54,425 research outputs found
Integrating automated support for a software management cycle into the TAME system
Software managers are interested in the quantitative management of software quality, cost and progress. An integrated software management methodology, which can be applied throughout the software life cycle for any number purposes, is required. The TAME (Tailoring A Measurement Environment) methodology is based on the improvement paradigm and the goal/question/metric (GQM) paradigm. This methodology helps generate a software engineering process and measurement environment based on the project characteristics. The SQMAR (software quality measurement and assurance technology) is a software quality metric system and methodology applied to the development processes. It is based on the feed forward control principle. Quality target setting is carried out before the plan-do-check-action activities are performed. These methodologies are integrated to realize goal oriented measurement, process control and visual management. A metric setting procedure based on the GQM paradigm, a management system called the software management cycle (SMC), and its application to a case study based on NASA/SEL data are discussed. The expected effects of SMC are quality improvement, managerial cost reduction, accumulation and reuse of experience, and a highly visual management reporting system
Using Counts as Heuristics for the Analysis of Static Models
The upstream activities of software development are often viewed as both the most
important, in terms of cost, and the yet the least understood, and most problematic, particularly in terms of satisfying customer requirements. Business process modelling is
one solution that is being increasingly used in conjunction with traditional software
development, often feeding in to requirements and analysis activities. In addition,
research in Systems Engineering for Business Process Change, highlights the importance
of modelling business processes in evolving and maintaining the legacy systems that
support those processes. However, the major use of business process modelling, is to
attempt to restructure the business process, in order to improve some given aspect, e.g.,
cost or time. This restructuring may be seen either as separate activity or as a pre-cursor
to the development of systems to support the new or improved process. Hence, the
analysis of these business models is vital to the improvement of the process, and as a
consequence to the development of supporting software systems. Supporting this analysis
is the focus of this paper.
Business processes are typically described with static (diagrammatic) models. This paper
proposes the use of measures (counts) to aid analysis and comparison of these static
process descriptions. The proposition is illustrated by showing how measures can be
applied to a commonly used process-modelling notation, Role Activity Diagrams (RADs).
Heuristics for RADs are described and measures suggested which support those
heuristics. An example process is used to show how a coupling measure can be used to
highlight features in RADs useful to the process modeller.
To fully illustrate the proposition the paper describes and applies a framework for the
theoretical validation of the coupling measure. An empirical evaluation follows. This is
illustrated by two case studies; the first based on the bidding process of a large
telecommunications systems supplier, and the second a study of ten prototyping processes
across a number of organisations.
These studies found that roles of the same type exhibited similar levels of coupling across
processes. Where roles did not adhere to tentative threshold values, further investigation
revealed unusual circumstances or hidden behaviour. Notably, study of the prototyping
roles, which exhibited the greatest variation in coupling, found that coupling was highly
correlated with the size of the development team. This suggests that prototyping in large
projects had a different process to that for small projects, using more mechanisms for
communication. Hence, the empirical studies support the view that counts (measures)
may be useful in the analysis of static process models
Is agile project management applicable to construction?
This paper briefly summarises the evolution of Agile Project Management (APM) and differentiates it from lean and agile production and âleagileâ construction. The significant benefits being realized through employment of APM within the information systems industry are stated. The characteristics of APM are explored, including: philosophy, organizational attitudes and practices, planning, execution and control and learning. Finally, APM is subjectively assessed as to its potential contribution to the pre-design, design and construction phases.
In conclusion, it is assessed that APM offers considerable potential for application in predesign and design but that there are significant hurdles to its adoption in the actual construction phase. Should these be overcome, APM offers benefits well beyond any individual project
Technical Debt Prioritization: State of the Art. A Systematic Literature Review
Background. Software companies need to manage and refactor Technical Debt
issues. Therefore, it is necessary to understand if and when refactoring
Technical Debt should be prioritized with respect to developing features or
fixing bugs. Objective. The goal of this study is to investigate the existing
body of knowledge in software engineering to understand what Technical Debt
prioritization approaches have been proposed in research and industry. Method.
We conducted a Systematic Literature Review among 384 unique papers published
until 2018, following a consolidated methodology applied in Software
Engineering. We included 38 primary studies. Results. Different approaches have
been proposed for Technical Debt prioritization, all having different goals and
optimizing on different criteria. The proposed measures capture only a small
part of the plethora of factors used to prioritize Technical Debt qualitatively
in practice. We report an impact map of such factors. However, there is a lack
of empirical and validated set of tools. Conclusion. We observed that technical
Debt prioritization research is preliminary and there is no consensus on what
are the important factors and how to measure them. Consequently, we cannot
consider current research conclusive and in this paper, we outline different
directions for necessary future investigations
IT service management: towards a contingency theory of performance measurement
Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) focuses on IT service creation, design, delivery and maintenance. Measurement is one of the basic underlying elements of service science and this paper contributes to service science by focussing on the selection of performance metrics for ITSM. Contingency theory is used to provide a theoretical foundation for the study. Content analysis of interviews of ITSM managers at six organisations revealed that selection of metrics is influenced by a discrete set of factors. Three categories of factors were identified: external environment, parent organisationand IS organisation. For individual cases, selection of metrics was contingent on factors such as organisation culture, management philosophy and perspectives, legislation, industry sector, and customers, although a common set of four factors influenced selection of metrics across all organisations. A strong link was identified between the use of a corporate performance framework and clearly articulated ITSM metrics
Goals/questions/metrics method and SAP implementation projects
During the last years some researchers have studied the critical success factors (CSFs) in ERP implementations.
However, until now, no one has studied how these CSFs should be put in practice to help organizations achieve success
in ERP implementations. This technical research report attempts to define the usage of Goals/Questions/Metrics (GQM)
approach in the definition of a measurement system for ERP implementation projects. GQM approach is a mechanism for
defining and interpreting operational, measurable goals. Lately, because of its intuitive nature the approach has
gained widespread appeal. We present a metrics overview and a description of GQM approach. Then we provide an example
of GQM application for monitoring sustained management support in ERP implementations. Sustained management support
is the most cited critical success factor in ERP implementation projects.Postprint (published version
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