Trend In Software Engineering Research Articles

Model driven development of distributed control applications

Control systems rely heavily on the software that is used to implement them. However, current trends in software engineering are not fully exploited in the development process of complex control systems. In this paper, an approach for the model driven development of distributed control systems (DCSs) is presented. The proposed approach that greatly simplifies the development process adopts the function block construct introduced by the IEC 61499 standard and supports the automatic generation of implementation models for many different execution environments. It favours the deployment and re-deployment of distributed control applications and provides an infrastructure for the transparent exploitation of current software engineering practices. GME, a meta-modelling tool, was utilized to develop Archimedes, an IEC-compliant prototype engineering support system. Specific model-to-model transformers have been developed to automate the transformation of FB-based design models to CORBA-component-model based implementation models to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.

Filling the gap between mobile and service-oriented computing: issues for evolving mobile computing towards wired infrastructures and vice versa

In recent years, Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) has emerged as a great new trend in software engineering. At the same time that SOC was attaining its space within both academia and industry, there was a growth in the supply and use of mobile and embedded devices. These devices are the key pieces for accomplishing the vision of ubiquitous/pervasive computing. One of the challenges for realising this vision consists in making heterogeneous devices to dynamically find each other in order to exchange data and advertise/consume services. In this context, SOC actually stands out as the better bullet for accomplishing this need, but at the cost of a number of other issues that system architects need to deal with. In this article, a set of issues related to the integration of mobile devices and SOC in the context of smart spaces is surveyed.

Global software development projects in one of the biggest companies in Latvia: is geographical distribution a problem?

AbstractGlobal software development appears to be the latest trend in software engineering, bringing new opportunities as reaching mobility in resources, speeding time‐to‐market, obtaining extra knowledge, and increasing operational efficiency. Despite the popularity of the topic, there is a lack of research answering all the questions about how to perform in a distributed environment. This article describes research that aims to develop a framework for global project management and performance. In particular, the research shares information about the variety of collaboration models and project characteristics, and highlights areas of concern and specific risks examined in an observation of 19 distributed projects in a software development company in Latvia. The case study gives an overview of distributed projects emphasizing the specific risks such as organizational and cultural differences, language and time zone differences, lack of personal contact, and troubled communication over geographical distances. The preliminary research concludes that there is a necessity of specific methods and practices for effective project performance in a distributed environment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Application of Machine Learning Paradigms for Predicting Quality in Upstream Software Development Life Cycle

Prediction and estimation of the software quality early in the life cycle of software development have become an increasingly important problem. The primary factors affecting the determination of the software quality are the nature of the development process and the specification of the product in the upstream development phases. Current trends in software engineering are promoting the idea of processes maturity which improves the software quality. Models for integrating the product and process attributes are the need of the hour to ensure that process improvement actions are going into the right direction and software quality is improved. As a step towards building such model, this paper examines the application of machine learning paradigms like Artificial Neural Network, Case Based Reasoning, Rule Induction and Genetic Algorithm towards predicting the software quality characteristics and identifies the potential applications for further research.

A use case model extension for architectural patterns

Software pattern is a current trend in software engineering. It represents a meaningful way to reuse knowledge in software development. Architectural pattern is related to the major structural elements of software systems. It concerns aspects of the whole system (i.e. system model). This paper presents an extension to UML use case model proposed for designing architectural patterns. The main motivation that has guided this purpose was the need to adequately represent the varying functionalities of architectural software patterns.

An Empirical Study of Programming Language Trends

Predicting software engineering trends is a strategically important asset for both developers and managers, but it's also difficult, due to the wide range of factors involved and the complexity of their interactions. This paper reveals some interesting trends and a method for studying other important software engineering trends. This article trades breadth for depth by focusing on a small, compact set of trends involving 17 high-level programming languages. We quantified many of their relevant factors, and then collected data on their evolution over 10 years. By applying statistical methods to this data, we aim to gain insight into what does and does not make a language successful.

Abstract Behavior Types: a foundation model for components and their composition

The notion of Abstract Data Type (ADT) has served as a foundation model for structured and object oriented programming for some thirty years. The current trend in software engineering toward component based systems requires a foundation model as well. The most basic inherent property of an ADT, i.e., that it provides a set of operations, subverts some highly desirable properties in emerging formal models for components that are based on the object oriented paradigm. We introduce the notion of Abstract Behavior Type (ABT) as a higher-level alternative to ADT and propose it as a proper foundation model for both components and their composition. An ABT defines an abstract behavior as a relation among a set of timed-data-streams, without specifying any detail about the operations that may be used to implement such behavior or the data types it may manipulate for its realization. The ABT model supports a much looser coupling than is possible with the ADT’s operational interface, and is inherently amenable to exogenous coordination. We propose that both of these are highly desirable, if not essential, properties for models of components and their composition. To demonstrate the utility of the ABT model, we describe Reo: an exogenous coordination language for compositional construction of component connectors based on a calculus of channels. We show the expressive power of Reo, and the applicability of ABT, through a number of examples.

