Understanding Of Software Engineering Research Articles

Analysis and Design of Responsive Web-Based Learning Media Equipped with Pomodoro Feature in the Course of Software Engineering

The development of information and communication technology has brought about changes in the field of education, one of which is the emergence of web-based learning. Based on preliminary observation data collected through questionnaires, students still expressed uncertainty about their understanding of software engineering (SE) materials. The current learning media for SE include PowerPoint (PPT), e-modules, and instructional videos, which students find less engaging and challenging to comprehend. Additionally, students face distractions like games and social media, leading to difficulty maintaining focus while studying. The objectives of this research are (1) to analyze user and system needs and (2) to design web-based responsive learning media for the software engineering course, equipped with a Pomodoro feature. The research method used is research and development (R&D) with the 4D Thiagarajan development model, consisting of four stages: define, design, develop, and disseminate. However, only the definition and design stages were carried out due to research limitations. The presentation of data analysis results involves (1) needs analysis, which includes frontend analysis, learner analysis, task analysis, concept analysis, and specifying instructional objectives; (2) system design, which includes context diagrams and data flow diagrams; (3) database design, which includes Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) and database file structure; (4) initial design in the form of a prototype; (5) technology design for development and implementation; and (6) instructional media testing design

Do Pretrained Language Models Indeed Understand Software Engineering Tasks?

Do Pretrained Language Models Indeed Understand Software Engineering Tasks?

Factors Influencing Computing Students’ Readiness to Online Learning for Understanding Software Engineering Foundations in Saudi Arabia

The spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has enforced most universities/institutions over the world to transform their educational models (face-to-face and blended) bearing in mind the online educational environments as a temporary substitute. Consequently, all universities/institutions in Saudi Arabia have requested their students to continue the learning process using online environments. This transition has provided an opportunity to deeply investigate possible challenges as well as factors that influence the adoption of online learning as a future educational model for undergraduate students. This research measures the current undergraduate students’ readiness for online learning and investigates factors that influence their level of readiness. Firstly, the research proposes the adoption of a validated multidimensional instrument to measure under-graduate students’ readiness for online learning in different universities. Secondly, the research elaborates the findings by an in-depth study that highlights the main obstacles that hinder computing students’ readiness to learn Software Engineering (SE) foundations using online learning. The research adopts survey research to measure students’ readiness and analyzes the data to extract the readiness levels of different dimensions of the adopted instrument. Furthermore, interviews were conducted to specify the influential factors on computing students’ readiness levels regarding learning SE foundations. Results show that students’ readiness level for online learning is within the acceptable range while some improvements are needed. Furthermore, the study found that students’ cognition, willingness, ignorance, and the amount of assistant and help they receive play a significant role in the success/failure of the adoption of learning SE foundations through online environment.

Initial Coin Offerings and Agile Practices

An ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is an innovative way to fund projects based on blockchain. The funding is based on the selling of tokens by means of decentralized applications called smart contracts written in Solidity, a programming language specific for Ethereum blockchain. The ICOs work in a volatile context and it is crucial that the team is capable of handling constant changes. The Agile methods, proven practices enabling to develop software in presence of changing requirements, could be a means for managing uncertainty. The main goals of this work are to understand software engineering activities related to ICOs, recognize the ICOs developed using Agile methods, and make a comparison between ICOs and Agile ICOs. In addition, we perform a deeper analysis of Agile ICOs concerning project planning, software development, and code features. Our work shows that the roles of the people involved in an ICO can be compared to the typical roles of the SCRUM methodology. The majority of Agile ICOs use tool of testing before storing smart contract on blockchain. Finally, the application of volumetric and complexity software metrics shows that the files of Agile ICOs is on average shorter and less complex than in other smart contracts.

Software-Intensive Product Engineering in Start-Ups: A Taxonomy

Software start-ups are new companies aiming to launch an innovative product to mass markets fast with minimal resources. However, most start-ups fail before realizing their potential. Poor software engineering, among other factors, could be a significant contributor to the challenges that start-ups experience. Little is known about the engineering context in start-up companies. On the surface, start-ups are characterized by uncertainty, high risk, and minimal resources. However, such a characterization isn’t granular enough to support identification of specific engineering challenges and to devise start-up–specific engineering practices. The first step toward an understanding of software engineering in start-ups is the definition of a Start-Up Context Map—a taxonomy of engineering practices, environment factors, and goals influencing the engineering process. This map aims to support further research on the field and serve as an engineering decision support tool for start-ups. This article is part of a theme issue on Process Improvement.

