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.     

API2MoL: Automating the building of bridges between APIs and Model-Driven Engineering

Context

A software artefact typically makes its functionality available through a specialized Application Programming Interface (API) describing the set of services offered to client applications. In fact, building any software system usually involves managing a plethora of APIs, which complicates the development process. In Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), where models are the key elements of any software engineering activity, this API management should take place at the model level. Therefore, tools that facilitate the integration of APIs and MDE are clearly needed.

Objective

Our goal is to automate the implementation of API-MDE bridges for supporting both the creation of models from API objects and the generation of such API objects from models. In this sense, this paper presents the API2MoL approach, which provides a declarative rule-based language to easily write mapping definitions to link API specifications and the metamodel that represents them. These definitions are then executed to convert API objects into model elements or vice versa. The approach also allows both the metamodel and the mapping to be automatically obtained from the API specification (bootstrap process).

Method

After implementing the API2MoL engine, its correctness was validated using several APIs. Since APIs are normally large, we then developed a tool to implement the bootstrap process, which was also validated.

Results

We provide a toolkit (language and bootstrap tool) for the creation of bridges between APIs and MDE. The current implementation focuses on Java APIs, although its adaptation to other statically typed object-oriented languages is straightforward. The correctness, expressiveness and completeness of the approach have been validated with the Swing, SWT and JTwitter APIs.

Conclusion

API2MoL frees developers from having to manually implement the tasks of obtaining models from API objects and generating such objects from models. This helps to manage API models in MDE-based solutions.     

The impact of inadequate customer collaboration on self-organizing Agile teams

Context

Customer collaboration is a vital feature of Agile software development.

Objective

This article addresses the importance of adequate customer involvement on Agile projects, and the impact of different levels of customer involvement on real-life Agile projects.

Method

We conducted a Grounded Theory study involving 30 Agile practitioners from 16 software development organizations in New Zealand and India, over a period of 3 years.

Results

We discovered that Lack of Customer Involvement was one of the biggest challenges faced by Agile teams. Customers were not as involved on these Agile projects as Agile methods demand. We describe the causes of inadequate customer collaboration, its adverse consequences on self-organizing Agile teams, and Agile Undercover — a set of strategies used by the teams to practice Agile despite insufficient or ineffective customer involvement.

Conclusion

Customer involvement is important on Agile projects. Inadequate customer involvement causes adverse problems for Agile teams. The Agile Undercover strategies we’ve identified can assist Agile teams facing similar lack of customer involvement.     

Analogy-based software effort estimation using Fuzzy numbers

Background

Early stage software effort estimation is a crucial task for project bedding and feasibility studies. Since collected data during the early stages of a software development lifecycle is always imprecise and uncertain, it is very hard to deliver accurate estimates. Analogy-based estimation, which is one of the popular estimation methods, is rarely used during the early stage of a project because of uncertainty associated with attribute measurement and data availability.

Aims

We have integrated analogy-based estimation with Fuzzy numbers in order to improve the performance of software project effort estimation during the early stages of a software development lifecycle, using all available early data. Particularly, this paper proposes a new software project similarity measure and a new adaptation technique based on Fuzzy numbers.

Method

Empirical evaluations with Jack-knifing procedure have been carried out using five benchmark data sets of software projects, namely, ISBSG, Desharnais, Kemerer, Albrecht and COCOMO, and results are reported. The results are compared to those obtained by methods employed in the literature using case-based reasoning and stepwise regression.

Results

In all data sets the empirical evaluations have shown that the proposed similarity measure and adaptation techniques method were able to significantly improve the performance of analogy-based estimation during the early stages of software development. The results have also shown that the proposed method outperforms some well know estimation techniques such as case-based reasoning and stepwise regression.

Conclusions

It is concluded that the proposed estimation model could form a useful approach for early stage estimation especially when data is almost uncertain.     

The situational factors that affect the software development process: Towards a comprehensive reference framework

Context

An optimal software development process is regarded as being dependent on the situational characteristics of individual software development settings. Such characteristics include the nature of the application(s) under development, team size, requirements volatility and personnel experience. However, no comprehensive reference framework of the situational factors affecting the software development process is presently available.

Objective

The absence of such a comprehensive reference framework of the situational factors affecting the software development process is problematic not just because it inhibits our ability to optimise the software development process, but perhaps more importantly, because it potentially undermines our capacity to ascertain the key constraints and characteristics of a software development setting.

