Functional Size Measurement and Model Verification for Software Model-Driven Developments: A COSMIC-based Approach

Historically, software production methods and tools have a unique goal: to produce high quality software. Since the goal of Model-Driven Development (MDD) methods is no different, MDD methods have emerged to take advantage of the benefits of using conceptual models to produce high quality software. In such MDD contexts, conceptual models are used as input to automatically generate final applications. Thus, we advocate that there is a relation between the quality of the final software product and the quality of the models used to generate it. The quality of conceptual models can be influenced by many factors. In this thesis, we focus on the accuracy of the techniques used to predict the characteristics of the development process and the generated products. In terms of the prediction techniques for software development processes, it is widely accepted that knowing the functional size of applications in order to successfully apply effort models and budget models is essential. In order to evaluate the quality of generated applications, defect detection is considered to be the most suitable technique. The research goal of this thesis is to provide an accurate measurement procedure based on COSMIC for the automatic sizing of object-oriented OO-Method MDD applications. To achieve this research goal, it is necessary to accurately measure the conceptual models used in the generation of object-oriented applications. It is also very important for these models not to have defects so that the applications to be measured are correctly represented. In this thesis, we present the OOmCFP (OO-Method COSMIC Function Points) measurement procedure. This procedure makes a twofold contribution: the accurate measurement of objectoriented applications generated in MDD environments from the conceptual models involved, and the verification of conceptual models to allow the complete generation of correct final applications from the conceptual models involved. The OOmCFP procedure has been systematically designed, applied, and automated. This measurement procedure has been validated to conform to the ISO 14143 standard, the metrology concepts defined in the ISO VIM, and the accuracy of the measurements obtained according to ISO 5725. This procedure has also been validated by performing empirical studies. The results of the empirical studies demonstrate that OOmCFP can obtain accurate measures of the functional size of applications generated in MDD environments from the corresponding conceptual models.Marín Campusano, BM. (2011). Functional Size Measurement and Model Verification for Software Model-Driven Developments: A COSMIC-based Approach [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/11237Palanci

Analysis of limitations and metrology weaknesses of enterprise architecture (EA) measurement solutions & proposal of a COSMIC-based approach to EA measurement

The literature on enterprise architecture (EA) posits that EA is of considerable value for organizations. However, while the EA literature documents a number of proposals for EA measurement solutions, there is little evidence-based research supporting their achievements and limitations. This thesis aims at helping the EA community to understand the existing trends in EA measurement research and to recognize the existing gaps, limitations, and weaknesses in EA measurement solutions. Furthermore, this thesis aims to assist the EA community to design EA measurement solutions based on measurement and metrology best practices. The research goal of this thesis is to contribute to the EA body of knowledge by shaping new perspectives for future research avenues in EA measurement research. To achieve the research goal, the following research objectives are defined: 1. To classify the EA measurement solutions into specific categories in order to identify research themes and explain the structure of the research area. 2. To evaluate the EA measurement solutions from a measurement and metrology perspective. 3. To identify the measurement and metrology issues in EA measurement solutions. 4. To propose a novel EA measurement approach based on measurement and metrology guidelines and best practices. To achieve the first objective, this thesis conducts a systematic mapping study (SMS to help understand the state-of-the-art of EA measurement research and classify the research area in order to acquire a general understanding about the existing research trends. To achieve the second and third objectives, this thesis conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) to evaluate the EA measurement solutions from a measurement and metrology perspective, and hence, to reveal the weaknesses of EA measurement solutions and propose relevant solutions to these weaknesses. To perform this evaluation, we develop an evaluation process based on combining both the components of the evolution theory and the concepts of measurement and metrology best practices, such as ISO 15939. To achieve the fourth objective, we propose a mapping between two international standards: • COSMIC - ISO/IEC 19761: a method for measuring the functional size of software. • ArchiMate: a modelling language for EA. This mapping results in proposing a novel EA measurement approach that overcomes the weaknesses and limitations found in the existing EA measurement solutions. The research results demonstrate that: 1. The current publications on EA measurement are trending toward an increased focus on the “enterprise IT architecting” school of thought, lacks the rigorous terminology found in science and engineering and shows limited adoption of knowledge from other disciplines in the proposals of EA measurement solutions. 2. There is a lack of attention to attaining appropriate metrology properties in EA measurement proposals: all EA measurement proposals are characterized with insufficient metrology coverage scoring, theoretical and empirical definitions. 3. The proposed novel EA measurement approach demonstrates that it is handy for EA practitioners, and easy to adopt by organizations

