Software Process Models Research Articles

Guest editors' introduction

Guest editors' introduction

Pseudophysical Compartment Modeling of an Industrial Flighted Rotary Dryer with Flighted and Unflighted Sections: Energy

A multiscale dynamic mass and energy process model was developed for an industrial rotary dryer with both unflighted and flighted sections. This paper focuses on the development and integration of energy balances into a validated solid transport model published by the authors in an earlier paper. In order to facilitate the drying process, a gas phase model is introduced. The gas phase in both the unflighted and flighted sections was modeled as a plug flow system. Simulations and parameter estimation were undertaken using gPROMS (process modeling software). Parameter estimation and model validation were carried out using the experimental moisture content profile, residence time distribution data, and gas and solid internal temperature profiles. The developed model was utilized to gain better understanding of the interactions between solids transport, operational parameters, and internal solids distribution on heat and mass transfer that occur in flighted rotary dryers. The model provides a means to quantif...

Requirements engineering based on knowledge: a comparative case study of the KMoS-RE strategy and the DMS process

Nowadays, a difficult problem that software development companies are facing in the elicitation and discovering requirement process is the management of tacit knowledge, which is valuable information that for some reason remains hidden to the developers. The Knowledge Management on a Strategy for Requirements Engineering (KMoS-RE) is especially designed to face that problem and obtain a set of requirements that fulfi ll the clients’ needs and expectations. This paper presents the design and preliminary results of an empirical study that compares the KMoS-RE strategy with the requirements elicitation process proposed by MoProSoft; a Mexican software process model oriented to the specifi c needs of the software industry in Mexico. Preliminary results show that KMoS-RE seems to be more suitable than the before mentioned process proposed by MoProSoft.

Exploring the Relationship between Software Process Adaptive Capability and Organisational Performance

Software development is a complex socio-technical activity, with the result that software development organisations need to establish and maintain robust software development processes. While much debate exists regarding the effectiveness of various software development approaches, no single approach is perfectly suited to all settings and no setting is unchanging. The capability to adapt the software process is therefore essential to sustaining an optimal software process. We designed an exploratory study to concurrently examine software process adaptive capability and organisational performance in 15 software development organisations, finding that companies with greater software process adaptive capability are shown to also experience greater business success. While our exploratory study of the complex relationship between these phenomena is limited in some respects, the findings indicate that software process adaptive capability may be worthy of further integration into software process engineering techniques. Software process adaptive capability may be an important organisational strength when deriving competitive advantage, and those responsible for the creation and evolution of software process models and methodologies may want to focus some of their future efforts in this area.

Data- and Workflow Customer-Oriented Software Process Models

This paper presents a dataflow model to control the flow of data in each phase of a customer-oriented software process model. In addition, we suggest a workflow model to describe the transaction between the model phases, and a role model to govern the personnel participation and roles. Our goal is to develop models that involve the customer frequently and effectively during project development. Testing the models using CHAOS Report and shows that our models are capable of achieving this goal.

Experimental Evaluation of a Serious Game for Teaching Software Process Modeling

Software process modeling (SPM) is an important area of software engineering because it provides a basis for managing, automating, and supporting software process improvement (SPI). Teaching SPM is a challenging task, mainly because it lays great emphasis on theory and offers few practical exercises. Furthermore, as yet few teaching approaches have aimed at teaching SPM by introducing innovative features, such as games. The use of games has mainly been focused on other areas of software engineering, for example software project management. In an attempt to fill this gap, this paper describes a formal experiment carried out to assess the learning effectiveness of a serious game (DesigMPS), designed to support the teaching of SPM, and to compare game-based learning with a project-based learning method. In the DesigMPS game, the student models a software process from an SPI perspective, based on the Brazilian SPI model (MPS.BR). The results indicate that playing the game can have a positive learning effect and results in a greater degree of learning effectiveness than does the project-based learning instructional method.