Method

To address this deficiency, we have consolidated a substantial body of related research into an initial reference framework of the situational factors affecting the software development process. To support the data consolidation, we have applied rigorous data coding techniques from Grounded Theory and we believe that the resulting framework represents an important contribution to the software engineering field of knowledge.

Results

The resulting reference framework of situational factors consists of eight classifications and 44 factors that inform the software process. We believe that the situational factor reference framework presented herein represents a sound initial reference framework for the key situational elements affecting the software process definition.

Conclusion

In addition to providing a useful reference listing for the research community and for committees engaged in the development of standards, the reference framework also provides support for practitioners who are challenged with defining and maintaining software development processes. Furthermore, this framework can be used to develop a profile of the situational characteristics of a software development setting, which in turn provides a sound foundation for software development process definition and optimisation.     

Determinants of software quality in offshore development - An empirical study of an Indian vendor

Context

Cost advantage has been one of the primary drivers of successful offshoring engagements of Indian software and services companies. However, the emphasis has shifted to the ability of the vendors to provide high quality over cost advantage in delivering software products and services. Meeting high quality requirements of the clients is a challenge due to the very nature of development and delivery of software through offshoring.

Objective

The objective of this research paper is to identify and evaluate the key determinants of quality in the case of software projects delivered through offshoring model.

Method

A detailed survey was conducted among project managers/project leaders (leads) of a leading midsize Indian IT services company to evaluate the relationship of the determinants on the attributes of quality.

Results

Out of six determinants, our research reveals requirements uncertainty has significant association with all the attributes of quality. While process maturity and trained personnel have moderate association, communication and control, knowledge transfer and integration and technical infrastructure have relatively low association on software quality attributes in the case of offshoring.

Conclusion

It is concluded that the complexities in offshoring necessitates proper capturing of requirements. In addition high level of process maturity and availability of trained personnel to the project will help vendors to achieve software quality. The paper provides a set of implications for practice and directions for further research.     

Drivers of agile software development use: Dialectic interplay between benefits and hindrances

Context

Agile software development with its emphasis on producing working code through frequent releases, extensive client interactions and iterative development has emerged as an alternative to traditional plan-based software development methods. While a number of case studies have provided insights into the use and consequences of agile, few empirical studies have examined the factors that drive the adoption and use of agile.

Objective

We draw on intention-based theories and a dialectic perspective to identify factors driving the use of agile practices among adopters of this software development methodology.

Method

Data for the study was gathered through an anonymous online survey of software development professionals. We requested participation from members of a selected list of online discussion groups, and received 98 responses.

Results

Our analyses reveal that subjective norm and training play a significant role in influencing software developers’ use of agile processes and methods, while perceived benefits and perceived limitations are not primary drivers of agile use among adopters. Interestingly, perceived benefit emerges as a significant predictor of agile use only if adopters face hindrances to their agile practices.

Conclusion

We conclude that research in the adoption of software development innovations should examine the effects of both enabling and detracting factors and the interactions between them. Since training, subjective norm, and the interplay between perceived benefits and perceived hindrances appear to be key factors influencing the adoption of agile methods, researchers can focus on how to (a) perform training on agile methods more effectively, (b) facilitate the dialog between developers and managers about perceived benefits and hindrances, and (c) capitalize on subjective norm to publicize the benefits of agile methods within an organization. Further, when managing the transition to new software development methods, we recommend that practitioners adapt their strategies and tactics contingent on the extent of perceived hindrances to the change.     

Resolving unwanted couplings through interactive exploration of co-evolving software entities - An experience report

Context

Frequent changes to groups of software entities belonging to different parts of the system may indicate unwanted couplings between those parts. Visualizations of co-changing software entities have been proposed to help developers identify unwanted couplings. Identifying unwanted couplings, however, is only the first step towards an important goal of a software architect: to improve the decomposition of the software system. An in-depth analysis of co-changing entities is needed to understand the underlying reasons for co-changes, and also determine how to resolve the issues.

Objective

In this paper we discuss how interactive visualizations can support the process of analyzing the identified unwanted couplings.

Method

We applied a tool that interactively visualizes software evolution in 10 working sessions with architects and developers of a large embedded software system having a development history of more than a decade.

Results

The participants of the working sessions were overall very positive about their experiences with the interactive visualizations. In 70% of the cases investigated, a decision could be taken on how to resolve the unwanted couplings.

