Exploring the Belief Systems of Software Development Professionals

It is commonly accepted that an individual's beliefs and actions are based on his or her assessment and perceptions of the world. In order to determine what practices an individual is likely to follow at any given time, it is necessary to understand the individual's behavioral intention in a given circumstance. From an Information Technology perspective, a software development professional's belief systems are potentially the basis for the adoption and implementation of new and innovative work practices and processes. In this article, we explore the belief systems of software development professionals in order to understand the beliefs underlying intention and practice, and we seek answers about how they adopt or reject new and innovative software development processes and practices. The results point out a strong influence of past experiences, personality types, and repeated behavior on current software development processes and practices in industrial settings.     

The impact of global dispersion on coordination,team performance and software quality – A systematic literature review

ContextGlobal software development (GSD) contains different context setting dimensions, which are essential for effective teamwork and success of projects. Although considerable research effort has been made in this area, as yet, no agreement has been reached about the impact of these dispersion dimensions on team coordination and project outcomes.ObjectiveThis paper summarizes empirical evidence on the impact of global dispersion dimensions on coordination, team performance and project outcomes.MethodWe performed a systematic literature review of 46 publications from 25 journals and 19 conference and workshop proceedings, which were published between 2001 and 2013. Thematic analysis was used to identify global dimensions and their measures. Vote counting was used to decide on the impact trends of dispersion dimensions on team performance and software quality.ResultsGlobal dispersion dimensions are consistently conceptualized, but quantified in many different ways. Different dispersion dimensions are associated with a distinct set of coordination challenges. Overall, geographical dispersion tends to have a negative impact on team performance and software quality. Temporal dispersion tends to have a negative impact on software quality, but its impact on team performance is inconsistent and can be explained by type of performance.ConclusionFor researchers, we reveal several opportunities for future research, such as coordination challenges in inter-organizational software projects, impact of processes and practices mismatches on project outcomes, evolution of coordination needs and mechanism over time and impact of dispersion dimensions on open source project outcomes. For practitioners, they should consider the tradeoff between cost and benefits while dispersing tasks, alignment impact of dispersion dimensions with individual and organizational objectives, coordination mechanisms as situational approaches and collocation of development activities of high quality demand components in GSD projects.     

Categorization of risk factors for distributed agile projects

ContextOrganizations combine agile approach and Distributed Software Development (DSD) in order to develop better quality software solutions in lesser time and cost. It helps to reap the benefits of both agile and distributed development but pose significant challenges and risks. Relatively scanty evidence of research on the risks prevailing in distributed agile development (DAD) has motivated this study.ObjectiveThis paper aims at creating a comprehensive set of risk factors that affect the performance of distributed agile development projects and identifies the risk management methods which are frequently used in practice for controlling those risks.MethodThe study is an exploration of practitioners’ experience using constant comparison method for analyzing in-depth interviews of thirteen practitioners and work documents of twenty-eight projects from thirteen different information technology (IT) organizations. The field experience was supported by extensive research literature on risk management in traditional, agile and distributed development.ResultsAnalysis of qualitative data from interviews and project work documents resulted into categorization of forty-five DAD risk factors grouped under five core risk categories. The risk categories were mapped to Leavitt’s model of organizational change for facilitating the implementation of results in real world. The risk factors could be attributed to the conflicting properties of DSD and agile development. Besides that, some new risk factors have been experienced by practitioners and need further exploration as their understanding will help the practitioners to act on time.ConclusionOrganizations are adopting DAD for developing solutions that caters to the changing business needs, while utilizing the global talent. Conflicting properties of DSD and agile approach pose several risks for DAD. This study gives a comprehensive categorization of the risks faced by the practitioners in managing DAD projects and presents frequently used methods to reduce their impact. The work fills the yawning research void in this field.     

