Contracting Agile Developments for Mission Critical Systems in the Public Sector

Although Agile is a well established software development paradigm, major concerns arise when it comes to contracting issues between a software consumer and a software producer. How to contractualize the Agile production of software, especially for security & mission critical organizations, which typically outsource software projects, has been a major concern since the beginning of the \u201cAgile Era.\u201d In literature, little has been done, from a foundational point of view regarding the formalization of such contracts. Indeed, when the development is outsourced, the management of the contractual life is non\u2013trivial. This happens because the interests of the two parties are typically not aligned. In these situations, software houses strive for the minimization of the effort, while the customer commonly expects high quality artifacts. This structural asymmetry can hardly be overcome with traditional \u201cWaterfall\u201d contracts. In this work, we propose a foundational approach to the Law & Economics of Agile contracts. Moreover, we explore the key elements of the Italian procurement law and outline a suitable solution to merge some basic legal constraints with Agile requirements. Finally, a case study is presented, describing how Agile contracting has been concretely implemented in the Italian Defense Acquisition Process. This work is intended to be a framework for Agile contracts for the Italian public sector of critical systems, according to the new contractual law (Codice degli Appalti)

A study on the statistical convertibility of IFPUG Function Point, COSMIC Function Point and Simple Function Point

Background Several functional size measurement methods have been proposed. A few ones -like IFPUG and COSMIC methods- are widely used, while others -like Simple Function Points method- are interesting new proposals, which promise to deliver functional size measures via a faster and cheaper measurement process. Objectives Since all functional size measurement methods address the measurement of the same property of software (namely, the size of functional specifications), it is expected that measures provided in a given measurement unit can be converted into a different measurement unit. In this paper, convertibility of IFPUG Function Points, COSMIC Function Points, and Simple Function Points is studied. MethodConvertibility is analyzed statistically via regression techniques. Seven datasets, each one containing measures of a set of software applications expressed in IFPUG Function Points, COSMIC Function Points and Simple Function Points, were analyzed. The components of functional size measures (usually known as Base Functional Components) were also involved in the analysis. ResultsAll the analyzed measures appear well correlated to each other. Statistically significant quantitative models were found for all the combinations of measures, for all the analyzed datasets. Several models involving Base Functional Components were found as well. ConclusionsFrom a practical point of view, the paper shows that converting measures from a given functional size unit into another one is viable. The magnitude of the conversion errors is reported, so that practitioners can evaluate if the expected conversion error is acceptable for their specific purposes. From a conceptual point of view, the paper shows that Base Functional Components of a given method can be used to estimate measures expressed in a different measurement unit: this seems to imply that different functional size measurement methods are 'structurally' strongly correlated

Comparação da acurácia de estimativas de esforço produzidas a partir de Story Points, Ideal Day e de Ponto de Função COSMIC

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade UnB Gama (FGA), Engenharia de Software, 2018.No intuito de produzir software de qualidade, aspectos como planejamento do processo produtivo são primordiais, afinal é necessário obter indicadores do que irá acontecer, para definir a alocação dos recursos de um projeto de desenvolvimento. Este trabalho, propõe melhorar o entendimento dos aspectos relacionados à prática de estimativas de esforço, isto é, característica da alocação recursos para desenvolver um software sob a perspectiva do tempo. Para isso, aspectos como a acurácia de três técnicas de estimativa de esforço, Story Points, Ideal Day e Ponto de Função COSMIC, são investigados. Perspectivas de qual dessas técnicas é a mais utilizada em projetos de desenvolvimento, e os principais fatores influenciadores de baixas acurácias de estimativas de esforço são analisadas. Este estudo possui natureza aplicada, onde as questões levantadas são respondidas com base em uma revisão bibliográfica e devem ser confrontadas em um trabalho prático futuro, portanto, traz uma base para que um estudo de caso seja realizado, onde a acurácia das três técnicas são comparadas, confirmando assim a natureza empírica deste estudo.In order to produce quality software, aspects such as production process planning are paramount, after all it is necessary to obtain indicators of what will happen, to define the allocation of the resources of a development project. This work proposes to improve the understanding of the aspects related to the practice of effort estimates, that is, characteristic of the allocation resources to develop software from the perspective of time. For this, aspects such as the accuracy of three effort estimation techniques, Story Points, Ideal Day and COSMIC Function Point, are investigated. Perspectives of which of these techniques is the most used in development projects, and the main influencing factors of low estimates of effort estimates are analyzed. This study has an applied nature, where the questions raised are answered based on a bibliographical review and should be confronted in a future practical work, therefore, it provides a basis for a case study to be carried out, where the accuracy of the three techniques are compared , confirming the empirical nature of this study

Strategies in Software Development Effort Estimation

Software development effort estimating has notoriously been the Achilles heel of the software planning process. Accurately evaluating the effort required to accomplish a software change continues to be problematic, especially in Agile software development. IT organizations and project managers depend on estimation accuracy for planning software deliveries and cost determination. The purpose of this multiple case qualitative study was to identify strategies used by software development professionals in providing accurate effort estimations to stakeholders. The planning fallacy served as the studyâs conceptual framework. The participants were 10 software development professionals who were actively engaged in delivering estimates of effort on software development requests in South Texas in the United States. Data were collected from 10 software development professionals in 5 different organizations. Additionally, 23 organizational documents were gathered and reviewed. Thematic analysis was used to identify codes and themes. Prominent themes were (a) defining and decomposing requirements, (b) referencing historical data, (c) identifying risks and unknowns, and (d) fostering communication, collaboration, and a consensus. A key recommendation is for software developers to ensure requirements are defined and decomposed by evaluating the request and breaking the request into manageable pieces to understand the effort required to complete the task. Implications for positive social change include improving morale, work-life balance, alignment of expectations, and software quality

Memoria 2017

- Plan General de Acciones - Dirección Provincial de Administración Científica y Técnica - Dirección Provincial de Gestión, Seguimiento y Desarrollo a la Actividad Científica - Dirección Provincial de Vinculación y Transferencia - Dirección Provincial de Comunicación y Difusión Científica - Unidad de Coordinación y Control de Gestión - Centros de Investigació