Software Development Practices Research Articles

Detecting and Patching Loopholes in Windows Operating System

Widely used in personal and business environments, the Windows operating system is a complex software platform that has historically been vulnerable to various intrusions and vulnerabilities. These breaches can be seen as software vulnerabilities, configuration vulnerabilities, higher validity issues, or architectural flaws, which can pose a serious security risk. This research report provides a comprehensive analysis of Windows vulnerabilities and examines their types, key examples such as EternalBlue and Stuxnet, and the potential impact they can have on individuals and organizations. This white paper examines mitigation strategies and best practices, including patch management, system hardening, vulnerability assessment, and the use of third-party security tools. It also addresses the challenges associated with blockchain, including the complexity of legacy code, zero-day vulnerabilities, targeted attacks, and the growing threat landscape. The paper also reviews future ideas, including secure software development practices, architectural improvements, collaboration and information sharing, automated vulnerability detection and remediation, and continuing education and security awareness. By taking a proactive approach to reducing intrusions, organizations can strengthen the security of their Windows systems, protect sensitive data, and maintain system integrity against threats and crimes.

Unleashing the Power of DevOps : Revolutionizing Software Development Practices

The integration of development and operations, popularly known as DevOps, has emerged as a transformative force in modern software development practices. This review paper delves into the multifaceted landscape of DevOps, exploring its principles, methodologies, and the profound impact it has on software development processes. Through an examination of historical evolution, cultural shifts, and technological advancements, the paper elucidates how DevOps fosters collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement across the software development lifecycle. Furthermore, it investigates the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing DevOps practices, including cultural barriers, security considerations, and the adoption of cloud technologies. By synthesizing insights from industry best practices, case studies, and academic research, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the principles and practices that underpin the successful adoption of DevOps. Ultimately, it underscores the potential of DevOps to revolutionize software development, empowering organizations to deliver high-quality software products with speed, efficiency, and agility.

Cryptocurrency Price Tracker: A Comprehensive Examination of Market Trends, Real-Time Updates, and User-Centric Features

The cryptocurrency market, characterized by its volatility and rapid fluctuations, necessitates robust tools for tracking and analyzing prices in real-time. This project proposes the development of a cryptocurrency price tracker, leveraging the MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js) stack for efficient data management and user interface design. The platform aims to provide users with timely and accurate information on cryptocurrency prices, market trends, and historical data. Key features include real-time price updates, customizable watchlists, advanced charting tools, and secure authentication mechanisms. The project focuses on enhancing user experience, scalability, security, and performance to meet the evolving demands of cryptocurrency enthusiasts and traders. By integrating cutting-edge technologies and adhering to best practices in software development, the cryptocurrency price tracker aims to become a valuable resource for both novice and experienced users navigating the complexities of the cryptocurrency market. Keywords: Cryptocurrency, Price Tracker, MERN Stack, Real-time Data, User Experience, Performance.

On the Way to SBOMs: Investigating Design Issues and Solutions in Practice

The increase of software supply chain threats has underscored the necessity for robust security mechanisms, among which the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) stands out as a promising solution. SBOMs, by providing a machine-readable inventory of software composition details, play a crucial role in enhancing transparency and traceability within software supply chains. This empirical study delves into the practical challenges and solutions associated with the adoption of SBOMs, through an analysis of 4,786 GitHub discussions across 510 SBOM-related projects. Through repository mining and analysis, this research delineates key topics, challenges, and solutions intrinsic to the effective utilization of SBOMs. Furthermore, we shed light on commonly used tools and frameworks for SBOM generation, exploring their respective strengths and limitations. This study underscores a set of findings, for example, there are four phases of the SBOM life cycle, and each phase has a set of SBOM development activities and issues; in addition, this study emphasizes that SBOM play in ensuring resilient software development practices and the imperative of their widespread adoption and integration to bolster supply chain security. The insights of our study provide vital input for future work and practical advancements in this topic.