An Agile and Lean Process Model for Mobile App Development: Case Study into Austrian Industry

With recent advances in mobile technology, mobile devices have emerged from a luxury to a necessity in our daily lives. App development has been growing into a fast-paced market with volatile requirements. From a software developing point of view, responsive and adaptable software process models are advised to cope with such competitive markets. Over the last decade agile and lean methodologies have become very popular for software development in general, but there has only been limited research about the applicability of these methods in the area of mobile applications. This study aims to address the identified research gap and drafts a lean-agile process model that can compete with the requirements of today’s market. Our model ALP-mobile, an agile and lean process for mobile app development, combines elements of Scrum, Kanban and eXtreme Programming (XP). We drafted our model based on previous work and pilot interviews. We then presented it to multiple mobile-app-centric companies in Austria for an initial validation of strengths and weaknesses by industry experts. Our study shows large support and potential for our model among the interviewed experts calling for further increments and practical evaluation in future research.

Developing an Institutional Research Records Management System (IRREMS) for the University of Mindanao Research and Publication Center (UM-RPC)

This study focuses on developing a computer-based information system that helps the Research and Publication Center of the University of Mindanao in managing the institutional research records of the University’s teaching and non-teaching personnel. It explores the software requirements of the Center in order to efficiently store research-related data and to conveniently retrieve pertinent reports that the office needs to provide. It then describes the proposed software named Institutional Research Records Management System or IRREMS. The software provides a systematic way of managing records of institutional researches conducted by both the teaching and non-teaching personnel of the University. It keeps track of researchers’ information, as well as organizes the researches in a way that allows for easy access and retrieval through the use of search keywords. The study presents the requirements specification, software process model, software design, and the software development methodology used to create the technical output, which was successfully deployed in the Center.

The efficiency of a novel bioreactor employing bacteria and chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles

Heavy metals like lead, copper, nickel, and arsenic, which are known to have toxic effects at very low concentrations, have a tendency to bioaccumulate and end up as permanent additions to the environment. The objective of the present work was to investigate the efficiency of a combination of bacteria and chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles (CMNPs) in removing heavy metals from industrial effluents. To perform the study, we constructed a novel two-stage reactor containing bacteria and CMNPs, using a design theoretically calculated using Aspen HYSYS 7.2 process-modeling software. The strain of bacteria used was isolated from various samples of wastewater and identified using colony-forming assay. The bioreactor was tested with both synthetic and industrial effluents containing nickel. Optimal conditions in the bioreactor for both synthetic and industrial effluents were determined for retention time (20–60 min), pH level (0.5–9), CMNP dosage (0.09–1 g/L), and initial metal ion concentration (50–500 mg/L). Maximum removal rates for synthetic and industrial effluents of 83% and 92.1% were obtained.

Modelling of an ironmaking melter gasifier unit operation with multicomponent/multiphase equilibrium calculations

The blast furnace is the traditional ironmaking process for the production of hot metal with high iron content. The Corex® and Finex® processes are the main alternative technological solutions in this field of industrial activity. Their main advantages are focused in better economic and environmental characteristics. The melter gasifier is the most important unit operation of both processes. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and implementation of a predictive mathematical model of a multizone melter gasifier. The process modelling and simulation software used for this task is the gPROMS ModelBuilder. For the calculation of the hot metal/slag mixture chemistry, the Gibbs minimisation routines for multicomponent/multiphase systems were implemented through FactSage and ChemApp. A communication scheme between gPROMS and FactSage/ChemApp was established. The validation of this methodology took place by comparing the basic iron making reactions against literature. Special attention was given in the numerical stability by designing a dedicated initialisation strategy. The agreement between simulation results and plant data proved to be successful for the main components (iron, carbon, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, aluminium oxide, sulphur). Deviation appeared for the silicon and manganese components. This work contributes in making accurate predictions for the hot metal and slag chemistry based on thermodynamic first principles. The reliable calculation presents the opportunity to apply rigorous optimisations that can lead to higher process efficiency. This reflects the potential of reducing fuel consumption, thus leading to lower environmental emissions.

SP2MN: a Software Process Meta-Modeling Language

In the last two decades, software process modeling has been an area of interest within both academia and industry. Software process modeling aims at defining and representing software processes in the form of models. A software process model represents the medium that allows better understanding, management and control of the software process. Software process metamodeling rather, provides standard metamodels which enable the defining of customized software process models for a specific project in hand by instantiation. Several software process modeling/meta-modeling languages have been introduced to formalize software process models. Nonetheless, none of them has managed to introduce a compatible yet precise language to include all necessary concepts and information for software process modeling. This paper presents Software Process Meta-Modeling and Notation (SP2MN); a meta-modeling language that provides simple and expressive graphical notations for the aim of software process modeling. SP2MN has been evaluated based upon the well-known ISPW-6 process example, a standard benchmark problem for software process modeling. SP2MN has proved that it presents a valid and expressive software process modeling language.

