Software Process Improvement Motivators: An Analysis using Multidimensional Scaling

In this paper we present an analysis of software practitioners' motivations for software process improvement (SPI). Our findings are based on an empirical study of SPI in 13 software companies where we conducted focus groups with nearly 200 software practitioners. Our aim is to better understand how companies can maximise practitioner support for SPI. This insight should help SPI managers establish more effective SPI implementation strategies. In this paper we introduce the use of multidimensional scaling (MDS) in SPI research. MDS is a social science data analysis technique designed to generate a rich visual understanding of human issues. By using MDS we found evidence to suggest distinct clusters of punitive and rewarding SPI motivators. Furthermore our analysis also suggests that different clusters of motivations exist for different staff groups.     

融合代码与文档的软件功能特征挖掘方法

在软件复用过程中,简洁、清楚的软件功能自然语言描述是帮助复用者快速了解待复用软件项目/代码库的前提和基础.但当前开源软件往往缺乏高质量的软件功能说明文档,使得这一过程变得更加复杂和困难.为此,提出了一种融合代码与文档的软件功能特征挖掘方法.该方法以动宾短语的形式描述软件功能特征,通过迭代挖掘软件源代码和以Stack O...     

Creating Software Product Value in China

China has become a formidable player and continues to experience strong growth in a dynamic global market for software development. This highly competitive environment makes maximizing the creation of software product value both difficult and important. When looking at a software product, different stakeholder groups—purchasers, users, software managers, and developers—have different notions of value. This study examines the stakeholder perspectives and criteria used to select and prioritize software release requirements in three groups of software development companies: Chinese companies with a domestic market, Chinese companies with an international market, and Western companies operating in China. The results are similar for all three groups, except for after-sales support, which was a significantly greater concern for Chinese companies with an international market.     

软件测试文档工程论述

文档在软件开发生命周期中至关重要,文档也是质量管理的需要,软件测试文档更是直接反应软件产品的质量。阐述了诸多公司在软件测试文档工程中存在的问题,并将发现的问题进行归类分析,提出了切实可行的软件测试文档管理方案。     

The influencing causes of software unavailability: A case study from industry

Software unavailability can lead to disastrous consequences ranging from delays and cancellation to a loss of millions of dollars of technology. However, research on the causes that can make systems unavailable is still little. The aim of this paper is to investigate such causes in an industrial context using 2 qualitative approaches ((a) interview and (b) retrospective analysis) using archival data and records from a student information system. As a result, connectivity, human, hardware, storage, and software were found to be the important categories of causes for the unavailability. Besides, the critical lessons to be learned that relate to activities of software management and software business are also discussed. This includes vendor support, systems documentation, health check process, licensing, and software updating or upgrading. To strengthen the claim that our findings are promising, we compare our main findings with those of a previous study. This study can generally assist software engineering people including engineers, developers, project managers, vendors. Additionally, this paper dis cusses the threats to the study's validity and suggests open problems for future research.     

A Process Framework for Global Software Engineering Teams

ContextGlobal Software Engineering (GSE) continues to experience substantial growth and is fundamentally different to collocated development. As a result, software managers have a pressing need for support in how to successfully manage teams in a global environment. Unfortunately, de facto process frameworks such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®) do not explicitly cater for the complex and changing needs of global software management.ObjectiveTo develop a Global Teaming (GT) process area to address specific problems relating to temporal, cultural, geographic and linguistic distance which will meet the complex and changing needs of global software management.MethodWe carried out three in-depth case studies of GSE within industry from 1999 to 2007. To supplement these studies we conducted three literature reviews. This allowed us to identify factors which are important to GSE. Based on a gap analysis between these GSE factors and the CMMI®, we developed the GT process area. Finally, the literature and our empirical data were used to identify threats to software projects if these processes are not implemented.ResultsOur new GT process area brings together practices drawn from the GSE literature and our previous empirical work, including many socio-technical factors important to global software development. The GT process area presented in this paper encompasses recommended practices that can be used independently or with existing models. We found that if managers are not proactive in implementing new GT practices they are putting their projects under threat of failure. We therefore include a list of threats that if ignored could have an adverse effect on an organization’s competitive advantage, employee satisfaction, timescales, and software quality.ConclusionThe GT process area and associated threats presented in this paper provides both a guide and motivation for software managers to better understand how to manage technical talent across the globe.     

