软件产品线可变性建模技术系统综述

软件产品线是实现大规模的软件复用、保证高质量的新产品开发的最佳实践.软件产品线的关键问题是如何进行可变性管理,并基于可变性管理实现软件核心资产的复用.软件产品线可变性建模是可变性管理的关键技术,实现产品家族成员的共性和可变性的描述.可变性建模涉及软件开发的全生命周期,在领域工程和应用工程中,尤其是在产品构建过程中,起到重要的作用.从众多的建模技术中选择合适的建模技术是十分困难的,在软件产品线领域中开展了可变性建模技术的系统综述,按照系统综述的方法对可变性建模技术进行了系统总结,根据系统综述规则,选取了从1990 年~2011 年发表的论文进行综述.讨论了系统综述的研究成果,从可变性建模方法分类、重要可变性建模技术对比等方面进行深入的探讨,为建模人员和研究人员对可变性建模技术的选择和研究提供支持.最后分析了可变性建模技术的研究趋势,并对可变性建模技术有待深入的研究难点和发展趋势进行了展望.  

On the reliability of mapping studies in software engineering

Background

Systematic literature reviews and systematic mapping studies are becoming increasingly common in software engineering, and hence it becomes even more important to better understand the reliability of such studies.

Objective

This paper presents a study of two systematic mapping studies to evaluate the reliability of mapping studies and point out some challenges related to this type of study in software engineering.

Method

The research is based on an in-depth case study of two published mapping studies on software product line testing.

Results

We found that despite the fact that the two studies are addressing the same topic, there are quite a number of differences when it comes to papers included and in terms of classification of the papers included in the two mapping studies.

Conclusions

From this we conclude that although mapping studies are important, their reliability cannot simply be taken for granted. Based on the findings we also provide four conjectures that further research has to address to make secondary studies (systematic mapping studies and systematic literature reviews) even more valuable to both researchers and practitioners.  

A systematic review on the functional testing of semantic web services

Semantic web services are gaining more attention as an important element of the emerging semantic web. Therefore, testing semantic web services is becoming a key concern as an essential quality assurance measure. The objective of this systematic literature review is to summarize the current state of the art of functional testing of semantic web services by providing answers to a set of research questions. The review follows a predefined procedure that involves automatically searching 5 well-known digital libraries. After applying the selection criteria to the results, a total of 34 studies were identified as relevant. Required information was extracted from the studies and summarized. Our systematic literature review identified some approaches available for deriving test cases from the specifications of semantic web services. However, many of the approaches are either not validated or the validation done lacks credibility. We believe that a substantial amount of work remains to be done to improve the current state of research in the area of testing semantic web services.  

Systematic literature review of machine learning based software development effort estimation models

Context

Software development effort estimation (SDEE) is the process of predicting the effort required to develop a software system. In order to improve estimation accuracy, many researchers have proposed machine learning (ML) based SDEE models (ML models) since 1990s. However, there has been no attempt to analyze the empirical evidence on ML models in a systematic way.

Objective

This research aims to systematically analyze ML models from four aspects: type of ML technique, estimation accuracy, model comparison, and estimation context.

Method

We performed a systematic literature review of empirical studies on ML model published in the last two decades (1991-2010).

Results

We have identified 84 primary studies relevant to the objective of this research. After investigating these studies, we found that eight types of ML techniques have been employed in SDEE models. Overall speaking, the estimation accuracy of these ML models is close to the acceptable level and is better than that of non-ML models. Furthermore, different ML models have different strengths and weaknesses and thus favor different estimation contexts.

Conclusion

ML models are promising in the field of SDEE. However, the application of ML models in industry is still limited, so that more effort and incentives are needed to facilitate the application of ML models. To this end, based on the findings of this review, we provide recommendations for researchers as well as guidelines for practitioners.  

Factors influencing clients in the selection of offshore software outsourcing vendors: An exploratory study using a systematic literature review

Context

Offshore software development outsourcing is a modern business strategy for developing high quality software at low cost.

Objective

The objective of this research paper is to identify and analyse factors that are important in terms of the competitiveness of vendor organisations in attracting outsourcing projects.

Method

We performed a systematic literature review (SLR) by applying our customised search strings which were derived from our research questions. We performed all the SLR steps, such as the protocol development, initial selection, final selection, quality assessment, data extraction and data synthesis.

Results

We have identified factors such as cost-saving, skilled human resource, appropriate infrastructure, quality of product and services, efficient outsourcing relationships management, and an organisation's track record of successful projects which are generally considered important by the outsourcing clients. Our results indicate that appropriate infrastructure, cost-saving, and skilled human resource are common in three continents, namely Asia, North America and Europe. We identified appropriate infrastructure, cost-saving, and quality of products and services as being common in three types of organisations (small, medium and large). We have also identified four factors-appropriate infrastructure, cost-saving, quality of products and services, and skilled human resource as being common in the two decades (1990-1999 and 2000-mid 2008).

