Architectural design decisions that incur technical debt — An industrial case study

Context: During software development, some architectural design decisions incur technical debt, either deliberately or inadvertently. These have serious impact on the quality of a software system, and can cost significant time and effort to be changed. While current research efforts have explored general concepts of architectural design decisions and technical debt separately, debt-incurring architectural design decisions have not been specifically explored in practice. Objective: In this case study, we explore debt-incurring architectural design decisions (DADDs) in practice. Specifically, we explore the main types of DADDs, why and how they are incurred in a software system, and how practitioners deal with these types of design decisions. Method: We performed interviews and a focus group with practitioners working in embedded and enterprise software companies, discussing their concrete experience with such architectural design decisions. Results: We provide the following contributions: 1) A categorization for the types of DADDs, which extend a current ontology on architectural design decisions. 2) A process on how deliberate DADDs are made in practice. 3) A conceptual model which shows the relationships between the causes and triggers of inadvertent DADDs. 4) The main factors that influence the way of dealing with DADDs. Conclusion: The results can support the development of new approaches and tools for Architecture Technical Debt management from the perspective of Design Decisions. Moreover, they support future research to capture architecture knowledge related to DADDs

Requirements engineering challenges and practices in large-scale agile system development

Context: Agile methods have become mainstream even in large-scale systems engineering companies that need to accommodate different development cycles of hardware and software. For such companies, requirements engineering is an essential activity that involves upfront and detailed analysis which can be at odds with agile development methods. Objective: This paper presents a multiple case study with seven large-scale systems companies, reporting their challenges, together with best practices from industry. We also analyze literature about two popular large-scale agile frameworks, SAFe (R) and LeSS, to derive potential solutions for the challenges. Methods: Our results are based on 20 qualitative interviews, five focus groups, and eight cross company workshops which we used to both collect and validate our results. Results: We found 24 challenges which we grouped in six themes, then mapped to solutions from SAFe (R), LeSS, and our companies, when available. Conclusion: In this way, we contribute a comprehensive overview of RE challenges in relation to largescale agile system development, evaluate the degree to which they have been addressed, and outline research gaps. We expect these results to be useful for practitioners who are responsible for designing processes, methods, or tools for large scale agile development as well as guidance for researchers

Charting Our Water Future: Economic Frameworks to Inform Decision-Making

This study focuses on how, by 2030, competing demands for scarce water resources can be met and sustained. It is sponsored, written, and supported by a group of private sector companies and institutions who are concerned about water scarcity as an increasing business risk, a major economic threat that cannot be ignored, and a global priority that affects human well-being. After careful quantitative analysis of the problem, this report provides some answers on the path to water resource security. It first quantifies the situation and shows that in many regions, current supply will be inadequate to meet the water requirements. However, as a central thesis, it also shows that meeting all competing demands for water is in fact possible at reasonable cost. This outcome will not emerge naturally from existing market dynamics, but will require a concerted effort by all stakeholders, the willingness to adopt a total resource view where water is seen as a key, cross-sectoral input for development and growth, a mix of technical approaches, and the courage to undertake and fund water sector reforms

Contingent valuation of river pollution control and domestic water supply in Kenya

The basic theme of this study is that determination of the economic value of water resources is a necessary condition for rational decision-making and management of these environmental assets, and their associated public goods, in developing countries. The research particularly evaluates the contingent valuation (CV) method as a technique for evaluating increments and decrements in environmental and natural resource service flows, and estimates households' evaluations for improvements in river water quality and connections to piped water supply for domestic uses. The study objectives were to (a) estimate the economic value of piped water supply and improved water quality in the Nzoia River Basin, Kenya, (b) evaluate the feasibility of using the CV technique to value an environmental amenity and its related quasi-public service in rural settings where respondents have limited education and monetary resources, (c) examine the role of temporal dimensions of bid payments (i e, frequency of payments) in contingent values for environmental commodities, (d) empirically investigate embedding effect bias in contingent valuation of improvements in river water quality improvement in a less developed economy, and (e) evaluate the role of water connection charges in households' willingness to hook onto piped water supply in Webuye Division, Kenya. Empirical analysis and estimates of the non-market value which local people assign to water quality in the Nzoia River and a private household water connection is based on a detailed survey of a representative sample of 311 households in Webuye Division of Bungoma District, Kenya. In an on-site survey carried out in May through September 1995, contingent markets were developed for the two goods, (1) improved river water quality, and, (2) provision of a private connection to water supply. The corresponding willingness to pay (WTP) values are explained using Ordinary Least Square regression models. Whatever the good, the WTP is seen to increase with income. However, the effects of other factors are more specific to the contingent good. In order of strength, the other determinants of WTP "quality" are sex, age, household ranking of status of domestic water source, distance from river to household residence, the other factors affecting WTP "connections" are existing source of water supply, household size, ranking of river water quality, and age of household head. On the whole, residents accepted the exercise of contingent valuation and were willing to pay important amounts (Ksh 459 and Ksh 386 on average per household per year, respectively, for goods 1 and 2). Discussion issues include policy significance of the resulting WTPs in terms of the demand for river pollution control and individual household water connections, the effect of the goods upon the CV evaluation process, the "Third World" impacts of frequency of payments in contingent valuation, including perceived-frequency and income-smoothing routes, the embedding effect in WTP values for water pollution abatement in the Nzoia River basin, the importance of pricing influences, specially payment profiles for initial connection charges, on household decisions to connect to piped water systems, and limitations of the study

