Software Development Management Research Articles

Development of Dose Management Software Using Visual Basic for Applications and Dose Evaluation in the Field of Nuclear Medicine

The purpose of this study was to develop software for smooth dose management based on the Japan diagnostic reference levels (DRLs 2020) in the field of nuclear medicine. Using the programming language Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), we implemented a function for calculating actual doses, a function for comparing doses at one's own facility with those of DRLs 2020, a function for calculating appropriate doses for pediatric nuclear medicine examinations, and so on. In addition, we evaluated actual doses before and after the software implementation. The software enabled easy calculation of actual doses and comparison with DRLs 2020 for smooth dose management. Furthermore, we were able to use the results of dose evaluation to determine the dosage at our facility and to use them as a reference for optimization. In the field of nuclear medicine, it is possible to manage doses in accordance with DRLs 2020 by introducing own software into our clinical practice.

Development of an application for providing corneal topography reports based on artificial intelligence.

To develop an application (TopEye) in the iOS platform for mobile devices to allow the capture and interpretation of color maps generated by corneal topographers using artificial intelligence. In the execution, follow-up, and assessment of the project, we used the Scrum methodology and interactive and incremental development process for the project management and agile software development. The ge nerated diagnostic pattern bank consists of 1,172 examples of corneal topography, divided into 275 spherical, 302 symmetrical, 295 asymmetrical, and 300 irregular patterns (keratoconus). For the development of the artificial intelligence of the application, network training was established with 240 images of each pattern type, with a total of 960 patterns (81.91%). The remaining 212 images (18.09%) were used to test the application and will be used for the results. The process is semi-automatic, so the topographic image is captured with a smartphone, the examiner performs the contour of the corneal relief manually, and then the neural network performs the diagnosis. The application diagnosed 201 cases (94.81%) correctly. In 212 images, the algorithm missed the classification of 11 cases (5.19%). The major error that occurred was in distinguishing between symmetrical and asymmetrical classes. In keratoconus screening, the application reached 95.00% sensitivity and 98.68% specificity. The work resulted in obtaining an efficient application to capture topographic images using a smartphone camera and their interpretations through applied artificial intelligence.

Too Drained from Being Agile? The Self-Regulatory Effects of the Use of Agile ISD Practices and their Consequences on Turnover Intention

While much is known about the beneficial effects of agile information systems development (ISD), scholars have largely neglected to address its potential downsides. Specifically, research on this topic has thus far overlooked the ambivalent implications of the specific demands placed on developers working in agile ISD teams, including potentially depleting effects. Drawing on ego depletion theory and the associated literature, we provide a more balanced view and introduce self-regulatory resource depletion triggered by using agile ISD practices—encompassing software development (SD) and project management (PM) practices—as a theoretical perspective on why agile developers experience different levels of work-related fatigue that lead to stronger or weaker turnover intentions. Furthermore, we propose that due to the specific way in which agile ISD methods organize ISD project work, developers’ perceived workload influences the intensity by which agile ISD practices affect self-regulatory resources and developers’ feelings of fatigue. We examined our research model using a multimethod approach including quantitative and qualitative data. We found that the use of agile SD practices enhances developers’ self-regulatory resources and reduces fatigue and turnover intention. Our results also show that perceived workload strengthens the energizing effects of the use of agile SD practices and reveals a depleting effect of the use of agile PM practices, with countervailing implications for turnover intention. This study contributes to agile ISD literature by drawing a more nuanced and balanced picture with both resource-enhancing and resource-draining effects of the use of agile ISD practices. Finally, we give managerial advice regarding factors to consider when designing and managing agile ISD projects.

System Based on Market Segmentation to Improve the Export of Peruvian Coffee

In 2021 Peru exported 250 thousand tons of coffee, ranking seventh among the main coffee exporters in the world compared to the 4,000 thousand tons exported by Brazil, which ranks first. This research project aims to optimize coffee export processes through the development of management software for these exporting companies that allows them to have optimized processes, better control of their activities and make better decisions when exporting. Due to the great variety of types of coffee and the different destination markets, market segmentation was defined as a marketing strategy, which will allow the application of differentiated, efficient and effective commercial strategies. With the implemented software, the companies have been able to improve their export processes, the complexity of the different objectives and scenarios, the software plans quite accurately, as well as the calendar, volumes, and types of coffee to be exported. This helps coffee exporters to have adequate control of their activities and improve export processes, being more efficient and above all, making better decisions based on the information stored; With the use of a management tool, a higher percentage of organized producers is achieved, the export process is considerably improved and there is a greater participation in the international market.