SPQmm : a software product quality maturity model using ISO/IEEE standards, metrology, and sigma concepts

In the software engineering literature, there are numerous maturity models for assessing and evaluating a set of software processes. By contrast, there is no corresponding maturity model for assessing the quality of a software product. The design of such a model to assess the quality of a software product therefore represents a new research challenge in software engineering. Our main goal is to make available to industry (and consumers) a maturity model for assessing and improving the quality of the software product. This Software Product Quality Maturity Model (SPQMM) consists of three quality maturity submodels (viewpoints) that can be used not only once the software product has been delivered, but also throughout the life-cycle: • Software Product Internal Quality Maturity Model- SPIQMM, • Software Product External Quality Maturity Model - SPEQMM, and • Software Product Quality-in-Use Maturity Model- SPQiUMM In this thesis, we introduce the Software Product Quality Maturity Model (SPQMM), which could be used from three different viewpoints: the software product internal quality, the software product external quality, and the software product quality in-use. This quality maturity model is a quantitative model, and it based on the ISO 9126(software product quality measures), ISO 15026 (software integrity levels), IEEE Std. 1012 (software verification and validation) and on six-sigma concepts. To build such a quality maturity model, we have combined the set of quality measures into a single number for each quality characteristic by assuming that all the measures for a single quality characteristic have an equal weight in the computation of a single value for that quality characteristic (they all make an equal contribution), yielding a quality level for that quality characteristic. The resulting quality level is then transformed based on the software integrity level into a sigma value positioned within a quality maturity level

Processus de vérification des mesures de logiciels selon la perspective de métrologie

En génie logiciel, la plupart des mesures ont été proposées en se basant uniquement sur les concepts de la «théorie de mesure». Cependant, dans les autres disciplines matures du génie, c'est le domaine de connaissance se référant à la «métrologie» qui représente la base pour le développement et l'utilisation des instruments de mesure et des processus de mesure. L'objectif principal de cette thèse consiste à développer un cadre intégré pour le processus de vérification des méthodes de mesure de logiciels et qui intègre la perspective de métrologie au domaine de mesure de logiciels. Pour atteindre cet objectif, le document ISO de la métrologie VIM a été modélisé et un cadre de référence de vérification de mesure a été développé. Ce cadre a été utilisé pour analyser les normes ISO et le domaine de connaissance de la mesure en génie logiciel. Le résultat de cette analyse a révélé l'importance de la métrologie non seulement pour améliorer le design des mesures proposées à l'industrie mais aussi pour analyser la qualité des instruments de mesure qui lui sont associés. Le cadre intégré pourra être utilisé comme un modèle d'une méta-norme pour concevoir de nouvelles mesures. Enfin, l'ensemble des modèles développés n'est pas restreint au génie logiciel et il pourrait être utile également à l'ensemble des domaines de la mesure

Un référentiel pour la mesure des logiciels avec la norme ISO 19761 (COSMIC-FFP) : une étude exploratoire