Conclusion

Our experience suggests that interactive visualization not only helps to identify unwanted couplings but it also helps experts to reason about and resolve them.     

Data warehouse testing: A prototype-based methodology

Context

Testing is an essential part of the development life-cycle of any software product. While most phases of data warehouse design have received considerable attention in the literature, not much has been written about data warehouse testing.

Objective

In this paper we propose a comprehensive approach to testing data warehouse systems. Its main features are earliness with respect to the life-cycle, modularity, tight coupling with design, scalability, and measurability through proper metrics.

Method

We introduce a number of specific testing activities, we classify them in terms of what is tested and how it is tested, and we show how they can be framed within a prototype-based methodology. We apply our approach to a real case study for a large retail company.

Results

The case study we faced, based on an iterative prototype-based medium-size project, confirmed the validity of our approach. In particular, the main benefits were obtained in terms of project transparency, coordination of the development team, and organization of design activities.

Conclusion

Though some general-purpose testing techniques can be applied to data warehouse projects, the effectiveness of testing can be largely improved by applying specifically-devised techniques and metrics.     

Towards understanding the underlying structure of motivational factors for software engineers to guide the definition of motivational programs

Aim

In this article, factors influencing the motivation of software engineers is studied with the goal of guiding the definition of motivational programs.

Method

Using a set of 20 motivational factors compiled in a systematic literature review and a general theory of motivation, a survey questionnaire was created to evaluate the influence of these factors on individual motivation. Then, the questionnaire was applied on a semi-random sample of 176 software engineers from 20 software companies located in Recife-PE, Brazil.

Results

The survey results show the actual level of motivation for each motivator in the target population. Using principal component analysis on the values of all motivators, a five factor structure was identified and used to propose a guideline for the creation of motivational programs for software engineers.

Conclusions

The five factor structure provides an intuitive categorization for the set of variables and can be used to explain other motivational models presented in the literature. This contributes to a better understanding of motivation in software engineering.     

A systematic review of software architecture evolution research

Context

Software evolvability describes a software system’s ability to easily accommodate future changes. It is a fundamental characteristic for making strategic decisions, and increasing economic value of software. For long-lived systems, there is a need to address evolvability explicitly during the entire software lifecycle in order to prolong the productive lifetime of software systems. For this reason, many research studies have been proposed in this area both by researchers and industry practitioners. These studies comprise a spectrum of particular techniques and practices, covering various activities in software lifecycle. However, no systematic review has been conducted previously to provide an extensive overview of software architecture evolvability research.

Objective

In this work, we present such a systematic review of architecting for software evolvability. The objective of this review is to obtain an overview of the existing approaches in analyzing and improving software evolvability at architectural level, and investigate impacts on research and practice.

Method

The identification of the primary studies in this review was based on a pre-defined search strategy and a multi-step selection process.

Results

Based on research topics in these studies, we have identified five main categories of themes: (i) techniques supporting quality consideration during software architecture design, (ii) architectural quality evaluation, (iii) economic valuation, (iv) architectural knowledge management, and (v) modeling techniques. A comprehensive overview of these categories and related studies is presented.

Conclusion

The findings of this review also reveal suggestions for further research and practice, such as (i) it is necessary to establish a theoretical foundation for software evolution research due to the fact that the expertise in this area is still built on the basis of case studies instead of generalized knowledge; (ii) it is necessary to combine appropriate techniques to address the multifaceted perspectives of software evolvability due to the fact that each technique has its specific focus and context for which it is appropriate in the entire software lifecycle.     

A methodology to assess the impact of design patterns on software quality

Context

Software quality is considered to be one of the most important concerns of software production teams. Additionally, design patterns are documented solutions to common design problems that are expected to enhance software quality. Until now, the results on the effect of design patterns on software quality are controversial.

Aims

This study aims to propose a methodology for comparing design patterns to alternative designs with an analytical method. Additionally, the study illustrates the methodology by comparing three design patterns with two alternative solutions, with respect to several quality attributes.

Method

The paper introduces a theoretical/analytical methodology to compare sets of “canonical” solutions to design problems. The study is theoretical in the sense that the solutions are disconnected from real systems, even though they stem from concrete problems. The study is analytical in the sense that the solutions are compared based on their possible numbers of classes and on equations representing the values of the various structural quality attributes in function of these numbers of classes. The exploratory designs have been produced by studying the literature, by investigating open-source projects and by using design patterns. In addition to that, we have created a tool that helps practitioners in choosing the optimal design solution, according to their special needs.

