A survey of program slicing for software engineering

This research concerns program slicing which is used as a tool for program maintainence of software systems. Program slicing decreases the level of effort required to understand and maintain complex software systems. It was first designed as a debugging aid, but it has since been generalized into various tools and extended to include program comprehension, module cohesion estimation, requirements verification, dead code elimination, and maintainence of several software systems, including reverse engineering, parallelization, portability, and reuse component generation. This paper seeks to address and define terminology, theoretical concepts, program representation, different program graphs, developments in static slicing, dynamic slicing, and semantics and mathematical models. Applications for conventional slicing are presented, along with a prognosis of future work in this field

Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Software Engineering Workshop

Software development characteristics, models, and methodologies were presented and discussed.

Software development performance in remote student teams in international computer science collaboration

Approximately two-thirds of software projects are late because project teams encounter challenges that threaten their success. In addition, many projects are developed using remote collaboration, due to pressure of time, distribution of expertise, and organisational constraints. In parallel, technology has developed that allows effective remote collaboration.The purpose of this research was to investigate what characterises high performance in software development in remote student teams. The data was drawn from the Runestone Project, which involved Swedish and American computer science students in international collaboration on a substantial software development project. Runestone gave students the opportunity to use different technologies for collaboration across time and distance, as well the chance to develop problem-solving experience with different cultures in a team-based environment.This research tracked the progress and changes in the entire electronic communication for 8 student teams identified as the 4 highest- and lowest- 4 performers in the 2000 presentation of Runestone. A set of categories was developed to characterise over 31,000 lines of communication, focusing on the amount and nature of communication for each team, and on decision-making patterns throughout the software development process. The research also looked at students' use of available communication technology.Results indicate that both communication and the process and timing of specific actions are crucial to a team's success. Teams communicated differently, with high performing groups communicating less. High performing teams were more organised in the way they conducted their meetings and work. The management of the software development process as a whole was crucial, as was leadership style. An effective use of the software development process can also mean that key decisions are made during the times in the software process where they will be most effective. This research has implications for remote collaboration in both education and industry

Foundations of Empirical Software Engineering: The Legacy of Victor R. Basili

This book captures the main scientific contributions of Victor R. Basili, who has significantly shaped the field of empirical software engineering from its very start. He was the first to claim that software engineering needed to follow the model of other physical sciences and develop an experimental paradigm. By working on this postulate, he developed concepts that today are well known and widely used, including the Goal-Question-Metric method, the Quality-Improvement paradigm, and the Experience Factory. He is one of the few software pioneers who can aver that their research results are not just scientifically acclaimed but are also used as industry standards. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, celebrated with a symposium in his honor at the International Conference on Software Engineering in St. Louis, MO, USA in May 2005, Barry Boehm, Hans Dieter Rombach, and Marvin V. Zelkowitz, each a long-time collaborator of Victor R. Basili, selected the 20 most important research papers of their friend, and arranged these according to subject field. They then invited renowned researchers to write topical introductions. The result is this commented collection of timeless cornerstones of software engineering, hitherto available only in scattered publications

ICT-PALVELUHANKINTOJEN ARVIOINTI Tapaus: Tiehallinto

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin Tiehallinnon ICT-palvelunhankintaprosessia kolmen loppuun asti viedyn ICT-hankkeen perusteella. Tarkasteltavat hankkeet olivat kookkaita ja niillä on ollut vaikutus useisiin tietojärjestelmiin ja käyttäjiin. Jokainen tietojärjestelmä on hankittu eri hankintatavalla. Hankintatavat ovat silloisen Tiehallinnon suosimia tapoja. KOKA2008-hankinta toteutettiin osittaisräätälöintinä, jossa palvelualusta rakennettiin eri tuotteista. Häiriötietojärjestelmä toteutettiin kokonaisräätälöintinä tietojärjestelmän spesifisyyden takia. Matka-aikatietopalvelu toteutettiin Tiehallinnon puolelta ensimmäisenä isona palveluhankintana, jossa Tiehallinto osti käytännössä toimittajan tuottamaa tietoa Suomen tieverkolta. Tutkimus on toteutettu hyväksikäyttäen aineistoanalyysiä, jonka pohjalta tehtiin haastattelukysymysten sarja. Tutkimuksen osana on haastatteluanalyysi, jossa haastateltiin projekteissa eri tehtävissä toimineita henkilöitä. Yritysten keskittäessä toimintansa ydinosaamiseensa on esimerkiksi ICT-ratkaisuja pyritty ulkoistamaan niihin erikoistuneille yrityksille. Ulkoistamisprosessi, erityisesti tietojärjestelmätasolla, on haastava prosessi. Siihen liittyvät tekijät kuten loppukäyttäjät, budjetti, aikataulu ja sidosryhmät luovat lisää haastetta prosessille, jonka odotetaan tuottavan toimiva tietojärjestelmä tai palvelu. Myös valtionhallinnon sisällä on todettu ulkoistamisen olevan ratkaisu, jolla viraston toiminta saadaan kohdistettua enemmän sen ydintoimintoon. Tiehallinto on kokenut saman muutoksen 2000-luvun vaihteessa. Vuoden 2010 alusta Tiehallinnon keskushallinto on osa Liikennevirastoafi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

The dynamics of software development project management : an integrative system dynamics perspective

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1984.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY.Bibliography: leaves 459-496.by Tarek K. Abdel-Hamid.Ph.D

Estimating the effort in the early stages of software development.

Estimates of the costs involved in the development of a software product and the likely risk are two of the main components associated with the evaluation of software projects and their approval for development. They are essential before the development starts, since the investment early in software development determines the overall cost of the system. When making these estimates, however, the unknown obscures the known and high uncertainty is embedded in the process. This is the essence of the estimator's dilemma and the concerns of this thesis. This thesis offers an Effort Estimation Model (EEM), a support system to assist the process of project evaluation early in the development, when the project is about to start. The estimates are based on preliminary data and on the judgement of the estimators. They are developed for the early stages of software building in which the requirements are defined and the gross design of the software product is specified. From these estimates only coarse estimates of the total development effort are feasible. These coarse estimates are updated when uncertainty is reduced. The basic element common to all frameworks for software building is the activity. Thus the EEM uses a knowledge-base which includes decomposition of the software development process into the activity level. Components which contribute to the effort associated with the activities implemented early in the development process are identified. They are the size metrics used by the EEM. The data incorporated in the knowledge-base for each activity, and the rules for the assessment of the complexity and risk perceived in the development, allow the estimation process to take place. They form the infrastructure for a 'process model' for effort estimating. The process of estimating the effort and of developing the software are linked. Assumptions taken throughout the process are recorded and assist in understanding deviations between estimates and actual effort and enable the incorporation of a feedback mechanism into the process of software development. These estimates support the decision process associated with the overall management of software development, they facilitate management involvement and are thus considered as critical success factors for the management of software projects