Search based software engineering: Trends, techniques and applications

© ACM, 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version is available from the link below.In the past five years there has been a dramatic increase in work on Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE), an approach to Software Engineering (SE) in which Search-Based Optimization (SBO) algorithms are used to address problems in SE. SBSE has been applied to problems throughout the SE lifecycle, from requirements and project planning to maintenance and reengineering. The approach is attractive because it offers a suite of adaptive automated and semiautomated solutions in situations typified by large complex problem spaces with multiple competing and conflicting objectives. This article provides a review and classification of literature on SBSE. The work identifies research trends and relationships between the techniques applied and the applications to which they have been applied and highlights gaps in the literature and avenues for further research.EPSRC and E

The use of search-based optimization techniques to schedule and staff software projects: an approach and an empirical study

Allocating resources to a software project and assigning tasks to teams constitute crucial activities that affect project cost and completion time. Finding a solution for such a problem is NP-hard; this requires managers to be supported by proper tools in performing such an allocation. This paper shows how search-based optimization techniques can be combined with a queuing simulation model to address these problems. The obtained staff and task allocations aim to minimize the completion time and reduce schedule fragmentation. The proposed approach allows project managers to run multiple simulations, compare results and consider trade-offs between increasing the staffing level and anticipating the project completion date and between reducing the fragmentation and accepting project delays. The paper presents results from the application of the proposed search-based project planning approach to data obtained from two large scale commercial software maintenance projects

Exact Scalable Sensitivity Analysis for the Next Release Problem

The nature of the requirements analysis problem, based as it is on uncertain and often inaccurate estimates of costs and effort, makes sensitivity analysis important. Sensitivity analysis allows the decision maker to identify those requirements and budgets that are particularly sensitive to misestimation. However, finding scalable sensitivity analysis techniques is not easy because the underlying optimization problem is NP-hard. This article introduces an approach to sensitivity analysis based on exact optimization. We implemented this approach as a tool, OATSAC, which allowed us to experimentally evaluate the scalability and applicability of Requirements Sensitivity Analysis (RSA). Our results show that OATSAC scales sufficiently well for practical applications in Requirements Sensitivity Analysis. We also show how the sensitivity analysis can yield insights into difficult and otherwise obscure interactions between budgets, requirements costs, and estimate inaccuracies using a real-world case study

An Integrated Engineering-Computation Framework for Collaborative Engineering: An Application in Project Management

Today\u27s engineering applications suffer from a severe integration problem. Engineering, the entire process, consists of a myriad of individual, often complex, tasks. Most computer tools support particular tasks in engineering, but the output of one tool is different from the others\u27. Thus, the users must re-enter the relevant information in the format required by another tool. Moreover, usually in the development process of a new product/process, several teams of engineers with different backgrounds/responsibilities are involved, for example mechanical engineers, cost estimators, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, and project manager. Engineers need a tool(s) to share technical and managerial information and to be able to instantly access the latest changes made by one member, or more, in the teams to determine right away the impacts of these changes in all disciplines (cost, time, resources, etc.). In other words, engineers need to participate in a truly collaborative environment for the achievement of a common objective, which is the completion of the product/process design project in a timely, cost effective, and optimal manner. In this thesis, a new framework that integrates the capabilities of four commercial software, Microsoft Excel™ (spreadsheet), Microsoft Project™ (project management), What\u27s Best! (an optimization add-in), and Visual Basic™ (programming language), with a state-of-the-art object-oriented database (knowledge medium), InnerCircle2000™ is being presented and applied to handle the Cost-Time Trade-Off problem in project networks. The result was a vastly superior solution over the conventional solution from the viewpoint of data handling, completeness of solution space, and in the context of a collaborative engineering-computation environment

