly restricted by the lack of knowledge models. Hence, we propose a method for constructing an intelligent model library for the nonferrous metal industry. Considering meta-model-driven engineering, we define the nonferrous metallurgical meta-model and its attributes, and propose a meta-modeling method based on the MODELING architecture. Additionally, we design an overall architecture for the intelligent model library based on industrial Internet, an agile model-development environment integrating multiple languages, and a meta-model encapsulation system based on multi-scenario black-box reuse. Moreover, a meta-model full lifecycle management platform is constructed based on a five-layer two-dimension classification standard and the domain knowledge graph. The intelligent model library for the nonferrous metal industry is developed based on the long-term accumulation of nonferrous metallurgy process mechanism, operating experiences, and intelligent methods. The good role of intelligent model library in improving the intelligent level in engineering applications is presented through the application of two typical nonferrous metallurgical scenarios. The intelligent model library of the nonferrous metal industry provides a core knowledge support for the development of industrial software and plays a fundamental role in promoting smart manufacturing and strengthening the nonferrous metal industry.

Automated extraction of attributes of IFC objects based on graph theory and SPARQL query

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been widely adopted as an effective means for supporting information exchange in Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry based on unified and platform-independent standards. Among them, the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), an ISO standard for BIM, is the most widely used one. However, due to the complexity and flexibility of IFC, the extraction of the attributes of IFC objects is a challenging process for practitioners and software developers in AEC industry, which impedes in-depth application of BIM in many cases. To solve the problem, an approach is proposed in this paper based on graph theory and SPARQL query to automate and simplify the process. The approach consists of four operators, i.e., IFC-to-OWL Convertor, P-Path Acquirer, SPARQL Query Generator, and Ontology Reasoner. IFC-to-OWL Convertor translates IFC instance model into ifcOWL instance model, which can be queried by using SPARQL. P-Path Acquirer obtains all possible Predicate Paths (P-Paths) from an object entity to an attribute entity in the graph created based on ifcOWL schema model. Then SPARQL Query Generator generates SPARQL queries for extracting attributes based on the P-Paths. Finally, the ifcOWL instance model and the SPARQL queries are input into Ontology Reasoner to query attributes of IFC objects. The approach is validated by conducting a case study. The approach contributes to the convenient application of IFC standards in AEC industry.

Development of Industrial Software for Building Materials Industry

Development of Industrial Software for Building Materials Industry

Analysis of Code Cloning in Open-Source and Industrial Software Development Stages: A Perspective of Mobile Applications

Analysis of Code Cloning in Open-Source and Industrial Software Development Stages: A Perspective of Mobile Applications

Requirements Elicitation Challenges and Strategies for GSD Based Projects

The geographically distributed software development has attained a significant attraction in software development industry since last few decades due to its wide acceptance across the globe. The main essence of geographically distributed software development is to expand company working by follow-the-sun strategy, get skilled labors at cheaper rates from low economy regions of world and pool-up company resources to raise their utilization graph. The requirements elicitation process is considered as one of the most challenging tasks during software development process in traditional as well as geographically distributed software development projects due to its social and collaborative nature. This article presents a comprehensive insight about major challenges faced by requirements elicitation teams engaged in geographically distributed software development projects. The article also elaborates the possible strategies, which can be adopted to minimize the negative impact of geological distribution of software development activities. The presented study will help the requirements elicitation teams to better plane their requirements elicitation sessions for geological distributed software development projects by encountering the expected hurdles.

Exploring Possibilities of Integrating Version Control Platforms in Higher Education Through GitHub Data Analysis

Working in the software development industry in the modern world cannot be imagined without integration with some code versioning platform. In addition to allowing copies of the code to be kept, these platforms provide the ability to control changes that occur in the code itself, so at any time it can be determined which member of the development team made the change. The aim of this paper is to determine the possibilities of using code versioning platforms in education, i.e. conducting teaching in the field of software development at faculties, through the analysis of data generated on one of these platforms. In order to gain insight into the dynamics of software solution development, data analysis from the GitHub platform was performed using the GitHub REST API on the example of a public GitHub organization. The results of the analysis indicate that the data generated on these platforms can be used to better understand the learning process and monitor the dynamics of project work. In this way, lecturers have a better insight into the dynamics of the development of a given software solution. It is possible to follow iteratively how much and in what way each team member contributed to the solution through the analysis of different groups of data and thus better understand the state of individual activities, but also the state of the entire project.

