Quality Requirements for Code: On the Untapped Potential in Maintainability Specifications

Quality requirements are critical for successful software engineering, with maintainability being a key internal quality. Despite significant attention in software metrics research, maintainability has attracted surprisingly little focus in the Requirements Engineering (RE) community. This position paper proposes a synergistic approach, combining code-oriented research with RE expertise, to create meaningful industrial impact. We introduce six illustrative use cases and propose three future research directions. Preliminary findings indicate that the established QUPER model, designed for setting quality targets, does not adequately address the unique aspects of maintainability.Comment: Accepted for the 1st Workshop on Multi-disciplinary, Open, and RElevant Requirements Engineering (MO2RE), 202

Collaboration in Open Government Data Ecosystems: Open Cross-sector Sharing and Co-development of Data and Software

Background: Open innovation highlights the potential benefits of external collaboration and knowledge-sharing, often exemplified through Open Source Software (OSS). The public sector has thus far mainly focused on the sharing of Open Government Data (OGD), often with a supply-driven approach with limited feedback-loops. We hypothesize that public sector organizations can extend the open innovation benefits by also creating platforms, where OGD, related OSS, and open standards are collaboratively developed and shared. Objective: The objective of this study is to explore how public sector organizations in the role of platform providers facilitate such collaboration in the form of OGD ecosystems and how the ecosystem's governance may be structured to support the collaboration. Method: We conduct an exploratory multiple-case study of two such ecosystems, focused on OGD related to the Swedish labor market and public transport sector, respectively. Data is gathered through interviews, document studies, and prolonged engagement at one of the platform providers. Results: The study presents governance structure and collaboration practices of the two ecosystems and discusses how these contribute to the platform providers' goals. The case studies highlight the need for platform providers to take an active and multi-functional role in enabling the sharing of data and software from and between the members of the ecosystem. Conclusions: We conclude that OGD ecosystems offer public sector organizations a possibility to catalyze the potential innovation output of OGD, but that it requires investment and adoption of an open and collaborative mindset.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2208.0030

Tensions and ambidexterity: a case study of an agile project at a government agency

Today’s dynamic business environment must continuously adapt its software development methods to changing technologies and new requirements on the part of customers. Therefore, Agile methods are being used more and more used because they emphasize both flexibility and the ability to change. However, at the same time, the business-driven need for predictability and control remains. The purpose of this case study is to explore and theorize on paradoxical tensions and ambidexterity during an Agile software development project at a government agency. The study empirically examines how tensions and the ambidextrous responses to these tensions are related to Agile values. Data was collected by conducting interviews and studying internal project documents. Four categories of tensions (learning, organizing, performing, and belonging) were used for analytical purposes. The findings suggest that most of the tensions perceived were in the categories of learning and performing. There are, furthermore, several connectionsbetween the ambidextrous responses to these tensions and Agile principles. A deeper understanding of Agile values and principles is required in order to make projects successful. The contribution made by the study, therefore, is of great importance because Agile methods are for leading projects, not only in Agile software development, but also in other industries and sectors

On Justification: Legislating a Digital First Artifact

The \u27digital first\u27 paradigm and its ontological reversal proposition bring new risks and implications for governing and regulating digital technologies. This article reports the findings from a qualitative study of the justifications used in legislating a \u27digital first\u27 artifact: Australia’s COVIDSafe contact tracing app. We build on justification theory (‘orders of worth’ framework) and use deductive qualitative analysis for examining 74 parliamentary records of proceedings (Hansards) in 2020 and 2021. The findings are structured in 38 empirical themes and 15 conceptual categories, which pertain to five orders of worth used in justifying the actors’ positions. This research unpacks the complexities of the justifications invoked in the legislative debates and sheds light on the novel and important yet understudied practices of governing ‘digital first’ artifacts

Public Sector Open Source Software Projects -- How is development organized?

Background: Open Source Software (OSS) started as an effort of communities of volunteers, but its practices have been adopted far beyond these initial scenarios. For instance, the strategic use of OSS in industry is constantly growing nowadays in different verticals, including energy, automotive, and health. For the public sector, however, the adoption has lagged behind even if benefits particularly salient in the public sector context such as improved interoperability, transparency, and digital sovereignty have been pointed out. When Public Sector Organisations (PSOs) seek to engage with OSS, this introduces challenges as they often lack the necessary technical capabilities, while also being bound and influenced by regulations and practices for public procurement. Aim: We aim to shed light on how public sector OSS projects, i.e., projects initiated, developed and governed by public sector organizations, are developed and structured. We conjecture, based on the challenges of PSOs, that the way development is organized in these type of projects to a large extent disalign with the commonly adopted bazaar model (popularized by Eric Raymond), which implies that development is carried out collaboratively in a larger community. Method: We plan to contrast public sector OSS projects with a set of earlier reported case studies of bazaar OSS projects, including Mockus et al.'s reporting of the Apache web server and Mozilla browser OSS projects, along with the replications performed on the FreeBSD, JBossAS, JOnAS, and Apache Geronimo OSS projects. To enable comparable results, we will replicate the methodology used by Mockus et al. on a purposefully sampled subset of public sector OSS projects. The subset will be identified and characterized quantitatively by mining relevant software repositories, and qualitatively investigated through interviews with individuals from involved organizations.Comment: Registered Report accepted at MSR'2

