Improving Software Team Productivity During System Construction

System construction (detailed design, coding and testing) is crucial to software project because it requires extensive (estimated 1/3 of the overall) human and computing resources. This is because during this period a large number of specialists implement the system in parallel. While a large team constructs the system at a faster rate, it also results to conceptual disintegration on system design and thus periodical synchronization among developers and integration of software modules become necessary to ensure system quality

Investigating the factors affecting software development productivity by using exploratory factor analysis [in Turkish - Yazılım Geliştirme Üretkenliğini Etkileyen Faktörlerin Açımlayıcı Faktör Analizi Yöntemi Kullanılarak İncelenmesi]

Bu çalışmanın amacı yazılım mühendisliği üretkenlik ölçümleri için kullanılabilecek üretkenlik, sosyal üretkenlik ve sosyal sermaye kav- ramlarına dayalı (üç boyutlu) bir ölçek geliştirmektir. Bu amaç doğrultu- sunda yazılım geliştirme süreçlerini etkileyen etmenlerin sosyal ve teknik boyutları ve birbirleri ile olan ilişkileri hem teorik hem de pratik boyutta sorgulanmıştır. Araştırmanın teorik boyutunda, yazılım üretkenliği için yapılan bir literatür taraması sonucunda elde edilen etmenlerin yazılım süreçlerini etkileyen kavramlarla ilişkisi incelenmiş, ampirik boyutunda ise 213 yazılım mühendisi üzerinde yapılan bir anket yardımı ile bulunan etmenlerin öngörülen kavramlar yardımı ile ifade edilip edilemeyeceği araştırılmıştır. Bir başka deyişle, ölçeği oluşturan her bir etmenin bir- birleriyle nasıl gruplaştıkları ve üretkenlik, sosyal üretkenlik ve sosyal sermaye kavramlarını ne ölçüde anlamlandırdıkları incelenmiştir. Yapı- lan öncül analiz sonuçlarına dayanarak, oluşturduğumuz ölçeğin, yazılım geliştirme üretkenliği, sosyal üretkenlik ve sosyal sermaye kavramlarını öngörülen etmenler cinsinden ifade edebilen, geçerli ve güvenilir bir öl- çüm aracı olduğu söylenebilir

Web development productivity improvement through object-oriented application framework

Most of the commercial and industrial web applications are complex, difficult to implement, risky to maintain and requires deep understanding of the requirements for customization. As today's software market is more competitive, productivity has become a major concern in software development industry. The aim of this research is to design and develop an application framework for accelerating web development productivity through object-oriented technology. It allows customization, design reuse and automatic code generation to support productivity improvement as a breakthrough solution for the given problem. This research employed systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the source of complexity and productivity factors. Agile development methodology was used to design the framework and it was validated by empirical data from two commercial projects. Results showed that object-oriented application framework (OOAF) has significant factors that affect productivity and dramatically improve higher productivity over traditional approach. It has fulfilled the current needs by reducing complexities, development efforts and accelerates web development productivity. This research contributes in the area of software engineering, specifically in the field of software productivity improvement and software customization. These will lead to faster development time for software industries

A discussion on the Role of People in Global Software Development.

Literature is producing a considerable amount of papers which focus on the risks, challenges and solutions of global software development (GSD). However, the influence of human factors on the success of GSD projects requires further study. The aim of our paper is twofold. First, to identify the challenges related to the human factors in GSD and, second, to propose the solution(s), which could help in solving or reducing the overall impact of these challenges. The main conclusions of this research can be valuable to organizations that are willing to achieve the quality objectives regarding GSD projects

Effective social productivity measurements during software development: an empirical study

Much of contemporary scientific discussion regarding factors that influence software development productivity is undertaken in various domains where there is an insufficient empirical basis for exploring socio-technical factors of productivity that are specific to a software development organization. The purpose of the study is to characterize the multidimensional nature of software development productivity and its social aspects as a set of latent constructs (i.e. variables that are not directly observed) for a medium-sized software company. To this end, we designed an exploratory in-depth field study based on the hypothesized productivity constructs, which were modeled by a set of factors identified from literature reviews, and later refined by industrial focus groups. In order to demonstrate the applicability of our approach, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis with the data attained from a questionnaire with 216 participants. To investigate factors of influence further, we analyzed the impact of selected team-based variables over the latent constructs of productivity. Taken together, our findings confirm that such an approach can be used to explore the quantifiable influence of socio-technical factors that would affect productivity of a particular software development organization. Ultimately, the resulting model provides guidance to explore the comparative importance of a set of firm-specific factors that may help to improve the productivity of the organization

Lessons Learned from Applying Social Network Analysis on an Industrial Free/Libre/Open Source Software Ecosystem

