Evaluating the Impact of Critical Factors in Agile Continuous Delivery Process: A System Dynamics Approach

Continuous Delivery is aimed at the frequent delivery of good quality software in a speedy, reliable and efficient fashion – with strong emphasis on automation and team collaboration. However, even with this new paradigm, repeatability of project outcome is still not guaranteed: project performance varies due to the various interacting and inter-related factors in the Continuous Delivery 'system'. This paper presents results from the investigation of various factors, in particular agile practices, on the quality of the developed software in the Continuous Delivery process. Results show that customer involvement and the cognitive ability of the QA have the most significant individual effects on the quality of software in continuous delivery

Automating the IEEE std. 1500 compliance verification for embedded cores

The IEEE 1500 standard for embedded core testing proposes a very effective solution for testing modern system-on-chip (SoC). It proposes a flexible hardware test wrapper architecture, together with a core test language (CTL) used to describe the implemented wrapper functionalities. Already several IP providers have announced compliance in both existing and future design blocks. In this paper we address the challenge of guaranteeing the compliance of a wrapper architecture and its CTL description to the IEEE std. 1500. This is a mandatory step to fully trust the wrapper functionalities in applying the test sequences to the core. The proposed solution aims at implementing a verification framework allowing core providers and/or integrators to automatically verify the compliancy of their products (sold or purchased) to the standar

The Optimisation of Stochastic Grammars to Enable Cost-Effective Probabilistic Structural Testing

The effectiveness of probabilistic structural testing depends on the characteristics of the probability distribution from which test inputs are sampled at random. Metaheuristic search has been shown to be a practical method of optimis- ing the characteristics of such distributions. However, the applicability of the existing search-based algorithm is lim- ited by the requirement that the software’s inputs must be a fixed number of numeric values. In this paper we relax this limitation by means of a new representation for the probability distribution. The repre- sentation is based on stochastic context-free grammars but incorporates two novel extensions: conditional production weights and the aggregation of terminal symbols represent- ing numeric values. We demonstrate that an algorithm which combines the new representation with hill-climbing search is able to effi- ciently derive probability distributions suitable for testing software with structurally-complex input domains

JUNO Conceptual Design Report

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is proposed to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy using an underground liquid scintillator detector. It is located 53 km away from both Yangjiang and Taishan Nuclear Power Plants in Guangdong, China. The experimental hall, spanning more than 50 meters, is under a granite mountain of over 700 m overburden. Within six years of running, the detection of reactor antineutrinos can resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy at a confidence level of 3-4$\sigma$, and determine neutrino oscillation parameters $\sin^2\theta_{12}$, $\Delta m^2_{21}$, and $|\Delta m^2_{ee}|$ to an accuracy of better than 1%. The JUNO detector can be also used to study terrestrial and extra-terrestrial neutrinos and new physics beyond the Standard Model. The central detector contains 20,000 tons liquid scintillator with an acrylic sphere of 35 m in diameter. $\sim$17,000 508-mm diameter PMTs with high quantum efficiency provide $\sim$75% optical coverage. The current choice of the liquid scintillator is: linear alkyl benzene (LAB) as the solvent, plus PPO as the scintillation fluor and a wavelength-shifter (Bis-MSB). The number of detected photoelectrons per MeV is larger than 1,100 and the energy resolution is expected to be 3% at 1 MeV. The calibration system is designed to deploy multiple sources to cover the entire energy range of reactor antineutrinos, and to achieve a full-volume position coverage inside the detector. The veto system is used for muon detection, muon induced background study and reduction. It consists of a Water Cherenkov detector and a Top Tracker system. The readout system, the detector control system and the offline system insure efficient and stable data acquisition and processing.Comment: 328 pages, 211 figure

The Art of Fault Injection

Classical greek philosopher considered the foremost virtues to be temperance, justice, courage, and prudence. In this paper we relate these cardinal virtues to the correct methodological approaches that researchers should follow when setting up a fault injection experiment. With this work we try to understand where the "straightforward pathway" lies, in order to highlight those common methodological errors that deeply influence the coherency and the meaningfulness of fault injection experiments. Fault injection is like an art, where the success of the experiments depends on a very delicate balance between modeling, creativity, statistics, and patience

A design for testability study on a high performance automatic gain control circuit.

A comprehensive testability study on a commercial automatic gain control circuit is presented which aims to identify design for testability (DfT) modifications to both reduce production test cost and improve test quality. A fault simulation strategy based on layout extracted faults has been used to support the study. The paper proposes a number of DfT modifications at the layout, schematic and system levels together with testability. Guidelines that may well have generic applicability. Proposals for using the modifications to achieve partial self test are made and estimates of achieved fault coverage and quality levels presente

Optimizing Radiant Systems for Energy Efficiency and Comfort

Radiant cooling and heating systems provide an opportunity to achieve significant energy savings, peak demand reduction, load shifting, and thermal comfort improvements compared to conventional all-air systems. As a result, application of these systems has increased in recent years, particularly in zero-net-energy (ZNE) and other advanced low-energy buildings. Despite this growth, completed installations to date have demonstrated that controls and operation of radiant systems can be challenging due to a lack of familiarity within the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) design and operations professions, often involving new concepts (particularly related to the slow response in high thermal mass radiant systems). To achieve the significant reductions in building energy use proposed by California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan that all new non-residential buildings be ZNE by 2030, it is critical that new technologies that will play a major role in reaching this goal be applied in an effective manner. This final report describes the results of a comprehensive multi-faceted research project that was undertaken to address these needed enhancements to radiant technology by developing the following: (1) sizing and operation tools (currently unavailable on the market) to provide reliable methods to take full advantage of the radiant systems to provide improved energy performance while maintaining comfortable conditions, (2) energy, cost, and occupant comfort data to provide real world examples of energy efficient, affordable, and comfortable buildings using radiant systems, and (3) Title-24 and ASHRAE Standards advancements to enhance the building industry’s ability to achieve significant energy efficiency goals in California with radiant systems. The research team used a combination of full-scale fundamental laboratory experiments, whole-building energy simulations and simplified tool development, and detailed field studies and control demonstrations to assemble the new information, guidance and tools necessary to help the building industry achieve significant energy efficiency goals for radiant systems in California

Guidelines for testing and release procedures

Guidelines and procedures are recommended for the testing and release of the types of computer software efforts commonly performed at NASA/Ames Research Center. All recommendations are based on the premise that testing and release activities must be specifically selected for the environment, size, and purpose of each individual software project. Guidelines are presented for building a Test Plan and using formal Test Plan and Test Care Inspections on it. Frequent references are made to NASA/Ames Guidelines for Software Inspections. Guidelines are presented for selecting an Overall Test Approach and for each of the four main phases of testing: (1) Unit Testing of Components, (2) Integration Testing of Components, (3) System Integration Testing, and (4) Acceptance Testing. Tools used for testing are listed, including those available from operating systems used at Ames, specialized tools which can be developed, unit test drivers, stub module generators, and the use of format test reporting schemes