VDM over PSP: A Pilot Course for VDM Beginners to Confirm its Suitability for Their Development

COMPSAC 2003, Dallas, Texas, November 03 - November 06. 2003Although formal methods seem to be useful, these is no clear way for beginners to know whether the methods are suit for them and for their problem domain, before using the methods in practice. We propose a method to confirm the suitability of a formal method. The method is realized as a pilot course based on the PSP. A course mentioned in this paper is designed for a typical formal method, VDM. Our course also helps beginners of VDM to learn VDM gradually and naturally. During the course, they can confirm its suitability as follows; First, they practice several exercises for software development, while techniques of VDM are introduced gradually. Second, process data and product data of software development are recorded in each exercise. Third, by evaluating these data by several metrics, they can confirm the suitability of VDM for their work.ArticleProceedings, 27th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference. 327-334 (2003)conference pape

Ventures into Capturing Effort in Programming

The quest for teaching a method of data collection in programming experiences was marked with successes and failures. We believe that software development curricula must provide students with knowledge and experience related to the practice of data collection, which will measure the effort put into a software project. By recording their past effort in software projects, students can more accurately estimate the amount of effort and time required to complete a future software project. Students can also learn the amount of effort required to develop “correct” software and begin to estimate the amount of time required, per software phase, to fix errors. This paper recounts the educational challenges that were found in the quest to teach a method of gathering data called Personal Software Process (PSP) in the Computer Science curriculum at Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU). After faculty training, a plan was devised for incorporation of PSP into the curriculum in stages. These stages began with a Pilot experience in the fall of 2000, a total incorporation in the first programming course in the spring of 2001, and incorporation into the second programming course in the fall of 2001. A method for assessment of this new ingredient was outlined. This paper shows the progressive venture into this quest and explains the findings and conclusion that were made regarding the data collecting method called PSP in our curriculum. Finally, future plans of incorporating alternative methods and the future of PSP elements into the curriculum with the assessment plans are discussed

The Real World Software Process

The industry-wide demand for rapid development in concert with greater process maturity has seen many software development firms adopt tightly structured iterative processes. While a number of commercial vendors offer suitable process infrastructure and tool support, the cost of licensing, configuration and staff training may be prohibitive for the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) which dominate the Asia-Pacific software industry. This work addresses these problems through the introduction of the Real World Software Process (RWSP), a freely available, Web-based iterative scheme designed specifically for small teams and organisations. RWSP provides a detailed process description, high quality document templates - including code review and inspection guidelines - and the integrated tutorial support necessary for successful usage by inexperienced developers and teams. In particular it is intended that the process be readily usable by software houses which at present do not follow a formal process, and that the free RWSP process infrastructure should be a vehicle for improving industry standards

Can Individual Code Reviews Improve Solo Programming on an Introductory Course?

Peer code reviews have been successfully applied to the teaching of programming and can be applied to solo programming. Collaborative approaches are currently popular and have been successfully applied though social interaction and assessment issues limit their application. It is believed that a checklist based individual code review can provide a framework which allows students to proofread their code prior to submission, improving performance. Pilot and follow-up studies were conducted at Swansea Metropolitan University and although the results are inconclusive some important observations are made with regards to the use of this technique. Further study into the effects of individual code reviews on student performance is recommended

A model of quality service management for information systems

Tese de mestrado. Mestrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Área de especialização Tecnologias da Informação para Gestão Empresarial). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200