A quantitative approach for setting technical targets based on impact analysis in software quality function deployment (SQFD)

Target setting in software quality function deployment (SQFD) is very important since it is directly related to development of high quality products with high customer satisfaction. However target setting is usually done subjectively in practice, which is not scientific. Two quantitative approaches for setting target values: benchmarking and primitive linear regression have been developed and applied in the past to overcome this problem (Akao and Yoji, 1990). But these approaches cannot be used to assess the impact of unachieved targets on satisfaction of customers for customer requirements. In addition, both of them are based on linear regression and not very practical in many applications. In this paper, we present an innovative quantitative method of setting technical targets in SQFD to enable analysis of impact of unachieved target values on customer satisfaction. It is based on assessment of impact of technical attributes on satisfaction of customer requirements. In addition both linear and non linear regression techniques are utilized in our method, which certainly improves the existing quantitative methods which are based on only linear regression. Frank Liu is currently an associate professor and a director of the McDonnel Douglass Foundation software engineering laboratory in the University of Missouri-Rolla. He has been working on requirements engineering, software quality management, and knowledge based software engineering since 1992. He has published about 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences in the above areas and several other software engineering application areas. He participates in research projects with a total amount of funds of more than four millions dollars as a PI or Co-PI sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Sandia National Laboratory, U.S. Air Force, University of Missouri Research Board, and Toshiba Corporation. He has served as a program committee member for many conferences. He was a program committee vice chair for the 2000 International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering. Kunio Noguchi is a senior quality expert in the software engineering center in the Toshiba Corporation. He has published several papers in the area of quality management systems. Anuj Dhungana was a M.S. graduate student in the computer science department at the Texas Tech University when he performed this research. V.V.N.S.N. Srirangam A. was a M.S. graduate student in the computer science department at the Texas Tech University when he performed this research. Praveen Inuganti was a M.S. graduate student in the computer science department at the University of Missouri-Rolla when he performed this research.     

A serious game for teaching the fundamentals of ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148 systems and software engineering – Lifecycle processes – Requirements engineering at undergraduate level

In the context of software engineering education, there is a recurrent demand for new approaches and techniques that support the application and transfer of knowledge to real-life situations with the aim of encouraging a more active learning among students. In particular, serious games have recently become an important learning resource for teaching the fundamentals of software process standards at undergraduate level. However, poor effort has been made to create a serious game that supports the teaching of the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2011 Systems and Software Engineering – Lifecycle Processes – Requirements Engineering, an international standard that specifies the required processes that are to be implemented by requirements engineering for systems and software products (including services) throughout the lifecycle. With this in mind, a serious game called “Requengin” has been developed to provide undergraduate students with an interactive learning environment to facilitate the introduction of ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2011. The main objective of the game is to strengthen the comprehension and application of the main processes of the standard and some related requirements engineering techniques. Requengin was designed to simulate an academic library where players must apply the requirements engineering processes with the aim of changing the traditional management system by a software system while they receive, at the same time, preliminary training in ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2011. The results obtained by empirical evaluation indicate that Requengin could potentially contribute to an improvement in students’ acquisition of knowledge about ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2011, while also improving levels of motivation.     

Video game values: Human–computer interaction and games

Current human–computer interaction (HCI) research into video games rarely considers how they are different from other forms of software. This leads to research that, while useful concerning standard issues of interface design, does not address the nature of video games as games specifically. Unlike most software, video games are not made to support external, user-defined tasks, but instead define their own activities for players to engage in. We argue that video games contain systems of values which players perceive and adopt, and which shape the play of the game. A focus on video game values promotes a holistic view of video games as software, media, and as games specifically, which leads to a genuine video game HCI.     