Conclusions

Cost-saving should not be considered as the driving factor in the selection process of software development outsourcing vendors. Vendors should rather address other factors in order to compete in the OSDO business, such as skilled human resource, appropriate infrastructure and quality of products and services.  

Barriers in the selection of offshore software development outsourcing vendors: An exploratory study using a systematic literature review

Context

Software development outsourcing is a contract-based relationship between client and vendor organisations in which a client contracts out all or part of its software development activities to a vendor, who provides agreed services for remuneration.

Objective

The objective is to identify various barriers that have a negative impact on software outsourcing clients in the selection process of offshore software development outsourcing vendors.

Method

We have performed a systematic literature review (SLR) process for the identification of barriers. We have performed all the SLR steps such as the protocol development, initial selection, final selection, quality assessment, data extraction and data synthesis.

Results

We have identified barriers such as ‘language and cultural barriers’, ‘country instability’, ‘lack of project management’, ‘lack of protection for intellectual property rights’ and ‘lack of technical capability’ that generally have a negative impact on outsourcing clients. We have identified only one common frequently cited barrier in three types of organisations (i.e. small, medium and large) which is ‘language and cultural barriers’. We did not identify any common frequently cited barrier in three continents (Asia, North America and Europe) and in two decades (1990-1999 and 2000-mid 2008). The results also reveal the similarities and differences in the barriers identified through different study strategies.

Conclusions

Vendors should address frequently cited barriers such as ‘language and cultural barriers’, ‘country instability’, ‘lack of project management’, ‘lack of protection for intellectual property rights’ and ‘lack of technical capability’ in order to compete in the offshore outsourcing business.  

Software product line testing - A systematic mapping study

Context

Software product lines (SPL) are used in industry to achieve more efficient software development. However, the testing side of SPL is underdeveloped.

Objective

This study aims at surveying existing research on SPL testing in order to identify useful approaches and needs for future research.

Method

A systematic mapping study is launched to find as much literature as possible, and the 64 papers found are classified with respect to focus, research type and contribution type.

Results

A majority of the papers are of proposal research types (64%). System testing is the largest group with respect to research focus (40%), followed by management (23%). Method contributions are in majority.

Conclusions

More validation and evaluation research is needed to provide a better foundation for SPL testing.  

Testing in Service Oriented Architectures with dynamic binding: A mapping study

Context

Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) have emerged as a new paradigm to develop interoperable and highly dynamic applications.

Objective

This paper aims to identify the state of the art in the research on testing in Service Oriented Architectures with dynamic binding.

Method

A mapping study has been performed employing both manual and automatic search in journals, conference/workshop proceedings and electronic databases.

Results

A total of 33 studies have been reviewed in order to extract relevant information regarding a previously defined set of research questions. The detection of faults and the decision making based on the information gathered from the tests have been identified as the main objectives of these studies. To achieve these goals, monitoring and test case generation are the most proposed techniques testing both functional and non-functional properties. Furthermore, different stakeholders have been identified as participants in the tests, which are performed in specific points in time during the life cycle of the services. Finally, it has been observed that a relevant group of studies have not validated their approach yet.

Conclusions

Although we have only found 33 studies that address the testing of SOA where the discovery and binding of the services are performed at runtime, this number can be considered significant due to the specific nature of the reviewed topic. The results of this study have contributed to provide a body of knowledge that allows identifying current gaps in improving the quality of the dynamic binding in SOA using testing approaches.  

Process models for service-based applications: A systematic literature review

Context

Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) is a promising computing paradigm which facilitates the development of adaptive and loosely coupled service-based applications (SBAs). Many of the technical challenges pertaining to the development of SBAs have been addressed, however, there are still outstanding questions relating to the processes required to develop them.

Objective

The objective of this study is to systematically identify process models for developing service-based applications (SBAs) and review the processes within them. This will provide a useful starting point for any further research in the area. A secondary objective of the study is to identify process models which facilitate the adaptation of SBAs.

Method

In order to achieve this objective a systematic literature review (SLR) of the existing software engineering literature is conducted.

Results

During this research 722 studies were identified using a predefined search strategy, this number was narrowed down to 57 studies based on a set of strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results are reported both quantitatively in the form of a mapping study, as well as qualitatively in the form of a narrative summary of the key processes identified.

Conclusion

There are many process models reported for the development of SBAs varying in detail and maturity, this review has identified and categorised the processes within those process models. The review has also identified and evaluated process models which facilitate the adaptation of SBAs.