545 research outputs found
Software Measurement Activities in Small and Medium Enterprises: an Empirical Assessment
An empirical study for evaluating the proper implementation of measurement/metric programs in software companies in one area of Turkey is presented. The research questions are discussed and validated with the help of senior software
managers (more than 15 years’ experience) and then used for interviewing a variety of medium and small scale software companies in Ankara. Observations show that there is a
common reluctance/lack of interest in utilizing measurements/metrics despite the fact that they are well known in the industry. A side product of this research is that internationally recognized standards such as ISO and CMMI are pursued if they are a part of project/job
requirements; without these requirements, introducing those standards to the companies remains as a long-term target to increase quality
Measuring Qualities for OSGi Component-Based Applications
International audienceComponent-based software engineering (CBSE) begins to reach a certain level of maturity. Indeed, for the development of complex applications the use of component paradigm has become common. Therefore, the evaluation of the quality of these applications becomes necessary. In this context, the use of metrics is considered very important. Several metrics specific to component-based applications have been proposed. However, any of these metrics gained the consensus of the CBSE community and mainly there is no proposed tool to support them. As a large part of frameworks for component-based application development is based on object-oriented technology, we propose to use some object-oriented (OO) metrics to evaluate component-based applications produced with this kind of framework. Indeed, these metrics became a standard in OO community. So, they are well-defined, well-known and empirically validated. To identify which object-oriented metrics are useful for the evaluation of component-based applications, we have conducted an experimental study on 10 OSGi applications. This study also gives us the opportunity to discuss on the respect by OSGi developers of some properties pointed out by the literatur
A semi-automatic approach to code smells detection
Eradication of code smells is often pointed out as a way to improve readability, extensibility and design in existing software. However, code smell detection remains time consuming and error-prone, partly due to the inherent subjectivity of the detection processes presently available. In view of mitigating the subjectivity problem, this dissertation presents a tool that automates a technique for the detection and assessment of code smells in Java source code, developed as an Eclipse plugin. The technique is based upon a Binary Logistic Regression model that uses complexity metrics as independent variables and is calibrated by expert‟s knowledge. An overview of the technique is provided, the tool is described and validated by an example case study
A Gap analysis methodology for the team software process
Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200
Re-Imagining Journalism: Local News for a Networked World
Details strategies for realizing healthy local information ecologies through for-profit and nonprofit media; higher education and community institutions; emphasis on relevance, research, and revenues; and government support. Includes case summaries
Software development process mining: discovery, conformance checking and enhancement
Context. Modern software projects require the proper allocation of human, technical and
financial resources. Very often, project managers make decisions supported only by their personal
experience, intuition or simply by mirroring activities performed by others in similar
contexts. Most attempts to avoid such practices use models based on lines of code, cyclomatic
complexity or effort estimators, thus commonly supported by software repositories which are
known to contain several flaws.
Objective. Demonstrate the usefulness of process data and mining methods to enhance the
software development practices, by assessing efficiency and unveil unknown process insights,
thus contributing to the creation of novel models within the software development analytics
realm.
Method. We mined the development process fragments of multiple developers in three
different scenarios by collecting Integrated Development Environment (IDE) events during their
development sessions. Furthermore, we used process and text mining to discovery developers’
workflows and their fingerprints, respectively.
Results. We discovered and modeled with good quality developers’ processes during programming
sessions based on events extracted from their IDEs. We unveiled insights from
coding practices in distinct refactoring tasks, built accurate software complexity forecast models
based only on process metrics and setup a method for characterizing coherently developers’
behaviors. The latter may ultimately lead to the creation of a catalog of software development
process smells.
Conclusions. Our approach is agnostic to programming languages, geographic location or
development practices, making it suitable for challenging contexts such as in modern global
software development projects using either traditional IDEs or sophisticated low/no code platforms.Contexto. Projetos de software modernos requerem a correta alocação de recursos humanos,
técnicos e financeiros. Frequentemente, os gestores de projeto tomam decisões suportadas
apenas na sua própria experiência, intuição ou simplesmente espelhando atividades executadas
por terceiros em contextos similares. As tentativas para evitar tais práticas baseiam-se em
modelos que usam linhas de código, a complexidade ciclomática ou em estimativas de esforço,
sendo estes tradicionalmente suportados por repositórios de software conhecidos por conterem
várias limitações.
Objetivo. Demonstrar a utilidade dos dados de processo e respetivos métodos de análise na
melhoria das práticas de desenvolvimento de software, colocando o foco na análise da eficiência
e revelando aspetos dos processos até então desconhecidos, contribuindo para a criação de
novos modelos no contexto de análises avançadas para o desenvolvimento de software.
Método. Explorámos os fragmentos de processo de vários programadores em três cenários
diferentes, recolhendo eventos durante as suas sessões de desenvolvimento no IDE. Adicionalmente,
usámos métodos de descoberta e análise de processos e texto no sentido de modelar o
fluxo de trabalho dos programadores e as suas caracterÃsticas individuais, respetivamente.