Multi-agent-based integrated framework for intra-class testing of object-oriented software

The primary features of the object-oriented paradigm lead to develop a complex and compositional testing framework for object-oriented software. Agent-oriented approach has become a trend in software engineering. Agent technologies facilitate the software testing by virtue of their high-level independency with parallel activation and automation. This paper proposed an integrated framework that has been built on two existing testing techniques namely Mutation Testing and Capability Testing. In both the cases, testing is carried out at Autonomous Unit Level (AUL) and Inter-Procedural Level (IPL). Mutation-Based Testing-Agent and Capability Assessment Testing-Agent have been developed for performing AUL testing and Method Interaction Testing-Agent has been developed for performing IPL testing. This agent-based framework is an attempt for developing an automated software testing environment and among the several phases of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), this framework is recommended for unit testing in code complete phase and alpha phase. This methodology gives the basic approach to agent-based frameworks for testing and to optimization of agent-based testing schedules, subject to timing constraints. This adds ''interesting new opportunities in the object-oriented software testing phase'' to the existing literature that is concerned with software testing frameworks.

Analyzing Architectural Evolution Issues of Multimedia Frameworks

The growing complexity in the development of Web-based services in general, and multimedia services in particular, makes necessary the application of sound development methods. New multimedia devices, coding algorithms, network protocols, etc., are continually appearing but, unfortunately, current solutions for developing multimedia applications do not accurately support architectural evolution issues for already deployed applications. Thus, the latest Software Engineering technologies should be applied to the development of open, reusable, and high-quality multimedia and Web-based software. In this paper, we apply component and framework technologies, two of the current trends in Software Engineering, to the development of multimedia services over the Web, presenting and comparing widespread solutions in use today.

Software engineering technology watch

Predicting the evolution of software engineering technology is, at best, a dubious proposition; it is fast paced and determined by an array of factors, many of them outside the software engineering arena. The authors discuss their first ventures in this domain and preliminary conclusions. The goal of watching software engineering trends means to determine what information we must gather and maintain to gain a comprehensive view of the discipline and its evolution. This information must be sufficiently rich to support discipline-wide assessments and trend-specific analysis. The authors identified a number of software engineering-specific and technology-related indicators, which they divided into seven categories which are presented.

Process-Based Software Engineering: Building the Infrastructures

A recent trend in software engineering is the shift from a focus on laboratory-oriented software engineering to a more industry-oriented view of software engineering processes. This complements preceding ideas about software engineering in terms of organization and process-orientation. From the domain coverage point of view, many of the existing software engineering approaches have mainly concentrated on the technical aspects of software development. Important areas of software engineering, such as the technical and organizational infrastructures, have been left untouched. As software systems increase in scales, issues of complexity and professional practices become involved. Software development as an academic or laboratory activity, has to engage with software development as a key industrialized process. This expanded domain of software engineering exposes the limitations of existing methodologies that often address only individual subdomains. There is, therefore, a demand for an overarching approach that provide a basis for theoretical and practical infrastructures capable of accommodating the whole range of modern software engineering practices and requirements. One approach is provided by Process-Based Software Engineering (PBSE); part of the more general trend towards a focus on process. This paper provides a review of process techniques for software engineering and a high-level perspective on PBSE. Typical approaches and techniques for the establishment, assessment, improvement and benchmarking of software engineering process systems are introduced in this paper, and many are developed further in other contributions to this volume.

Towards Self-organising Time-sensitive Control System's Software

The embedded computer applications are rapidly growing in numbers, in complexity, and in dependability. This trend has been accompanied by shift of systems building paradigm from individual algorithms to interacting computing entities (e.g. agents, components, modules, etc). A number of studies focus on self-organising capabilities of such entities (agents). Unfortunately for computer control systems, many essential issues - such as, forced con currency, time awareness of theories and software, and some others - have been almost neglected in the conventional theory. This paper provides a superficial survey of evolution of software-intensive systems towards multiagent systems, lists subjectively some basic problems and achievements in developing time-critical systems. The authors suggest that sufficiently good theoretical and practical basis exists for building a test-bed that would assist in merging recent development trends in software engineering and artificial intelligence, and enable verification of time correctness of agent interaction. The test-bed would also assist in developing a theory for quantitative assessment of some properties of the evolving structures, and enable step-wise extension and testing of the supported functions (as the theoretical basis develops).

A schooling on their implications for software engineering [trends

A discussion is presented on trends in software engineering. This can be done by simply extrapolating some of the popular, current trends. And, in fact, we examine a few of these obvious indicators. However, software engineering has had new approaches that are more revolutionary than evolutionary. In particular, we try to discern trends in software engineering based on trends in delivered software systems.

Software engineering in Asia

Asia boasts a growing software industry spread across several countries. However, software technology in Asia still lags behind the US. To become competitive in the global marketplace, many Asian countries have started to improve their university systems and software-development industries. If successful, by 2001 their efforts will create an Asian software industry quite different from today's. The authors survey these efforts and sketch briefly the history of software development in each country. They survey recent trends in Asian software engineering from the industrial, educational, and organizational viewpoints, and offer an optimistic assessment of efforts toward modernization and regional cooperation. >

Software engineering education—adjusting our sails

It is clear to everyone involved in the field of software engineering that our instruction lags well behind research. Conservative thinkers do not want to leap onto a given bandwagon too early, while even the most progressive thinkers face a profound challenge in incorporating worldwide research into the curriculum. Based on a discussion of current trends in software engineering, this presentation sketches the emphases that need to be placed in the software engineering curriculum.

Recent Trends in Software Engineering

Recent Trends in Software Engineering

Current Trends in Software Engineering

Current Trends in Software Engineering