Pathways to innovation in Romanian software SMEs: Exploring the impact of interdependencies between internationalisation and knowledge sources

This study explores the interdependent effects of internationalisation and sources of internal and external knowledge on the level of innovation. We present possible pathways that small innovative Romanian software product provider firms pursue to reconfigure their resources to be competitive beyond CEE. This product provider segment of the software development industry exhibits characteristics of innovation-driven economy in specific Romanian city-regions. We examine fourteen SMEs that develop their own products using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. fsQCA allows us to methodologically differentiate between the distinct pathways to high-level and low-level innovation based on the sources of knowledge and the degree of internationalisation of the product market. We find that internationalisation accelerates the level of product innovation; but together with knowledge sources, it becomes a critical differentiator between high and low-level innovation products. We also find that while combining internal knowledge sources with internationalisation is an effective way for early and gradual internationalisers to introduce high-level innovation products, some internationalised firms rely on the advantages of early internationalisation to the exclusion of external knowledge sources. Moreover, if internationalised, local market-oriented firms can move beyond low-level innovation. Our findings extend the current understanding of the dynamics of SME internationalisation and innovation in the CEE context.

The Hybrid-Agile Design of Experiments Methodology

A DOE (Design of Experiments) is the laying out of a detailed experimental plan in advance of doing the experiment. Optimal DOEs maximize the amount of information that can be obtained for a given amount of experimental effort. The traditional DOE methodology is waterfall-type methodology implying a sequential and linear life-cycle process. The success of the experiment and usefulness of the results are highly dependent on the initial experimental setup and assumptions, and does not allow to go back and change something that was not well-documented or thought upon in the design stage. The fast-changing software development industry have made it understandable that the traditional waterfall methodology for developing systems, which follows similar patters to the traditional DOE, lacks the agility required for developing robust systems. These limitations have triggered the development of agile: a type of incremental model of software development based on principles that focuses more on flexible responses to change, instead of in-depth planning at the design stage. This paper proposes the hybrid-agile DOE methodology – a methodology that incorporates agile principles in traditional waterfall DOE methodologies – to design effective experimental layouts that allow for improvement during the experimental trial process. The methodology is applied to the natural ageing of adhesives tapes for building applications. This methodology can overcome traditional DOE, by adding agility in the whole process, especially in cases where the investigated products lack prior information and are characterised by large variability.

Software Supply Chain Attacks, a Threat to Global Cybersecurity: SolarWinds’ Case Study

Exploitation of a vulnerability that compromised the source code of the Solar Winds’ Orion system, a software that is used widely by different government and industry actors in the world for the administration and monitoring of networks; brought to the fore a type of stealth attack that has been gaining momentum: supply chain attacks. The main problem in the violation of the software supply chain is that, from 85% to 97% of the code currently used in the software development industry comes from the reuse of open source code frameworks, repositories of third-party software and APIs, creating potential vulnerabilities in the development cycle of a software product. This research analyzes the SolarWinds case study from an exploratory review of academic literature, government information, but also from the articles and reports that are published by different cybersecurity consulting firms and software providers. Then, a set of good practices is proposed such as: Zero trust, Multi-Factor authentication mechanisms (MFA), strategies such as SBOM and the recommendations of the CISA guide to defend against this type of attack. Finally, the research discusses about how to improve response times and prevention against this type of attacks, also future research related to the subject is suggested, such as the application of Machine Learning and Blockchain technologies. Additionally for risk reduction, in addition to the management and articulation of IT teams that participate in all the actors that are part of the software life cycle under a DevSecOps approach.

Scaling Agile Adoption Motivators from Management Perspective: An Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach

Agile methodology has been noted as the mostly used method for software development over the past few years. This methodology guarantees the rapid delivery of software products with lower cost and greater customer contentment. The adoption of agile methods was initially applied in the software development industry for single, small project teams following the principles of Agile Manifesto. The intense need of the time is to identify from management perspective the motivators that can be focused on to adopt agile methodologies in large-scale projects. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to develop from management perspective a priority-based taxonomy of motivators that helps in scaling agile methodologies in large-scale projects. The taxonomy is developed in two steps. In the first step, data are collected from a survey and open literature. In the second step, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is implemented on the collected data that produced the proposed priority-based taxonomy of the motivators. With the help of AHP model, the 21 motivators of successful project management are categorized into four main categories, i.e., “organization management,” “team,” “customer and technology,” and “process.” Furthermore, the AHP analysis is used to rank the motivators and their respective categories in order of their importance. The findings of this study are further reviewed and validated by the agile experts in other organizations. The proposed priority-based taxonomy of motivators can be used as a handbook that gives guidelines on scalability of agile methodologies to large projects, which helps in successful management of large-scale projects.

