Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World

This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World". The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps. The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations

Model-based tool support for Tactical Data Links: an experience report from the defence domain

The Tactical Data Link (TDL) allows the exchange of information between cooperating platforms as part of an integrated command and control (C2) system. Information exchange is facilitated by adherence to a complex, message-based protocol defined by document-centric standards. In this paper, we report on a recent body of work investigating migration from a document-centric to a model-centric approach within the context of the TDL domain, motivated by a desire to achieve a positive return on investment. The model-centric approach makes use of the Epsilon technology stack and provides a significant improvement to both the level of abstraction and rigour of the network design. It is checkable by a machine and, by virtue of an MDA-like approach to the separation of domains and model transformation between domains, is open to integration with other models to support more complex workflows, such as by providing the results of interoperability analyses in human-readable domain-specific reports conforming to an accepted standard

Teaching Concurrent Software Design: A Case Study Using Android

In this article, we explore various parallel and distributed computing topics from a user-centric software engineering perspective. Specifically, in the context of mobile application development, we study the basic building blocks of interactive applications in the form of events, timers, and asynchronous activities, along with related software modeling, architecture, and design topics.Comment: Submitted to CDER NSF/IEEE-TCPP Curriculum Initiative on Parallel and Distributed Computing - Core Topics for Undergraduate

Information-Hiding URLs for Easier Website Evolution

Many common elements of URLs do not adhere to the principle of information hiding. For example, filename extensions and parameter names can reveal volatile implementation details. As a result, when website implementations change, links between pages break. Bookmarks and code that generates URLs often break as well. In this paper, we present two tools for information-hiding URLs. An information-hiding URL uses an alias to identify a web resource and appends parameter values into the hierarchical structure of the URL. The InformationHidingFilter uses a Java Servlet filter to facilitate the use of informationhiding URLs with JSP/Servlet web applications. Given a request, the filter identifies the JSP or Servlet being requested and identifies parameter values contained in the information-hiding URL. Required values not provided in the URL are automatically substituted with default values specified by the web developer. Thus, old links remain valid even when the website changes and new parameters have been added to the page. The InformationHidingChecker helps web developers adhere to information hiding by helping them identify JSPs or Servlets that lack URL information for the InformationHidingFilter or lack default values for parameters. We also discuss the performance cost of using information-hiding URLs.Clare Boothe Luce Foundatio

Web Based Candidate Assessment System

Devplex Technologies Limited is a privately owned company based in Galway Ireland. They have been operating for over two years and currently undertake contract projects for the travel and financial industries. The projects are varied and a wide range of skills are necessary. Devplex Technologies are currently undergoing expansion and intend to hire a number of new employees with varying levels of experience. Devplex Technologies also employ a high number of contractors, with varying skills and contract periods range from one month to twenty four months. The current technical leaders are all very busy with project work. The human resource manager actively advertises positions on both the internet and local newspapers which results in a large number of responses. It is difficult to sort through all the applicants as a high level of technical knowledge is required to vet them. When the human resource (HR) manager selects a number of potential candidates from the vetted curriculum vitas, phone interviews are conducted. The HR manger pools questions which have been submitted from employees who have experience in the relevant technologies. The HR manager has to decide if the candidate\u27s answers are satisfactory for the questions. The most successful candidates are then requested to attend a formal interview. Once a candidate presents for interview they are requested to take a short 10 minute written exam where they are asked to answer five questions relevant to the position they are applying for. Regardless of the outcome of the exam the candidate then proceeds to a formal interview where two or more employees from Devplex Technology interview the candidate and take note of their findings. Once the candidate has left the interview, the HR manager and interviewers meet to discuss the exam and interview and decide if the candidate should be brought for a second interview. If the candidate\u27s second interview is successful the candidate is hired. Devplex Technology interviews a high number of unsuccessful candidates resulting in wasted time and effort. Sometimes employees who are not technically strong enough can be erroneously hired. Devplex Technology wishes to reduce this workload and hire more suitable people by implementing an enterprise based candidate assessment system. The system should allow the remote assessment of potential candidates. It should also allow the HR manager to easily retrieve questions and answers on a selected topic. The system should test the candidates only on subjects which apply to the role they are hired for, the questions should progressively get harder as the candidate gets more questions correct, this will allow for a truly strong candidate achieve the highest score. The overall aim of the system is to reduce workload and help find the best possible candidate for Devplex Technologies

Source Code Interaction on Touchscreens

Direct interaction with touchscreens has become a primary way of using a device. This work seeks to devise interaction methods for editing textual source code on touch-enabled devices. With the advent of the “Post-PC Era”, touch-centric interaction has received considerable attention in both research and development. However, various limitations have impeded widespread adoption of programming environments on modern platforms. Previous attempts have mainly been successful by simplifying or constraining conventional programming but have only insufficiently supported source code written in mainstream programming languages. This work includes the design, development, and evaluation of techniques for editing, selecting, and creating source code on touchscreens. The results contribute to text editing and entry methods by taking the syntax and structure of programming languages into account while exploiting the advantages of gesture-driven control. Furthermore, this work presents the design and software architecture of a mobile development environment incorporating touch-enabled modules for typical software development tasks

Challenges of deploying a scalable user generated content platform for young people

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 39).ScratchR, a user generated content management platform, was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. ScratchR lets users share projects developed with the Scratch programming language. This thesis involves technical improvements made to ScratchR from August 2007 to August 2008. Improvements include the addition of a comment reply system, the improvement of the gallery system, the addition of AJAX functionality, the creation of administration tools and the addition of a peer review system for comments and tags. These features augment the user experience of the Scratch online community by improving usability and by creating a friendlier online learning environment.by Han Xu.M.Eng