111,131 research outputs found
Understanding and supporting large-scale requirements management
Large market-driven software companies face new challenges in requirements engineering and management that emerged due to their recent extensive growth. At the same time, the pressure generated by competitors’ and users’ expectations demands being more competitive, creative and flexible to more quickly respond to a rapidly changing market situation. In the pursuit of staying competitive in this context, new ideas on how to improve the current software engineering practice are requested to help maintaining the engineering efficiency while coping with growing size and complexity of requirements engineering processes and their products. This thesis focuses on understanding and supporting large-scale requirements management for developing software products to open markets. In particular, this thesis focuses on the following requirements management activities in the mentioned context, namely: scope management, variability management and requirements consolidation. The goals of the research effort in this thesis are to provide effective methods in supporting mentioned requirements management activities in a situation when the size of them and their complexity require large time and skills efforts. Based on empirical research, where both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized, this thesis reports on possible improvements for managing variability and presents visualization techniques to assist scope management for large-scale software product development contexts. Both reported ideas are empirically evaluated in case studies in a large-scale context. Additionally, the benefits of using linguistic methods for requirements consolidation are investigated in a replicated experimental study based on a relevant industry scenario
Usability Inspection in Model-Driven Web Development: Empirical Validation in WebML
There is a lack of empirically validated usability evaluation methods that can be applied to models in model-driven Web development. Evaluation of these models allows an early detection of usability problems perceived by the end-user. This motivated us to propose WUEP, a usability inspection method which can be integrated into different model-driven Web development processes. We previously demonstrated how WUEP can effectively be used when following the Object-Oriented Hypermedia method. In order to provide evidences about WUEP’s generalizability, this paper presents the operationalization and empirical validation of WUEP into another well-known method: WebML. The effectiveness, efficiency, perceived ease of use, and satisfaction of WUEP were evaluated in comparison to Heuristic Evaluation (HE) from the viewpoint of novice inspectors. The results show that WUEP was more effective and efficient than HE when detecting usability problems on models. Also, inspectors were satisfied when applying WUEP, and found it easier to use than HE.Fernández MartĂnez, A.; Abrahao Gonzales, SM.; Insfrán Pelozo, CE.; Matera, M. (2013). Usability Inspection in Model-Driven Web Development: Empirical Validation in WebML. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 8107:740-756. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-41533-3_457407568107AbrahĂŁo, S., Iborra, E., Vanderdonckt, J.: Usability Evaluation of User Interfaces Generated with a Model-Driven Architecture Tool. In: Maturing Usability: Quality in Software, Interaction and Value, pp. 3–32. Springer (2007)Atterer, R., Schmidt, A.: Adding Usability to Web Engineering Models and Tools. In: Lowe, D.G., Gaedke, M. (eds.) ICWE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3579, pp. 36–41. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)Basili, V., Rombach, H.: The TAME Project: Towards Improvement-Oriented Software Environments. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 14(6), 758–773 (1988)Briand, L., Labiche, Y., Di Penta, M., Yan-Bondoc, H.: An experimental investigation of formality in UML-based development. IEEE TSE 31(10), 833–849 (2005)Carifio, J., Perla, R.: Ten Common Misunderstandings, Misconceptions, Persistent Myths and Urban Legends about Likert Scales and Likert Response Formats and their Antidotes. Journal of Social Sciences 3(3), 106–116 (2007)Ceri, S., Fraternali, P., Bongio, A.: Web modeling language (WebML): a modeling language for designing Web sites. In: 9th International World Wide Web Conference, pp. 137–157 (2000)Ceri, S., Fraternali, P., Acerbis, R., Bongio, A., Butti, S., Ciapessoni, F., Conserva, C., Elli, R., Greppi, C., Tagliasacchi, M., Toffetti, G.: Architectural issues and solutions in the development of data-intensive Web applications. In: Proceedings of the 1st Biennial Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research, Asilomar, CA (2003)Conte, T., Massollar, J., Mendes, E., Travassos, G.H.: Usability Evaluation Based on Web Design Perspectives. