System requirements-OSS components: matching and mismatch resolution practices – an empirical study

Developing systems by integrating Open Source Software (OSS) is increasingly gaining importance in the software industry. Although the literature claims that this approach highly impacts Requirements Engineering (RE) practices, there is a lack of empirical evidence to demonstrate this statement. To explore and understand problems and challenges of current system requirement–OSS component matching and mismatches resolution practices in software development projects that integrate one or more OSS components into their software products. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 respondents that have performed RE activities in software development projects that integrate OSS components in 25 different software development companies in Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The study uncovers 15 observations regarding system requirements-OSS components matching and mismatch resolution practices used in industrial projects that integrate OSS components. The assessed projects focused mainly on pre-release stages of software applications that integrate OSS components in an opportunistic way. The results also provide details of a set of previously unexplored scenarios when solving system requirement–OSS component mismatches; and clarify some challenges and related problems. For instance, although licensing issues and the potential changes in OSS components by their corresponding communities and/or changes in system requirements have been greatly discussed in the RE literature as problems for OSS component integration, they did not appear to be relevant in our assessed projects. Instead, practitioners highlighted the problem of getting suitable OSS component documentation/information.     

Adapting funding processes for agile IT projects: an empirical investigation

Agile software development that provides software development organizations, the ability to respond to changes in turbulent business environments, has been gaining wide adoption. Agile software development projects are characterized by ‘just enough’ planning and lack of upfront commitment to scope, cost, and schedule. These characteristics pose conflicting demands on managers responsible for making funding decisions, because traditional approaches to funding IT projects are often based on well-defined scope, cost, and schedule. These conflicts demand the adaptation of traditional funding processes to suit to agile projects. We draw from Adaptive Structuration Theory to understand the nature of conflicts between traditional IT project funding processes and the dynamic nature of agile projects, and how these conflicts are addressed by practices that are appropriated in the process of social interaction between funding decision makers and development teams. On the basis of a multisite case study, we present a framework that explains how organizations adapt traditional IT funding approaches to accommodate the unique characteristics of agile IT projects.     

Agile knowledge management: a survey of Indian perceptions

This paper is a pivot step to find out the level of KM adoption of Indian software organizations which are using agile practices for software development. After reviewing the literature it was found although many practitioners believe that KM practices are embodied in agile methodologies but it is not documented efficiently. Survey was used to take perception of agile organizations. KM practices are grouped into seven factors and respondents are taken from Indian software industry. Organizations are divided into different demographics: size, core area, type. Different statistical tests are used to conclude outputs of the questionnaire. It is found that Indian software industry working with agile practices lacks in providing any formal head for KM positioning. Learning and sharing through discussion forms is the most used practices among all respondents of organizations, whereas least accepted practice is dependent upon documents for transfer of knowledge. Indian organizations also lack in appointing a formal head who can provide guidelines for agile practice.     

Myths about outsourcing to application service providers

Which applications are organizations outsourcing to ASPs? What did they hope to gain? And what are the critical success factors for organizations using ASPs? To assess these issues we cosponsored a study to assess organizational attitudes and adoption metrics for ASPs. Our survey garnered 256 usable responses from businesses regarding their use of ASPs. The study indicated that a significant number of respondents believed ASPs offer a fast-track way of implementing IT projects. However, 80 percent also favored internal implementation for core IT projects, which suggests that other factors still present a substantial barrier to ASP adoption. Nevertheless, companies are outsourcing some core applications - such as supply chain management and e-commerce - and several non-core applications. This outsourcing implies that companies perceive a significant benefit to ASP adoption. The message for users is unambiguous: to succeed, understand how Internet outsourcing works for your company, benchmark against successful ASP adopters, and establish a common criterion for evaluating an ASP     

