Software Product Development Research Articles

A Human-Centered Approach to Developer Productivity

Measuring the productivity of software developers is inheritently difficult; it requires measuring humans doing a complex, creative task. They are affected by both technological and sociological aspects of their job, and these need to be evaluated in concert to deeply understand developer productivity.

Automated quality testing of medical web applications in the cloud environment

In the modern world, the problem of increasing the number of cardiovascular diseases among the population of different age groups is particularly acute. Therefore, monitoring the health of the cardiovascular system of patients is extremely important in our country. Existing cardiology web applications, thanks to daily monitoring, enable doctors to monitor the condition of the patient’s heart and prevent the development of severe complications with a decrease in deaths. If the portable EKG device read the data correctly, but the application drew a cardiogram, then a healthy person may detect myocardial ischemia or arrhythmia, and a patient may not notice the signs of a myocardial infarction at the right time. Testing is one of the most important and key stages of software product development, especially if the application refers to the medical field of application and is related to human health. Therefore, the automation of this process is an urgent task today, because during manual testing, the engineer performs all the test cases manually and a lot of time is spent to prepare the data set and the scenario and run the correct inputs or actions to test the described scenario. The main advantages of automated testing, as well as cases when its use is indispensable, are considered. The life cycle of software product testing is also considered. Software testing is conducted to identify defects and improve the quality of the product and is a process of analyzing the software and the accompanying documentation that accompanies it. The purpose of the work is the implementation of automated testing of cardiology web applications in the cloud environment. Implemented automated testing should be cross-browser and generate a test report to summarize test activities and results. During the implementation of automated testing, test artifacts such as the test plan and test cases must be documented.

ГЕОЛОГІЧНІ ПІДСТАВИ ДЛЯ РОЗРОБКИ 3D МОДЕЛІ СТІЙКОСТІ ГІРСЬКИХ МАСИВІВ РОДОВИЩ ПІВНІЧНОГО ЗАЛІЗОРУДНОГО РАЙОНУ КРИВОРІЗЬКОГО БАСЕЙНУ

The stability of rock massifs depends on a number of factors: geological, mineralogical, physical and technical, which affect it in different ways. The problem of stability of rock massifs is facing all iron ore enterprises, because it leads to accidents and violation of mining technology. Enterprises of the Kryvyi Rih basin are not an exception. Development of the specialised geoinformation system will solve actual problems of designing of seismically stable sides of quarries and prevention of landslides of rock massifs. This work is devoted to the main stages of software product development. It will take into account the influence of geological factors on the stability of rock massifs. Justification of expediency of taking into account mineralogical and geological factors was carried out on the example of the Hanivske deposit, which belongs to the Northern iron ore district of the Kryvyi Rih basin. The outlined proposals are based on the calculation of the stability reserve factor of rock massifs, taking into account the variability of the structure of the productive and host strata of the Hanivske deposit. In addition, no less important indicator is the influence of the geological factor, which takes into account the stratigraphic scheme of the deposit and its tectonics. The results of previous studies were taken into account when developing the recommendations. The basis for the correct functioning of a specialised geoinformation system are actual block geological models of the deposit, the database of which should contain information on mineral and chemical composition of ores and rocks, indicators of their physical and technical properties, manifestation of discontinuities, presence of aquifers, areas of metasomatic changes and weathering. The authors emphasised the importance of creating in the software product the function of selecting the method of calculating the stability coefficient of the sides. As a result, the software product should identify areas with stable, intermediate stability and unstable sides within the field. Automation of calculations of stability of rock masses and their visualisation will optimize monito

Разработка симулятора работы с геодезическим оборудованием в режиме виртуальной реальности

The introduction of virtual reality technologies in the educational process in addition to educational and industrial practices will allow а student to gain more experience with geodetic instruments under different conditions. The aim of the research is to develop a geodetic simulator, which can facilitate the experience of future specialists and improve the quality of the educational process. The article presents the development of the main menu of the simulator, the creation of a demo room of geodetic instruments, as well as testing of the developed software product. The result of the research is the creation of a fully functioning simulator of work with geodetic equipment in virtual reality, which allows supplementing both the distance learning process of future geodesists and the full-time educational process. Being a universal tool, the simulator will be useful not only for training future specialists, but also will help specialists with work experience to refresh their knowledge and practice with geodetic equipment at different locations.