Results

The results of our research suggest that the decision of applying a design pattern is usually a trade-off, because patterns are not universally good or bad. Patterns typically improve certain aspects of software quality, while they might weaken some other.

Conclusions

Concluding the proposed methodology is applicable for comparing patterns and alternative designs, and highlights existing threshold that when surpassed the design pattern is getting more or less beneficial than the alternative design. More specifically, the identification of such thresholds can become very useful for decision making during system design and refactoring.     

Pattern-based framework for modularized software development and evolution robustness

Context

Software development is now facing much more challenges than ever before due to the intrinsic high complexity and the increasing demands of the quick-service-ready paradigm.

Objective

As the developers are now called for more quality software systems from the industries, there is insufficient guidance from the methodologies and standards of software engineering that can provide assistance to the rapid development of qualified business software.

Method

In this work, we discuss the advantages of the pattern-based software development. We verify the benefits using a pattern-based software framework called OS2F, and a corresponding system design architecture that is intended for the rapid development of web applications.

Results

The objective of the framework/architecture is that, through software patterns, developers should be able to separate the work of system development from the business rules so as to reduce the problems caused by a developer’s lack of business experiences.

Conclusion

Through a suitable pattern-based software framework, the quality of the product can thus be enhanced, software development time and cost decreased, and software evolution robustness improved.     

Software process improvement success factors for small and medium Web companies: A qualitative study

Context

The context of this research is software process improvement (SPI) in small and medium Web companies.

Objective

The primary objective of this paper is to identify software process improvement (SPI) success factors for small and medium Web companies.

Method

To achieve this goal, we conducted semi-structured, open-ended interviews with 21 participants representing 11 different companies in Pakistan, and analyzed the data qualitatively using the Glaserian strand of grounded theory research procedures. The key steps of these procedures that were employed in this research included open coding, focused coding, theoretical coding, theoretical sampling, constant comparison, and scaling up.

Results

An initial framework of key SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies was proposed, which can be of use for small and medium Web companies engaged in SPI. The paper also differentiates between small and medium Web companies and analyzes crucial SPI requirements for companies operating in the Web development domain.

Conclusion

The results of this work, in particular the use of qualitative techniques - allowed us to obtain rich insight into SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies. Future work comprises the validation of the SPI success factors with small and medium Web companies.     

Design guidelines for software processes knowledge repository development

Context

Staff turnover in organizations is an important issue that should be taken into account mainly for two reasons:

1.

Employees carry an organization’s knowledge in their heads and take it with them wherever they go

2.

Knowledge accessibility is limited to the amount of knowledge employees want to share

Objective

The aim of this work is to provide a set of guidelines to develop knowledge-based Process Asset Libraries (PAL) to store software engineering best practices, implemented as a wiki.

Method

Fieldwork was carried out in a 2-year training course in agile development. This was validated in two phases (with and without PAL), which were subdivided into two stages: Training and Project.

Results

The study demonstrates that, on the one hand, the learning process can be facilitated using PAL to transfer software process knowledge, and on the other hand, products were developed by junior software engineers with a greater degree of independence.

Conclusion

PAL, as a knowledge repository, helps software engineers to learn about development processes and improves the use of agile processes.     

An ant colony optimization algorithm to improve software quality prediction models: Case of class stability

Context

Assessing software quality at the early stages of the design and development process is very difficult since most of the software quality characteristics are not directly measurable. Nonetheless, they can be derived from other measurable attributes. For this purpose, software quality prediction models have been extensively used. However, building accurate prediction models is hard due to the lack of data in the domain of software engineering. As a result, the prediction models built on one data set show a significant deterioration of their accuracy when they are used to classify new, unseen data.

Objective

The objective of this paper is to present an approach that optimizes the accuracy of software quality predictive models when used to classify new data.

Method

This paper presents an adaptive approach that takes already built predictive models and adapts them (one at a time) to new data. We use an ant colony optimization algorithm in the adaptation process. The approach is validated on stability of classes in object-oriented software systems and can easily be used for any other software quality characteristic. It can also be easily extended to work with software quality predictive problems involving more than two classification labels.

