Software Development Organizations Research Articles

Software Architecture Evaluation: An Assessment

Software architecture is what defines a software system to be built. It starts early in the software development life cycle. The software architecture defines the data as well as the components of any software system along with the relation between them. It constitutes the blueprint that directs the development of the computer based software system. Being a critical activity of software development life cycle, any error in the design phase of software development can be critical to an organization dealing with the project and as such requires evaluation process that will not only analyze the architecture for its quality attributes but will benefit the software development organization by minimizing the risks associated with the software system to be built by pinpointing the errors early in the process of development. This paper highlights the architecture evaluation process with some examples of evaluation methods along with related work that has been previously done in the said field.

A hybrid approach for software cost estimation using polynomial neural networks and intuitionistic fuzzy sets

Software cost estimation SCE is an important and critical activity of any software development organisation. It helps the project managers to effectively manage their projects and prevent them from over budgeting. In this study we introduce a new design methodology for software cost estimation using polynomial neural networks PNNs and intuitionistic fuzzy sets which resulted in improved SCEs. The performance of the proposed model is tested through a series of experiments on three publicly available software development data, i.e., COCOMO81, NASA93, and Maxwell datasets. The proposed technique of using IFCM intuitionistic fuzzy C Means along with PNNs has drastically improved the cost estimations in comparison with the use of fuzzy C means FCM with PNN as reported in the literature.

The kanban approach, between agility and leanness: a systematic review

The interest in lean product development in general and the Kanban approach in particular has increased over the years. However, practitioners, in the software development field, have significant challenges in implementing the Kanban approach as it lacks a clear definition of its principles, practices, techniques and tools. This study aims to provide insight into the Kanban approach and its elements (concepts, principles, practices, techniques, and tools) that have been empirically reported by scholars and practitioners. This insight is produced by using the systematic review method to analyze the available literature. A total of 37 primary studies were selected from more than 3,000 unique studies. Our findings show that the primary studies have considered and reported 20 different elements as part of the Kanban approach based upon considerations of being an agile approach or a lean principle; these elements have realized great benefits and improvements to the software development teams. These benefits along with the challenges have been reported in this study. Due to the variety of organization types, contexts, and project sizes reported in the primary studies, it is expected that the results in this study would help in establishing knowledge on what are the different elements of the Kanban approach as well as offering a first step towards developing guidelines for practitioners to help in introducing the Kanban approach to software development organizations.

Distance Education: A Challenge for Software Development Organizations

Distance education has evolved significantly in last few years. Many educational organizations have adopted this approach, and for some of them, it has been the only format offered. Although, distance education is often compared with traditional education there are issues to be solved. Distance education has been also used for employees training in software development organization. A challenge is how to apply adequately this approach if they are involved in very demanding organization, committed with product deliveries and customer satisfaction. This work presents a didactic proposal applying in a portal Web by way of a successful training that was offered to a large Brazilian financial organization. The outcome was satisfactory, but this study showed some potential improvements.

Top Priority of Software Success Factors for Six Sigma Execution by a Fuzzy Hierarchical Process

Six-Sigma quality enhancement methodology has received important attention in various software development and service organizations. There have been some researches recognizing serious software success factors for Six-Sigma execution. Within available resource compulsions, an immediate adoption of all serious software success factors may not be possible. In order to be able to consolidate resources for some of the most important factors, top priority serious software success factors have to be determined. This will enable Six-Sigma practitioners and policy makers to understand the relative importance among the software success factors and develop improvement ideas for resource provision. The aim of this paper is to present fuzzy hierarchy process (FHP) based on methodology with the use of triangular fuzzy values for pair wise comparison scale to top priority serious success factors for Six-Sigma execution. The weights of success factors are determined by software experts including software managers, Six-Sigma Green-Belts and Black-Belts from different multinational organizations in the software industry in India. This paper is an attempt to top priority to the serious software success factors of executing Six-Sigma methodology by using FHP approach.