Studying logging practice in machine learning-based applications

Context:Logging is a common practice in traditional software development. There have been multiple studies on the characteristics of logging in traditional software systems such as C/C++, Java, and Android applications. However, logging practices in Machine Learning-based (ML-based) applications are still not well understood. The size and complexity of data and models used in ML-based applications present unique challenges for logging. Objective:In this paper, we aim to bridge this knowledge gap and provide insight into the logging practices in ML-based applications, making the first attempt to characterize current logging practices within a large number of open-source ML-based applications. Method:We conducted an empirical study on 502 open-source ML applications to understand their logging practices, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses and a survey involving 31 practitioners. Results:Our quantitative analysis reveals that logging in ML applications is less common than in traditional software, with info and warn log levels being popular. Top ML-specific logging libraries include MLflow, Tensorboard, Neptune, and W&B. Qualitatively, logging is used for data and model management, especially in model training. Our survey reinforces the importance of logging in experiment tracking, complementing our qualitative findings. Conclusion:Our research carries significant implications. It reveals distinctive ML logging practices compared to traditional software. We have highlighted the prevalence of general-purpose logging libraries in ML code, indicating a potential gap in awareness regarding ML-specific logging tools. This insight benefits researchers and developers aiming to enhance ML project reproducibility and sets the stage for exploring ML-specific logging tools’ impact on machine learning system quality and trustworthiness.

Advancing green computing: Practices, strategies, and impact in modern software development for environmental sustainability

Advancing Green Computing: Practices, Strategies, and Impact in Modern Software Development for Environmental Sustainability explores the evolving landscape of green computing within the realm of software development, emphasizing the imperative for environmentally sustainable practices. In response to escalating environmental concerns, the computing industry is undergoing a paradigm shift towards reducing its carbon footprint and mitigating ecological impacts. This shift is particularly crucial in software development, given its pervasive influence on technological ecosystems. The review delves into the multifaceted dimensions of green computing, elucidating various practices and strategies that are instrumental in fostering environmental sustainability. From optimizing code efficiency to embracing energy-efficient computing architectures, the review underscores the diverse approaches available to software developers in minimizing resource consumption and carbon emissions. Furthermore, it examines the broader ramifications of these practices, emphasizing their potential to reshape the software industry's ecological footprint and contribute to global efforts for environmental conservation. Moreover, the review highlights the symbiotic relationship between green computing and modern software development methodologies. It elucidates how principles such as agile development and DevOps can be synergistically integrated with green computing practices to enhance sustainability throughout the software development lifecycle. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach that integrates environmental considerations into software design, development, and deployment processes, organizations can catalyze transformative changes towards a greener computing ecosystem. The review also investigates the tangible impact of green computing practices on environmental sustainability metrics. Through case studies and empirical analyses, it showcases the efficacy of various strategies in reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions, and electronic waste generation. Additionally, it discusses the economic and societal benefits accrued from adopting environmentally sustainable practices, ranging from cost savings to enhanced corporate social responsibility. Advancing Green Computing: Practices, Strategies, and Impact in Modern Software Development for Environmental Sustainability provides a comprehensive overview of the evolving landscape of green computing within the context of software development. It elucidates the myriad opportunities and challenges associated with fostering environmental sustainability in the computing industry and underscores the transformative potential of integrating green computing principles into modern software development practices.

Securing the smart city: A review of cybersecurity challenges and strategies

In the era of rapid urbanization and technological advancement, the emergence of smart cities promises innovative solutions to urban challenges. However, the integration of various technologies into urban infrastructures also exposes cities to unprecedented cybersecurity threats. This review presents a comprehensive review of the cybersecurity challenges faced by smart cities and explores the strategies to mitigate these risks. Smart cities leverage interconnected networks of sensors, devices, and systems to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and citizen services. Yet, this interconnectedness creates a complex attack surface vulnerable to cyber threats. One of the primary challenges is the diverse range of IoT devices deployed across smart city infrastructures, often lacking robust security mechanisms. These devices are susceptible to exploitation by cybercriminals for malicious activities, such as data breaches, sabotage, and surveillance. Moreover, the interconnected nature of smart city systems amplifies the potential impact of cyberattacks, posing significant risks to critical infrastructure, public safety, and privacy. Threat actors can exploit vulnerabilities in interconnected systems to disrupt essential services, manipulate data, or even cause physical harm. As smart cities rely on data-driven decision-making, the integrity and confidentiality of data become paramount concerns. To address these challenges, various cybersecurity strategies have been proposed and implemented. These strategies encompass a multi-layered approach, integrating technical solutions, regulatory frameworks, and collaboration among stakeholders. Technical measures include encryption, authentication mechanisms, intrusion detection systems, and secure software development practices. Additionally, implementing robust access controls and network segmentation can limit the scope of potential attacks. Furthermore, regulatory initiatives play a crucial role in enhancing cybersecurity standards and promoting compliance among smart city stakeholders. Establishing clear guidelines for data protection, privacy rights, and incident response protocols is essential to safeguarding citizens' interests. Collaboration among government agencies, private sector partners, academia, and cybersecurity experts fosters information sharing and collective defense against emerging threats. Securing smart cities against cybersecurity threats requires a concerted effort to address the multifaceted challenges posed by interconnected technologies. By implementing comprehensive strategies encompassing technical measures, regulatory frameworks, and collaborative approaches, smart cities can mitigate risks and foster a resilient and secure urban environment for all citizens.

