An Extended Replication of an Experiment for Assessing Methods for Software Requirements Inspections

We have performed an extended replication of the Porter-Votta-Basili experiment comparing the Scenario method and the Checklist method for inspecting requirements specifications using identical instruments. The experiment has been conducted in our educational context represented by a more general definition of a defect compared to the original defect list. Our study involving 24 undergraduate students manipulated three independent variables: detection method, requirements specification, and the order of the inspections. The dependent variable measured is the defect detection rate. We found the requirements specification inspected and not the detection method to be the most probable explanation for the variance in defect detection rate. This suggests that it is important to gather knowledge of how a requirements specification can convey an understandable view of the product and to adapt inspection methods accordingly. Contrary to the original experiment, we can not significantly support the superiority of the Scenario method. This is in accordance with a replication conducted by Fusaro, Lanubile and Visaggio, and might be explained by the lack of individual defect detection skill of our less experienced subjects.     

A Replicated Empirical Study of the Impact of the Methods in the PSP on Individual Engineers

The Personal Software Process (PSP) has during the last couple ofyears gained attention as a way to individual improvements insoftware development. The PSP is introduced to students and engineersthrough a course, which introduces a personal software developmentprocess. The personal software development process is improvedin steps during the course and a collection of methods is introducedto support the personal development process. The question is,however, how do these methods influence the performance of anindividual engineer? This question has been studied in a studymade at the Software Engineering Institute, and the study hasshown that the methods in the PSP have a positive effect on theperformance of the individuals. There is however a need to replicatethis study to confirm the findings in other settings and withother individuals. This paper describes a replicationof the study made at the Software Engineering Institute. Boththe original study and this replication are made on data reportedfrom the students taking the PSP course. The differences betweenthe two studies are the programming languages used, which heldthe courses, the class sizes, and the experiences of the students.In summary, the results from this replication confirm the resultsin the original study: Size estimation accuracy gets better,the defect density gets lower, the defects are found earlierand that the pre-compile yield gets better during the PSP course.Basically, the two studies show that the methods in the PSP helpengineers to improve their performance.     

A Controlled Experiment to Evaluate On-Line Process Guidance

Process-centered software engineering environments are expected to improve an individual's comprehension of work activities, as well as improve communication and reduce conflicts among teams of software developers. We chose to investigate individual responses when using such an environment before looking for a group response. A controlled experiment compared off-line and on-line implementations of measurement-based process guidance to test three hypotheses: first, individuals accomplish their work more efficiently when using on-line process guidance as compared to off-line guidance; second, individuals are willing to use an on-line system for guidance; and third, individuals adjust their behavior based on quantitative quality models. The subjects worked alone on two testing exercises. Subjects used either an off-line or an on-line guidance technique during the first exercise, and the other technique during the second exercise. The results did not confirm the hypotheses. On average, subjects worked more efficiently when using off-line guidance, preferred off-line guidance, and ignored quantitative quality models. Post hoc analysis identified a strong correlation between subject experience level and preference for the type of guidance, a result that deserves further investigation.     

数据库技术在海南省县级政府教育督导评估系统中的应用研究

本文主要研究如何利用数据库技术实现县级政府教育督导评估系统数据管理与分析功能.通过数据库技术可以实现数据管理的规范化和信息化,完成无纸化督导评估.以后台数据库为数据源,如何进行横向分析、数据统计汇总、数据挖掘.为进一步提高评估结果的科学性和客观性,以多个评价指标库为基础设计了一个多元督导评估评价模型.     

基于作战实验的工程装备保障评估方法研究

为满足工程装备保障评估的要求和实现工程装备保障更为细致的仿真分析,提出了利用作战实验理论对工程装备保障评估方法研究的建设构想.在描述工程装备保障评估分析一般过程的基础上,从工程装备实体、保障要求等角度出发构建工程装备保障评估分析仿真模型,实现了对象间的交互作用、关系和消息传递,反映了“保障”作战任务、实体、功能、交互、活动等内在逻辑.用面向服务的高层体系结构（HLA）方法为工程装备保障评估分析仿真系统提供集成方法,为进一步仿真系统的论证、设计、开发提供了坚实基础.     