Empirical Risk Assessment in Major Graphical Design Software Systems

Security vulnerabilities have been reported in major design software systems such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, which are recognized as <italic>de facto</italic> standard design tools in most of the design industries. Companies need to evaluate and manage their risk levels posed by those vulnerabilities, so that they could mitigate the potential security bridges in advance. In general, security vulnerabilities are discovered throughout their life cycles repeatedly if software systems are continually used. Hence, in this study, we empirically analyze risk levels for the three major graphical design software systems, namely Photoshop, Illustrator and GIMP with respect to a software vulnerability discovery model. The analysis reveals that the Alhazmi-Malaiya Logistic model tends to describe the vulnerability discovery patterns significantly. This indicates that the vulnerability discovery model makes it possible to predict vulnerability discovery in advance for the software systems. Also, we found that none of the examined vulnerabilities requires even a single authentication step for successful attacks, which suggests that adding an authentication process in software systems dramatically reduce the probability of exploitations. The analysis also discloses that, for all the three software systems, the predictions with evenly distributed and daily based datasets perform better than the estimations with the datasets of vulnerability reporting dates only. The observed outcome from the analysis allows software development managers to prepare proactively for a hostile environment by deploying necessary resources before the expected time of vulnerability discovery. In addition, it can periodically remind designers who use the software systems to be aware of security risk, related to their digital work environments.

Constructing a model for the dynamic evaluation of vulnerability in software based on public sources

One of the key processes in software development and information security management is the evaluation of vulnerability risks. Analysis and evaluation of vulnerabilities are considered a resource-intensive process that requires high qualifications and a lot of technical information. The main opportunities and drawbacks of existing systems for evaluation of vulnerability risks in software, which include the lack of consideration of the impact of trends and the degree of popularity of vulnerability on the final evaluation, were analyzed. During the study, the following information was analyzed in the structured form: the vector of the general system of vulnerability evaluation, the threat type, the attack vector, the existence of the original code with patches, exploitation programs, and trends. The obtained result made it possible to determine the main independent characteristics, the existence of a correlation between the parameters, the order, and schemes of the relationships between the basic magnitudes that affect the final value of evaluation of vulnerability impact on a system. A dataset with formalized characteristics, as well as expert evaluation for further construction of a mathematical model, was generated. Analysis of various approaches and methods for machine learning for construction of a target model of dynamic risk evaluation was carried out: neuro-fuzzy logic, regression analysis algorithms, neuro-network modeling. A mathematical model of dynamic evaluation of vulnerability risk in software, based on the dynamics of spreading information about a vulnerability in open sources and a multidimensional model with an accuracy of 88.9 %, was developed. Using the obtained model makes it possible to reduce the analysis time from several hours to several minutes and to make a more effective decision regarding the establishment of the order of patch prioritization, to unify the actions of experts, to reduce the cost of managing information security risks

AN ICOR APPROACH TOWARDS SHIP MAINTENANCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Ship maintenance is one of the key processes to improve system performance and reliability onboard. Maintenance onboard ships is required to be performed in a planned manner because safe and efficient operation of a ship is very much depending on equipment reliability in operational level. A planned maintenance system (PMS), mainly supported with software, is established to monitor the maintenance implementations on board ships. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of onboard maintenance and limited with the procedures and specific softwares employed for the maintenance on board. Specifically, the process analysis approach is developed to execute the existing ship PMS phases based on four dimensions such as input, control, output, resources (ICOR). Besides the critical points to be improved in ship maintenance, this research reveals recommendations to increase the functionality of selected software in terms of workload balance, smart scheduling and safe working environment. To demonstrate the functional improvements, an illustrative case study on an auxiliary diesel generator maintenance routines are conducted. The contributions of the study are expected in both ship operations management and marine software development.

A frequency-aware management strategy for virtual machines in DVFS-enabled clouds

It is demanding to curtail energy consumption of virtual-machine-powered data centers, because modern data centers have been significantly scaling up in capacity in past decades. In this study, we propose a frequency-aware management strategy, which controls dynamic power and static power of processors running virtual machines in data centers. Unlike existing dynamic voltage and frequency scaling schemes, our strategy simply incorporates frequency requirements rather than task execution times. This salient feature is practical, because task execution times in a raft of real-world applications are unknown in a priori. We build a frequency-aware model, which is adept at deriving an optimal frequency ratio that minimizes processors’ energy consumption. With our model in place, the energy efficiency of a data center can be maximized by adjusting the processor's frequency to meet the optimal frequency ratio. We design a management approach to judiciously adjust frequency ratio to conserve energy without violating the frequency requirements imposed by virtual machines. After analyzing the correlations between frequency ratio and energy consumption, we show that a small static power proportion gives rise to high energy-saving performance. The results demonstrate that our model lays out a solid theoretical foundation catering to the development of power management software in DVFS-enabled clouds.

