COBOL to Java and Newspapers Still Get Delivered

This paper is an experience report on migrating an American newspaper company's business-critical IBM mainframe application to Linux servers by automatically translating the application's source code from COBOL to Java and converting the mainframe data store from VSAM KSDS files to an Oracle relational database. The mainframe application had supported daily home delivery of the newspaper since 1979. It was in need of modernization in order to increase interoperability and enable future convergence with newer enterprise systems as well as to reduce operating costs. Testing the modernized application proved to be the most vexing area of work. This paper explains the process that was employed to test functional equivalence between the legacy and modernized applications, the main testing challenges, and lessons learned after having operated and maintained the modernized application in production over the last eight months. The goal of delivering a functionally equivalent system was achieved, but problems remained to be solved related to new feature development, business domain knowledge transfer, and recruiting new software engineers to work on the modernized application.Comment: 4 pages, Accepted to be Published in: Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME), September 23-29, 2018, Madrid, Spai

Measuring and Improving Programmer Productivity at Phillips Petroleum Company

This paper is a case study of the Commercial Systems Development Division of Phillips Petroleum Company. It traces changes in the organization from 1980 - 1984 and analyzes the changes based on a theoretical foundation. Methods of measuring programmer productivity are described and project data is analyzed.Managemen

Information security

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1470/thumbnail.jp

Ground Systems Development Environment (GSDE) interface requirements analysis: Operations scenarios

This report is a preliminary assessment of the functional and data interface requirements to the link between the GSDE GS/SPF (Amdahl) and the Space Station Control Center (SSCC) and Space Station Training Facility (SSTF) Integration, Verification, and Test Environments (IVTE's). These interfaces will be involved in ground software development of both the control center and the simulation and training systems. Our understanding of the configuration management (CM) interface and the expected functional characteristics of the Amdahl-IVTE interface is described. A set of assumptions and questions that need to be considered and resolved in order to complete the interface functional and data requirements definitions are presented. A listing of information items defined to describe software configuration items in the GSDE CM system is included. It also includes listings of standard reports of CM information and of CM-related tools in the GSDE

Wheat signature modeling and analysis for improved training statistics

The author has identified the following significant results. The spectral, spatial, and temporal characteristics of wheat and other signatures in LANDSAT multispectral scanner data were examined through empirical analysis and simulation. Irrigation patterns varied widely within Kansas; 88 percent of wheat acreage in Finney was irrigated and 24 percent in Morton, as opposed to less than 3 percent for western 2/3's of the State. The irrigation practice was definitely correlated with the observed spectral response; wheat variety differences produced observable spectral differences due to leaf coloration and different dates of maturation. Between-field differences were generally greater than within-field differences, and boundary pixels produced spectral features distinct from those within field centers. Multiclass boundary pixels contributed much of the observed bias in proportion estimates. The variability between signatures obtained by different draws of training data decreased as the sample size became larger; also, the resulting signatures became more robust and the particular decision threshold value became less important