一种提高状态检测防火墙抵御Syn Flood攻击的方法

针对影响状态检测防火墙性能的Syn Flood攻击,分析了Syn Flood攻击的原理,基于Patricia tries构造半开连接表来处理TCP连接建立的过程,提出了一种利用端口队列来跟踪每个半开连接,根据SYN数据包的统计和状态检测来抵御SynFlood攻击的方法.实验结果表明,该方法在占用较少的系统资源的情况下,有效的提高了状态检测防火墙对Syn Flood攻击的防御能力.     

A Tool to Support Collaborative Software Requirements Management

The system requirements specification (SRS) is a highly dynamic document that grows and evolves throughout a software development project, and it is critical that it be carefully engineered and managed. Because the SRS fulfils many roles and is of interest to a diversity of stakeholders, its management should be a collaborative process supported by an automated tool. Commercial requirements management tools are at present insufficiently versatile to support collaboration between a multidisciplinary and potentially distributed team of stakeholders. The requirements for such a collaborative tool are herein presented, alongside the design of a prototype and the findings of its application in a case study.     

A Comparative Evaluation of Visual Summarization Techniques for Event Sequences

Real-world event sequences are often complex and heterogeneous, making it difficult to create meaningful visualizations using simple data aggregation and visual encoding techniques. Consequently, visualization researchers have developed numerous visual summarization techniques to generate concise overviews of sequential data. These techniques vary widely in terms of summary structures and contents, and currently there is a knowledge gap in understanding the effectiveness of these techniques. In this work, we present the design and results of an insight-based crowdsourcing experiment evaluating three existing visual summarization techniques: CoreFlow, SentenTree, and Sequence Synopsis. We compare the visual summaries generated by these techniques across three tasks, on six datasets, at six levels of granularity. We analyze the effects of these variables on summary quality as rated by participants and completion time of the experiment tasks. Our analysis shows that Sequence Synopsis produces the highest-quality visual summaries for all three tasks, but understanding Sequence Synopsis results also takes the longest time. We also find that the participants evaluate visual summary quality based on two aspects: content and interpretability. We discuss the implications of our findings on developing and evaluating new visual summarization techniques.     

基于RGPS的网络式软件需求获取与分析方法

网络式软件作为一种部署在网络环境中的复杂系统,同时亦是一种典型的面向服务软件,为用户提供随需而变的在线服务。文章提出网络式软件需求获取与分析方法,该方法基于RGPS领域资产,从而避免了在需求过程中的不明确、不一致和不完整性等。为了证明方法的正确性,文章还实现了其框架,并开发出了一个工具原型来辅助需求的在线获取获取与分析。     

产品技术经济综合评价原型系统

在层次分析法的基础上，提出了一种将TOPSIS法和AHP法进行融合的综合评价方法．此方法可对产品进行全面的技术经济综合评价，为企业进行决策提供依据，使产品研制建立在一个更加客观的量化分析基础之上．结果表明，这种方法科学合理、简明方便，能够处理多层复杂问题，为产品技术经济综合评价提供了思路，具有普遍意义，能推广应用于其他领域的评估．     

A knowledge-based approach to safety evaluation for plant start-up

To improve the safety of plant start-up operation, a safety evaluation system has been developed. As a key component in an operational design support system, the evaluation system examines any potential hazards during start-up operation simulation. The evaluation system is integrated into an operational design methodology which designs operable processes by proposing alternatives, examining process safety and operability, and modifying operating procedures or plant structures. Issues for both methodology and implementation of a G2-based expert system are discussed. Finally, the system is applied to an industrial hydrodesulphurization process.     