Non‐linear internationalization processes in Portugal: Evidence across retail, construction and software development industries

AbstractThe rising number of Portuguese companies with international operations and growing sectoral diversification has been contributing to the recent international expansion of the Portuguese economy. It is important to introduce nuances in these recent developments, as the proportion of international firms and international expansion capabilities are still low. This article presents the results of a research project carried out between 2015 and 2018 focused on studying firm internationalization logics observable in Portugal, in three contributing sectors – retail, construction and information and communications technology (ICT) software development. The results present domestic markets as having a diffluent role, opportunistic client‐ or partner‐following being adopted as dominant expansion logics, and indicate that internationalization processes are valued for their portability and reversibility. Room exists for de‐ and re‐internationalization, resource commitment shifts and non‐linear logics, an expression of managerial attempts to leverage resource constraints and exposure to risk and market uncertainty. Sectoral diversification and the deployment of more flexible organizational modes in internationalizing companies or company groups in Portugal are suggested as relevant and feasible paths to follow, given the different modal forms currently available for most companies to expand.

Applying software design patterns to graph-modelled robotic workflows

Visual Programming Language (VPL) is utilized with increasing frequency in Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries to accomplish tasks relating to advanced geometry and complex designs. In recent developments, VPLs have gained traction in robotic research, where they are being explored as a good tool for robotic programming. While visual programming holds several key advantages justifying this attention, it comes with key limitations for developing commercial-grade robotic applications. Such applications need to be easily maintainable, stable and performance optimal to be able to succeed in the market. In this paper, we argue that the situation with regard to visual programming is similar to that of textual programming from 1960s. The universally adopted strong abstraction mechanisms vastly improved the condition for the latter. We then proceed to propose the utilization of software design patterns as a method to overcome some of the existing challenges faced by adopters of VPLs. Six novel design patterns are introduced, and their application is exemplified by industrial software development case studies.

Proposing total quality management as a buffer between global software development challenges and project success

PurposeThis study aims to empirically investigate the relationship between different global software development (GSD) challenges (management, process, social, technical and environmental challenges) and software project success. Further, the study examines the moderating role of total quality management (TQM) between the relationship of GSD challenges and success of software projects.Design/methodology/approachUsing two field studies, the authors collected data form software developers working in globally distributed teams. In study 1 (n = 194), relationship of different dimensions of GSD challenges (management, process, social, technical and environmental challenges) and project success was examined. In study 2 (n = 138), moderating role of TQM was examined on the relationship of GSD challenges and project success.FindingsThe results of study 1 indicate that there is a negative relationship between all dimensions of GSD challenges and project success. Findings of study 2 confirmed that TQM practices moderate the negative relationship between GSD challenges and project success.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study provide guidelines to the project managers of software industry to mitigate GSD challenges using TQM practices.Originality/valueStudy adds in the literature of TQM, GSD challenges and project success by (1) empirically investigating the relationship between different GSD challenges and software project success and (2) by examining the moderating role of TQM practices on relationship of GSD challenges and project success in global software development industry.

Skill Mismatch Assessment: Example of Software Industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Concept of skill mismatch is very broad and can be measured using a variety of indicators. It is used to describe so-called vertical mismatches (over-education, under-education, excessive or insufficient training), skills gaps, skills shortages, enrolment policy or ‘horizontal’ mismatches and skills obsolescence. In this paper we are analyzing skill mismatch gaps and skills shortages in software industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina using firm level assessment. The research results provide clear evidence for severe skill shortages facing IT companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inadequate tertiary education enrolment policy results in numerous vacancies in software industry, especially for developer’s positions. The evidence of skills gaps are also found. Primarily as a result of inadequate curricula in higher education institutions. The problem of skill gaps is most prominent referring professional (technical) skills, but also some ‘soft’ skills, such as the ability to work with clients, communication skills, problem detection and solving, etc. In a broad group of professional (technical) skills the biggest gaps are found in a sub-group related to fundamental knowledge of programming languages and IT systems, and sub-group related to experience in working with complementary tools and project management. In a way this was expected having in mind the stage of development of software industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Identified skill gaps and skill shortages are somewhat lower for non-IT employees. Based on the research findings several policy options are discussed.

A New Methodology for Designing a Skull Implant

Cranioplasty is a surgery used to repair a bone defect in the skull caused by an injury. It involves lifting the scalp and restoring the contour of the skull with an implant usually manufactured by additive manufacturing. The cranial implant is a sensitive topic; thus, it must be manufactured to the highest standards. Medical implants are growing significantly due to industrial digitalization and the rapid development of industrial software. With the help of computed Tomography (CT) equipment, a spatial, rotating model of the patient's current state can be obtained quickly, even in minutes where the replacement part of the deficiency can be perfectly designed. Although this requires considerable routine, computational capacity, and time, but taking advantage of the latest software presented in our manuscript, the development time of the implant can be up to 50 times shorter with significant improvements in suitability and adaptability. Subsequently, we can produce more accurate implants with more accessible and faster manufacturing with our developed method. The development steps and methods of designing an implant are described in our article.