320,170 research outputs found
Selection of third party software in Off-The-Shelf-based software development: an interview study with industrial practitioners
The success of software development using third party components highly depends on the ability to select a suitable component for the intended application. The evidence shows that there is limited knowledge about current industrial OTS selection practices. As a result, there is often a gap between theory and practice, and the proposed methods for supporting selection are rarely adopted in the industrial practice. This paper's goal is to investigate the actual industrial practice of component selection in order to provide an initial empirical basis that allows the reconciliation of research and industrial endeavors. The study consisted of semi-structured interviews with 23 employees from 20 different software-intensive companies that mostly develop web information system applications. It provides qualitative information that help to further understand these practices, and emphasize some aspects that have been overlooked by researchers. For instance, although the literature claims that component repositories are important for locating reusable components; these are hardly used in industrial practice. Instead, other resources that have not received considerable attention are used with this aim. Practices and potential market niches for software-intensive companies have been also identified. The results are valuable from both the research and the industrial perspectives as they provide a basis for formulating well-substantiated hypotheses and more effective improvement strategies.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Software Engineers' Information Seeking Behavior in Change Impact Analysis - An Interview Study
Software engineers working in large projects must navigate complex
information landscapes. Change Impact Analysis (CIA) is a task that relies on
engineers' successful information seeking in databases storing, e.g., source
code, requirements, design descriptions, and test case specifications. Several
previous approaches to support information seeking are task-specific, thus
understanding engineers' seeking behavior in specific tasks is fundamental. We
present an industrial case study on how engineers seek information in CIA, with
a particular focus on traceability and development artifacts that are not
source code. We show that engineers have different information seeking
behavior, and that some do not consider traceability particularly useful when
conducting CIA. Furthermore, we observe a tendency for engineers to prefer less
rigid types of support rather than formal approaches, i.e., engineers value
support that allows flexibility in how to practically conduct CIA. Finally, due
to diverse information seeking behavior, we argue that future CIA support
should embrace individual preferences to identify change impact by empowering
several seeking alternatives, including searching, browsing, and tracing.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 25th International
Conference on Program Comprehensio
Dynamic Learning Media to Improve the Pedagogic Experience in Conveying of SCM Course
Abstract
This paper presents the application of free/open source software (FOSS) for developing educational
in Supply Chain Management (SCM) course. There were abundant educational tools based F
applications. However, lecturer still faces problems to implement such an learning media for impro
the pedagogic experience i.e. customizing of software function, developing of a specific educat
media, and illustrating of a SCM course content. The purpose of this research is to design dyn
learning media for increasing efficiency in conveying subject matter of SCM course. We combin
mobile and/or web devices with FOSS of web service to design dynamic learning media. It has a mo
of real distribution problem in commodity paddy was captured. We design an interactive Web-based
Mobile-based application by using WSDL, PHP and My SQL, and SOAP. The result of the resea
Mobile & Web SCM application as dynamic learning media- will be able to improve the pedag
experience to students.
Keywords: Educational tool, FOSS, dynamic learning media, SCM course, the pedagogic approach
Involving External Stakeholders in Project Courses
Problem: The involvement of external stakeholders in capstone projects and
project courses is desirable due to its potential positive effects on the
students. Capstone projects particularly profit from the inclusion of an
industrial partner to make the project relevant and help students acquire
professional skills. In addition, an increasing push towards education that is
aligned with industry and incorporates industrial partners can be observed.
However, the involvement of external stakeholders in teaching moments can
create friction and could, in the worst case, lead to frustration of all
involved parties. Contribution: We developed a model that allows analysing the
involvement of external stakeholders in university courses both in a
retrospective fashion, to gain insights from past course instances, and in a
constructive fashion, to plan the involvement of external stakeholders. Key
Concepts: The conceptual model and the accompanying guideline guide the
teachers in their analysis of stakeholder involvement. The model is comprised
of several activities (define, execute, and evaluate the collaboration). The
guideline provides questions that the teachers should answer for each of these
activities. In the constructive use, the model allows teachers to define an
action plan based on an analysis of potential stakeholders and the pedagogical
objectives. In the retrospective use, the model allows teachers to identify
issues that appeared during the project and their underlying causes. Drawing
from ideas of the reflective practitioner, the model contains an emphasis on
reflection and interpretation of the observations made by the teacher and other
groups involved in the courses. Key Lessons: Applying the model retrospectively
to a total of eight courses shows that it is possible to reveal hitherto
implicit risks and assumptions and to gain a better insight into the
interaction...Comment: Abstract shortened since arxiv.org limits length of abstracts. See
paper/pdf for full abstract. Paper is forthcoming, accepted August 2017.