The influence of SOA governance mechanisms on IT flexibility and service reuse

While many firms have introduced SOA, only one in five have achieved anticipated benefits such as increased IT flexibility or reuse. Industry analysts assume that a lack of SOA governance is the main reason why SOA projects fail. Addressing the substantial research gap on SOA governance this paper theoretically and empirically investigates which SOA governance mechanisms are needed to achieve the benefits of SOA, such as increasing IT flexibility and reusing services. The proposed theoretical SOA governance model is evaluated using data from 81 SOA-using organizations.Overall, the results confirm the relevance of a variety of SOA governance mechanisms (structures, processes, and employees/relations), but at the same time, that IT infrastructure flexibility and service reuse are influenced by different mechanisms. Key governance mechanisms that show a strong effect on infrastructure flexibility are using standards, service management processes, educating employees, and IT/business communication while reuse can only be increased through service management, standards and qualification. Contrary to expectations, implementing new, dedicated decision-making bodies for SOA hampers organizations in achieving higher degrees of IT flexibility and reuse, and a firm is better off using existing IT decision-making bodies.     

Competence gaps in software personnel: A multi-organizational study

Today, the innovation and quality of the software industry’s products and services depend to a great extent on the knowledge, ability and talent applied by software engineers. At the same time, human aspects are recognized as one of the main problems associated with software development projects. More specifically, inefficiencies usually come from inadequate verification of software engineers’ competences. Another issue is the lack of an established career for software engineers, which adds difficulties to evaluate competences. With these challenges in mind, this paper presents a study conducted in the software industry to test competence gaps among software practitioners, comparing the 360-degree feedback results and self-evaluations with that of standard competence levels. The results of this research may be very valuable to organizations immersed in software development projects.     

Challenges of IT implementation for supporting collaboration in distributed organizations

The study focuses on the implementation of information technology (IT) for supporting collaboration in distributed organizations, i.e. organizations consisting of two or more semi-autonomous units in different geographical locations. Six case studies of IT implementation projects have been conducted, focusing on the challenges in the implementation process as seen from the perspective of the implementation team. Being of an exploratory nature, the study has identified a large number of issues that have influenced the different stages in the implementation process. The implementation context studied is found to imply several additional challenges for the implementation team, compared to ‘traditional’ intra-organizational IT implementation. This is a result of greater autonomy among the participating units, heterogeneous technological platforms and logistical barriers in the implementation activities. Resistance from the organizational units, technological incompatibility and lack of incentives for adopting new work practices, are identified as major barriers in the implementation. In general, the implementation is found to require a process of maturation, where implementers and adopters gradually develop an understanding of how the technology can support the organizational needs.     

HR Contribution to IT Innovation Implementation: Results of Three Case Studies

The theoretical and empirical investigation of information technologies (IT) innovation implementations reveals that they lack conceptual and practical support from HRM professionals. The HRM practices undertaken by HR professionals are not even discussed. We argue that HR departments should contribute to IT innovation projects by being responsible for explicitly defining job tasks that have to be automated, establishing a rewards system for those who have to learn and use a new technology and analysing the training needs of the users and providing them with adequate training. HRM should more actively intervene in IT innovation projects. Such intervention would, we believe, foster compatibility between the prior intentions of information technology, the strategies and practices, the individual users’ needs in it and the adoption of IT by the users.     

Evidence-based software engineering for practitioners

Software managers and practitioners often must make decisions about what technologies to employ on their projects. They might be aware of problems with their current development practices (for example, production bottlenecks or numerous defect reports from customers) and want to resolve them. Or, they might have read about a new technology and want to take advantage of its promised benefits. However, practitioners can have difficulty making informed decisions about whether to adopt a new technology because there's little objective evidence to confirm its suitability, limits, qualities, costs, and inherent risks. This can lead to poor decisions about technology adoption. Software engineers might make incorrect decisions about adopting new techniques it they don't consider scientific evidence about the techniques' efficacy. They should consider using procedures similar to ones developed for evidence-based medicine. Software companies are often under pressure to adopt immature technologies because of market and management pressures. We suggest that practitioners consider evidence-based software engineering as a mechanism to support and improve their technology adoption decisions.     