Gamification in software engineering – A systematic mapping

ContextGamification seeks for improvement of the user’s engagement, motivation, and performance when carrying out a certain task, by means of incorporating game mechanics and elements, thus making that task more attractive. Much research work has studied the application of gamification in software engineering for increasing the engagement and results of developers.ObjectiveThe objective of this paper is to carry out a systematic mapping of the field of gamification in software engineering in an attempt to characterize the state of the art of this field identifying gaps and opportunities for further research.MethodWe carried out a systematic mapping with a view to finding the primary studies in the existing literature, which were later classified and analyzed according to four criteria: the software process area addressed, the gamification elements used, the type of research method followed, and the type of forum in which they were published. A subjective evaluation of the studies was also carried out to evaluate them in terms of methodology, empirical evidence, integration with the organization, and replicability.ResultsAs a result of the systematic mapping we found 29 primary studies, published between January 2011 and June 2014. Most of them focus on software development, and to a lesser extent, requirements, project management, and other support areas. In the main, they consider very simple gamification mechanics such as points and badges, and few provide empirical evidence of the impact of gamification.ConclusionsExisting research in the field is quite preliminary, and more research effort analyzing the impact of gamification in SE would be needed. Future research work should look at other game mechanics in addition to the basic ones and should tackle software process areas that have not been fully studied, such as requirements, project management, maintenance, or testing. Most studies share a lack of methodological support that would make their proposals replicable in other settings. The integration of gamification with an organization’s existing tools is also an important challenge that needs to be taken up in this field.     

Handling non-canonical software requirements based on Annotated Predicate Calculus

Eliciting requirements for a proposed system inevitably involves the problem of handling undesirable information about customer's needs, including inconsistency, vagueness, redundancy, or incompleteness. We term the requirements statements involved in the undesirable information non-canonical software requirements. In this paper, we propose an approach to handling non-canonical software requirements based on Annotated Predicate Calculus (APC). Informally, by defining a special belief lattice appropriate for representing the stakeholder's belief in requirements statements, we construct a new form of APC to formalize requirements specifications. We then show how the APC can be employed to characterize non-canonical requirements. Finally, we show how the approach can be used to handle non-canonical requirements through a case study. Kedian Mu received B.Sc. degree in applied mathematics from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, in 1997, M.Sc. degree in probability and mathematical statistics from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, in 2000, and Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2003. From 2003 to 2005, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He is currently an assistant professor at School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China. His research interests include uncertain reasoning in artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering and science, and requirements engineering. Zhi Jin was awarded B.Sc. in computer science from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1984, and studied for her M.Sc. in computer science (expert system) and her Ph.D. in computer science (artificial intelligence) at National Defence University of Technology, Changsha, China. She was awarded Ph.D. in 1992. She is a senior member of China Computer Federation. She is currently a professor at Academy of Mathematics and System Sciences, Chinese Academy of Science. Her research interests include knowledge-based systems, artificial intelligence, requirements engineering, ontology engineering, etc. Her current research focuses on ontology-based requirements elicitation and analysis. She has got about 60 papers published, including co-authoring one book. Ruqian Lu is a professor of computer science of the Institute of Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests include artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering and knowledge based software engineering. He designed the “Tian Ma” software systems that have been widely applied in more than 20 fields, including the national defense and the economy. He has won two first class awards from Chinese Academy of Sciences and a National second class prize from the Ministry of Science and Technology. He has also won the sixth Hua Lookeng Prize for Mathematics. Yan Peng received B.Sc. degree in software from Jilin University, Changchun, China, in 1992. From June 2002 to December 2005, he studied for his M.E. in software engineering at College of Software Engineering, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. He was awarded M.E degree in 2006. He is currently responsible for CRM (customer relationship management) and BI (business intelligence) project in the BONG. His research interests include customer relationship management, business intelligence, data ming, software engineering and requirements engineering.     