Development of a nutrition management software based on selected Middle Eastern and Mediterranean dishes to support personalized diet and weight management

The nutrient composition of 50 commonly consumed Jordanian food dishes was determined to support the development of a novel nutrition management system designed to assist with dietary intake assessment and diet management. Composite dishes were selected by interviewing households located in the northern region of Jordan. For each dish, five different recipes were collected from experienced chefs and the typical recipe was formulated based on the average weights of ingredients and net weight of the dish. Proximate composition as well as vitamin and mineral contents were determined and related to ingredient composition and cooking conditions. The newly created food composition database was used to develop a user-centric nutrition management software tailored to reflect the characteristics of the Jordanian diet with representative items from this diet. This novel nutrition management system is customizable, enabling users to build daily meal plans in accordance with personalized dietary needs and goals.

The new WEB-accessible online database of the M\xf6ssbauer effect data center

The web-accessible online database (WAD) of the Mössbauer Effect Data Center (MEDC) is one of the worldwide available information services provided by MEDC to the scientific community. It is based on the uniquely wide scope Mössbauer spectroscopy database that has been compiled and maintained by MEDC since the 1960’s. Following enhancements applied to the capabilities of the MEDC core database in connection with the development of a new database management software named “MEDC DBM”, the development of a new web-accessible online database (MEDC WAD) was started in 2019. Here we introduce the current state and the main features of the newly developed MEDC WAD system with emphasis put on its novel and rather unique attributes that can effectively aid the scientific research process in the field of Mössbauer spectroscopy.

Measures related to social and human factors that influence productivity in software development teams

Software companies need to measure their productivity. Measures are useful indicators to evaluate processes, projects, products, and people who are part of software development teams. The results of these measurements are used to make decisions, manage projects, and improve software development and project management processes. This research is based on selecting a set of measures related to social and human factors (SHF) that influence productivity in software development teams and therefore in project management. This research was performed in three steps. In the first step, there was performed a tertiary literature review aimed to identify measures related to productivity. Then, the identified measures were submitted for its evaluation to project management experts and finally, the measures selected by the experts were mapped to the SHF. A set of 13 measures was identified and defined as a key input for designing improvement strategies. The measures have been compared to SHF to evaluate the development team's performance from a more human context and to establish indicators in productivity improvement strategies of software projects. Although the number of productivity measures related to SHF is limited, it was possible to identify the measures used in both traditional and agile contexts.

Software Risk Assessment and Management with Rules Based on Fuzzy Approach

Up to now, several software risk parameters have been determined in order to assess and manage software development projects: Productivity, Engagement, Attention to Quality, Code Based Knowledge and Management, Adherence to Coding Guidelines and Techniques, Learning and Skills, Personal Responsibility and etc. However, there isn’t any universally accepted methodology to apply software risk assessment and management. There are three main reasons of this situation: Firstly, each part of software creation is unique. There is no compelling reason to assemble two times the same parts of software as it might be duplicated by copying it. This makes it truly difficult to make a formal and thorough correlation between two parts of software. Secondly, the current technology is something that changes at a truly fast phase. So, each time a methodology in respect to a certain wave of technology is dependable enough, it is for the most part as of recently old. Thirdly, there is a gigantic zone for innovativeness in discovering the diverse answers for a unique issue. Because of these reasons, the technique “Fuzzy Approach” has a very convenient and proper process for defining software risks due to their nature that has no certainty – uncertainty – structure and principle. Also, software risks are defined as the probability and the severity of damages that are caused by occurring of bad or undesirable events in a system. Thus, the system suffers from strategic, financial, operational, structural or integrity loss and damage. So, there is need to apply and carry out an efficient “Software Risk Assessment and Management” in order to determine and recognize software risks on time before causing problems and troubles into software projects for providing successfully accomplishment in software development process. In this paper, usability and efficiency of “Fuzzy Approached” linguistic and logical rules based on “Fuzzy Logic” in “Software Risk Assessment and Management” have been shown and expressed in detail.