知识、探索与状态平面组织的软件漏洞分析架构研究

对于软件漏洞分析复杂度过高的现状问题,本文认为其主要原因在于当前软件分析知识、技术及数据耦合程度高、各类知识与技术间缺乏有效编程接口连接,因而提出了将软件漏洞分析解耦合为知识、探索、状态等三层平面的设计。其中,状态平面可基于基础分析数据和既有的大数据操作接口表征程序分析状态及转换;知识平面与探索平面分别对应漏洞分析知识与技术/工具集合,本文从符号执行、污点分析、模式检测、模糊测试等现有技术类别中抽象出两平面间的知识与技术间的交互接口。在阐述三层平面的基础上,本文例举了实际漏洞分析应用场景,描绘出通过可编程接口连接各平面、以自由定制的方式发挥各平面间互补优势的愿景;期望随之努力达到打通各类知识、技术间的互通门槛,并融合数据处理技术以提升软件漏洞分析效能的效果。     

形式概念分析与软件过程改进

1 引言软件过程的改进是一个复杂的过程。影响软件过程改进的因素有很多,既有软件企业管理层对其意义的理解和倡导,也有软件过程实施当中数据的收集和分析。因为从理论、方法和技术上讲,后者涉及更多的富有挑战性的领域,所以数据的收集和分析(尤其是数据分析)更加直接地决定了过程改进的成功与否。比如,基于CMM的软件过程改进主要解决以下问题:     

Managing Problems for Global Software Production – Experience and Lessons

With the increase in size and complexity of current software projects, many large companies have established global software production lines over the world to develop and deliver software products with collaborative software development processes involving multiple teams located at different sites. Supporting global software production needs an effective software-engineering environment to meet the special requirements of the collaborative software development process, diverse management methods and engineering practice. WWW technology provides powerful means to set up an enterprise-oriented software engineering environment for global software production due to its advantages in networking, global access, internationalization, and communication. Although there are many articles addressing the methods and experience in building web-based applications systems and tools, very few papers discuss the real-world problems and solutions in the development and deployment of web-based software tools to support a collaborative software development process for global software production. This paper discusses the real world issues, and reports our experience and lessons in building and deploying a web-based problem information management system (PIMS) to support global software development processes at Fujitsu. It focuses on the real issues and needs of current collaborative development process involving multiple teams, and highlights the benefits and impact of the PIMS on global software production. Moreover, it discusses our technical solutions and trade-offs in the development of PIMS, and shares our experience and lessons. Furthermore, it introduces a new data-centered conceptual process model to support diverse collaborative processes for project and problem management in global software production. Finally, the paper shares our key successes and weaknesses, and reports our experience and lessons in the deployment of the system.     

“Old” theories, “New” technologies: Understanding knowledge sharing and learning in Brazilian software development companies

ContextNew technologies such as social networks, wikis, blogs and other social software enable collaborative work and are important facilitators of the learning process. They provide a simple mechanism for people to communicate and collaborate and thus support the creation of knowledge. In software-development companies they are used to creating an environment in which communication and collaboration between workers take place more effectively.ObjectiveThis paper identifies the main tools and technologies used by software-development companies in Brazil to manage knowledge and attempts to determine how these tools and technologies relate to important knowledge-sharing and learning theories and how they support the concepts described by these theories.MethodA survey was conducted in a group of Brazilian software development companies with high levels of process software maturity to see how they implement the Brazilian Software Processes Improvement model (MPS.Br) and use new tools and technologies. The survey used a qualitative analysis to identify which tools are used most and how frequently employees use them. The results of the analysis were compared with data from the literature on three knowledge-sharing and learning theories to understand how the use of these tools relates to the concepts proposed in these theories.ResultsThe results show that some of the tools used by the companies do not apply the concepts described in the theories as they do not help promote organizational learning. Furthermore, although the companies have adopted the tools, these are not often used, mainly because they are felt not to organize information efficiently.ConclusionThe use of certain tools can help promote several concepts described in the theories considered. Moreover, the use of these tools can help reduce the impact of, some common organizational problems. However, companies need to improve existing organizational policies that encourage employees to use these tools more regularly.     

How software engineers use documentation: the state of the practice

Software engineering is a human task, and as such we must study what software engineers do and think. Understanding the normative practice of software engineering is the first step toward developing realistic solutions to better facilitate the engineering process. We conducted three studies using several data-gathering approaches to elucidate the patterns by which software engineers (SEs) use and update documentation. Our objective is to more accurately comprehend and model documentation use, usefulness, and maintenance, thus enabling better decision making and tool design by developers and project managers. Our results confirm the widely held belief that SEs typically do not update documentation as timely or completely as software process personnel and managers advocate. However, the results also reveal that out-of-date software documentation remains useful in many circumstances.     

Six Sigma for Software Application of Hypothesis Tests to Software Data

The article discusses statistical analysis on Release data from a mature Global Software Group (GSG) with three business domains with an aim to ascertain if any correlation can be established between the data collected after release and the benefits to the centre from the outcome of the analysis. Thus re-evaluating the process involved in creating and delivering software products to our customers. This article will strive to explain some of the Six Sigma methodologies and tools used in comparing groups (ANOVA method) and categorical data analysis techniques on software data. The paper will also discuss in detail normal distribution, tests for normality and comparative methods along with Contingency Table Analysis (Mosaic plots) and Correspondence Analysis. The application of statistics for SOFTWARE process improvement is increasing in the industry; we present how these techniques can be applied in practice.     