Ambidextrous Innovation and Game Market Fit Performance: Feedback from Game Testers

ABSTRACT

The dynamics of the market pose a challenge for the digital game industry. Game development firms must develop innovative games to satisfy game players’ ever-changing needs and sustain a suitable product/market fit. To realize such innovation, developers tend to adopt an ambidextrous approach that includes exploratory and exploitative activities to develop games. In addition, game development teams must rely on feedback from game testers to enhance development and meet game players’ needs. However, the effect of feedback on innovation is subject to debate. Some studies have proposed that feedback has potentially negative effects on creativity. Given the prevalence of ambidextrous innovation and the utilization of feedback from game testers, no study to date has investigated the effects of feedback on game development quality. A survey of 119 paired game producers and developers revealed that “feedback timing” from game testers positively enhances the relationship between ambidextrous innovation and a game’s final development performance, whereas “feedback specificity” impairs the effectiveness of ambidextrous innovation. This paper discusses the implications of this study.     

A graph-based representation of game scenarios; methodology for minimizing anomalies in computer game

When we design the computer games, new concepts are hard to communicate because the development of the new computer games is far less formalized compared with other software. However, the creative processing additionally has the benefit if the new concepts of the computer games are widely used and discussed. We focus on understanding the ideas to be shared between the game designer and the game programmer in the game design. The research defines a graph-based representation of game scenarios is in terms of Event graph, State graph, and Action graph forms in order to minimize anomalies of game flow design. This method in our research can reduce unexpected and undesirable game situations. Also it reduces the mismatched information between the game designer and the game programmer in game-playing. Compared with the existing method such as storyboard, flowchart, and SSM, we demonstrate the viability of our game design methodology.     

Teaching computer science through game design

Playing computer games is a popular recreational activity for young people. Not surprisingly, many of these enthusiasts dream that one day they will develop computer games themselves. Developing computer games involves many aspects of computing, including computer graphics, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, security, distributed programming, simulation, and software engineering. Users who can't code a single line can use game maker to build games and learn object-oriented design.     

Developing inclusive e-learning and e-entertainment to effectively accommodate learning difficulties

The real-life training of people with learning difficulties is a highly challenging and demanding process that can be effectively improved with the deployment of special-purpose software instruments. This paper discusses the development and evaluation of two inclusive training applications and two games for people with learning difficulties. Namely, the four developed systems are: (a) a cashier training applications; (b) a sewing training applications; (c) an accessible pong game; and (d) an accessible action game. The main objective of the work was to investigate the hypothesis that computer games, as pleasant, motivating and highly engaging interactive experiences, can have a significant role on improving the training of people with learning difficulties, such as attention deficit disorder or Asperger syndrome. The obtained results are very positive and encouraging, and have led to the identification of new research directions, blending training and playing, via novel training techniques and purpose-specific game genres.

Automated COSMIC Function Point measurement using a requirements engineering ontology

ContextThere are two interrelated difficulties in requirements engineering processes. First, free-format modelling practices in requirements engineering activities may lead to low quality artefacts and productivity problems. Second, the COSMIC Function Point Method is not yet widespread in the software industry because applying measurement rules to imprecise and ambiguous textual requirements is difficult and requires additional human measurement effort. This challenge is common to all functional size measurement methods.ObjectiveIn this study, alternative solutions have been investigated to address these two difficulties. Information created during the requirements engineering process is formalized as an ontology that also becomes a convenient model for transforming requirements into COSMIC Function Point Method concepts.MethodA method is proposed to automatically measure the functional size of software by using the designed ontology. The proposed method has been implemented as a software application and verified with real projects conducted within the ICT department of a leading telecommunications provider in Turkey.ResultsWe demonstrated a novel method to measure the functional size of software in COSMIC FP automatically. It is based on a newly developed requirements engineering ontology. Our proposed method has several advantages over other methods explored in previous research.ConclusionManual and automated measurement results are in agreement, and the tool is promising for the company under study and for the industry at large.     

Students' attitudes toward playing games and using games in education: Comparing Scotland and the Netherlands

Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students' characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question:

• •What are the different game playing habits of the three groups?
• •What are the different motivations for playing games across the three groups?
• •What are the different reasons for using games in HE across the three groups?
• •What are the different attitudes towards games across the three groups?