The Research on GIS Software Engineering Model Based on Cloud Computing Technology

In this paper, we mainly introduce the basic concepts of cloud computing and the characteristics of the GIS software engineering. Then we analyze the impact of cloud computing for GIS software development and discuss GIS software engineering design method in cloud computing environment from the GIS software architecture, development organization and deployment management three aspects. At last, put forward the proposals to the implementation of GIS software development in cloud computing environment.

Implementing information security best practices on software lifecycle processes: The ISO/IEC 15504 Security Extension

The ISO/IEC 15504 international standard can be aligned with the ISO/IEC 27000 information security management framework. During the research conducted all the existing relations between ISO/IEC 15504-5 software development base practices and ISO/IEC 27002 security controls have been analysed and the ISO/IEC 15504 Security Extension has been developed. This extension details the changes that software companies should make in the software lifecycle processes for the successful implementation of the related security controls. To attain our research objectives, we evaluate the ISO/IEC 15504 Security Extension through case studies in a sample of software development organizations. This study follows the design science research paradigm that is based on constructive research.

Modelo para valorar las organizaciones al iniciar la mejora de procesos de software

This article presents the challenges that organizations are faced with in order to run the software process improvement and the tendency to identify critical success factors are discussed. The usefulness of assessing software development organizations is fundamental to initiate process improvement, considering the critical success factors in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of undertaking the change. The way to improve the diagnostic phase and the techniques applied in this area to identify the status of the whole organization is explained. The authors state that the proposed model, with the use of indicators, metrics and a system of case-based reasoning considering the critical success factors for their recommendations. The results allow that organizations acquire the main factors affecting the improvement program for change management. The importance of comprehensive evaluation of the organization's environment related with critical success factors is ratified and described.

A COMPARISON OF STEPWISE AND FUZZY MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING SOFTWARE PROJECT RISKS: ANALYSIS PHASE

Risk is not always avoidable, but it is controllable. The aim of this study is to identify whether those techniques are effective in reducing software failure. This motivates the authors to continue the effort to enrich the managing software project risks with consider mining and quantitative approach with large data set. In this study, two new techniques are introduced namely stepwise multiple regression analysis and fuzzy multiple regression to manage the software risks. Two evaluation procedures such as MMRE and Pred (25) is used to compare the accuracy of techniques. The model’s accuracy slightly improves in stepwise multiple regression rather than fuzzy multiple regression. This study will guide software managers to apply software risk management practices with real world software development organizations and verify the effectiveness of the new techniques and approaches on a software project. The study has been conducted on a group of software project using survey questionnaire. It is hope that this will enable software managers improve their decision to increase the probability of software project success.

Empirical evidence and state of practice of software agile teams

ABSTRACTThe paper provides an in depth analysis of empirical evidence on the state of practice within the agile domain obtained through a survey conducted in 2012. The context of focus is agile software processes and teams and the particular topics of interest revolve around three axes: (i) communication; (ii) project management; and (iii) quality assurance and validation. The aim of the survey is to deliver the current levels of agile adoption and practices as these are recorded in the responses of professionals in IT services and the software industry. The goal of the survey is to provide evidence‐based assessment of the level of agile adoption by software development organizations, in relation to the general profile of the respondents (country of origin, business sectors, roles, etc.) and compared with different types of practices followed, such as agile techniques adopted, team organization and communication techniques, and project management. Particular patterns and trends are identified in the survey connecting the use of the agile paradigm with the aforementioned practices and investigating its relation with the roles of the respondents and the business strategies of their organizations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Editorial – Cultural Bias in Reviews and Mitigation Options

Editorial – Cultural Bias in Reviews and Mitigation Options

Intercultural challenges in offshore software development outsourcing relationships: an exploratory study using a systematic literature review

Offshore software development outsourcing (OSDO) is an emerging business paradigm implemented by many software development organisations. OSDO faces a variety of challenges including temporal, geographical and intercultural differences. The objective of this research is to identify the intercultural challenges faced by vendors in OSDO relationships. A systematic literature review process for the identification of these challenges from vendors' perspective has been used. The findings reveal `language and language proficiency', `national culture' and `organisational culture' as the critical intercultural challenges for vendors in OSDO relationships. These challenges based on study strategy have been further analysed.