A value-based approach to the ex-ante evaluation of IT enabled business process improvement projects

In this study, we propose a value-based management approach for assessing the potential for process improvements enabled by an information technology (IT) solution. Based on activity based management concepts, we perform a granular, process level analysis on workflow structure and associated resource consumption to provide quantifiable measures of potential improvement prior to system implementation. The proof of concept of this approach is illustrated in a southern United States county in need of integrating different government branches through an ERP implementation. Based on prior research, we first provide a catalog of non-value added (NVA) activities that can be used in management control and governance procedures for the systematic identification of process inefficiencies. Next, by breaking down processes to the level of atomic activities, we show that minimizing NVA activities provides a systematic means to mitigate process inefficiencies. A significant observation is that different NVA activities may impact process performance to varying degrees. Consequently, line items in the request for proposals (RFP) should be weighted accordingly during the vendor selection process, contrary to the common practice of treating all line items equally.     

A DE-based approach to no-wait flow-shop scheduling

This paper proposes an effective hybrid differential evolution (HDE) for the no-wait flow-shop scheduling problem (FSSP) with the makespan criterion, which is a typical NP-hard combinational optimization problem. Firstly, a largest-order-value (LOV) rule is presented to transform individuals in DE from real vectors to job permutations so that the DE can be applied for solving FSSPs. Secondly, the DE-based parallel evolution mechanism and framework is applied to perform effective exploration, and a simple but efficient local search developed according to the landscape of FSSP is applied to emphasize problem-dependent local exploitation. Thirdly, a speed-up evaluation method and a fast Insert-based neighborhood examining method are developed based on the properties of the no-wait FSSPs. Due to the hybridization of DE-based evolutionary search and problem-dependent local search as well as the utilization of the speed-up evaluation and fast neighborhood examining, the no-wait FSSPs can be solved efficiently and effectively. Simulations and comparisons based on well-known benchmarks demonstrate the efficiency, effectiveness, and robustness of the proposed HDE.     

Information Security Management: An Approach to Combine Process Certification And Product Evaluation

Information Security (IS) is the key to the effective management of any organisation in today’s commercial and industrial sectors. Line managers’ performance, for instance, is rated according to the extent to which their operations conform to the IS policies of their respective organizations. In the same way, senior management’s performance is judged by how well the organization performs in terms of internationally accepted codes of IS practice. IS management, however, is not always a quantifiable entity and its evaluation is complicated by the fact that it can be viewed either from an electronic perspective, in which case the focus will fall solely on product and/or systems evaluation, or from a procedural and management perspective, in which case the focus will, instead, fall on the certification of the IS management process. This article will, therefore, be devoted to providing a consolidated approach to the evaluation of IS management, in terms of which full cognisance will be taken of both these perspectives.     

A Metric-Based Approach to Detect Abstract Data Types and State Encapsulations

This article presents an approach to identify abstract data types (ADT) and abstract state encapsulations (ASE, also called abstract objects) in source code. This approach, named similarity clustering, groups together functions, types, and variables into ADT and ASE candidates according to the proportion of features they share. The set of features considered includes the context of these elements, the relationships to their environment, and informal information. A prototype tool has been implemented to support this approach. It has been applied to three C systems (each between 30–38 Kloc). The ADTs and ASEs identified by the approach are compared to those identified by software engineers who did not know the proposed approach or other automatic approaches. Within this case study, this approach has been shown to have a higher detection quality and to identify, in most of the cases, more ADTs and ASEs than the other techniques. In all other cases its detection quality is second best. N.B. This article reports on work in progress on this approach which has evolved since it was presented in the original ASE97 conference paper.     

融合FAHP 和TOPSIS 的适老化产品综合评价与优选方法——以老年智能手环为例

为了更全面地对适老化智能手环进行综合评价,进而辅助最终的方案评价与优选,从产品设计、用户体验、人机交互和实际生产4 个维度构建了适老化智能手环的评价模型。首先采用基于三角模糊数的层次分析法(FAHP)计算出各项评价准则的权重,然后采用逼近理想解排序法(TOPSIS)对若干备选方案做出评价并完成排序,最后根据结果进行方案的综合评价与优选。以某品牌16 款适老化智能手环的备选方案为例,证明FAHP-TOPSIS 法的可行性,发挥其现实意义。该评价优选方法,在考虑人的思维模糊性的基础上,从系统与层次等多个角度将思维过程进行定性与定量分析,从而为适老化智能手环方案的优选问题提供清晰适合的决策方案与优化思路。