To our knowledge this is the first in-depth cross-national survey on gaming and education. We found that a large number of participants believed that computer games could be used at HE level for educational purposes and that further research in the area of game playing habits, motivations for playing computer games and motivations for playing computer games in education are worthy of extensive further investigation. We also found a clear distinction between the views of students in regular education and those in distance education. Regular education students in both countries rated all motivations for playing computer games as significantly more important than distance education students. Also the results suggest that Scottish students aim to enhance their social experience with regards to competition and cooperation, while Dutch students aim to enhance their leisurely experience with regards to leisure, feeling good, preventing boredom and excitement.     

Computer game development as a literacy activity

This study examined computer game development as a pedagogical activity to motivate and engage students in curriculum-related literacy activities. We hypothesized that as a consequence, students would improve their traditional reading and writing skills as well as develop new digital literacy skills. Eighteen classes of grade 4 students were assigned to either an experimental or control group. Both groups studied the same curriculum unit over a 10 week period, however, in addition the experimental group developed computer games related to the unit using a game development shell. An analysis of pre- and post-unit scores on two standardized literacy test batteries revealed that the experimental students performed significantly better on one of the subtests, a measure of logical sentence construction (p = .002). Field notes and teacher interview data indicated that game development helped improve student content retention, ability to compare and contrast information presented, utilize more and different kinds of research materials including digital resources, editing skills, and develop an insight into questioning skills.     

Cooperative games with multiple attributes

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we introduce the notion of a cooperative game with multiple attributes where players can provide partial participations in multiple attributes and form coalitions. The power or influence of the players due to their multiple attributes is evaluated based on their memberships in the coalitions. Our game therefore, extends the notion of cooperative games with fuzzy coalitions. The Shapley function for this class of games is proposed as a rational and fair solution concept. Every fuzzy game stems out of a specific crisp game under the assumption that the players provide partial memberships in forming multiple coalitions simultaneously. We adopt similar techniques to obtain the cooperative games with multiple attributes from their crisp counterparts and subsequently determine their Shapley functions.     

Mapping quality requirements for pervasive mobile games

Games have not received the full attention of the requirements engineering community. This scenario is becoming more critical as we move towards newer forms of games, such as pervasive games. Pervasiveness (the quality that distinguishes pervasive games from traditional digital games) holds several meanings, including being ubiquitous, permeating something, or spreading something, somewhere, in a physical space. Pervasiveness can be recognized in by the boundaries of the game expanding every time it is played, from the virtual (or fictional) world to the real world. Pervasive games are a new form of digital entertainment that has evolved in different forms, such as alternate reality games, transmedia games, and crossmedia games. Sensor technologies, networking capabilities, augmented reality systems, computer vision technology, the internet, and, especially, mobile devices have been responsible for the rapid evolution of this new form of digital product. This paper is focused on “pervasive mobile games”, which we define as context-aware games that use mobile devices. We bear in mind that mobile devices are currently the main driver for fulfilling the promises of pervasive game playing. Our investigations and experiments on this class of games led us to study the quality requirements for pervasive mobile games. Using different information sources, we gathered a set of interrelated characteristics that are crucial to the success of these games. In this paper, we begin to clarify the definition and scope of pervasive mobile games, which are controversial issues in the literature. Using these fundamentals, we propose a two-level conceptual map of non-functional requirements that helps to realize pervasiveness in pervasive mobile games. These non-functional requirements are then associated with a set of questions that help the designers in verifying tasks and operationalizing the requirements of a game. We also propose a dependence matrix for pervasive game qualities that enhances the insight into pervasiveness and reveals important guidelines for the game designers.     

