Challenges and Research Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering

Agent-based computing is a promising approach for developing applications in complex domains. However, despite the great deal of research in the area, a number of challenges still need to be faced (i) to make agent-based computing a widely accepted paradigm in software engineering practice, and (ii) to turn agent-oriented software abstractions into practical tools for facing the complexity of modern application areas. In this paper, after a short introduction to the key concepts of agent-based computing (as they pertain to software engineering), we characterise the emerging key issues in multiagent systems (MASs) engineering. In particular, we show that such issues can be analysed in terms of three different scales of observation, i.e., in analogy with the scales of observation of physical phenomena, in terms of micro, macro, and meso scales. Based on this characterisation, we discuss, for each scale of observation, what are the peculiar engineering issues arising, the key research challenges to be solved, and the most promising research directions to be explored in the future.     

Robust Statistical Methods for Empirical Software Engineering

There have been many changes in statistical theory in the past 30 years, including increased evidence that non-robust methods may fail to detect important results. The statistical advice available to software engineering researchers needs to be updated to address these issues. This paper aims both to explain the new results in the area of robust analysis methods and to provide a large-scale worked example of the new methods. We summarise the results of analyses of the Type 1 error efficiency and power of standard parametric and non-parametric statistical tests when applied to non-normal data sets. We identify parametric and non-parametric methods that are robust to non-normality. We present an analysis of a large-scale software engineering experiment to illustrate their use. We illustrate the use of kernel density plots, and parametric and non-parametric methods using four different software engineering data sets. We explain why the methods are necessary and the rationale for selecting a specific analysis. We suggest using kernel density plots rather than box plots to visualise data distributions. For parametric analysis, we recommend trimmed means, which can support reliable tests of the differences between the central location of two or more samples. When the distribution of the data differs among groups, or we have ordinal scale data, we recommend non-parametric methods such as Cliff’s δ or a robust rank-based ANOVA-like method.     

复杂软件需求开发方法研究

软件需求开发方法研究是当前复杂软件系统开发中最重要的问题之一。本文首先基于软件开发生命周期模型,对软件需求开发工作进行了介绍。进而总结了软件需求所必须包含的内容,分析了软件需求的特性。基于迭代改进的开发方法,本文将需求开发工作分解为需求捕获、需求分析、需求编写和需求确认四部分活动,并对每部分工作的详细活动和目的进行了分析和总结。软件开发工程实践证明,科学的软件需求开发方法是提高软件开发效率,提高软件开发质量的重要手段。     

Editorial: Open Source and Empirical Software Engineering

Editorial Commentary

Editorial: Open Source and Empirical Software Engineering     

Software, Software Engineering and Software Engineering Research: Some Unconventional Thoughts

Software engineering is broadly discussed as falling far short of expectations. Data and examples are used to justify how software itself is often poor, how the engineering of software leaves much to be desired, and how research in software engineering has not made enough progress to help overcome these weaknesses. However, these data and examples are presented and interpreted in ways that are arguably imbalanced. This imbalance, usually taken at face value, may be distracting the field from making significant progress towards improving the effective engineering of software, a goal the entire community shares. Research dichotomies, which tend to pit one approach against another, often subtly hint that there is a best way to engineer software or a best way to perform research on software. This, too, may be distracting the field from important classes of progress.     

嵌入式应用软件设计方法学研究综述

嵌入式系统的资源（CPU、存储器等)有限,具有专用性(很多硬件设备根据应用定制),要求实时处理,因此嵌入式应用软件设计方法学必须满足这些特性。本文对嵌入式应用软件设计方法学进行了综合研究(包括结构化的软件设计方法学、面向对象的软件设计方法学和基于构件的软件设计方法学),讨论了各种方法学的特点及其适用场合,总结了嵌入式应用软件设计方法学的发展规律,指出了未来的发展方向。     

对软件工程中经验研究的调查

为了描述、理解、评估、预测、控制、管理或者改善与软件相关的内容,研究者常常使用经验研究的方法.经验研究在软件工程领域已经得到广泛的应用并备受关注.为了了解近年来软件工程中经验研究的特点,并希望经验研究方法为更多研究者所了解,我们通过系统映射的方法,对软件工程中经验研究的典型期刊ESE（Empirical Software Engineering）近5年的论文做了一个调研,搜集了从2013年1月至2017年6月发表在该期刊的250篇论文.通过定性和定量的分析,给出了软件工程领域采用经验研究的主要目的,常用的经验研究方法、以及这些方法在软件工程各个领域中的使用情况和呈现的一些新特征.之后,分析了经验研究的主要数据来源、采集手段、常用的数理统计方法以及开源项目在经验研究中的使用情况等,给出了研究者对有效性和可重现性问题的关心程度.最后进行了本文的有效性分析,并进一步探讨了经验研究的发展方向和大数据时代下经验研究面临的机遇及一些开放性问题.     