Results

Results show that our approach out-performs the machine learning algorithm C4.5 as well as random guessing. It also preserves the expressiveness of the models which provide not only the classification label but also guidelines to attain it.

Conclusion

Our approach is an adaptive one that can be seen as taking predictive models that have already been built from common domain data and adapting them to context-specific data. This is suitable for the domain of software quality since the data is very scarce and hence predictive models built from one data set is hard to generalize and reuse on new data.     

IT Service Management Process Improvement based on ISO/IEC 15504: A systematic review

Context

In recent years, many software companies have considered Software Process Improvement (SPI) as essential for successful software development. These companies have also shown special interest in IT Service Management (ITSM). SPI standards have evolved to incorporate ITSM best practices.

Objective

This paper presents a systematic literature review of ITSM Process Improvement initiatives based on the ISO/IEC 15504 standard for process assessment and improvement.

Method

A systematic literature review based on the guidelines proposed by Kitchenham and the review protocol template developed by Biolchini et al. is performed.

Results

Twenty-eight relevant studies related to ITSM Process Improvement have been found. From the analysis of these studies, nine different ITSM Process Improvement initiatives have been detected. Seven of these initiatives use ISO/IEC 15504 conformant process assessment methods.

Conclusion

During the last decade, in order to satisfy the on-going demand of mature software development companies for assessing and improving ITSM processes, different models which use the measurement framework of ISO/IEC 15504 have been developed. However, it is still necessary to define a method with the necessary guidelines to implement both software development processes and ITSM processes reducing the amount of effort, especially because some processes of both categories are overlapped.     

Development and evaluation of a lightweight root cause analysis method (ARCA method) - Field studies at four software companies

Context

The key for effective problem prevention is detecting the causes of a problem that has occurred. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a structured investigation of the problem to identify which underlying causes need to be fixed. The RCA method consists of three steps: target problem detection, root cause detection, and corrective action innovation. Its results can help with process improvement.

Objective

This paper presents a lightweight RCA method, named the ARCA method, and its empirical evaluation. In the ARCA method, the target problem detection is based on a focus group meeting. This is in contrast to prior RCA methods, where the target problem detection is based on problem sampling, requiring heavy startup investments.

Method

The ARCA method was created with the framework of design science. We evaluated it through field studies at four medium-sized software companies using interviews and query forms to collect feedback from the case attendees. A total of five key representatives of the companies were interviewed, and 30 case participants answered the query forms. The output of the ARCA method was also evaluated by the case attendees, i.e., a total 757 target problem causes and 124 related corrective actions.

Results

The case attendees considered the ARCA method useful and easy to use, which indicates that it is beneficial for process improvement and problem prevention. In each case, 24-77 target problem root causes were processed and 13-40 corrective actions were developed. The effort of applying the method was 89 man-hours, on average.

Conclusion

The ARCA method required an acceptable level of effort and resulted in numerous high-quality corrective actions. In contrast to the current company practices, the method is an efficient method to detect new process improvement opportunities and develop new process improvement ideas. Additionally, it is easy to use.     

Six years of systematic literature reviews in software engineering: An updated tertiary study

Context

Since the introduction of evidence-based software engineering in 2004, systematic literature review (SLR) has been increasingly used as a method for conducting secondary studies in software engineering. Two tertiary studies, published in 2009 and 2010, identified and analysed 54 SLRs published in journals and conferences in the period between 1st January 2004 and 30th June 2008.

Objective

In this article, our goal was to extend and update the two previous tertiary studies to cover the period between 1st July 2008 and 31st December 2009. We analysed the quality, coverage of software engineering topics, and potential impact of published SLRs for education and practice.

Method

We performed automatic and manual searches for SLRs published in journals and conference proceedings, analysed the relevant studies, and compared and integrated our findings with the two previous tertiary studies.

Results

We found 67 new SLRs addressing 24 software engineering topics. Among these studies, 15 were considered relevant to the undergraduate educational curriculum, and 40 appeared of possible interest to practitioners. We found that the number of SLRs in software engineering is increasing, the overall quality of the studies is improving, and the number of researchers and research organisations worldwide that are conducting SLRs is also increasing and spreading.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that the software engineering research community is starting to adopt SLRs consistently as a research method. However, the majority of the SLRs did not evaluate the quality of primary studies and fail to provide guidelines for practitioners, thus decreasing their potential impact on software engineering practice.