Arxiv version 2 corrects misspelled author nam
How can SMEs benefit from big data? Challenges and a path forward
Big data is big news, and large companies in all sectors are making significant advances in their customer relations, product selection and development and consequent profitability through using this valuable commodity. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have proved themselves to be slow adopters of the new technology of big data analytics and are in danger of being left behind. In Europe, SMEs are a vital part of the economy, and the challenges they encounter need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. This paper identifies barriers to SME uptake of big data analytics and recognises their complex challenge to all stakeholders, including national and international policy makers, IT, business management and data science communities.
The paper proposes a big data maturity model for SMEs as a first step towards an SME roadmap to data analytics. It considers the ‘state-of-the-art’ of IT with respect to usability and usefulness for SMEs and discusses how SMEs can overcome the barriers preventing them from adopting existing solutions. The paper then considers management perspectives and the role of maturity models in enhancing and structuring the adoption of data analytics in an organisation. The history of total quality management is reviewed to inform the core aspects of implanting a new paradigm. The paper concludes with recommendations to help SMEs develop their big data capability and enable them to continue as the engines of European industrial and business success. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Innovation Initiatives in Large Software Companies: A Systematic Mapping Study
To keep the competitive advantage and adapt to changes in the market and
technology, companies need to innovate in an organised, purposeful and
systematic manner. However, due to their size and complexity, large companies
tend to focus on maintaining their business, which can potentially lower their
agility to innovate. This study aims to provide an overview of the current
research on innovation initiatives and to identify the challenges of
implementing the initiatives in the context of large software companies. The
investigation was performed using a systematic mapping approach of published
literature on corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. Then it was
complemented with interviews with four experts with rich industry experience.
Our study results suggest that, there is a lack of high quality empirical
studies on innovation initiative in the context of large software companies. A
total of 7 studies are conducted in such context, which reported 5 types of
initiatives: intrapreneurship, bootlegging, internal venture, spin-off and
crowdsourcing. Our study offers three contributions. First, this paper
represents the map of existing literature on innovation initiatives inside
large companies. The second contribution is to provide an innovation initiative
tree. The third contribution is to identify key challenges faced by each
initiative in large software companies. At the strategic and tactical levels,
there is no difference between large software companies and other companies. At
the operational level, large software companies are highly influenced by the
advancement of Internet technology. Large software companies use open
innovation paradigm as part of their innovation initiatives. We envision a
future work is to further empirically evaluate the innovation initiative tree
in large software companies, which involves more practitioners from different
companies
Mapping Big Data into Knowledge Space with Cognitive Cyber-Infrastructure
Big data research has attracted great attention in science, technology,
industry and society. It is developing with the evolving scientific paradigm,
the fourth industrial revolution, and the transformational innovation of
technologies. However, its nature and fundamental challenge have not been
recognized, and its own methodology has not been formed. This paper explores
and answers the following questions: What is big data? What are the basic
methods for representing, managing and analyzing big data? What is the
relationship between big data and knowledge? Can we find a mapping from big
data into knowledge space? What kind of infrastructure is required to support
not only big data management and analysis but also knowledge discovery, sharing
and management? What is the relationship between big data and science paradigm?
What is the nature and fundamental challenge of big data computing? A
multi-dimensional perspective is presented toward a methodology of big data
computing.Comment: 59 page
An open source collaboration infrastructure for Calibre
The study of Free and Open Source (Libre) software and the benefits provided by its processes and products to collaborative software development has been somewhat ad hoc. Each project wishing to use tools and techniques drawn from Libre software conducts its own research, thus duplicating effort, consequently there is a lack of established community practice on which new projects can draw. Long-standing intuitive theories of Libre development lack empirical validation. The long-term goal is to provide a resource to guide the evolution of Libre-software projects, from inception to maturity. The CALIBRE project is a co-ordination action aiming to address these issues through its research, its wider educational goals, and with an open invitation to the community to contribute. To succeed, the CALIBRE project needs an effective technological infrastructure which must support internal and external collaboration, communication and contribution to the project.
The requirements of CALIBRE are similar to those of a Libre software project; this suggests that adopting a SourceForge-style environment which will be incrementally enhanced with further specialised tools as the requirements become better understood will be a sensible strategy
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