Resultados. Descobrimos e modelámos com boa qualidade os processos dos programadores
durante as suas sessões de trabalho, usando eventos provenientes dos seus IDEs. Revelámos factos
desconhecidos sobre práticas de refabricação, construÃmos modelos de previsão da complexidade
ciclomática usando apenas métricas de processo e criámos um método para caracterizar
coerentemente os comportamentos dos programadores. Este último, pode levar à criação de um
catálogo de boas/más práticas no processo de desenvolvimento de software.
Conclusões. A nossa abordagem é agnóstica em termos de linguagens de programação,
localização geográfica ou prática de desenvolvimento, tornando-a aplicável em contextos complexos
tal como em projetos modernos de desenvolvimento global que utilizam tanto os IDEs
tradicionais como as atuais e sofisticadas plataformas "low/no code"
Error propagation metrics from XMI
This work describes the production of an application Error Propagation Metrics from XMI which can extract process and display software design metrics from XMI files. The tool archives these design metrics in a standard XML format defined by a metric document type definition.;XMI is a flavour of XML allowing the description of UML models. As such, the XMI representation of a software design will include information from which a variety of software design metrics can be extracted. These metrics are potentially useful in improving the software design process, either throughout the early stages of design if a suitable XMI-enabled modelling tool is deployed, or to enable the comparison of completed software projects, by extracting design metrics from UML models reverse engineered from the implemented source code.;The tool is able to derive the error propagation of metrics from test XMI files created from UML sequence and state diagrams and from reverse engineered Java source code. However, variation was observed between the XMI representations generated by different software design tools, limiting the ability of the tool to process XMI from all sources. Furthermore, it was noted that subtle differences between UML design representations might have a marked effect on the quality of metrics derived.;In conclusion in order to validate the usefulness of these metrics that can be extracted from XMI files it would be useful to follow well-documented design projects throughout the total design and implementation process. Alternatively, the tool might be used to compare metrics from well-matched design implementations. In either case design metrics will only be of true value to software engineers if they can be associated empirically with a validated measure of system quality
Improvement of Standardized Documentation of Patients with COPD in an Acute Care Setting
The purpose of this project was to improve patient clinical outcomes of average length of stay, mortality rate, and readmission within 30 days by increasing health care provider order set usage and documentation as it relates to patients with a primary diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Epic â„¢ computer based clinical documentation by healthcare providers at The Christ Hospital (TCH) was inconsistent. The PICOT question developed was: in the COPD population of an acute care hospital, how does standardized electronic COPD process measure documentation and order set usage compared to no COPD process measure documentation and order set usage effect patient outcome measures, within a two month timeframe? The Evidence Based Practice Improvement Model was used to guide the project. The evidence base for the documentation improvement in the project was the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines. Two opportunities to improve the documentation were the COPD exacerbation order sets and a Respiratory Therapy (RT) COPD assessment. The COPD Exacerbation order set for health care providers included a general information section, consults, nursing orders, respiratory orders, and medications. Specific orders were pre-checked, giving the healthcare provider an opportunity to check or uncheck any individual order in each section depending on the individual patient. The RT COPD assessment consists of six categories for documentation: 1) baseline activity, 2) COPD Assessment Test (CATâ„¢), 3) Spirometry Classification, 4) COPD exacerbations, and 5) COPD diagnostics, and 6) COPD Inhaled Therapy Score. Tests of change included creating, implementing, re-vising, and reeducating the COPD exacerbation order set usage and the RT COPD assessment standard documentation flow sheet in Epic â„¢ production. Both documentation improvement opportunities were placed into Epic â„¢ Production.
A total of 151 acute care admissions (ACA) were reviewed from November 1, 2014 through January 31, 2015. The COPD exacerbation order set usage and documentation compliance reached the desired outcome of 50% week five. The best single week for COPD exacerbation order set usage at 66.7% week thirteen. The RT COPD assessment documentation exceeded the desired outcome of 100% week fourteen. The clinical outcomes data varied from November 2013 to January 2014. The ALOS varied from 5.91 days in November decreasing to 4.56 days in December and 5.84 days in January. Mortality rate varied from 3.03 in November decreasing to 0.00 in December and 1.35 in January. The percent of COPD patients readmitted within 30 days was 18.75 in November decreasing to 11.54 in December, and 15.07 in January. All three clinical outcome measures for the same comparable quarter timeframe: ALOS, mortality rate, and readmission with 30 days decreased. ALOS decreased from 5.08 for Oct – Dec 2013 to 4.98 for Oct – Dec 2014 (a decrease of 0.1). Mortality rate decreased from 1.77 for Oct – Dec 2013 to 1.63 Oct – Dec 2014 (a 0.14 decrease). Readmission within 30 days decreased from 14.41 for Oct – Dec 2013 to 14.05 for Oct – Dec 2014 (a 0.14 decrease)
- …