Investigating the penalty reward calculus of software users and its impact on requirements prioritization

ContextThe current requirements engineering techniques for prioritization of software requirements implicitly assume that each user requirement will have an independent and symmetric impact on user satisfaction. For example, it is assumed that implementing a high priority user requirement will positively impact his satisfaction and not implementing a high priority user requirement will negatively impact his satisfaction. Further, the impacts of implementing multiple user requirements on his satisfaction are expected to be additive. But is this always the case?ObjectiveThis paper empirically examines whether the assumptions of symmetric and multiplicative impacts of user requirements on his satisfaction are valid. Further, the study assesses the relative efficacy of 5 methods of requirements prioritization in managing these effects as reflected by the user satisfaction with the prioritized requirement sets.MethodTo test for existence and mitigation of asymmetric effects an adaptation of the widely accepted PRCA (Penalty Reward Contrast Analysis) method was used for 5 requirements prioritization techniques. To test for existence and mitigation of multiplicative effects MHMR (Moderated Hierarchical Multiple Regression) a well-accepted technique for testing interaction effects was used.ResultsBoth asymmetric and multiplicative effects of software requirements on user satisfaction were observed for requirements prioritized using all 5 requirements prioritization methods raising questions about the efficacy of present day requirements prioritization techniques. Further, the results of the experiment led to proposing a new method for requirements prioritization for managing these effects.ConclusionThe study empirically demonstrates the complexities of prioritizing software requirements and calls for a new generation of methods to address them. Understanding and resolving these complexities will enable software providers to conserve resources by enabling them to parsimoniously selecting only those requirements for implementation in the software product that have maximum incremental impact on user satisfaction.     

新工科下软件工程专业实践案例构建研究——以基于Cocos2 d-x引擎的跨平台游戏开发为例

从新工科背景下软件工程专业实践课程应用典型案例库的构建角度出发,以基于Cocos2d-x引擎的跨平台游戏开发为例,从软件的设计、开发、测试、运行几个环节详细介绍了一款跨平台休闲益智游戏—躲避刺豚君的全过程.Cocos2d-x游戏引擎的CocosCreator作为新出现的游戏开发工具,相比于其他游戏开发工具的特点、优势,...     

Applying a selection method to choose Quality Attribute Techniques

ContextSoftware products have requirements on software quality attributes such as safety and performance. Development teams use various specific techniques to achieve these quality requirements. We call these “Quality Attribute Techniques” (QATs). QATs are used to identify, analyse and control potential product quality problems. Although QATs are widely used in practice, there is no systematic approach to represent, select, and integrate them in existing approaches to software process modelling and tailoring.ObjectiveThis research aims to provide a systematic approach to better select and integrate QATs into tailored software process models for projects that develop products with specific product quality requirements.MethodA selection method is developed to support the choice of appropriate techniques for any quality attribute, across the lifecycle. The selection method is based on three perspectives: (1) risk management; (2) process integration; and (3) cost/benefit using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). An industry case study is used to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of applying the selection method.ResultsThe case study demonstrates that the selection method provides a more methodological and effective approach to choose QATs for projects that target a specific quality attribute, compared to the ad hoc selection performed by development teams.ConclusionThe proposed selection method can be used to systematically choose QATs for projects to target specific product qualities throughout the software development lifecycle.     

Assessing implicit science learning in digital games

Building on the promise shown in game-based learning research, this paper explores methods for Game-Based Learning Assessments (GBLA) using a variety of educational data mining techniques (EDM). GBLA research examines patterns of behaviors evident in game data logs for the measurement of implicit learning—the development of unarticulated knowledge that is not yet expressible on a test or formal assessment. This paper reports on the study of two digital games showing how the combination of human coding with EDM has enabled researchers to measure implicit learning of Physics. In the game Impulse, researchers combined human coding of video with educational data mining to create a set of automated detectors of students' implicit understanding of Newtonian mechanics. For Quantum Spectre, an optics puzzle game, human coding of Interaction Networks was used to identify common student errors. Findings show that several of our measures of student implicit learning within these games were significantly correlated with improvements in external postassessments. Methods and detailed findings were different for each type of game. These results suggest GBLA shows promise for future work such as adaptive games and in-class, data-driven formative assessments, but design of the assessment mechanics must be carefully crafted for each game.