The Usefulness of the Recommendations Regarding the Information System Development Method Selection during the Era of Digitalization

The business criticality of information systems (IS) and their development (ISD) appear to have increased recently. Backsourcing, cosourcing and multisourcing of ISD are some of the consequences. They, in turn, extend the need for understanding how to select information systems development methods (ISDM). In this research, we first condensed the knowledge base of ISDM selection research into nine recommendations. We then interviewed 28 ISDM experts and asked them to evaluate how useful the extant ISDM selection recommendations of prior research are to IS user organizations. We discovered that most recommendations were perceived outdated and only limitedly useful. We finally contemplated that paying more attention to how ISDMs are used in business development contexts is a means to increase the usefulness of ISDM selection recommendations

Structural modelling for assessing the effectiveness of system for countering legalization of illicit money

The article suggests a scientific and methodological approach to the evaluation of the infrastructural component’s effectiveness in the anti-money laundering system due to digitalization. Structural modelling is the basis for the mentioned approach implementation, which consists of several steps. First, the input data is selected in terms of the effective regulation of the financial services market, law enforcement and judicial activities, and digitalization. Next, the moving average method is used to identify the growth rate of missing values in the available data series. Then, the selection of relevant factors for financial services market regulation, law enforcement activity, judicial activity and digitalization is based on the principal component analysis. After reducing the input array of data to a comparable form, a structural equations system can be constructed to reflect the impact of the digitalization level on the latent integral characteristics of the directions of anti-money laundering work done by regulatory authorities. Finally, the model is checked for adequacy. The result of this research can serve as an information base for further strengthening the digital vector in the development of regulation institutions and law enforcement agencies overseeing the financial services market, as well as for the radical transformation of courts in Ukraine since digitalization currently negatively affects them

Urban Ecosystem Services and Tourism

Urban tourism depends on the place specific qualities of destinations. In many cities, climate change poses a threat to these qualities, through increasing risk of excessive heat, draught and flooding. Cities need to adapt to reduce these risks. One way of doing this is to improve their green infrastructure. Urban forests, parks, rivers and wetlands may help reduce the effects of climate change in cities. At the same time, green infrastructure provide a variety of ecosystem services to the community. In particular, cultural ecosystem services such as recreation, andesthetical values take place in urban green infrastructure; they provide value in the form of improved experiences. These mainly benefit the locals but they may also be important for tourism. Such relations between ecosystem services and tourism have in earlier literature been recognized in rural contexts but very seldom in urban. This paper reports preliminary findings from qualitative case studies in the South of Sweden and Berlin, Germany. They focus on how urban planning projects (primarily aimed at mitigating GHG emissions and adapting to climatechange) can be extended to develop places where experience values for both residents and visitors are created alongside other kinds of ecosystem services. We suggest that the need for climate change adaptation in a city may be used as a means to improve its place specific qualities as a tourist destination. By developing green infrastructure in innovative and environmentally friendly ways, the quality of ecosystem services improves, including those relevant for both visitors and residents. Protecting and building green infrastructure, therebyenhancing a city´s visible qualities and its reputation as a sustainable destination, may also be valuable in marketing the city

Impact and Implications of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement in East and Southern Africa: 2nd WCO ESA Regional Research Conference

This book presents the papers, report and outcomes of the 2nd WCO ESA Regional Research Conference which was hosted by the Regional Training Centre (RTC) Kenya on the 23rd and 24th November, 2017, at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies (KSMS) in Nairobi, Kenya. It was co-organized by the ROCB and the RTC Kenya and attended by more than 200 participants from 20 nations. Participants included researchers and officials from various Customs administrations in the East and Southern Africa Region, WCO ESA Regional Training Centres (RTCs), the WCO, the African Union, the World Bank, Africa Development Bank, Regional Economic Committees (RECs) (the East African Community), the Government of Australia, Kenyan ministries, the private sector, academia, and other cooperating partners. The theme of the conference was “Impacts and Implication of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the WCO Mercator Programme to the ESA region” and covered the following topics: Impacts of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement in East and Southern Africa; Data Analysis for Effective Border Management in East and Southern Africa; Best Practices in Digital Customs in East and Southern Africa; E-commerce as a Driver for Economic Growth in East and Southern Africa; Securing and Facilitating Trade in East and Southern Africa; and Regional Integration: Addressing Levels of Intraregional Trade in East and Southern Africa. The Governing Council of the World Customs Organization, East and Southern Africa region, established the regional research programme aiming to build institutional capacity and the body of knowledge in customs through research. The objective of the programme is to encourage research on topical themes for customs in East and Southern Africa. The programme also aims to develop a body of knowledge to guide the decision-making process concerning trade facilitation and regional economic integration in the Region. It is also hoped that the research programme and the results from findings from the research initiatives will assist countries in sharing experiences, ideas, knowledge, and information on new innovations to improve Customs operations while creating new inventions to continue modernizing customs to ease facilitation of trade in East and Southern Africa. The envisaged output from this process will always be the publication of an e-book (and book) consisting of a consolidation of papers presented during the conference