Analyzing the Importance of Learnability and Understandability Quality Attributes in Reference to SPL Feature Models

The modeling foundation of SPL is promoting software reuse by segregation of variant features of all the products whi ch belong to a family. The analysis of various quality attribute s is very important in reference to SPL feature models. Identifying whether a feature model is easy to use and learn will help develop a successful product line. Two important quality sub factors of usability i.e. understandability and communicativeness play a great role in development of successful product line feature model. If the understanding of any feature model is low, it will result in lesser use of that feature model. Same applies to communicativeness , the more the communicativeness of a feature model, the more the usability. In other words, the successful reuse of any feature model will depend on the degree of its understa nding and communicativeness. C urrent analysis methods usually focus only on functional requirements of the product lines and do not focus on product quality. Whereas, non functional requirement s like maintainability, dependability and usability etc are essential dimensions of variability. This paper is intended to study the role of understandability and communicativeness over feature models. It also throws light on t he effect of these quality su b factors on SPL feature models and suggests ways to improve their degr

Managing technical debt through software metrics, refactoring and traceability

Technical Debt (TD) is a concept borrowed from the financial domain to express extra maintenancecosts caused by short-term solutions that compromise internal quality in order to meet urgent business demands. TD can occur throughout the life cycle of software development, and it can be relatedto different artifacts. Thus, different TD types exist, among which Code TD, Design TD andDocumentation TD are the most prevalent ones. To efficiently manage TD there are several activitiesthat can be performed, like the identification and prioritisation of TD instances, activities aimingat TD repayment, as well as activities aiming to prevent the further accumulation of TD.The research problem addressed in this thesis concerns the management of TD with respect to thethree aforementioned TD types (i.e., Code, Design and Documentation TD). Specifically, in termsof Code TD it concerns the lack of high accuracy in tooling that supports the identification, prioritisationand resolution of bad smells. In terms of Design TD, it concerns the lack of systematic supportfor identifying incorrectly instantiated design patterns, as well as the lack of guidance on howto refactor the design. In terms of Documentation TD, it concerns the lack of tools for preventingthe occurrence of insufficient, incomplete or outdated requirements documentation. The overallsolution consists of the application of software metrics, as well as refactoring and traceability techniquesto alleviate these shortcomings

ON THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF RESEARCH INTO THE UNDERSTANDABILITY OF BUSINESS PROCESS MODELS

Against the background of the growing significance of Business Process Management (BPM) for Information Systems (IS) research and practice, especially the field of Business Process Modeling gains more and more importance. Business process models support communication about as well as the coordination of processes and have become a widely adopted tool in practice. As the understandability of business process models plays a crucial role in communication processes, more and more studies on process model understandability have been conducted in IS research. This article aims at investigating underlying theories of research into business process model understandability by means of an in-depth analysis of 126 systematically retrieved research articles on the topic. It shows in how far process model understandability research is multi-theoretically founded. Identified theories differ regarding addressed subject matters, their coverage, their focus as well as the underlying notion of model understanding, which is exemplarily demonstrated and discussed in this article. Moreover, implications of the findings are discussed and an outlook on future business process model understandability research and on the integration potential of theories in this field is given

Testability Assessment Model for Object Oriented Software based on Internal and External Quality Factors

Software testability is coming out to be most frequent talked about subject then the underrated and unpopular quality factor it used to be in past few years. The correct and timely assessment of testability can lead to improvisation of software testing process. Though many researchers and quality controllers have proved its importance, but still the research has not gained much momentum in emphasizing the need of making testability analysis necessary during all software development phases. In this paper we review and analyse the factors affecting testability estimation of object oriented software systems during design and analysis phase of development life cycle. These factors are then linked together in the form of new assessment model for object oriented software testability. The proposed model will be evaluated using analytical hierarchical process (AHP)

The Influence of Using Collapsed Sub-processes and Groupson the Understandability of Business Process Models

Many factors influence the creation of businessprocess models which are understandable for a targetaudience. Understandability of process models becomesmore critical when size and complexity of the modelsincrease. Using vertical modularization to decompose suchmodels hierarchically into modules is considered toimprove their understandability. To investigate thisassumption, two experiments were conducted. The exper-iments involved 2 large-scale real-life business processmodels that were modeled using BPMN v2.0 (BusinessProcess Model and Notation) in the form of collaborationdiagrams. Each process was modeled in 3 modularityforms: fully-flattened, flattened where activities areclustered using BPMN groups, and modularized usingseparately viewed BPMN sub-processes. The objective wasto investigate if and how different forms of modularityrepresentation (used for vertical modularization) in BPMNcollaboration diagrams influence the understandability ofprocess models. In addition to the forms of modularityrepresentation, the presentation medium (paper vs. com-puter) and model reader’s level of business process mod-eling competency were investigated as factors thatpotentially influence model comprehension. 60 businesspractitioners from a large organization and 140 graduatestudents participated in our experiments. The results indi-cate that, when these three modularity representations areconsidered, it is best to present the model in a ‘flattened’form (with or without the use of groups) and in the ‘paper’format in order to optimally understand a BPMN model.The results also show that the model reader’s businessprocess modeling competency is an important factor ofprocess model comprehension

Identifying the determinants of e-learning service delivery quality

In recent years, many universities and educational institutions have made considerable investments in e-learning systems. These are systems that deliver educational services via electronic channels. Service quality has been studied in previous research as a critical factor for measuring systems success. Modest attention has been paid to factors affecting the service delivery quality in the e-learning arena. The objective of this study is to identify the factors considered to impact the e-learning systems service delivery quality through a survey of stakeholders. The sample was 720 students enrolled in online courses at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ).The main finding of this study is that IT infrastructure, system quality, and information quality significantly affect service delivery quality in the e-learning systems field. IT infrastructure services were found to play a critical role in improving system quality and information quality, and this construct can be considered as a foundation of delivering high quality educational services.<br /