Software project management education —experiences of training full-time professionals

The experiences gained from planning and implementing two evolutionary steps in a systematic training programme for young software project managers from a group of companies are presented, and the impacts of the programme on the growth of the participating companies in terms of turnover and number of staff are discussed. The basic ideas of planning were adopted from research carried out into curriculum design for systems analysts and continuing education for software engineers. In our experience the core topics of the courses should be taken from traditional software project management together with courses in leadership and the fundamentalsof software business and marketing. The course modules should be very short together with personal exercises that are closely tied to the day-to-day work of the participants. Commitment of the company to the training scheme can be ensured by using a careful analysis of its software process maturity when selecting the exercises.     

软件开发活动数据的数据质量问题

问题追踪系统和版本控制系统等软件开发支持工具已被广泛应用于开源和商业软件的开发中,产生了大量的数据,即软件开发活动数据.软件开发活动数据被广泛应用于科学研究和开发实践,为智能化开发提供支持.然而数据质量对相关的研究和实践有重大影响,却还没有得到足够的重视.为了能够更好地警示数据使用者潜在的数据质量问题,通过文献调研和访谈,并基于自有经验对数据进行分析,总结出了9种数据质量问题,覆盖了数据产生、数据收集和数据使用这3个不同的阶段.进一步地,提出了相应的方法以帮助发现和解决数据问题.发现问题是指加强对数据上下文的理解和通过统计分析及数据可视化发现潜在的数据质量问题,解决问题是指利用冗余数据或者挖掘用户行为模式进行修正.     

A Survey of Documentation Practice within Corrective Maintenance

The purpose of documentation is to describe software systems and software processes. Consistent, correct and complete documentation of a software system is an important vehicle for the maintainer to gain its understanding, to ease its learning and/or relearning processes, and to make the system more maintainable. Poor system documentation, on the other hand, is the primary reason for quick software system quality degradation and ageing. Proper process documentation records the process, its stages and tasks, executing roles, their decisions and motivations, and the results of each individual process task. It is extremely important for achieving insight and visibility into the processes, important for their meaningful process measurement and thereby pivotal for achieving high process maturity. In this paper, we report on the results of an explorative study in which we have identified a number of rudimentary documentation requirements relevant within corrective maintenance, and found out how they were implemented within eighteen software organizations in Sweden. The goal was to examine the industrial documentation practice within corrective maintenance. Our results show that the documentation within corrective maintenance is still a very neglected issue within the organisations studied. None of our organisations has fully implemented all our documentation requirements.     

Incremental Maintenance of Software Artifacts

Software is multidimensional, but the tools that support it are not. This lack of tool support causes the software artifacts representing different dimensions to evolve independently and to become inconsistent over time. In order to properly support the evolution of software, one must ensure that the different dimensions evolve concurrently. We have built a software development tool, CLIME that uses constraints implemented as database queries to ensure just this. Our approach makes the tool responsible for detecting inconsistencies between software design, specifications, documentation, source code, test cases, and other artifacts without requiring any of these to be a primary representation. The tool works incrementally as the software evolves, without imposing a particular methodology or process. It includes a front end that lets the user explore and fix current inconsistencies. This paper describes the basis for CLIME, the techniques underlying the tool, the interface provided to the programmer, the incremental maintenance of constraints between these artifacts, and our experiences     

Managing iteration in OO projects

Why do some companies succeed in managing object-oriented projects and others fail? I have reviewed numerous failed object technology projects, and it is clear to me that the single largest failure is technology management, not the technology itself. When they move to object technology, most companies prepare their technical staff by sending them to language and object-oriented analysis and design classes. Unfortunately, these same companies often ignore the training needs of the managers who will be directing the technical staff. Managers are left to fend for themselves, armed with yesterday's tools and with little insight into the potential of today's technology. I describe several project management issues facing companies switching to object technology and offer ways for managers to cope     

Productivity paradoxes revisited

The adoption of quality assurance methods based on software process improvement models has been regarded as an important source of variability in software productivity. Some companies perceive that their implementation has prohibitive costs, whereas some authors identify in their use a way to comply with software development patterns and standards, produce economic value and lead to corporate performance improvement. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between quality maturity levels and labor productivity, using a data set containing 687 Brazilian software firms. We study here the relationship between labor productivity, as measured through the annual gross revenue per worker ratio, and quality levels, which were appraised from 2006 to 2012 according to two distinct software process improvement models: MPS.BR and CMMI. We perform independent statistical tests using appraisals carried out according to each of these models, consequently obtaining a data set with as many observations as possible, in order to seek strong support for our research. We first show that MPS.BR and CMMI appraised quality maturity levels are correlated, but we find no statistical evidence that they are related to higher labor productivity or productivity growth. On the contrary, we present evidence suggesting that average labor productivity is higher in software companies without appraised quality levels. Moreover, our analyses suggest that companies with appraised quality maturity levels are more or less productive depending on factors such as their business nature, main origin of capital and maintained quality level.