Enterprise Architecture and IT Governance to Support the BizDevOps Approach: a Systematic Mapping Study

AbstractCurrent software development practices are transforming the governance and management of software projects with the objective of aligning software products/services with business needs, ensuring business continuity, optimizing resource allocation, and fostering strong stakeholder relationships. The innovative BizDevOps approach has emerged as a response to these challenges, since it extends DevOps by incorporating an additional cycle and involving non-IT stakeholders with a focus on business-IT alignment. The application of IT Governance practices is crucial as regards ensuring the success of complex BizDevOps projects, and this paper, therefore, presents a systematic mapping study that explores the approaches for BizDevOps and encourages DevOps proposals that will seamlessly integrate with the business lifecycle. It examines the support provided by IT Governance practices and investigates the potential roles of Enterprise Architecture. The study analyzed 86 primary studies and 11 secondary studies, revealing a lack of empirical validations and a prevalence of recommendation-oriented papers without concrete solution proposals. These findings highlight the need for further research with which to validate BizDevOps practices and provide actionable insights.

The Road to a Trustworthy 6G; On the Need for a “Zero Trust 6G” Paradigm

The high-level aspects of 6G are slowly being agreed upon. It is safe to assume that 6G will bring many enhancements to 5G, including pervasive application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) services. The “softwareization” trend is likely to continue and become even more prevalent. Security and trustworthiness are recognized goals for 6G. Accordingly, we predict that Zero Trust principles will become fully integrated in the 6G architecture. While necessary, this will not be sufficient. With the “softwareization” in mind, we postulate a need for increased focus on software development and deployment practices. Thus, we propose to extend the Zero Trust paradigm to encompass software development assurance and bring about a Zero Trust 6G regime. This will also be in line with the current developments for improved accountability for software and services.

Analysis Of DevOps Infrastructure Methodology and Functionality of Build Pipelines

The DevOps pipeline for infrastructure is a critical component in modern software development and operations practices. It involves automating the provisioning, configuration, and management of infrastructure resources, enabling organizations to achieve agility, scalability, and reliability. This paper presents a plagiarism-free analysis of the DevOps pipeline for infrastructure, conducted through comprehensive research, evaluation of industry best practices, and examination of case studies. The DevOps methodology would collapse without the use of a DevOps pipeline. The phrase is often used to discussions of the methods, procedures, and automation frameworks that go into the creation of software objects. Jenkins, an open-source Java program, is the most well-known DevOps pipeline and is often credited as the catalyst for the whole DevOps movement. Today, we have access to a plethora of DevOps pipeline technologies, such as Travis CI, GitHub Actions, and Argo. To keep up with the need for new and improved software systems, today's development organizations must overcome a number of obstacles. The research highlights key findings, including the importance of automation, infrastructure as code, continuous integration and delivery, security, and monitoring/logging capabilities. These practices have been shown to enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and accelerate deployment cycles. By evaluating tools and technologies, gathering user feedback, and analyzing performance metrics, organizations can identify gaps and develop a roadmap for pipeline improvement. To maintain academic integrity, this analysis adheres to proper citation and referencing practices. Paraphrasing and summarizing research findings and adding personal analysis and interpretations ensure the originality and authenticity of the analysis. Plagiarism detection tools are used to confirm the absence of unintentional similarities with existing content.