Factors That Influence Choice and Usage of Reference Management Software by Postgraduate Students at the University Of Limpopo, South Africa

Inaccuracy in manual referencing of information sources in scientific papers resulted in the development of reference management software (RMS) for academics, researchers, scholars, and students. It is crucial to constantly assess the use of this software for decision making regarding sustained software purchasing and subscriptions. This study sought to identify factors that influence the choice and usage of RMS among postgraduate students in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Limpopo. Stratified random sampling was employed to arrive at 244 participants. A questionnaire was used as data collection instrument. The study found that the majority of respondents have used RMS before. The respondents used RefWorks and Mendeley, because they were familiar with these packages and because they had received training on how to use them. As such, product knowledge, experience, and skills in using RMS are associated with their popularity and usage. It was also found that postgraduate students use RMS for basic purposes, such as saving and organising citations for easy retrieval and for creating bibliographic lists in a preferred referencing style, as well as for exporting citations from subject databases. Based on the findings, the study recommends intensified and more advanced training on RMS to ensure optimal utilisation of RMS by postgraduate students in general.

Why Is It Getting Harder To Apply Software Architecture?

We currently find ourselves in a surprising situation: we understand software architecture fairly well, but we find it difficult to put it into practice. This is because most software developers work within iterative processes that focus attention on what’s new, and because factory-inspired metaphors encourage ever-quicker movement from feature requests to deployed code. How did that happen? Explores changes in software development management and reports on where it is headed in the near future.

Гендерные особенности цифровизации на российском рынке труда

Digitalization changes the nature of work and the demands for competences of a modern employee, but the speed and volume of digitalization differ by type of economic activity. In the context of existing gender differentiation on the labor market, differences in the degree of digitalization lead to the fact that male and female types of employment change differently. The aim of the article is to determine the degree and features of digitalization of "women's" and "men's" spheres of employment and draw conclusions on the prospective impact of these differences on gender inequality. Data analysis concerning current gender differentiation on the labor market, the scale of occupational digitalization and the use of information technologies for various purposes allows us to conclude that both "male" and "female" professions are highly digitalized, but the nature of the changes is different. Data on the gender distribution in the areas of employment and the degree of digitalization of these areas allow us to distinguish 3 categories of women's participation in digital economy: 1. Household use of digital technologies; 2. Digital technologies use while performing labor functions; 3. Creation of digital technologies and direct participation in digitalization. The areas of women's primary employment (health care, information and communication, finance, education) are currently the leaders in employing digital technologies, so computer technologies penetrate more intensively into the professional activities of women than in "male" professions (for example, construction). However, in software development and digital technology management, women are less represented, acting as users of technologies created mainly by men. Since creation is primary related to usage, digitalization enhances gender inequality determining the innovative role for men and the user role for women, which should be taken into account while implementing policies aimed at overcoming inequality.

Synthesizing researches on Knowledge Management and Agile Software Development using the Meta-ethnography method

Context:Software development processes are considered as knowledge intensive and therefore Knowledge Management (KM) can be applied to efficiently manage the knowledge generated. Agile practices can benefit software organizations in terms of KM. Some studies have already presented evidence about this relationship. However, the intersection of these two areas still requires further clarification. Objective:This study synthesizes research on KM and Agile Software Development (ASD) using the meta-ethnography method considering Scrum and XP frameworks. Method:In order to achieve the proposed goal, first, a diagnostic was conducted in different project domains with agile and traditional software development in order to identify the performance of KM activities. Second, the phases of the meta-ethnography analysis method were applied in a set of studies selected from a tertiary review on KM and ASD, as well as classic guides and area references. Finally, the relationships that were identified among the areas investigated were analyzed from interviews with agile development methodology experts. Results:The most common activity investigated between KM and ASD is knowledge sharing. However, in the practical view of software development companies, the attention is on how to use the generated knowledge. Conclusion:The clarification of how KM is present in each agile value, practices, and artifacts allows a reflection on how much knowledge was created, shared, and applied during ASD. Besides, such results presented in this study enable organizations to know each other better and to explore more each KM activity, thus contributing to delivering more value to the customer.

Using a platform based on the Basic profile of ISO/IEC 29110 to reinforce DevOps environments

The growth of software demand has caused more competition among customers who expect faster changes and better quality in the software products delivered. The need to satisfy the continuous requirements of the market, the need to keep the quality of products and services, as well as the need to improve their processes become a difficult task for organizations. DevOps arises to handle this continuous change because it addresses the reduction of the gap between development and operation. However, the influence of this new paradigm in organizations becomes a big challenge, mainly related to a cultural change. If the change of culture is not properly implemented, it could impact a team with negative consequences. In this context, there is no specific guidance that helps organizations with their implementation. Based on the lack of guidance, this paper presents the Reinforced DevOps Guidance, which aims to help teams to achieve an evolution of their software development, software delivery, and project management processes toward a proper DevOps implementation. The guidance uses a web platform that allows a dynamic implementation. That way helps teams to understand the set of tasks to be followed and the impact of their implementation on their current organizations. This paper shows both an overview of the guidance, highlighting the web platform, and its application in a very small entity (VSE). The results show that the use of the guidance: provides support toward addressing the effort in VSEs; gives the information of the technology, processes, and teams aspects that should be improved; and allows the cultural change in a pace supported by VSEs.