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2007), pp. 146–155 (2007)Fernandez, A., Insfran, E., AbrahĂŁo, S.: Usability evaluation methods for the Web: a systematic mapping study. Information and Software Technology 53, 789–817 (2011)Fernandez, A., AbrahĂŁo, S., Insfran, E.: A Web usability evaluation process for model-driven Web development. In: Mouratidis, H., Rolland, C. (eds.) CAiSE 2011. LNCS, vol. 6741, pp. 108–122. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)Fernandez, A., AbrahĂŁo, S., Insfran, E., Matera, M.: Further Analysis on the Validation of a Usability Inspection Method for Model-Driven Web Development. In: 6th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2012), pp. 153–156 (2012)Fernandez, A., AbrahĂŁo, S., Insfran, E.: Empirical Validation of a Usability Inspection Method for Model-Driven Web Development. Journal of Systems and Software 86, 161–186 (2013)Fraternali, P., Matera, M., Maurino, A.: WQA: an XSL Framework for Analyzing the Quality of Web Applications. In: Proceedings of IWWOST 2002 - ECOOP 2002 Workshop, Malaga, Spain (2002)Hornbæk, K.: Dogmas in the assessment of usability evaluation methods. Behaviour & Information Technology 29(1), 97–111 (2010)Hwang, W., Salvendy, G.: Number of people required for usability evaluation: the 10±2 rule. Communications of the ACM 53(5), 130–113 (2010)International Organization for Standardization: ISO/IEC 25000, Software Engineering – Software Product Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE) – Guide to SQuaRE (2005)Juristo, N., Moreno, A.M.: Basics of Software Engineering Experimentation. Kluwer Academic Publishers (2001)Juristo, N., Moreno, A., Sanchez-Segura, M.I.: Guidelines for eliciting usability functionalities. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 33(11), 744–758 (2007)Matera, M., Costabile, M.F., Garzotto, F., Paolini, P.: SUE inspection: an effective method for systematic usability evaluation of hypermedia. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part A 32(1), 93–103 (2002)Matera, M., Rizzo, F., Carughi, G.: Web Usability: Principles and Evaluation Methods. In: Web Engineering, pp. 143–180. Springer (2006)Maxwell, K.: Applied Statistics for Software Managers. Software Quality Institute Series. Prentice Hall (2002)Molina, F., Toval, A.: Integrating usability requirements that can be evaluated in design time into Model Driven Engineering of Web Information Systems. Advances in Engineering Software 40(12), 1306–1317 (2009)Moreno, N., Vallecillo, A.: Towards interoperable Web engineering methods. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technolog 59(7), 1073–1092 (2008)Neuwirth, C.M., Regli, S.H.: IEEE Internet Computing Special Issue on Usability and the Web 6(2) (2002)Nielsen, J.: Heuristic evaluation. In: Usability Inspection Methods. John Wiley & Sons, NY (1994)Offutt, J.: Quality attributes of Web software applications. IEEE Software: Special Issue on Software Engineering of Internet Software, 25–32 (2002)Panach, I., Condori, N., Valverde, F., Aquino, N., Pastor, O.: Understandability measurement in an early usability evaluation for MDD. In: International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ESEM 2008), pp. 354–356 (2008)Webratio. Success stories, Online article, http://www.webratio.com/portal/content/en/success-storiesWohlin, C., Runeson, P., Host, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Weslen, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering - An Introduction. Kluwer (2000
Myths and Realities about Online Forums in Open Source Software Development: An Empirical Study
The use of free and open source software (OSS) is gaining momentum due to the
ever increasing availability and use of the Internet. Organizations are also
now adopting open source software, despite some reservations, in particular
regarding the provision and availability of support. Some of the biggest
concerns about free and open source software are post release software defects
and their rectification, management of dynamic requirements and support to the
users. A common belief is that there is no appropriate support available for
this class of software. A contradictory argument is that due to the active
involvement of Internet users in online forums, there is in fact a large
resource available that communicates and manages the provision of support. The
research model of this empirical investigation examines the evidence available
to assess whether this commonly held belief is based on facts given the current
developments in OSS or simply a myth, which has developed around OSS
development. We analyzed a dataset consisting of 1880 open source software
projects covering a broad range of categories in this investigation. The
results show that online forums play a significant role in managing software
defects, implementation of new requirements and providing support to the users
in open source software and have become a major source of assistance in
maintenance of the open source projects
A literature review of expert problem solving using analogy