Design and Implementation in Project Based Case Learning System for Education in Software Engineering

Online Teaching is growing popular and popular and many universities and organizations offer online teaching courses, such as Coursera, Edx and udacity. Case based teaching as a new approach to construct knowledge hierarchy and it uses 'trigger' cases to stimulate interest in a particular area of the curriculum so it always has a better effect than ordinary method. Based on this situation, the main aim of this paper is to design a web-based case learning system for courses in software engineering. The system allows students play as different roles and study different types of cases in the software engineering field. Thus compared with common teaching method, this system can stimulate students’ interest and enhance students' understanding of software engineering.

Integrating role-play into software engineering courses

The primary goal of an introductory software engineering course is to provide a complete introduction to software engineering. Typically this includes concepts, terms, processes, tools, and history. However, for students to fully understand software engineering and be prepared for software development careers, courses must also consider the sociological and communication aspects, often called the socio-technical aspects. Unfortunately, these aspects are difficult to teach and do not receive much coverage in the most widely used software engineering textbooks. Faculty have used various approaches to address the socio-technical aspects. One popular method is to use role-playing exercises. The software engineering education literature contains many papers advocating role-play. However, these papers describe role-play integrated in semester-long projects and often provide little detail about the exercises. Using these published approaches in an existing software engineering course requires significant work by the instructor. This paper presents a set of ready to use role-play exercises that can be downloaded and easily integrated into an existing course. Student reaction is also reported.

DEAS 2005

Understanding software engineering issues for autonomic computing systems is critical for the software and information technology sectors, which are continually challenged to reduce the complexity of their systems. To be autonomic, a system must know itself as well as its boundaries and its environment, configure and reconfigure itself, continually optimize itself, recover or heal from malfunction, protect itself, and function in a heterogeneous world---while keeping its complexity hidden from the user. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners, who investigate concepts, methodologies, techniques, technologies, and tools to design and evolve autonomic software.

Can Thomas Kuhn's paradigms help us understand software engineering?

Recent articles in EJIS have discussed whether or not Information Systems is a ‘discipline’. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn states that a scientific discipline can be identified by reference to its underlying belief system, the ‘paradigm’ or ‘disciplinary matrix’, to which all workers in that field must commit. An important element of Kuhn's model is the notion of ‘scientific communities’. We consider here the belief system underlying Software Engineering (SE). We examine the extent to which a belief system analogous to the disciplinary matrix of a Kuhnian science can be identified in SE. Our preliminary fieldwork has comprised an examination of books used by SE students and practitioners, and in-depth interviews with a number of practitioners. The results of this study suggest that the current status of the theory of SE parallels Kuhn's ‘pre-paradigm’ stage of scientific development. At this early stage, theorists and practitioners are divided into schools. These schools are based on differences in the beliefs and models forming their disciplinary matrices. We conclude that the application by analogy of Kuhn's view of scientific activity to SE is justifiable. Our findings can assist both SE theorists and practitioners in improving the understanding of how and why software development projects succeed or fail. Our findings also provide a framework within which to place the beliefs, models and values which underlie SE. Such a framework can contribute to the discussion as to whether the software development-related aspects of Information Systems can be considered to be a discipline, and if so how that discipline is structured.

UCC changes pose problems for developers

A new law is being drafted that will govern all contracts for the development, sale, and support of computer software in the United States. This law is being drafted by attorneys and by trade association representatives who don't understand software engineering. The new law, Article 2B, will be a section of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). Its scope includes almost all transactions in information, and much electronically based contracting, so rules from these and other areas will now come into play in software. Article 2B will be a complex body of law: the December 1996 draft ran 216 pages. If you care about quality related standards or about the underlying structure of the relationships among buyers, sellers, and developers in this industry, you should pay attention to this work.

The (Non)Importance of a Programming Language in a Software Engineering Course

Our catchy title is intended to be controversial, provoking thought upon the impact (or lack of any) that a programming language has on the curriculum for a software engineering course. Our view on the subject is from both directions, as indicated by the title. As educators, we argue that the language issues are secondary to the fundamental concern of understanding software engineering concepts, specifically object‐oriented concepts. However, we appreciate that expertise in a widely accepted object‐oriented language may be essential towards the more practical aspect of building a critical mass of software engineers versed in object‐oriented techniques. This reflects upon the maturing nature of computer science and engineering as a science, which is evolving its fundamental principles, while at the same time recognizing its impact as an engineering discipline sensitive to practical applications. The evolution of our primary software engineering course, CS250 Introduction to Software Engineering, has been i...