Ontology for knowledge management in software maintenance

The concept of ontologies has been widely reported in the literature, and has been described various ontological designs, but few works try to explain in practical terms how to design an ontology. On the other side, although it is widely accepted the importance of maintenance of software products, few ontological designs focus on applying techniques to manage knowledge to get it. This paper analyzes the ontologies proposed to address this need, in order to present information that can help to software development organizations in similar works. Besides, is described a methodological process to structure an ontology that can be applied to manage knowledge in software maintenance.

Conceptual Model for Examining Knowledge Maps Adoption in Software Development Organizations

A knowledge map has emerged, as a powerful source of competitive advantage, and plays an important role in managing an organizational knowledge. The definition, purposes, benefits, types and principles of knowledge map have been already provided and well explored by many scholars and researchers. However, predictors for a knowledge map adoption have seldom been addressed. Hence, how to facilitate a successful adopting of a knowledge map becomes important. To address this gap this study develops a conceptual model to investigate diverse factors influencing the adoption of knowledge map in software development organizations context. The research proposed model is established on the Technological-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) framework. The model identifies thirteen variables, covering five broad categories (Technological, Organizational, Environmental, Task, and Individual) that could potentially influence knowledge map adoption. A complete analysis of the possible aspects to be considered for adopting of knowledge map in software development organizations is provided by the proposed model.

Early vs. late adoption of radical information technology innovations across software development organizations: an extension of the disruptive information technology innovation model

AbstractThis paper extends the disruptive information technology innovation model (DITIM) by exploring the impact of adoption timing on innovation outcomes within software development organizations during a disruptive innovation cycle. The DITIM suggests that radical changes in computing platforms result in pervasive and radical innovations in software development organizations across three innovation types: base technologies adopted, services produced and processes adopted. Upstream attributes (amount and radicalness) of the base innovations impact effects in‐kind downstream (a.k.a., strong order effects) on services and processes. Extending these tenets of the DITIM, we posit that during disruptive information technology (IT) innovation, the temporal stage of innovation activity (early vs. late) by software development organizations will significantly impact four innovation characteristics: (1) adoption rate of radical IT innovations, (2) strong order effects on downstream innovations related to the amount of innovation, (3) perceived radicalness of innovations and (4) strong order effects on downstream innovations related to the amount of perceived radicalness of innovation. We examine these impacts by reanalysing a cross‐sectional study of 121 software development organizations that adopted internet computing as reported in the original data analysis of the DITIM. By splitting the data into early and late adopter groups, our moderation analysis shows significant differences between early and late adopting groups in each of the four hypothesized impacts. Specifically, the adoption rate of radical IT innovations, strong order effects on the amount of innovation, perceived radicalness of innovations and strong order effects on perceived radicalness were each found to differ between early and late adopters. However, it is also important to consider innovation type as three significant effects were in the opposite direction for process innovations. These findings suggest that IT‐innovation scholars and practitioners should carefully consider innovation timing and type when studying or managing radical IT innovation.

“Standard Bibles” and Mediators as a Way of Software Development Organizations to Cope with the Multiplicity and Plurality of Standards

This paper focuses on the appearance and implementation of process standards in software development organizations. In particular, it shows interest in the way organizations handle the plurality and multitude of process standards they are faced with in a modern working environment. The process how organizations respond to environmental challenges like the increasing demand for process standards we call metastructuring. Based on the metastructuring approach by Orlikowski et al. (1995) it explores the process of internal standard-use mediation by an in-depth single case study. The case company develops step by step a dedicated institutional entity reacting to standard complexity and customer pressure. As a result, mediators shape extensively the standard use of the employees in the case company. They develop a process library which integrates different standards. This work sheds light on how this metastructuring process is accomplished, which areas of metastructuring regarding process standards can be found and explore different types of metastructuring activities by the involved standard-use mediators.