La problématique générale de cette thèse est le manque de standards et de références pour le design et pour l'utilisation des mesures en génie logiciel. Cette problématique rend le processus de mesurage des logiciels complexe et difficile. La méthodologie adoptée pour résoudre la problématique indiquée ci-dessus est à la fois exploratoire et qualitative. L'objectif de cette thèse est la construction d'un référentiel pour la mesure des logiciels. Le référentiel est composé de huit étalons de mesure des logiciels. Dans notre contexte, un étalon est défini comme «une mesure matérialisée, appareil de mesure, matériau de référence destiné a définir, réaliser, conserver ou reproduire une unité ou une ou plusieurs valeurs d'une grandeur pour servir de référence» (ISO, 1993). Ces étalons de mesure traitent un seul attribut du logiciel, soit la taille fonctionnelle, et ils touchent trois types de logiciels: applications de gestion, systèmes en temps réel et systèmes hybrides. Pour mesurer la taille fonctionnelle, ces étalons utilisent une mesure appelée les points de fonction (en anglais Function Point Analysis - FPA). «FPA, introduced in 1979 by Allan Albrecht, was proposed to help measure the productivity of software development. Function points have the advantage of well-known norms and well defined detailed procedures that allow a uniform method of counting and the establishment of a reference base for making comparisons, provided, of course, that the rules of calculation and accounting are correctly applied.» (Abran, 1994) Pour la construction du référentiel, une méthode de mesure des logiciels bien spécifique a été choisie, soit COSMIC-FFP (ISO 19761). COSMIC-FFP est une méthode rigoureuse de mesure des logiciels. Elle rend possible la mesure de la taille des logiciels tels qu'ils sont perçus par leurs utilisateurs, c'est-à-dire à travers les besoins fonctionnels. Le résultat de l'application de la mesure donne une valeur numérique qui quantifie la taille fonctionnelle du logiciel. Les raisons de la sélection de cette mesure spécifique et sa description sont expliquées dans le quatrième chapitre

Estimation model for software testing

Testing of software applications and assurance of compliance have become an essential part of Information Technology (IT) governance of organizations. Over the years, software testing has evolved into a specialization with its own practices and body of knowledge. Test estimation consists of the estimation of effort and working out the cost for a particular level of testing, using various methods, tools, and techniques. An incorrect estimation often leads to inadequate amount of testing which, in turn, can lead to failures of software systems when they are deployed in organizations. This research work has first established the state of the art of software test estimation, followed by the proposal of a Unified Framework for Software Test Estimation. Using this framework, a number of detailed estimation models have been designed next for functional testing. The ISBSG database has been used to investigate the estimation of software testing. The analysis of the ISBSG data has revealed three test productivity patterns representing economies and diseconomies of scale, based on which the characteristics of the corresponding projects were investigated. The three project groups related to the three productivity patterns were found to be statistically significant, and characterised by application domain, team size, elapsed time, and rigour of verification and validation throughout development. Within each project group, the variations in test efforts could be explained by the activities carried out during the development and processes adopted for testing, in addition to functional size. Two new independent variables, the quality of the development processes (DevQ) and the quality of testing processes (TestQ), were identified as influential in the estimation models. Portfolios of estimation models were built for different data sets using combinations of the three independent variables. At estimation time, an estimator could choose the project group by mapping the characteristics of the project to be estimated to the attributes of the project group, in order to choose the model closest to it. The quality of each model has been evaluated using established criteria such as R2, Adj R2, MRE, MedMRE and Maslow’s Cp. Models have been compared using their predictive performance, adopting new criteria proposed in this research work. Test estimation models using functional size measured in COSMIC Function Points have exhibited better quality and resulted in more accurate estimation, compared to functional size measured in IFPUG Function Points. A prototype software is now developed using statistical “R” programming language, incorporating portfolios of estimation models. This test estimation tool can be used by industry and academia for estimating test efforts

ICSEA 2021: the sixteenth international conference on software engineering advances