Applying software process modeling to improve customer support processes

AbstractThe quality of an organization's support services can be key to maintaining and extending its customer base and to its future survival. As such, support services need to be considered in software process improvement initiatives and not left as an afterthought or stand‐alone effort. However, to identify areas in need of improvement requires a good understanding of the current process. To meet this need, we have developed a process modeling technique called LAPPI that documents current ‘as‐is’ processes.This study explores whether the LAPPI can identify opportunities for improvement in the customer service process. LAPPI is applied, step by step, in a small‐to‐medium‐sized enterprise. Results are validated through an analysis of customer satisfaction questionnaires administered before and after our LAPPI intervention. Applying the LAPPI highlighted several problems with the customer support service, which was subsequently streamlined. The validation shows an improvement in customer satisfaction in several areas, with significant improvement in customer response times and in customer query resolution.Software development organizations can use LAPPI to highlight where improvements are needed in support services. This study shows that making best use of support resources and ensuring customers receive prompt and clear help throughout the product's lifetime can improve an organization's image and future prosperity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Modelado de procesos en el desarrollo global de software

El modelado de procesos software es una actividad que se consolida como estrategia básica para mejorar la producción de aplicaciones so­ftware. El advenimiento del desarrollo global de software con actores disgregados alrededor de todo el mundo oferta grandes beneficios a la labor de producción de aplicaciones software; sin embargo, impone retos y dificultades a superar para lograr su cometido. El presente artículo presenta GSDModel, un marco de trabajo que pretende guiar el modelado de procesos en el contexto del desarrollo global de software.

Sentiment Analysis in monitoring software development processes: An exploratory case study on GitHub's project issues

Software process models, which allow us to develop software products, can be improved by using the corresponding quality model. However, current tendencies in the application of Global Software Engineering and Global Software Development, which forces geographically dispersed teams to collaborate, make the usual monitoring techniques obsolete. This situation has led to looking for new methods that can help in the decision making process, such as the case of the Social Network Analysis field.In this article we propose the introduction of Sentiment Analysis techniques in order to identify and monitor the underlying sentiments in the text written by developers in issues and tickets. Therefore, in order to check its viability we conducted an exploratory case study analysing polarity and emotional clues in development issues from nine well-known projects that are freely available. Results show that although both polarity and emotional analysis are applicable, the emotional analysis looks to be more suitable to this kind of corpus. The developers leave underlying sentiments in the text, and that information could be monitored as any other feature in the development process.

A Compliance Analysis of Agile Methodologies with the ISO/IEC 29110 Project Management Process

Software process standards (e.g. ISO/IEC 12207, ISO/IEC 15504) and models (e.g. CMMI) provide a set of best practices and guidelines for improving the quality of the software process and products resulting from that process. However, they do not prescribe a particular software development methodology (i.e. RUP, MSF), and thus software development teams face a compliance problem between the selected development methodology and a pursued particular standard or model. In this research, the particular issue of compliance of Agile Software Development Methodologies (SCRUM, XP, and UPEDU) and the new ISO/IEC 29110 standard is studied. Because the new standard is focused on the software process in very small software development companies or small software project teams in the range from 1 to 25 people, and the Agile Software Development Methodologies (ASDMs) are primarily for same targets, this study is important. The ISO/IEC 29110 standard contains two processes: Project Management and Software Implementation. This study is focused on the first process. The main findings indicate that the UPEDU and SCRUM methodologies present and high compliance level with the ISO/IEC 29110 Project Management process, while XP has a moderate level. Thus, software developer teams interested in achieving compliance with the ISO/IEC 29110 Project Management process can count with two ASDMs. However, a full compliance study (with both Project Management and Software Implementation) is still missing.

Validation of Usability Driven Web based Software Process Model using Simulation

In this paper we have presented validation of proposed usability driven web based software process model (UdWbM) through simulation. We have used Software Engineering gaming tool SimSE for making simulation of a system (taken as case study) by following the steps proposed by the model. Simulation was also developed for some existing models using the same constraints. UdWbM is then compared with some existing models to show the results. Paper also shows comparative study of existing models with UdWbM through literature.