Governance in Local Partnerships to Address Homelessness

report: vii, 262 pp., digital file.Organizations working to address the needs of the homeless are under tremendous pressure to serve an increasing number of people with diverse needs. They are also struggling with limited resources and find themselves coping with changes in the level and nature of government funding. Organizational governance, both its quality and nature, is a key factor in the ability of organizations to address the needs of the homeless in this challenging environment. In an organizational setting governance refers to the overall processes and structures used to direct and manage an organization s operations and activities. Encompassing roles, responsibilities, powers, partnerships and accountability, the essence of governance is captured by such questions as: Who is in charge? Who sets direction? Who makes decisions? Who monitors progress? Who is accountable for the performance of the organization? With whom and in what fashion does the agency partner and collaborate? Although there are many different models of governance, every organization is different and there is no one particular model that applies to all organizations. However, from the case study analysis undertaken it is clear that organizations work most effectively when there is a model that encourages a commitment to a clear direction and vision; organizational capacity, appropriate structures, policies and procedures to achieve this direction; accountability to funders and community stakeholders; sufficient adaptability to meet changing circumstances; the ability of the organization to develop and maintain effective partnerships; and, the ability of the board and staff to work as a team.Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation; Human Resources Development Canad

Leading ethical leaders : higher education institutions, business schools and the sustainable development goals

This volume provides unique and profound insights from within educational institutions in diverse regions of the world on how ‘learning outside’ and ‘learning inside’ can be holistically integrated, so that the sustainable development agenda does not remain static and programmatic, but a creative and permeable framework. The shared hope across the thirteen chapters, which constitute complete original essays on the theme, is to develop meaningful, interdisciplinary curricula and research projects which serve the human community as a whole. The aim of the editors is directed towards a similar United Nations’ valuable ideal: to advance knowledge in respect of the earth and the future generations who will inherit it

Technology Education for the Future: A Play on Sustainability.

We are very pleased to welcome Technology Education scholars from around the world to New Zealand for PATT 27. We are delighted to have the PATT conference in the Southern Hemisphere for only the second time in its history. This conference, and these proceedings, continue the almost 30 year old tradition of sharing research and ideas in a collegial and inclusive setting. While the conference theme provides a particular focus on considering the future and sustainability through Technology Education, the proceedings also include a broad range of papers which focus on key areas of importance in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. We believe the conference and these proceedings will make a valuable, interesting and significant contribution to the discourses of Technology Education through the introduction of new ideas, the confirmation or critique of assumptions, and the exploration of experiences. This moves our profession forward to rest on a more secure research base and to mature through analysis, interrogation and communication. We appreciate your willingness to come to Christchurch despite the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. We hope that you enjoy the city as it starts to rebuild its future. Your presence here is a small contribution to the rebuild so thank you from the shaken and determined citizens of Christchurch

Toward a theory of the evolution of business ecosystems : enterprise architectures, competitive dynamics, firm performance & industrial co-evolution

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Vita.Includes bibliographical references (v. 4, p. 698-745).This dissertation contributes toward the building of a theory of the evolution of business ecosystems. In the process, it addresses a question that has been posed by evolutionary theorists in the economics and sociology literatures for decades: "Why do firms in the same industry vary systematically in performance over time?" Seeking a systematic explanation of a longitudinal phenomenon inevitably requires characterizing the evolution of the industrial ecosystem, as both the organization (firm) and its environment (industry, markets and institutions) are co-evolving. This question is therefore explored via a theoretical sample in three industrial ecosystems covering manufacturing and service sectors, with competitors from the US, Europe and Japan: commercial airplanes, motor vehicles and airlines. The research is based primarily on an in depth seven-year, multi-level, multi-method, field-based case study of both firms in the large commercial airplanes industry mixed duopoly as well as the key stakeholders in their extended enterprises (i.e. customers, suppliers, investors and employees). This field work is supplemented with historical comparative analysis in all three industries, as well as nonlinear dynamic simulation models developed to capture the essential mechanisms governing the evolution of business ecosystems.(cont.) A theoretical framework is developed which endogenously traces the co-evolution of firms and their industrial environments using their highest-level system properties of form, function and fitness (as reflected in the system sciences of morphology, physiology and ecology), and which embraces the evolutionary processes of variation, selection and retention. The framework captures the path-dependent evolution of heterogeneous populations of enterprise architectures engaged in symbiotic inter-species competition and posits the evolution of dominant designs in enterprise architectures that oscillate deterministically and chaotically between modular and integral states throughout an industry's life-cycle. Architectural innovation - at the extended enterprise level - is demonstrated to contribute to the failure of established firms, with causal mechanisms developed to explain tipping points.by Theodore F. Piepenbrock.Ph.D