State of the art techniques for creating secure software within the Agile process: a systematic literature review

Agile processes have become ubiquitous in the software development community, and are used by the majority of companies. At the same time, the need for secure and trustworthy software has been steadily growing. Agile software processes nonetheless have proven difficult to integrate with the preexisting security frameworks developed for the Waterfall processes. This thesis presents the results of a systematic literature review that investigates solutions to this problem. The research questions to which the researcher tried to answer are: "which are the latest solutions to enhance the security of the software developed using the Agile process??" and "Which of the solutions discussed have performed best pilot studies?". This study analyzed 39 papers published between 2011 and 2018. The results were ordered according to which exhibited the highest consensus and coded into four sets. The most salient suggestions were: increase the training of the developers, add dedicated security figures to the development team, hybridize security solution from the waterfall processes and add security artifacts such as the "security backlog" and "evil user stories" to Agile

Individual agency in the social construction of Green Public Procurement: Emergence and implications in Stavanger Municipality

Given the urgent global climate challenges we face today, it is imperative for actors at all levels - international, national, and local - to take decisive action. In this context, green public procurement (GPP) emerges as a valuable environmental policy tool employed by public authorities. GPP involves the procurement of goods and services that have a reduced environmental impact compared to alternatives that serve the same purpose. This thesis examines the institutionalization of GPP at the municipal level through a case study of Stavanger Municipality in Norway. Concepts from institutional theory were used to deepen the understanding of the current situation of GPP in Stavanger. Expert interviews and document analysis, as well as a comprehensive examination of 32 tenders from six sectors, provide a broad empirical foundation that is used to gain an understanding of GPP at the municipal level. The findings reveal a disconnect between the municipality's ambitious emission targets and its actual actions, leading to a decoupling of commitments and behavior relating to climate and environmental efforts, including the strategic use of GPP. The analysis highlights the importance of individual competence and motivation in a complex institutional environment and suggests that leadership should invest in individuals with environmental expertise to accelerate sustainability transitions. By identifying weaknesses in current practices and opportunities for improvement, this study provides valuable insights into how GPP could be used more strategically to align with municipal environmental goals.Given the urgent global climate challenges we face today, it is imperative for actors at all levels - international, national, and local - to take decisive action. In this context, green public procurement (GPP) emerges as a valuable environmental policy tool employed by public authorities. GPP involves the procurement of goods and services that have a reduced environmental impact compared to alternatives that serve the same purpose. This thesis examines the institutionalization of GPP at the municipal level through a case study of Stavanger Municipality in Norway. Concepts from institutional theory were used to deepen the understanding of the current situation of GPP in Stavanger. Expert interviews and document analysis, as well as a comprehensive examination of 32 tenders from six sectors, provide a broad empirical foundation that is used to gain an understanding of GPP at the municipal level. The findings reveal a disconnect between the municipality's ambitious emission targets and its actual actions, leading to a decoupling of commitments and behavior relating to climate and environmental efforts, including the strategic use of GPP. The analysis highlights the importance of individual competence and motivation in a complex institutional environment and suggests that leadership should invest in individuals with environmental expertise to accelerate sustainability transitions. By identifying weaknesses in current practices and opportunities for improvement, this study provides valuable insights into how GPP could be used more strategically to align with municipal environmental goals