Oxygen blast furnace with CO2 capture and storage at an integrated steel mill—Part I: Technical concept analysis

In this study application of OBF with and without CCS to an integrated steel mill is investigated. The study is based on the real, Ruukki Metals Ltd.’s existing steel mill, located in the city of Raahe, Finland. Implications of application of OBF to energy and mass balances at the site are studied. Based on the technical evaluation, costs and feasibility for carbon capture are estimated. The energy and mass balance basis is presented in this first part of the series of two papers. Costs, feasibility and sensitivity analysis are assessed in the second part of the series (Tsupari et al. 2014. Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control).The impact of applying OBF at an integrated steel mill is evaluated based on a consequential assessment following the methodology of Arasto et al. (2013). Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control 16 (August) pp. 271–277 concentrating only on the parts of the steelmaking processes affected by the deployment of OBF and CO2 capture. The technical processes, CO2 capture and the steelmaking processes affected were modelled using Aspen Plus process modelling software and the results were used to estimate the CO2 emission reduction potential with OBF technology at an integrated steel mill.The results show that the CO2 emission from an iron and steel mill can be significantly reduced by application of an oxygen blast furnace and CCS. By applying only the blast furnace process, the emissions can already be reduced by 1.2Mt/a without storing the separated CO2. If captured CO2 is also purified and stored permanently, the emission can be further reduced by an additional 1.4Mt/a. This is a significant reduction considering that the production of the mill stays the same as in the reference case. In addition to carbon footprint of the production, application of oxygen blast furnace also has significant impact on coke consumption and energy balance on the site.

BPMNt: A BPMN extension for specifying software process tailoring

ContextAlthough SPEM 2.0 has great potential for software process modeling, it does not provide concepts or formalisms for precise modeling of process behavior. Indeed, SPEM fails to address process simulation, execution, monitoring and analysis, which are important activities in process management. On the other hand, BPMN 2.0 is a widely used notation to model business processes that has associated tools and techniques to facilitate the aforementioned process management activities. Using BPMN to model software development processes can leverage BPMN’s infrastructure to improve the quality of these processes. However, BPMN lacks an important feature to model software processes: a mechanism to represent process tailoring. ObjectiveThis paper proposes BPMNt, a conservative extension to BPMN that aims at creating a tailoring representation mechanism similar to the one found in SPEM 2.0. MethodWe have used the BPMN 2.0 extensibility mechanism to include the representation of specific tailoring relationships namely suppression, local contribution, and local replacement, which establish links between process elements (such as in the case of SPEM). Moreover, this paper also presents some rules to ensure the consistency of BPMN models when using tailoring relationships. ResultsIn order to evaluate our proposal we have implemented a tool to support the BPMNt approach and have applied it for representing real process adaptations in the context of an academic management system development project. Results of this study showed that the approach and its support tool can successfully be used to adapt BPMN-based software processes in real scenarios. ConclusionWe have proposed an approach to enable reuse and adaptation of BPMN-based software process models as well as derivation traceability between models through tailoring relationships. We believe that bringing such capabilities into BPMN will open new perspectives to software process management.

A procedure to detect problems of processes in software development projects using Bayesian networks

There are several software process models and methodologies such as waterfall, spiral and agile. Even so, the rate of successful software development projects is low. Since software is the major output of software processes, increasing software process management quality should increase the project’s chances of success. Organizations have invested to adapt software processes to their environments and the characteristics of projects to improve the productivity and quality of the products. In this paper, we present a procedure to detect problems of processes in software development projects using Bayesian networks. The procedure was successfully applied to Scrum-based software development projects. The research results should encourage the usage of Bayesian networks to manage software processes and increase the rate of successful software development projects.

Research on Reusable Software Process Model Based on Petri Net

Software process reuse can improve the quality of software products and save the cost of software development, in order to make it more convenient for software organization to build software process model rapidly and efficiently, a method was proposed to analyze the value model which is based on the Petri net, introduces the concept of time and the implementation of value, through a specific algorithm design to provide guidance and decision-making basis for assessing the reuse of software process.