Searching for and blocking destructive content in images

Children and underage teenagers use the Internet not only for communication. So, for 2020, children aged five to seven years in half of cases use the network to play online games, at the age of eight to eleven years, this figure increases to 78%, and underage teenagers play online games in 80% of cases. According to the Ofcom article "Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2021/22", already 30% of children under seven use messengers and social media applications, 93% use online video platforms such as YouTube, 33% watch online streams, and 88% watch TV and use the video on demand system. The older the children get, the greater the percentage of them use the Internet. Thus, the issues of protecting children from destructive information from the Internet are relevant. The article provides an analytical review of modern software solutions for the protection of children and adolescents such as SafeKiddo Parental Control, mSpy, Kids Place, KidLogger. In addition, the description of the developed software product is carried out, which allows detecting destructive content that can negatively affect children, as well as introducing new prohibited links and words.

Operation features of the expert system for tree and shrub pruning

The article defines the importance of tree and shrub pruning for the environment of settlements and farms engaged in the cultivation of fruit plants. Such a process requires taking into account many parameters of both the plant itself and external conditions. This justifies the need to develop and use a software product capable of tracking over time the activities associated with pruning a plant and making recommendations to specialists for effective branch removal depending on the parameters of the setting. The problem domain has been analysed with the allocation of key parameters to create a formal model and a set of rules suitable for the use of object-orientated programming techniques. A user interface was created with the description of functional capabilities of the users of the developed software products.

ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНАЯ АРХИТЕКТУРА ЦИФРОВОЙ МОДЕЛИ ТЕХНИЧЕСКОГО ОБСЛУЖИВАНИЯ И РЕМОНТА ГРУЗОВЫХ ВАГОНОВ

Introduction of complex digitalization of car services is determined by progressive development of railway transport. Dynamically developing software products form inseparable requirements to transformation of the industry and dictate inevitable changes in the production architecture. Digitalization of production processes and their internal connections integrates more deeply into technology of maintenance and repair of rolling stock and becomes a basic principle of a production cycle of any level. For forecasting a technical condition of freight cars the authors suggest a model of a system for their phased maintenance and repair. A simulation created in the digital form describes the model that allows repeatedly calculating various production scripts at various given conditions and giving an optimal forecast of final indicators of maintenance and repair of a car without resorting to natural assessment of the result.

AUTOMATED APPROACH TO ASSESSMENT OF THE LATERAL NATURAL ILLUMINATION IN PREMISES

Problem statement. In the XXI century a worldwide tendency to create specialized software to solve specific problems of individual subject areas is developing. Analysis of specialized software in the field of occupational safety and health showed a lack of specialized software for assessing the condition of artificial lighting in premises. The purpose of the article − the automation of the calculation process for the regulated area of light openings and assessment of the available natural lighting in the premises for residential, public and industrial buildings in accordance with the State Building Code of Ukraine B.2.5-28:2018 Natural and artificial lighting by developing specialized software. Conclusions. The developed software product «Lateral natural light» gives 21 % greater accuracy in calculating the area of light openings, 12 times less time spent on the calculations and allows you to make calculations without knowledge of the methodology. Implementation of protection against erroneous data entry provides a reduction in the number of errors that can occur during manual calculations, as well as minimizes the influence of human factor on the accuracy of calculations. Designed software can be used in the field of occupational safety and health to assess the state of the existing natural lighting of industrial premises, and in the architectural and construction industry at the stage of conceptual design of the area of light openings of the premises of industrial, public and residential buildings.

The Possibilities of Using Scoring to Determine the Relevance of Software Development Tenders

The issue of searching for tender proposals satisfying the conditions of selection on the basis of the relevance assessment algorithm is considered. The algorithm is based on a mathematical scoring model. The approbation of the model based on the historical data of the software company is presented. The possibility of using such a method to determine relevance is proved. The assumption is made about the possibility of using scoring to evaluate tenders not only for the development of software products but also in other market segments.