Research on Development of Cybersecurity Software and Threat Intelligence Techniques

This research project looks on the dynamic interactions that exist between threat intelligence technique strategic integration and cybersecurity software development in today's digital environment. The paper examines the historical development of cybersecurity software, from basic tools to state-of-the-art frameworks, stressing the increasing complexity of cyber threats and examining breakthroughs that have shaped the industry. Through the use of case studies, it examines the critical role that threat intelligence plays in proactive cybersecurity, classifying it into strategic, operational, and tactical aspects. The study tackles the difficulties of effectively combining threat intelligence with software development, offering techniques and best practices backed by actual instances. It also looks at governance and legislative frameworks, investigates the effects of AI and machine learning on cybersecurity, and highlights the value of teamwork in building a robust global cybersecurity ecosystem. The results highlight the importance of taking a comprehensive strategy while navigating the changing cybersecurity landscape and provide insightful information to help professionals, researchers, and policymakers improve cyber resilience

Choral: Object-oriented Choreographic Programming

Choreographies are coordination plans for concurrent and distributed systems, which define the roles of the involved participants and how they are supposed to work together. In the paradigm of choreographic programming, choreographies are programs that can be compiled into executable implementations. In this article, we present Choral, the first choreographic programming language based on mainstream abstractions. The key idea in Choral is a new notion of data type, which allows for expressing that data is distributed over different roles. We use this idea to reconstruct the paradigm of choreographic programming through object-oriented abstractions. Choreographies are classes, and instances of choreographies are objects with states and behaviours implemented collaboratively by roles. Choral comes with a compiler that, given a choreography, generates an implementation for each of its roles. These implementations are libraries in pure Java, whose types are under the control of the Choral programmer. Developers can then modularly compose these libraries in their programs, to participate correctly in choreographies. Choral is the first incarnation of choreographic programming offering such modularity, which finally connects more than a decade of research on the paradigm to practical software development. The integration of choreographic and object-oriented programming yields other powerful advantages, where the features of one paradigm benefit the other in ways that go beyond the sum of the parts. On the one hand, the high-level abstractions and static checks from the world of choreographies can be used to write concurrent and distributed object-oriented software more concisely and correctly. On the other hand, we obtain a much more expressive choreographic language from object-oriented abstractions than in previous work. This expressivity allows for writing more reusable and flexible choreographies. For example, object passing makes Choral the first higher-order choreographic programming language, whereby choreographies can be parameterised over other choreographies without any need for central coordination. We also extend method overloading to a new dimension: specialisation based on data location. Together with subtyping and generics, this allows Choral to elegantly support user-defined communication mechanisms and middleware.

A comparative study of software development practices in Bangladesh, an emerging country

A comparative study of software development practices in Bangladesh, an emerging country

A CASE environment for Project-based Course to learn a sustainable software development

In the context of contemporary software development education, project-based courses have gained prominence as effective pedagogical tools. This methodology empowers students to cultivate practical skills by engaging in real-world projects. However, integrating sustainable software development practices into such courses often remains a challenge such as the need to set up new technologies for each semester, making it hard to ensure consistent and disciplined development. To address this gap, this research introduces Agilearn, the conception of a Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) environment tailored explicitly for project-based courses with a strong focus on promoting sustainability. It is expected to enhance the learning experience by offering a collaborative platform that automates tasks and establishes a standardized agile environment for students. This paper presents the requirements analysis, the course design to implement Agilearn, the architecture of Agilearn, and a case study to implement Agilearn.

Work‐from‐home impacts on software project: A global study on software development practices and stakeholder perceptions

ContextThe COVID‐19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including software business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced WFH situations come with both limitations and opportunities. As the ‘new normal’ for working might be based on the current state of Work‐from‐home (WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that.ObjectiveThis study aims to gain insights into how their WFH arrangement impacts project management and software engineering. We are also interested in exploring these impacts in different contexts, such as startups and established companies.MethodWe conducted a global‐scale, cross‐sectional survey during the spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses.ResultsWe characterize the profile of WFH in both spatial and temporal aspects, together with a set of common collaborative tools and coordination and control mechanisms. We revealed some areas of project management that are relatively more challenging during WFH situations, such as coordination, communication and project planning. We also revealed a mixed picture of the perceived impact of WFH on different software engineering activities.ConclusionWFH is a situational phenomenon which can have both negative and positive impact on software teams. For practitioners, we suggest a unified approach to consider the context of WFH, collaborative tools, associated coordination and control approaches and a process that resolve those aspects that are sensitive to physical interaction.

Overcoming Obstacles: A Closer Look at the Most Pressing Challenges in Cybersecurity

Cyber security has become an important concern for governments, businesses and individuals. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current cybersecurity landscape and best practices for addressing the most critical challenges facing organizations and individuals today. The current trends, emerging threats and best solutions will be examined, including incident response planning and secure software development practices.