Communities of practice in a large distributed agile software development organization – Case Ericsson

ContextCommunities of practice—groups of experts who share a common interest or topic and collectively want to deepen their knowledge—can be an important part of a successful lean and agile adoption in particular in large organizations. ObjectiveIn this paper, we present a study on how a large organization within Ericsson with 400 persons in 40 Scrum teams at three sites adopted the use of Communities of Practice (CoP) as part of their transformation from a traditional plan-driven organization to lean and agile. MethodsWe collected data by 52 semi-structured interviews on two sites, and longitudinal non-participant observation of the transformation during over 20 site visits over a period of two years. ResultsThe organization had over 20 CoPs, gathering weekly, bi-weekly or on a need basis. CoPs had several purposes including knowledge sharing and learning, coordination, technical work, and organizational development. Examples of CoPs include Feature Coordination CoPs to coordinate between teams working on the same feature, a Coaching CoP to discuss agile implementation challenges and successes and to help lead the organizational continuous improvement, an end-to-end CoP to remove bottlenecks from the flow, and Developers CoPs to share good development practices. Success factors of well-functioning CoPs include having a good topic, passionate leader, proper agenda, decision making authority, open community, supporting tools, suitable rhythm, and cross-site participation when needed. Organizational support include creating a supportive atmosphere and providing a suitable infrastructure for CoPs. ConclusionsIn the case organization, CoPs were initially used to support the agile transformation, and as part of the distributed Scrum implementation. As the transformation progressed, the CoPs also took on the role of supporting continuous organizational improvements. CoPs became a central mechanism behind the success of the large-scale agile implementation in the case organization that helped mitigate some of the most pressing problems of the agile transformation.

Towards a Framework Empowering Software Testing Process for Better Quality

Software development frameworks are considered the engine that leads the development activities within software development organizations, so the main interest in this research is establishing a framework to effectively lead the development activities to enhance the software quality. The proposed framework relates each development phase with its available artifacts, software metrics can be extracted from its artifacts and relates the test practices and QA best practices during the SDLC. It provides an organized approach to handle miscommunication and poor team management that usually lead to team confusion. It also provides a way to disengage the ambiguity between the software fault and failure through establishing a clear relationship between the both concepts and developing automated models to predict the software correctness and measure its reliability.

Predicting defective modules in different test phases

Defect prediction is a well-established research area in software engineering . Prediction models in the literature do not predict defect-prone modules in different test phases. We investigate the relationships between defects and test phases in order to build defect prediction models for different test phases. We mined the version history of a large-scale enterprise software product to extract churn and static code metrics. We used three testing phases that have been employed by our industry partner, namely function, system and field, to build a learning-based model for each testing phase. We examined the relation of different defect symptoms with the testing phases. We compared the performance of our proposed model with a benchmark model that has been constructed for the entire test phase (benchmark model). Our results show that building a model to predict defect-prone modules for each test phase significantly improves defect prediction performance and shortens defect detection time. The benefit analysis shows that using the proposed model, the defects are detected on the average 7 months earlier than the actual. The outcome of prediction models should lead to an action in a software development organization. Our proposed model gives a more granular outcome in terms of predicting defect-prone modules in each testing phase so that managers may better organize the testing teams and effort.

Knowledge Management in Process Improvement and Best Practices Sharing

Software process improvement involves complex decision-making activities and requires supporting tools to coordinate and optimize information exchange within organizations. This work presents the theoretical background for developing a framework capable of integrating decision levels in software development organizations. In addition, this framework aims to improve and coordinate information exchange among the different modeling paradigms/conventions. Semantic technologies, namely ontologies, stand for an opportunity to suggest the use of best practices based on the essentials of the enterprise such as size or process and business goals. This work relies on different standards, methodologies and models, which focus on process improvement and human resources management of processes related to software development. In this way, knowledge derived from the application of some of the most used technologies for process improvement is captured, allowing the use and reuse among different enterprises and processes and promoting transversal process-oriented management.