The Sixteenth International Conference on Software Engineering Advances (ICSEA 2021), held on October 3 - 7, 2021 in Barcelona, Spain, continued a series of events covering a broad spectrum of software-related topics. The conference covered fundamentals on designing, implementing, testing, validating and maintaining various kinds of software. The tracks treated the topics from theory to practice, in terms of methodologies, design, implementation, testing, use cases, tools, and lessons learnt. The conference topics covered classical and advanced methodologies, open source, agile software, as well as software deployment and software economics and education. The conference had the following tracks: Advances in fundamentals for software development Advanced mechanisms for software development Advanced design tools for developing software Software engineering for service computing (SOA and Cloud) Advanced facilities for accessing software Software performance Software security, privacy, safeness Advances in software testing Specialized software advanced applications Web Accessibility Open source software Agile and Lean approaches in software engineering Software deployment and maintenance Software engineering techniques, metrics, and formalisms Software economics, adoption, and education Business technology Improving productivity in research on software engineering Trends and achievements Similar to the previous edition, this event continued to be very competitive in its selection process and very well perceived by the international software engineering community. As such, it is attracting excellent contributions and active participation from all over the world. We were very pleased to receive a large amount of top quality contributions. We take here the opportunity to warmly thank all the members of the ICSEA 2021 technical program committee as well as the numerous reviewers. The creation of such a broad and high quality conference program would not have been possible without their involvement. We also kindly thank all the authors that dedicated much of their time and efforts to contribute to the ICSEA 2021. We truly believe that thanks to all these efforts, the final conference program consists of top quality contributions. This event could also not have been a reality without the support of many individuals, organizations and sponsors. We also gratefully thank the members of the ICSEA 2021 organizing committee for their help in handling the logistics and for their work that is making this professional meeting a success. We hope the ICSEA 2021 was a successful international forum for the exchange of ideas and results between academia and industry and to promote further progress in software engineering research

Un procedimiento de medición de tamaño funcional para especificaciones de requisitos

Hoy en día el tamaño del software es utilizado en la gestión y control de producción como uno de los parámetros esenciales de los modelos de estimación que contribuyen a la calidad de los proyectos de software y productos entregables. Aunque la importancia de la medición temprana del tamaño es evidente, actualmente esta medición es solamente alcanzada en fases tardías del ciclo de vida del software (análisis, diseño e implementación). El tamaño de software puede ser cuantificado usando diferentes técnicas, como las líneas de código y los métodos de medición de tamaño funcional. Un método de medición de tamaño funcional mide el tamaño del software cuantificando los requisitos funcionales. El método Análisis de Puntos de Función (FPA) es el método mayormente utilizado. Este método fue desarrollado para medir Sistemas de Información de Gestión desarrollados con metodos tradicionales. Aunque IFPUG FPA ha ido alcanzado mayor popularidad en la industria, este método carece de aplicabilidad a todo tipo de software y a nuevos paradigmas de desarrollo. Para direccionar estas debilidades, COSMIC-FFP ha surgido como un método de segunda generación y ha sido probado como un estandar internacional (ISO/IEC 19761). Sin embargo, la generalidad de COSMIC-FFP requiere ser instanciado por medio de un procedimiento más específico y sistemático en conjunción con un método de desarrollo de software.Condori Fernández, ON. (2007). Un procedimiento de medición de tamaño funcional para especificaciones de requisitos [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/1998Palanci

