Socially-Constructed Metrics for Agile Quality: An Action Research Study

We present a method to develop socially-constructed metrics for ascertaining agile software development quality. Canonical action research (CAR) is our mode of inquiry, conducted in a key European player of healthcare information systems. The result is a set of meaningful metrics that are built according to three interrelated dimensions: (1) evidence from practice; (2) stakeholders expectations; and (3) stakeholders evaluation. Our contribution suggests simple artefacts to create socially-constructed metrics and the main guidelines to use them. Agile teams struggle with quality measurement, often supported by a plethora of metrics that do not adhere to rapidly changing project environments. We argue that socially-constructed metrics can address this problem, offering a contextualized perspective of quality that can improve tacit knowledge transfer; critical reflection about quality; and effective support in daily meetings, retrospectives, and audits. Moreover, it suggests a participative approach for continuous improvement in agile software development

Stra2Bis : a model-driven method for aligning business strategy and business processes

MDA-based initiatives for software development have included computation-independent models to align information system models with business knowledge which is important in the development process. One source of business knowledge is the business strategy, which, traditionally, has had a long-term perspective; changes in the organisational structure and their high-level ends and means were less frequent and arguably not relevant for software development. However, organisations that aim to accelerate their software development cycles define their business strategy and reconfigure their structure on a short-term, continuous basis, fusing, splitting and creating as independent as possible organisation units. These changes directly affect the business processes and the design of software components of the organisation. Based on this approach to business strategy, we propose Stra2Bis, a method for designing strategically aligned business processes in an MDA-based context. Stra2Bis proposes a business strategy modelling step when redesigning business processes and three transformation guidelines to support the analysis of the alignment of processes with the organisational structure and the measurement of the units’ outcomes. We discussed the effect of the guidelines on the software design with five professionals who supported the proposal’s feasibility and usefulness

DEFECT ASSESSMENT USING CONFORMABLE ARRAY DATA

This report covers the design and fabrication of a conformable eddy current array useful for the mapping and measurement of external corrosion on a transmission pipeline. The feasibility of the basic measuring approach was demonstrated and the general guidelines for sensor design were disclosed in a previous project. This project was concerned with design of a practical array, development of interface electronics, and design of the operation and analysis software. A prototype system was constructed, checked out, and demonstrated on natural corrosion in a field environment. Document type: Repor

Scope Management of Non-Functional Requirements

In order to meet commitments in software projects, a realistic assessment must be made of project scope. Such an assessment relies on the availability of knowledge on the user-defined project requirements and their effort estimates and priorities, as well as their risk. This knowledge enables analysts, managers and software engineers to identify the most significant requirements from the list of requirements initially defined by the user. In practice, this scope assessment is applied to the Functional Requirements (FRs) provided by users who are unaware of, or ignore, the Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs). This paper presents ongoing research which aims at managing NFRs during the software development process. Establishing the relative priority of each NFR, and obtaining a rough estimate of the effort and risk associated with it, is integral to the software development process and to resource management. Our work extends the taxonomy of the NFR framework by integrating the concept of the "hardgoal". A functional size measure of NFRs is applied to facilitate the effort estimation process. The functional size measurement method we have chosen is COSMICFFP, which is theoretically sound and the de facto standard in the software industry

Advancing national greenhouse gas inventories for agriculture in developing countries : improving activity data, emission factors and software technology

Peer reviewedPublisher PD