Many software projects are no longer done in-house by a single organization. Instead, we are in a new age where software is developed by a networked community of individuals and organizations, which base their relations to each other on mutual interest. Paradoxically, recent research suggests that software development can actually be jointly-developed by rival firms. For instance, it is known that the mobile-device makers Apple and Samsung kept collaborating in open source projects while running expensive patent wars in the court. Taking a case study approach, we explore how rival firms collaborate in the open source arena by employing a multi-method approach that combines qualitative analysis of archival data (QA) with mining software repositories (MSR) and Social Network Analysis (SNA). While exploring collaborative processes within the OpenStack ecosystem, our research contributes to Software Engineering research by exploring the role of groups, sub-communities and business models within a high-networked open source ecosystem. Surprising results point out that competition for the same revenue model (i.e., operating conflicting business models) does not necessary affect collaboration within the ecosystem. Moreover, while detecting the different sub-communities of the OpenStack community, we found out that the expected social tendency of developers to work with developers from same firm (i.e., homophily) did not hold within the OpenStack ecosystem. Furthermore, while addressing a novel, complex and unexplored open source case, this research also contributes to the management literature in coopetition strategy and high-tech entrepreneurship with a rich description on how heterogeneous actors within a high-networked ecosystem (involving individuals, startups, established firms and public organizations) joint-develop a complex infrastructure for big-data in the open source arena.Comment: As accepted by the Journal of Internet Services and Applications (JISA

A DISCUSSION ON THE ROLE OF PEOPLE IN GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Preliminary notes Literature is producing a considerable amount of papers which focus on the risks, challenges and solutions of global software development (GSD). However, the influence of human factors on the success of GSD projects requires further study. The aim of our paper is twofold. First, to identify the challenges related to the human factors in GSD and, second, to propose the solution(s), which could help in solving or reducing the overall impact of these challenges. The main conclusions of this research can be valuable to organizations that are willing to achieve the quality objectives regarding GSD projects. Keywords: global software development, people management, software industry, People CMM Rasprava o ulozi ljudi u globalnom razvoju softvera Prethodno priopćenje U literaturi se može naći priličan broj radova koji se bave rizicima, izazovima i rješenjima za globalni razvoj softvera (GSD). Međutim, utjecaj ljudskog faktora na uspjeh projekata o globalnom razvoju softvera zahtijeva dodatno istraživanje. Ovaj rad ima dvojak cilj. Prvo, identificirati izazove povezane s ljudskim faktorima u GSD i, drugo, predložiti rješenje (rješenja) koje bi moglo pomoći u rješavanju ili reduciranju cjelokupnog djelovanja tih izazova. Glavni zaključci ovog istraživanja mogli bi biti važni organizacijama koje žele postići kvalitetne rezultate projekata koji se bave globalnim razvojem softvera. Ključne riječi: globalni razvoj softvera, upravljanje ljudima, softverska industrija, People CMM (People Capability Maturity Model -Model osposobljavanja ljudi

A discussion on the role of people in global software development

U literaturi se može naći priličan broj radova koji se bave rizicima, izazovima i rješenjima za globalni razvoj softvera (GSD). Međutim, utjecaj ljudskog faktora na uspjeh projekata o globalnom razvoju softvera zahtijeva dodatno istraživanje. Ovaj rad ima dvojak cilj. Prvo, identificirati izazove povezane s ljudskim faktorima u GSD i, drugo, predložiti rješenje (rješenja) koje bi moglo pomoći u rješavanju ili reduciranju cjelokupnog djelovanja tih izazova. Glavni zaključci ovog istraživanja mogli bi biti važni organizacijama koje žele postići kvalitetne rezultate projekata koji se bave globalnim razvojem softvera.Literature is producing a considerable amount of papers which focus on the risks, challenges and solutions of global software development (GSD). However, the influence of human factors on the success of GSD projects requires further study. The aim of our paper is twofold. First, to identify the challenges related to the human factors in GSD and, second, to propose the solution(s), which could help in solving or reducing the overall impact of these challenges. The main conclusions of this research can be valuable to organizations that are willing to achieve the quality objectives regarding GSD projects

Investigating software process in practice: a grounded theory perspective

This thesis is concerned with how software process and software process improvement is practiced within the indigenous Irish software product industry. Using the grounded theory methodology, the study utilises in-depth interviews to examine the attitude and perceptions of practitioners towards software process and software process improvement. The outcome of the work is a theory, grounded in the field data, that explains how software processes are formed and evolve, and when and why software process improvement is undertaken. The resultant grounded theory is based on two conceptual themes, Process Formation and Process Evolution, and one core theoretical category, Cost of Process. The empirical investigation shows that software process improvement programmes are implemented by companies as a reaction to business events, and how many software managers reject software process improvement because o f the associated costs. In addition, indigenous Irish software companies largely ignore commercial best practice software process improvement models, and the reasons for this are discussed. The research also argues that software process improvement is not solely technologycentred but is also affected by wider human and organisational factors. As these ‘sociocultural’ influences have been more widely addressed in the Information Systems discipline, than in Software Engineering, this work draws on the experiences and lessons from both disciplines and ultimately resides between these two academic fields. The results o f this work provide new light on the issues facing software process and process improvement in small software product companies and make a contribution towards bridging the gaps between research and practice, and theory and practice, in both Software Engineering and Information Systems