Design of a fuzzy logic software estimation process

This thesis describes the design of a fuzzy logic software estimation process. Studies show that most of the projects finish overbudget or later than the planned end date (Standish Group, 2009) even though the software organizations have attempted to increase the success rate of software projects by making the process more manageable and, consequently, more predictable. Project estimation is an important issue because it is the basis for the allocation and management of the resources associated to a project. When the estimation process is not performed properly, this leads to higher risks in their software projects, and the organizations may end up with losses instead of the expected profits from their funded projects. The most important estimates need to be made right in the very early phases of a project when the information is only available at a very high level of abstraction and, often, is based on a number of assumptions. The approach for estimating software projects in the software industry is the one typically based on the experience of the employees in the organization. There are a number of problems with using experience for estimation purposes: for instance, the way to obtain the estimate is only implicit, i.e. there is no consistent way to derive the estimated value, and the experience is strongly related to the experts, not to the organization. The research goal of this thesis is to design a software estimation process able to manage the lack of detailed and quantitative information embedded in the early phases of the software development life cycle. The research approach aims to leverage the advantages of the experience-based approach that can be used in early phases of software estimation while addressing some of the major problems generated by this estimation approach. The specific research objectives to be met by this improved software estimation process are: A. The proposed estimation process must use relevant techniques to handle uncertainty and ambiguity in order to consider the way practitioners make their estimates: the proposed estimation process must use the variables that the practitioners use. B. The proposed estimation process must be useful in early stages of the software development process. C. The proposed estimation process needs to preserve the experience or knowledge base for the organization: this implies an easy way to define and capture the experience of the experts. D. The proposed model must be usable by people with skills distinct from those of the people who configure the original context of the proposed model. In this thesis, an estimation process based on fuzzy logic is proposed, and is referred as the ‘Estimation of Projects in a Context of Uncertainty - EPCU’. The fuzzy logic approach was adopted for the proposed estimation process because it is a formal way to manage the uncertainty and the linguistic variables observed in the early phases of a project when the estimates need to be obtained: using a fuzzy system allows to capture the experience from the organization’s experts via inference rules and to keep this experience within the organization. The experimentation phase typically presents a big challenge, in software engineering in particular, and more so since the software projects estimates must be done “a priori”: indeed for verification purposes, there is a typically large elapsed time between the initial estimate and the completion of the projects upon which the ‘true’ values of effort, duration and costs can be known with certainty in order to verify whether or not the estimates were the right ones. This thesis includes a number of experiments with data from the software industry in Mexico. These experiments are organized into several scenarios, including one with reestimation of real projects completed in industry, but using – for estimation purposes - only the information that was available at the beginning of these projects. From the experiments results reported in this thesis it can be observed that with the use of the proposed fuzzy-logic based estimation process, estimates for these projects are better than the estimates based on the expert opinion approach. Finally, to handle the large amount of calculations required by the EPCU estimation model, as well as for the recording and the management of the information generated by the EPCU model, a research prototype tool was designed and developed to perform the necessary calculations

Conception d’un profil UML spécifique à la méthode COSMIC - ISO 19761 pour supporter la mesure de la taille fonctionnelle des logiciels

La mesure de la taille fonctionnelle des logiciels joue un rôle important dans la discipline du génie logiciel et des technologies de l’information. En effet, elle sert principalement à établir des estimations et calculer l’effort de développement d’un projet. COSMIC - ISO 19761, la nouvelle génération des méthodes de mesure de la taille fonctionnelle, est une méthode rigoureuse qui a connu beaucoup d’intérêt. Son principe consiste à mesurer la taille du logiciel à travers les besoins fonctionnels de ses utilisateurs appelés fonctionnalités utilisateurs requises (FUR). Elle permet notamment de mesurer différents types de logiciels (Affaire, Temps Réel, Embarqué, etc.). L’objectif de cette recherche est d’étudier l’aspect d’automatisation de la mesure de la taille fonctionnelle avec COSMIC partant des spécifications écrites avec UML. L’idée consiste à rapprocher les concepts de la méthode COSMIC et les concepts UML afin de trouver un moyen qui facilite la mesure. Partant de cette idée, nous avons tout d’abord présenté une revue de littérature des travaux de recherche antérieurs qui ont porté sur la mesure des logiciels avec COSMIC basée sur les modèles UML. Cette étude nous a montré qu’une extension appropriée d’UML pour la méthode COSMIC utilisant les mécanismes d’extension inhérents d’UML (profil UML) est encore manquante. Nous entreprenons dans cette recherche le défi de définir et concevoir un profil UML spécifique pour la méthode COSMIC. Grâce à ce profil, la tâche de mesure peut devenir moins fastidieuse puisque le profil permet de capturer toute l’information nécessaire pour établir la mesure. L’approche comprend deux volets. Proposer d’abord un méta-modèle qui décrit la méthode COSMIC. Ensuite, mapper les différents concepts du domaine sous forme de stéréotypes qui sont la base du profil P-COSMIC. Enfin et afin de soulever l’applicabilité du profil conçu, nous avons procédé à une étude de cas de type temps réel