Adoption of open source software in organizations: A socio-cognitive perspective

Open source software (OSS) is an important trend in the information technology adoption landscape. It has received considerable attention in the scientific literature, but mostly in the professional press. In fact, there is much debate over its actual commercial and organizational value. Since the public discourse accompanying an IT may influence adoption decisions, it is important to consider IT specialists’ perceptions of the discourse on OSS. In this study, we investigated the relationship between IT specialists’ profiles, IT specialists’ reception of the public discourse on OSS, and their organizations’ receptivity to OSS. Drawing on the socio-cognitive perspective of IT innovation adoption and the organizing vision theory, a survey of 271 IT specialists was conducted to examine these issues. Our results indicate that a majority of IT specialists in our sample are rather neutral about the OSS concept conveyed in the public discourse. However, our sample also comprises respondents with more extreme perceptions who can be classified as either supporters or detractors. Our results indicate that detractors have more years of experience but have been less exposed to OSS than supporters, and that IT specialists’ perceptions of the OSS concept are positively associated with their organizations’ openness to OSS adoption and, to a lesser extent, with the existence of an organizational policy that favors OSS adoption. Altogether, our findings provide strong support for the organizing vision theory and the idea that the popularity of an IT innovation concept favors the adoption of the material IT innovation in organizations. By providing a preliminary test of a nomological network of IT specialists’ perceptions of the OSS concept, our study offers insights as to why organizations may or may not take OSS into account in their software procurement decisions.     

State of practice in requirements engineering: contemporary data

Little contemporary data exists that documents software requirements elicitation, requirements specification, document development, and specification validation practices. An exploratory survey of more than 3,000 software professionals was conducted and nearly 250 responses were obtained. Survey data obtained includes characteristics of projects, practices, organizations, and practitioners related to requirements engineering. Selected results are presented along with interpretations of this data.     

基于CMM、PSP、TSP的软件开发模型

在软件开发中软件工程师个人及软件组织不可避免地会遇到各种困难,尤其是软件组织在实施CMM中面对的各种挑战。CMM用于提高整个软件组织的能力成熟度,PSP和TSP分别用于改进软件工程师个人的工作风格和提高小组的软件开发质量和效率。三者的有效结合将进一步提高软件产品的质量和生产率以及软件组织的能力成熟度。该文提出一种将三者及软件体系结构等其他技术结合起来的软件开发模型。     

Social Comparison,Goal Contagion,and Adoption of Innovative Information Technology

When adopting a new, innovative information technology (IT), most institutions tend to lack knowledge about it initially. However, they often adopt new ITs despite their illiteracy. This behavior is difficult to explain using rational IT adoption theories. Focusing on the organizational decision-making process behind adoption of innovative IT, we examine the strategy by which some companies compensate for their lack of knowledge: collection of information from other companies that have successfully adopted IT previously. We develop a new IT adoption model for which goal contagion theory and social comparison theory are combined to interpret the circumstances under which organizations tend to adopt new, innovative IT despite limited knowledge about it. Big data, cloud services, and smart mobile systems are considered as examples of innovative IT in the empirical study.     

Understanding the human context in requirements elicitation

The human context within which a software system will operate is fundamental for its requirements. It may not appear to be very much related to the system, but it is very relevant in achieving its successful adoption. However, requirements engineers have usually a background in Software Engineering and are not trained to elicit this kind of information. This situation raises the need for analytical tools to deal with these features. These tools should enable collaborative work between requirements engineers, who use them in development, social practitioners, who provide the knowledge and processes underlying these tools, and the customers, who know the domain and intended application of the projects. The framework presented in this paper is based on the socio-psychological Activity Theory and its analysis of human contexts. It includes a repository of social properties and a process to perform this elicitation using it. The paper illustrates its application through a case study on the impact of a new system in the organization of a firm.     

基于软件需求规范的项目级复用研究

目前的软件复用技术主要围绕软件代码的复用进行研究.而随着开源项目的增多,基于待开发项目的需求文档分析,实现项目级的复用就显得非常有价值.当开发人员获取项目的软件需求后,通常需要对其分析并构建解决方案,然后进行设计与实施.如果能根据项目的软件需求找到相似的历史项目进行复用,可以大大节省项目设计与实施时间.因此,在现有的项...     