Parallelising semantic checking in an IDE: A way toward improving profits and sustainability, while maintaining high-quality software development

AbstractAfter recent improvements brought the incremental compilation of large industrial test suites down to a few seconds, the first semantic checking of a project became one of the longest-running processes. As multi-core systems are now the standard, we derived a parallelisation using software engineering laws to improve the performance of semantic checking.Our measurements show that even an outdated laptop is fast enough for daily use. The performance improvements came without performance regressions, and we can’t expect additional massive benefits even from infinitely scaling Cloud resources.Companies should utilise cheaper machines that still o er enough performance for longer. This approach can help businesses increase profits, reduce electronic waste and promote sustainability while maintaining high-quality software development practices.

Preface

The International Conference on Software Engineering and Machine Learning (CONF-SEML) is an annual conference focusing on research areas including software engineering, artificial intelligence, and other information technology areas. It aims to establish a broad and interdisciplinary platform for experts, researchers, and students worldwide to present, exchange, and discuss the latest advance and development in engineering and machine learning.This volume contains the papers of the 2023 International Conference on Software Engineering and Machine Learning (CONF-SEML 2023). Each of these papers has gained a comprehensive review by the editorial team and professional reviewers. Each paper has been examined and evaluated for its theme, structure, method, content, language, and format.CONF-SEML 2023 organized four workshops in cooperation with famous universities worldwide. Dr. Marco Manca chaired the workshop “BioDynaMo: Building the Future Today” in Bologna, Italy. Dr. Christopher Windmill and Dr. Patrick Merritt chaired the workshop “Software development practices for digitally augmented traditional business workflows” at the University of Derby. Dr. Marwan Omar chaired the workshop “Recovering Data in a Digital Forensics Examination” at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prof. Anil Fernando chaired the workshop “Explainable AI for Stock Market Prediction” at the University of Strathclyde.Besides these workshops, CONF-SEML 2023 also held an online session. Eminent professors from top universities were invited to deliver keynote speeches in this online session, including Prof. Roman Bauer from the University of Surrey, Prof. Michael Harre from the University of Sydney, Prof. Richa Gupta from Jamia Hamdard University, etc. They have given keynote speeches on related topics of utilization of machine learning, digital healthcare intervention, computational model, etc.On behalf of the committee, we would like to give sincere gratitude to all authors and speakers who have made their contributions to CONF-SEML 2023, editors and reviewers who have guaranteed the quality of papers with their expertise, and the committee members who have devoted themselves to the success of the conference.

Why don’t we trace? A study on the barriers to software traceability in practice

Researchers have proposed numerous tools, methods, and techniques for establishing and maintaining software traceability. Despite its acknowledged importance, researchers argue that traceability is still “a sought-after, yet often elusive quality in software-intensive systems”. We have little evidence regarding how creating, managing, and using traceability links vary depending on factors such as organizational contexts, software development practices, and project types. We conduct an empirical study where software development practitioners express their perception regarding the value of software traceability. Via an online survey, 55 participants provided information related to their current traceability practices and needs. Furthermore, we interviewed 14 practitioners to gain a more in-depth understanding. Our study investigates the effect of two independent variables: the software development paradigm and the type of developed software system. Among the several identified findings, our analysis reveals that, although the traceability costs are an inhibitor for adopting more mature traceability practices, the respondents believe that the expected benefits still outweigh envisioned costs. Traceability is mainly performed manually: not only are automated trace retrieval tools scarce, but their offered automation is not expected to replace human involvement.

The ESCAPE Open-source Software and Service Repository.

The purpose of the ESCAPE Open-source Software and Service Repository (OSSR) is to provide a central location for the dissemination and use of trusted open-source software in the fields of astronomy, astroparticle physics, and particle physics. The repository allows users to easily access and download tools and services developed within the community, and to contribute their own tools and services. The ESCAPE project has set up a curated repository of software that provides tools and an environment to make it easy for users to find and download the software and services that they need. The repository is regularly updated and is maintained by a curation board, ensuring that the software and services are reliable and up-to-date. The curation and onboarding process makes the OSSR a trustworthy source of software that can be used for scientific analysis. The software included in the repository must include documentation and instructions and follow a set of modern best practices in software development. Training is provided to students and researchers to help them provide high-quality scientific software following modern software development practices. The OSSR currently contains a wide range of software and services, including those for data management, data analysis, and machine learning. These tools and services are used by researchers and other users around the world. The OSSR has proven to be an effective means for disseminating and providing open-source software and services developed by the ESCAPE project partners and welcomes contributions from the entire community.