Software Environment Research: Directions for the Next Five Years

A two-stage strategy, aimed first at understanding the role and characteristics of software environments and then at construction of experimental systems, distinguishes this near-term research plan.     

A Metamodel for Assessable Software Development Methodologies

Software development methodologies usually contain guidance on what steps to follow in order to obtain the desired product. At the same time, capability assessment frameworks usually assess the process that is followed on a project in practice in the context of a process reference model, defined separately and independently of any particular methodology. This results in the need for extra effort when trying to match a given process reference model with an organisation’s enacted processes. This paper introduces a metamodel for the definition of assessable methodologies, that is, methodologies that are constructed with assessment in mind and that contain a built-in process reference model. Organisations using methodologies built from this metamodel will benefit from automatically ensuring that their executed work conforms to the appropriate assessment model. Cesar Gonzalez-Perez is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology at UTS, where he is currently researching with Professor Henderson-Sellers in object-oriented methodologies, with particular emphasis on metamodelling and component-based, assessable methodologies. He is the founder and former technical director of Neco, a company based in Spain specializing in software development support services, which include the deployment and use of the OPEN/Metis methodology at small and mid-sized organizations. He has also worked for the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain as a researcher in computing & archaeology, and received his Ph.D. in this topic in 2000. Tom McBride has more than twenty years in the computer industry in positions ranging from computer operator, developer, project manager to QA manager. He is significantly involved in standards development, both locally in Australia and internationally for the International Standards Organisation. Tom is Chairman of the Australian Computer Society National Standards Committee and is assisting the development of the OOSPICE Component Based Development methodology. He is also a lecturer in software development-related subjects at the University of Technology, Sydney and is currently enrolled as a Ph.D.student investigating coordination in software development. Brian Henderson-Sellers is Director of the Centre for Object Technology Applications and Research and Professor of Information Systems at UTS. He is author of eleven books on object technology and is well-known for his work in OO methodologies (MOSES, COMMA, OPEN, OOSPICE) and in OO metrics. Brian has been Regional Editor of Object-Oriented Systems, a member of the editorial board of Object Magazine/Component Strategies and Object Expert for many years and is currently on the editorial board of Journal of Object Technology and Software and Systems Modelling. He was the Founder of the Object-Oriented Special Interest Group of the Australian Computer Society (NSW Branch) and Chairman of the Computerworld Object Developers’ Awards committee for ObjectWorld 94 and 95 (Sydney). He is a frequent, invited speaker at international OT conferences. In 1999, he was voted number 3 in the Who’s Who of Object Technology (Handbook of Object Technology, CRC Press, Appendix N). He is currently a member of the Review Panel for the OMG’s Software Process Engineering Model (SPEM) standards initiative and is a member of the UML 2.0 review team. In July 2001, Professor Henderson-Sellers was awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from the University of London for his research contributions in object-oriented methodologies.     

研究生《软件工程》课程教学改革与研究

软件工程是培养学生软件开发能力和软件工程素养的一门重要的课程,对提高学生从事软件开发能力,尽快融入到项目开发实践中起着重要作用。该文从实际教学工作出发,对软件工程这门课程的教学现状与困难进行了分析,对教学内容体系、教学方法手段、实践教学模式和考核验收方式进行了研究和探索。     

The role of replications in Empirical Software Engineering

Replications play a key role in Empirical Software Engineering by allowing the community to build knowledge about which results or observations hold under which conditions. Therefore, not only can a replication that produces similar results as the original experiment be viewed as successful, but a replication that produce results different from those of the original experiment can also be viewed as successful. In this paper we identify two types of replications: exact replications, in which the procedures of an experiment are followed as closely as possible; and conceptual replications, in which the same research question is evaluated by using a different experimental procedure. The focus of this paper is on exact replications. We further explore them to identify two sub-categories: dependent replications, where researchers attempt to keep all the conditions of the experiment the same or very similar and independent replications, where researchers deliberately vary one or more major aspects of the conditions of the experiment. We then discuss the role played by each type of replication in terms of its goals, benefits, and limitations. Finally, we highlight the importance of producing adequate documentation for an experiment (original or replication) to allow for replication. A properly documented replication provides the details necessary to gain a sufficient understanding of the study being replicated without requiring the replicator to slavishly follow the given procedures.