Information support system for household waste disposal processes

In work, a web application was designed and developed to support interaction between members of different households regarding the disposal of household waste and the sale of used goods on the secondary market. To minimize the negative human impact on the environment, the developed information system to support household waste disposal is based on the principles of a circular economy, where all available resources are reusable, goods to recycle, and in general, the level of consumption is reduced. The need to form the average consumer’s interest in finding a target audience for the distribution process on the secondary market of used goods is substantiated. The main distinguishing feature of the web application is providing consumers with an electronic platform that would provide an opportunity to successfully realize the need for sorted garbage (household waste, recyclables, etc.) with economic benefits for all participants of the interaction. As a result of the task, we carried out an analysis of knowledge in the direction of household waste disposal and existing applications to support circular economy processes. According to the compiled requirements specification, we used the TypeScript programming language, the React library, the SASS scripting metalanguage, and the MVC architecture. To ensure the correct operation of the service, manual, modular and automated testing was carried out. The developed software product has a simple interface. It is easy to use for every user who has access to the Internet and a desire to obtain additional resources in the difficult time of Ukraine’s military economy.

АВТОМАТИЗАЦИЯ РАСЧЕТА ТЕПЛОПОТЕРЬ ЧЕРЕЗ ГОРИЗОНТАЛЬНЫЕ НАРУЖНЫЕ ОГРАЖДАЮЩИЕ КОНСТРУКЦИИ С РАЗБИВКОЙ ПОЛА ПОМЕЩЕНИЯ НА ЗОНЫ

Introduction: The calculation of heat loss of the room is a mandatory part of any project. Most of the information required for calculations is present in the building information model and can be extracted from it automatically. An example that requires the transformation of digital model information is the task of constructing room zones when calculating heat loss through the floor. Existing software products do not have modules that allow you to automatically calculate the heat loss of a room, including through the floor, breaking it down into zones. The object displacement functions built into the software products are not intended for constructing floor zones and cannot be used as a component of the developed module. These reasons determine the need to develop an algorithm for constructing zones that are necessary for calculating heat loss through the floor, and its implementation.
 Materials and methods: An algorithm for the formation of floor zones of a room is presented. The algorithm allows you to build zones for placing an arbitrary layout.
 Results: A plug-in for Autodesk Revit, which implements the proposed algorithm, was tested on the calculation of heat losses in the rooms of the technical floor of the building. As a result of the experiment, a reduction in the time required for the preparation of the initial information and for the calculation, from 4 hours to 2 minutes, was revealed.
 Conclusions: The developed software module, designed to calculate the heat loss of premises through the floor of premises, broken down into zones, is a step in the development of software products that use a digital building model as initial information.

Agile Practices and Organizational Agility in Software Ecosystems

As software products increasingly become part of larger ecosystems, research and development (R&D) units of software producers organize themselves around projects to become more responsive to the environment. Organizations participating in software ecosystems must continuously adapt and adjust their software development and maintenance processes to drive both medium-term and long-term innovation. Agile methods and practices are widely adopted to guide the collaboration within and between project teams in software development. Moreover, when successfully attained, agility can drive innovation by enabling software development organizations to cope with technological changes and exploit emerging opportunities in software ecosystems. In this article, we focus on how organizations attain agility in the maintenance and development of software products. To answer this question, we conduct a longitudinal case study of Agile Scrum implementation in the R&D unit of a major supplier of telecommunication equipment. We investigate the emerging tensions and highlight practices used to balance these tensions in the Agile Scrum implementation. We identify four capabilities and ten practices that support effective collaboration and coordination in the development and maintenance of software products. The study offers practical guidance for R&D managers to attain agility in software ecosystems.