We consider software project cost estimation from a problem solving perspective. Taking a cognitive psychological approach, we argue that the algorithmic basis for CBR tools is not representative of human problem solving and this mismatch could account for inconsistent results. We describe the fundamentals of problem solving, focusing on experts solving ill-defined problems. This is supplemented by a systematic literature review of empirical studies of expert problem solving of non-trivial problems. We identified twelve studies. These studies suggest that analogical reasoning plays an important role in problem solving, but that CBR tools do not model this in a biologically plausible way. For example, the ability to induce structure and therefore find deeper analogies is widely seen as the hallmark of an expert. However, CBR tools fail to provide support for this type of reasoning for prediction. We conclude this mismatch between experts’ cognitive processes and software tools contributes to the erratic performance of analogy-based prediction
Towards Guidelines for Preventing Critical Requirements Engineering Problems
Context] Problems in Requirements Engineering (RE) can lead to serious
consequences during the software development lifecycle. [Goal] The goal of this
paper is to propose empirically-based guidelines that can be used by different
types of organisations according to their size (small, medium or large) and
process model (agile or plan-driven) to help them in preventing such problems.
[Method] We analysed data from a survey on RE problems answered by 228
organisations in 10 different countries. [Results] We identified the most
critical RE problems, their causes and mitigation actions, organizing this
information by clusters of size and process model. Finally, we analysed the
causes and mitigation actions of the critical problems of each cluster to get
further insights into how to prevent them. [Conclusions] Based on our results,
we suggest preliminary guidelines for preventing critical RE problems in
response to context characteristics of the companies.Comment: Proceedings of the 42th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering
and Advanced Applications, 201
Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering: A Design for a Global Family of Surveys and First Results from Germany
For many years, we have observed industry struggling in defining a high
quality requirements engineering (RE) and researchers trying to understand
industrial expectations and problems. Although we are investigating the
discipline with a plethora of empirical studies, they still do not allow for
empirical generalisations. To lay an empirical and externally valid foundation
about the state of the practice in RE, we aim at a series of open and
reproducible surveys that allow us to steer future research in a problem-driven
manner. We designed a globally distributed family of surveys in joint
collaborations with different researchers and completed the first run in
Germany. The instrument is based on a theory in the form of a set of hypotheses
inferred from our experiences and available studies. We test each hypothesis in
our theory and identify further candidates to extend the theory by correlation
and Grounded Theory analysis. In this article, we report on the design of the
family of surveys, its underlying theory, and the full results obtained from
Germany with participants from 58 companies. The results reveal, for example, a
tendency to improve RE via internally defined qualitative methods rather than
relying on normative approaches like CMMI. We also discovered various RE
problems that are statistically significant in practice. For instance, we could
corroborate communication flaws or moving targets as problems in practice. Our
results are not yet fully representative but already give first insights into
current practices and problems in RE, and they allow us to draw lessons learnt
for future replications. Our results obtained from this first run in Germany
make us confident that the survey design and instrument are well-suited to be
replicated and, thereby, to create a generalisable empirical basis of RE in
practice
Six reasons for rejecting an industrial survey paper
Context: Despite their importance in any empirically based research program, industrial surveys are not very common in the software engineering literature. In our experience, a possible reason is their difficulty of publication. Goal: We would like to understand what are the issues that may prevent the publication of papers reporting industrial surveys. Method: In this preliminary work, we analyzed the surveys we conducted and extracted the main lessons learned in terms of issues and problems. Results: Most common critics posed to industrial surveys are: lack of novelty, limitation of the geographic scope and sampling issues. Conclusions: Most objections that led to reject a survey paper actually are not easy to overcome and others are not so serious. These objections could restrain researchers from conducting this type of studies that represent an important methodological asset. For these reasons, we think that reviewers should be less severe to judge survey papers provided that all the limitations of the study are well explained and highlighte
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