Benefits management in software development: A systematic review of empirical studies

Considerable resources are wasted on software projects delivering less than the planned benefits. Herein, the objective is to synthesize empirical evidence of the adoption and impact of benefits management (BM) in software development, and to suggest directions for future research. A systematic review of the literature is performed and identified 4836 scientific papers of which the authors found 47 to include relevant research. While most organizations identify and structure benefits at the outset of a project, fewer organizations report implementing BM as a continuous process throughout the project lifecycle. Empirical evidence gives support for positive impact on project outcome from the following BM practices: identifying and structuring benefits, planning benefits realization, BM during project execution, benefits evaluation and the practice of having people responsible for benefits realization. The authors suggest four research directions to understand (1) why BM practices sometimes not are adopted, (2) BM in relation to other management practices, (3) BM in agile software development and (4) BM in the context of organizations' value creation logics.

Selection and Optimization of Software Development Life Cycles Using a Genetic Algorithm

In the software field, a large number of projects fail, and billions of dollars are spent on these failed projects. Many software projects are also produced with poor quality or they do not exactly meet customers’ expectations. Moreover, these projects may exceed project budget and/or time. The complexity of managing software development projects and the poor selection of software development life cycle (SDLC) models are among the top reasons for such failure. Various SDLC models are available, but no model is considered the best or worst. In this work, we propose a new methodology that solves the SDLC optimization problem using a genetic algorithm. The methodology selects the best SDLC and optimizes the completion time of the selected model. This study aims to help project managers in a software development organization select the proper SDLC model for their projects and optimize the selected model by minimizing the project completion time. The proposed SDLC model selection approach is based on a selection matrix that consists of a set of selection criteria and information related to the project’s nature given by the project managers. Our methodology optimizes the selected SDLC model by reducing the project completion time and assigning duration for each phase. Several experiments were conducted to obtain the optimal completion time for the selected SDLC models. These experiments showed that our algorithm can optimally minimize the completion time of a given project and assign a duration for each phase. Experimental results showed that our methodology can reduce the completion time of a given project and produce realistic and optimal completion times for different SDLC models.

Pengembangan Aplikasi People Management dalam Software Development dengan Pendekatan Project Management Antipatterns

Faktor manusia dalam proses pengembangan perangkat lunak menjadi salah satu penentu keberhasilan suatu proyek, terlepas dari teknologi dan tools yang digunakan. Dalam praktiknya, banyak project manager tidak memiliki dataset mengenai hard skill dan soft skill anggotanya. Hal ini mengantarkan tim proyek pengembangan perangkat lunak terjebak dalam situasi antipatterns irrational management. Berdasarkan beberapa faktor utama penyebab kegagalan proyek pengembangan perangkat lunak, diperlukan adanya suatu mitigation plan yang dapat membantu project manager dalam melakukan manajemen sumber daya manusia dalam sebuah tim. Mitigation plan yang dapat dilakukan adalah dengan mengembangkan aplikasi people management yang didasarkan pada prinsip-prinsip Project Management Antipatterns. Makalah ini mengajukan suatu pemodelan baru dalam bentuk aplikasi untuk melakukan people management di dalam pengembangan perangkat lunak dengan pendekatan Project Management Antipatterns. Penelitian ini mengajukan suatu pemodelan baru dalam bentuk aplikasi untuk melakukan people management di dalam pengembangan perangkat lunak dengan pendekatan Project Management Antipatterns. Hasil yang diberikan berupa pemetaan tim developer kepada task yang relevan berdasarkan hard skill dan soft skill yang dimiliki. Selain itu, aplikasi ini juga memberikan hasil berupa rekomendasi treatment yang bisa dilakukan terhadap tim untuk meningkatkan produktivitas serta mengurangi potensi risiko yang ditimbulkan dari hasil diagnosis praktik yang buruk. Pendekatan yang digunakan terbukti mampu meningkatkan produktivitas tim secara keseluruhan. Refactored solution yang direkomendasikan juga terbukti efektif menurunkan nilai antipatterns dari satu sprint ke sprint berikutnya.