Развитие пациент-ориентированных ИТ-сервисов в медицинских организациях

The development of patient-oriented means of interaction between citizens and organizations of the participants of the modern “digital interaction” system is a current trend in the field of medical information technology. The formed principles of digital transformation of healthcare, which are carried out within the framework of the federal project “Creation of a unified digital contour in healthcare based on the unified state health information system (UGISZ) ”. National Project “Health Care”, provide ample opportunities for designing and developing new applied solutions in terms of requests from medical organizations for modern domestic IT tools for “communication” with patients. The aim of the article is to analyze and describe the current level of development of patient-oriented software products and methods of their development. As a result, the software “Personal account of the patient “Interin LC”, developed on the basis of research and running on a stack of freely distributed software, is described.

Collaborative Manufacturing Techniques: A Review

The competitive nature of today's economies has forced the manufacturing sector, small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMES), to collaborate with other sectors to achieve stability and consistency. Manufacturing businesses are putting a lot of effort into managing their goods and services to reach a high level of client satisfaction. This is accomplished with the highest quality while maintaining a competitive cost tag. To accomplish this, the collaborative manufacturing technique (CMT) is used. It entails information exchange and dialogue amongst business processes concerning internal or external stakeholders in the hierarchy of value. An active CMT model that incorporates these present collaboration networks should provide operational value savings and significantly increase competitiveness. Therefore, the recent evaluation that provided a detailed view of such inclusion is no longer in existence. To promote collaboration techniques in the successful development of software products, this article provides a complete study of current collaborative models, respective benefits, and their collaborative features. This paper outlines the most recent mechanisms, approaches, and application possibilities for CMTs. In addition, the review paper thoroughly examines the techniques currently in use for employing CMT to solve problems in both science and engineering. More specifically, it suggests a revolutionary method for enhancing the current CMT methods through the application of machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence, and metaheuristics like genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization (AI). In summary, this research highlights certain areas where CMT may be used soon.

The Effect of Martial Law on Transfer Pricing in Ukraine

The purpose of this study was to describe the current state of tax control over transfer pricing in Ukraine. Analysing the effect of war and martial law on the tax system on the whole and transfer pricing as well, I would like to say that the situation shook the system, but nevertheless, it managed to rehabilitate itself and survive, in turn, standing on wartime slats. The practical significance of the study lies in the complex analysis and evaluation of the current situation of the transfer pricing processes taking place in Ukraine. For Ukraine, in practice, the experience of European countries and case law can be found, which have formed a number of important and progressive legal positions and conclusions to improve control in the field of transfer pricing. The practical novelty of the obtained results consists in a comprehensive analysis of the impact of transfer pricing on the current state of tax management in general. While the EU countries and the UK introduce additional temporary taxes on excess profits on electricity production between 2021 and 2023, as well as on excess profits received from activities in the oil, gas, coal and oil refining sectors, Ukraine introduces an income tax for all companies in any industries in the amount of 2% of the turnover, in order to keep the business afloat. In particular, I would like to note the effectiveness of the work within the framework of the EU4PFM international project, which made it possible, even in wartime, not only to preserve the achievements of pre-war times, but also to start the development of new software products and OECD support for the harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with EU norms in the context of the further integration of Ukraine into the European Union. The main goal of this work is to determine the effectiveness of transfer pricing in Ukraine today, as well as to assess the development prospects for Ukraine in this direction.

Selecting the Best Idea for New Software Product Development Using the BRICEC Framework

The front end of new product development consists of generating ideas and selecting the best idea from the idea pool. It becomes challenging for the companies to select the best idea from the idea pool. Companies have used various frameworks, tools, and techniques to choose the best idea for successful new product development. This study proposes a new idea selection framework called BRICEC, consisting of business importance, reach, impact, confidence, efforts, and cannibalization. The study focuses on comparing the popular idea selection frameworks in product development along with the BRICEC framework, critically analyzing the research gaps in idea selection processes through literature reviews, explaining the BRICEC framework in detail with examples, and highlighting how BRICEC is a more efficient framework from the rest of the popular frameworks. Proper idea selection in the right time frame will help companies attain competitive advantage and define the success of the new product.