Exploring principles of user-centered agile software development: A literature review

ContextIn the last decade, software development has been characterized by two major approaches: agile software development, which aims to achieve increased velocity and flexibility during the development process, and user-centered design, which places the goals and needs of the system’s end-users at the center of software development in order to deliver software with appropriate usability. Hybrid development models, referred to as user-centered agile software development (UCASD) in this article, propose to combine the merits of both approaches in order to design software that is both useful and usable.ObjectiveThis paper aims to capture the current state of the art in UCASD approaches and to derive generic principles from these approaches. More specifically, we investigate the following research question: Which principles constitute a user-centered agile software development approach?MethodWe conduct a systematic review of the literature on UCASD. Identified works are analyzed using a coding scheme that differentiates four levels of UCASD: the process, practices, people/social and technology dimensions. Through subsequent synthesis, we derive generic principles of UCASD.ResultsWe identified and analyzed 83 relevant publications. The analysis resulted in a comprehensive coding system and five principles for UCASD: (1) separate product discovery and product creation, (2) iterative and incremental design and development, (3) parallel interwoven creation tracks, (4) continuous stakeholder involvement, and (5) artifact-mediated communication.ConclusionOur paper contributes to the software development body of knowledge by (1) providing a broad overview of existing works in the area of UCASD, (2) deriving an analysis framework (in form a coding system) for works in this area, going beyond former classifications, and (3) identifying generic principles of UCASD and associating them with specific practices and processes.     

《尚书·禹贡》荆梁二州的农业考古学探析

《尚书·禹贡》中所载“九州”是中国先民对中国古代宏观地理的最早认知。结合近年来相关研究成果对其中荆梁二州的分布 地域进行界定,可以发现二州之间相互毗邻;同时,以考古资料为依托分别对荆梁二州在公元前2000 年前后所形成的农业类型进 行描述分析发现,两者之间既存在相同之处,又存在差异之处。梁州农业类型的形成既有来自北方的影响,又有来自临近的荆州的 影响,荆梁二州之间早在新石器时代便开始产生零星的农业文化传播与交流,而这一传播交流的实现大体存在两条路径。川东鄂 西地区的山地或是《尚书·禹贡》荆梁二州的农业文化分界线。     

基于L-系统的分形植物形态建模方法研究

植物生长过程中所表现出来的分形特征是虚拟植物形态发生的重要研究内容,而L-系统在表达具有分形特征的虚拟植物形态上具有明显的不可控特点,严重影响了L-系统的广泛应用。为了更好地研究自然界植物的分形特征,以植物分枝结构和几何形态的量化为前提,建立植物分形特征和L-系统的映射关系,应用改进的L-系统拟合分形植物的生长过程,并结合B-样条曲线动态控制分形植物的弯曲,生成丰富多样的、具有逼真分形效果的虚拟植物形态。     

基于径向基过程神经网络的油田开发指标预测

目前为止,现有的油田开发指标预测方法难以反映实际存在的时间累积效应对该指标预测的影响。因此,为提高油田开发指标预测的准确度,本文提出基于径向基过程神经元网络的油田开发动态指标预测模型,并将其应用到实际油田开发动态指标的预测中。实例分析结果表明,本文提出的径向基过程神经元网络的油田开发动态指标的预测方法精度高、速度快,是预测油田开发指标的一种较实用的方法。     

叠板式多缸薄板成型液压机参数化设计

在已有的300 MN多缸薄板成型液压机的基础上,运用基于VB的SolidWorks二次开发方法与自顶向下完全建模技术,通过驱动模型关键尺寸参数,对新产品进行参数化设计,并用ANSYS仿真优化.通过参数化设计可使该类产品系列化,提高新产品研发速度,促进该类型产品的国产化.     

An environment for End-User Development of Web mashups

End-User Development aims to find novel ways that are suitable and intuitive for end users to create their own applications. We present a graphical environment in which users create new mashups by directly selecting interaction elements, content and functionalities from existing Web applications without requiring the intervention of expert developers. Then, users just need to exploit a copy–paste metaphor to indicate how to compose the selected interactive content and functionalities in the new mashup. The environment is enabled by a Web-based platform accessible from any browser, and is suitable for users without particular programming skills. We describe the architecture of our platform and how it works, including its intelligent support, show example applications, and report the results of first user studies.