Enabling agile adoption practices through network organizations

As distributed organizations increasingly rely on technological innovations to enhance organizational efficiency and competitiveness, interest in agile practices that enable adoption of information technology (IT) based innovations has grown. This study examines the influence of a network organization environment on the ability to develop agile adoption practices. An exploratory case study design was used to investigate the interactions between network structure, social information processing, organizational similarity (homophily), and absorptive capacity during the adoption of a large-scale IT system in two network organization environments within New York State. The data suggest that network organization characteristics and communication processes that reinforced social influence and supported knowledge transfer positively influenced adoption agility. We propose a model of agile adoption practices and discuss implications for the development of theory about network organization characteristics and capabilities to adopt IT-based innovations.     

Prioritizing agile benefits and limitations in relation to practice usage

In recent years, there has been significant shift from rigid development (RD) toward agile. However, it has also been spotted that agile methodologies are hardly ever followed in their pure form. Hybrid processes as combinations of RD and agile practices emerge. In addition, agile adoption has been reported to result in both benefits and limitations. This exploratory study (a) identifies development models based on RD and agile practice usage by practitioners; (b) identifies agile practice adoption scenarios based on eliciting practice usage over time; (c) prioritizes agile benefits and limitations in relation to (a) and (b). Practitioners provided answers through a questionnaire. The development models are determined using hierarchical cluster analysis. The use of practices over time is captured through an interactive board with practices and time indication sliders. This study uses the extended hierarchical voting analysis framework to investigate benefit and limitation prioritization. Four types of development models and six adoption scenarios have been identified. Overall, 45 practitioners participated in the prioritization study. A common benefit among all models and adoption patterns is knowledge and learning, while high requirements on professional skills were perceived as the main limitation. Furthermore, significant variances in terms of benefits and limitations have been observed between models and adoption patterns. The most significant internal benefit categories from adopting agile are knowledge and learning, employee satisfaction, social skill development, and feedback and confidence. Professional skill-specific demands, scalability, and lack of suitability for specific product domains are the main limitations of agile practice usage. Having a balanced agile process allows to achieve a high number of benefits. With respect to adoption, a big bang transition from RD to agile leads to poor quality in comparison with the alternatives.     

Implementing information systems with project teams using ethnographic-action research

Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) projects are characterized by a large variation in requirements and work routines. Therefore, it is difficult to develop and implement information systems to support projects. To address these challenges, this paper presents a project-centric research and development methodology that combines ethnographic observation of practitioners working in local project organizations to understand their local requirements and the iterative improvement of information systems directly on projects in small action research implementation cycles. The paper shows the practical feasibility of the theoretical methodology using cases from AEC projects in North America and Europe. The cases provide evidence that ethnographic-action research is well suited to support the development and implementation of information systems. In particular, the paper shows that the method enabled researchers on the cases to identify specific problems on AEC projects and, additionally, helped these researchers to adapt information systems accordingly in close collaboration with the practitioners working on these projects.     

Sharing requirements engineering experience using patterns

Many practitioners - especially those in small and medium enterprises -work in organizations that don't yet implement dedicated requirements engineering methods. Furthermore, these organizations often lack the appropriate knowledge and tools for implementing RE. For this target group of practitioners, we propose patterns as a format for RE knowledge transfer, which can provide guidance by offering easy access to proven methods and tools. As an example, we provide four patterns for basic RE activities.     

Selecting an IT Control Framework

Companies have now weathered several years of scrutiny under regulatory requirements with the inception of HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, and other industry regulations. To meet these compliance challenges, many companies have looked to different frameworks to help build controls structures within the organization. For IT organizations, this has required a shift in mindset to adopt a “controls oriented” approach while keeping up with the technology needs of the business. A key to the adoption of any framework has been ensuring the approach is applicable to your business.