Разработка программных продуктов с использованием символьных и строковых переменных в объектно-ориентированной среде

The features of developing software products using symbolic and string variables in the object-oriented C++ Builder environment are considered. The syntax is considered in detail in various examples when using symbolic and string variables in C++Builder software products. Examples of the use of character and string variables in the object-oriented programming environment C++ Builder, developed by the author, are presented in the form of algorithms, program code and program interfaces. The paper details examples of program development using symbols and string variables. The choice of the method necessary for solving problems is substantiated, taking into account the available initial data, as well as taking into account the forecast of the expected results and the features of their obtaining and further processing. The external specification and the main features of the solution of the set tasks are considered. The given examples of algorithms and programs in tasks with symbols and string variables in the C ++ Builder environment are the basis for developing software for solving engineering problems. The proposed approaches can be used in practice, since the algorithms presented in the work will serve as a complex example in solving the set engineering and technical problems.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS ON AUTOMATION, PROGRAMMING CULTURE, AND MODELBASED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

When compared to more conventional development techniques, model-based software engineering (MBSE), a methodology for developing software, is characterized in part by much higher levels of automation. Many important components of development involve the use of computer-based tools, such as authoring support (many MBSE languages are primarily visual), automatic or semi-automatic verification, the automated conversion of requirements into corresponding programmers, and many more. There is little question that automation, when correctly designed and achieved, may significantly boost the productivity of software developers and improve the quality of their programme, given the historical examples, such as the advent of compilation technology. Therefore, it becomes sense to predict that MBSE will swiftly overtake other software development methods, much to how computer-aided design methods for hardware were quickly adopted. However, this hasn't happened. This is an opinion piece that draws from the author's extensive knowledge of MBSE and its use in business. In it, we look at the factors that led to this paradoxical situation.

HealMA: a model-driven framework for automatic generation of IoT-based Android health monitoring applications.

The development of IoT-based Android health monitoring mobile applications (apps) using traditional software development methods is a challenging task. Developers need to be familiar with various programming languages to manage the heterogeneity of hardware and software systems and to support different communication technologies. To address these problems, in this paper, we first analyze the domain of health monitoring mobile applications and then propose a framework based on model-driven engineering that accelerates the development of such systems. The proposed framework, called HealMA, includes a domain-specific modeling language, a graphical modeling editor, several validation rules, and a set of model-to-code transformations, all packed as an Eclipse plugin. We evaluated the framework to assess its applicability in generating various mobile health applications, as well as its impact on software productivity. To this end, four different health monitoring applications have been automatically generated. Then, we evaluated the productivity of software developers by comparing the time and effort it takes to use HealMA compared to a code-centric process. As part of the evaluation, we also evaluated the usability of HealMA-generated apps by conducting a user study. The results show that HealMA is both applicable and beneficial for automatic generation of usable IoT-based Android health monitoring apps.

AUTOMATED APPROACH FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF DETERMINING THE MARITIME AUTONOMOUS SURFACE SHIP OPERATION AREA

Every year the need for automation of the most diverse spheres of human activity is growing. In various areas of industry, services, logistics systems, there is a global trend towards autonomy of production and transport processes. In the field of maritime navigation, the most promising solution for automation is the use of marine autonomous surface ships. A maritime autonomous surface vessel is a vessel that is capable of functioning to varying degrees without interaction with a human operator. The complete or at least partial absence of the crew on the route of the vessel significantly reduces the costs of transport companies. However, any operation of an object is always preceded by a thorough analysis of the area of use; therefore, the main criteria for the classification of unmanned vessels, which allow determining the main design features of the vessel, are presented in the paper. A large number of criteria for classifying a surface object according to various conditions creates certain problems with the selection of the unmanned vessel operation area, therefore, a method that takes into account all the proposed classifications, allowing to determine the area of operation of marine autonomous surface ships using the example of the waters of Peter the Great Bay, is proposed in the paper. The application of an automated approach to solving the problem of classifying an object using a specially developed software product makes it possible to increase the visibility of the method results and the convenience of its use. A software tool that requires the input criteria of the designed MANS for successful operation is proposed. The result of the work is a map, where the proposed vessel operation area is marked in color, and there is also a function for viewing information about the local environment for the use of a manned object. The interface of the software tool, as well as the results of its work on the example of the water area of Peter the Great Bay, are presented.