Experimental Study Using Functional Size Measurement in Building Estimation Models for Software Project Size

This paper reports on an experiment that investigates the predictability of software project size from software product size. The predictability research problem is analyzed at the stage of early requirements by accounting the size of functional requirements as well as the size of non-functional requirements. The experiment was carried out with 55 graduate students in Computer Science from Concordia University in Canada. In the experiment, a functional size measure and a project size measure were used in building estimation models for sets of web application development projects. The results show that project size is predictable from product size. Further replications of the experiment are, however, planed to obtain more results to confirm or disconfirm our claim

Applying Software Quality Criteria to Blockchain Applications: A Criteria Catalog

The selection of the suitable blockchain software ecosystem has become very complex, given the growing market. More and more products with different functionality (mainly consensus algorithms and smart contracts) are available on the market. To identify the correct blockchain system for the respective application, a catalog of criteria with a focus on software quality is developed in this work. This catalog supports the selection of the right application and can be individually weighted

Framework for a service-oriented measurement infrastructure

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2009Martin Kun

The Quamoco product quality modelling and assessment approach

Published software quality models either provide abstract quality attributes or concrete quality assessments. There are no models that seamlessly integrate both aspects. In the project Quamoco, we built a comprehensive approach with the aim to close this gap. For this, we developed in several iterations a meta quality model specifying general concepts, a quality base model covering the most important quality factors and a quality assessment approach. The meta model introduces the new concept of a product factor, which bridges the gap between concrete measurements and abstract quality aspects. Product factors have measures and instruments to operationalise quality by measurements from manual inspection and tool analysis. The base model uses the ISO 25010 quality attributes, which we refine by 200 factors and 600 measures for Java and C# systems. We found in several empirical validations that the assessment results fit to the expectations of experts for the corresponding systems. The empirical analyses also showed that several of the correlations are statistically significant and that the maintainability part of the base model has the highest correlation, which fits to the fact that this part is the most comprehensive. Although we still see room for extending and improving the base model, it shows a high correspondence with expert opinions and hence is able to form the basis for repeatable and understandable quality assessments in practice

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

Introduction of static quality analysis in small- and medium-sized software enterprises: experiences from technology transfer

Today, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the software industry face major challenges. Their resource constraints require high efficiency in development. Furthermore, quality assurance (QA) measures need to be taken to mitigate the risk of additional, expensive effort for bug fixes or compensations. Automated static analysis (ASA) can reduce this risk because it promises low application effort. SMEs seem to take little advantage of this opportunity. Instead, they still mainly rely on the dynamic analysis approach of software testing. In this article, we report on our experiences from a technology transfer project. Our aim was to evaluate the results static analysis can provide for SMEs as well as the problems that occur when introducing and using static analysis in SMEs. We analysed five software projects from five collaborating SMEs using three different ASA techniques: code clone detection, bug pattern detection and architecture conformance analysis. Following the analysis, we applied a quality model to aggregate and evaluate the results. Our study shows that the effort required to introduce ASA techniques in SMEs is small (mostly below one person-hour each). Furthermore, we encountered only few technical problems. By means of the analyses, we could detect multiple defects in production code. The participating companies perceived the analysis results to be a helpful addition to their current QA and will include the analyses in their QA process. With the help of the Quamoco quality model, we could efficiently aggregate and rate static analysis results. However, we also encountered a partial mismatch with the opinions of the SMEs. We conclude that ASA and quality models can be a valuable and affordable addition to the QA process of SMEs

Representation of business processes at multiple levels of abstraction (strategic, tactical and operational) during the requirements elicitation stage of a software project, and the measurement of their functional size with ISO 19761

This thesis aims at helping software engineers and business analysts to better model business processes when those models are meant to be used: for software requirements specification, and for functional size measurement purposes. The research goal of this thesis is to contribute to the representation of business processes for its use during the requirements elicitation stage of a software project. To achieve this goal, two research objectives are clearly defined: 1. To propose a novel modeling approach that generates business process models intended to be used in a software requirements elicitation activity. The modeling approach should not significantly increase the complexity of the modeling notations used to represent the business processes; and it must allow the active participation of the various stakeholders involved in a typical software project in order to represent, in a consistent and structured way, their needs and constraints. 2. To develop a procedure to measure the functional size of a software application from the business process models representing it. This measurement procedure should be compatible with the COSMIC ISO 19761 standard; and it should be able to be used independently of the modeling notation used to represent the business process. To achieve the first objective, this thesis proposes a novel modeling approach (coined BPM+) that models business processes at three levels of abstraction: strategic, tactical and operational. An a priori version of BPM+ was designed based on the findings of the literature review. This a priori version was iteratively refined through a pilot case study in industry, a series of ontological analyses, and a survey of experts. As a result, a reviewed version of BPM+ was proposed. The reviewed version was evaluated through a second case study in industry. Therefore, the design of BPM+ has been based on a triangulation of evidences obtained from various sources. To achieve the second objective, the measurement procedure was developed from an analytical comparison between the specifications of COSMIC and those of the modeling notations selected for this research (i.e. BPMN and Qualigram). This analytical comparison helped to define a set of modeling guidelines for the business application software domain. The comparison also allowed defining a set of mapping rules between the modeling notations’ constructs and the COSMIC concepts. In addition, the modeling guidelines were adapted for their application to the real-time software domain. The measurement procedure was evaluated by comparing its measurement results to those obtained in COSMIC reference case studies. The research results demonstrate that: 1. BPM+ allows generating business process models that represent in a consistent and structured way the needs of various stakeholders. 2. Qualigram notation is better suited to BPM+’s design. In addition, Qualigram notation is preferred to be used for non-IT stakeholders, while BPMN is preferred for IT stakeholders. 3. The measurement procedure was successfully applied using two different notations: Qualigram and BPMN, and in two different software domains: the business application domain and the real-time domain. 4. The accuracy of the measurement procedure is in conformity with all the rules of the ISO 19761 standard