Research Findings on Empirical Evaluation of Requirements Specifications Approaches

Numerous software requirements specification (SRS) approaches have been proposed in software engineering. However, there has been little empirical evaluation of the use of these approaches in specific contexts. This paper describes the results of a mapping study, a key instrument of the evidence-based paradigm, in an effort to understand what aspects of SRS are evaluated, in which context, and by using which research method. On the basis of 46 identified and categorized primary studies, we found that understandability is the most commonly evaluated aspect of SRS, experiments are the most commonly used research method, and the academic environment is where most empirical evaluation takes place

Revisiones Sistemáticas: Recomendaciones para un Proceso Adecuado a la Ingeniería del Software

En la actualidad, se han realizado varias revisiones sistemáticas en Ingeniería del Software y la tendencia señala que su número irá en aumento en el futuro inmediato. La práctica totalidad de las revisiones se realizan siguiendo alguna de las recomendaciones existentes, tales como las propuestas por Kitchenham, Biolchini y otros. Sin embargo, dichas recomendaciones pasan por alto una serie de carencias específicas de la experimentación en Ingeniería del Software, tales como carencias en la formación de los revisores o disponibilidad de información detallada acerca de los estudios primarios, que inducen problemas a la hora de realizar la revisión. Como resultado de analizar nuestro desempeño en la realización de varias revisiones, los autores hemos identificado diversas disfunciones. Tras su catalogación y análisis se han derivado recomendaciones para mejorar los procedimientos de revisión sistemática en Ingeniería del Software

Combining SOA and BPM Technologies for Cross-System Process Automation

This paper summarizes the results of an industry case study that introduced a cross-system business process automation solution based on a combination of SOA and BPM standard technologies (i.e., BPMN, BPEL, WSDL). Besides discussing major weaknesses of the existing, custom-built, solution and comparing them against experiences with the developed prototype, the paper presents a course of action for transforming the current solution into the proposed solution. This includes a general approach, consisting of four distinct steps, as well as specific action items that are to be performed for every step. The discussion also covers language and tool support and challenges arising from the transformation