Teaching ISO/IEC 12207 software lifecycle processes: a serious game approach

Serious games involve applying game design techniques to tasks of a serious nature. In particular, serious games can be used as informative tools and can be embedded in formal education. Although there are some studies related to the application of serious games for the software development process, there is no serious game that teaches the fundamentals of the ISO/IEC 12207:1995 Systems and software engineering – Software life cycle processes, which is an international standard for software lifecycle processes that aims to be ‘the’ standard that defines all the tasks required for developing and maintaining software. “Floors” is a serious game that proposes an interactive learning experience to introduce ISO/IEC 12207:1995 by creating different floors of a virtual environment where various processes of the standard are discussed and implemented. Inherently, it follows an iterative process based on interactive technical dialogues in a 3D computer simulated office. The tool is designed to assess the novice engineering practitioners knowledge and provide preliminary training for ISO/IEC 12207:1995 processes. By playing such a game, participants are able to learn about the details of this standard. The present study provides a framework for the exploration of research data obtained from computer engineering students. Results suggest that there is a significant difference between the knowledge gained among the students who have played Floors and those who have only participated in paper-based learning sessions. Our findings indicate that participants who played Floors tend to have greater knowledge of the ISO/IEC 12207:1995 standard, and as a result, we recommend the use of serious games that seem to be superior to traditional paper based approach

How to increase efficiency with the certification of process compliance

Certification as well as self-assessment of safety-critical systems is an expensive and time-consuming activity due to the necessity of providing numerous deliverables. These deliverables can be process-related or product-related. Process-related deliverables are aimed at showing compliance with normative documents (e.g., safety standards), which impose specific requirements on the development process (e.g., reference models for the safety life-cycles). In this lecture, we limit our attention to process-related deliverables and we propose a solution aimed at reducing time and cost related to their provision. Our solution consists of the combination of three approaches: the safety-oriented process line engineering approach, the process-based argumentation line approach, and the model driven certification-oriented approach. More specifically, we define how these three approaches are combined and which techniques, tools and guidelines should be used to implement the resulting approach. Then, via small-sized but realistic process-fragments, we illustrate it. Finally, we present a roadmap for future research directions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Examining the maturity of South Africa’s government departments to implement the Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS)

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the maturity of South Africa’s provincial government departments in engaging with the Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS) towards facilitating effective infrastructure delivery. Furthermore, the study sought to formulate evidence-based interventions that could be utilised by these government departments to engender successful delivery of infrastructure assets and associated services to their beneficiaries. This research was descriptive and employed the quantitative research approach. Data was elicited from three provincial government departments in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Structured maturity modelling questionnaires were deployed for data collection from the respondents. The emergent data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 26. A One-Way ANOVA, aimed at enabling a comparative analysis of differences in the degree of maturity between the three provincial government departments that utilise the IDMS, was conducted. Results from the study indicate that the three departments (cases) had a maturity rating between 3 and 4, signifying well-defined and documented standard processes that can be improved over time. However, an IDMS-ready organisation would ideally have a maturity rating at level 5. In addition, the leadership dimension was found to be a driver of all other dimensions, where a high maturity level under this dimension directly correlates with improved maturity in the other dimensions. It is recommended that adequate management and leadership support is needed to improve organisational maturity in relation to IDMS implementation. The study was confined to KwaZulu-Natal, due to the short survey period for information gathering and data collection. The COVID-19 pandemic also had a great impact on the undertaking of some key research processes mostly affecting the research methodology, particularly during data collection. This study is the first of its kind in South Africa to assess the maturity of provincial government departments to implement the IDMS, which is indicative of an evaluation void gap

Process and project alignment methodology: A case study based analysis

Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for concrete software development projects. Processes that are unrelated to daily practices or that are hardly mapped to project practices, cause misalignments between processes and projects. We argue that software processes should emerge and evolve collaboratively within an organization. With this propose, this article describes the ProPAM methodology and explores the details of its static view. We also present a case study to validate effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The aim of the case study was to analyse the effects of using ProPAM in a IT organization

Exploring aspects of agile software development risk – results from a MLR

Agile software development methods are widely used by software organisations, focusing on short developmental life cycles and customer satisfaction through the iterative and incremental development of software products. Despite their popularity, these methods present risks that may be underappreciated. This paper examines certain risks attributed to agile software development, with a focus on the lack of documentation, scope creep, technical debt and job satisfaction. Through the application of a multivocal literature review, we find that agile software development can greatly benefit projects. However, when agile methods are implemented inappropriately or sub-optimally, projects risk over-spending, delayed or defective software, employee turnover, and overall decreased productivity. Understanding the risks associated with agile software development can help practitioners to achieve higher efficiency and success in their software development projects

Software developers reasoning behind adoption and use of software development methods – a systematic literature review

When adopting and using a Software Development Method (SDM), it is important to stay true to the philosophy of the method; otherwise, software developers might execute activities that do not lead to the intended outcomes. Currently, no overview of SDM research addresses software developers’ reasoning behind adopting and using SDMs. Accordingly, this paper aims to survey existing SDM research to scrutinize the current knowledge base on software developers’ type of reasoning behind SDM adoption and use. We executed a systematic literature review and analyzed existing research using two steps. First, we classified papers based on what type of reasoning was addressed regarding SDM adoption and use: rational, irrational, and non-rational. Second, we made a thematic synthesis across these three types of reasoning to provide a more detailed characterization of the existing research. We elicited 28 studies addressing software developers’ reasoning and identified five research themes. Building on these themes, we framed four future research directions with four broad research questions, which can be used as a basis for future research

Un plan de toma de decisiones basado en datos en función de las áreas de DigCompOrg en una escuela primaria en Grecia

Las tecnologías digitales son un elemento clave de gran importancia para las organizaciones educativas y pueden contribuir a marcar el camino hacia una educación de calidad. La integración de las tecnologías digitales exige un proceso de innovación educativa basado en tres pilares básicos: pedagógico, tecnológico y organizacional. En la propuesta de la Comisión Europea para promover la digitalización de la educación, se destaca que la competencia digital es una de las ocho claves que los gobiernos europeos deben trabajar en el ámbito de la formación competencias. Otro elemento básico e importante de las competencias clave son los modelos de evaluación de las competencias digitales. a nuevos y mejores métodos de evaluación. Los principales pilares de esta tesis son la evaluación de competencias digitales basada en DigCompOrg y el conjunto de los datos obtenidos para ser utilizados en un modelo de toma de decisones basada en datos (Data Driven Decision Making - DDDM) para la mejora escolar. El modelo DigCompOrg orienta los procesos de análisis y toma de decisiones sobre la digitalización organizacional y DDDM explota la importancia de los procesos de toma de decisiones apoyados en datos reales de la organización, en este caso orientados a que la escuela pueda abordar procesos de mejora educativa. Los datos en el contexto de las escuelas se entienden como el conjunto de información que se recopila y organiza para representar algún aspecto de las escuelas que se está estudiando y como indica el marco teórico de nuestra investigación, la mejor manera de recuperar información sobre datos que conciernen a las competencias digitales es el modelo DigCompOrg. Por las razones anteriores, el objetivo principal de esta investigación es evaluar la competencia digital de una escuela primaria en Grecia en función de las áreas de DigCompOrg y proponer un plan de toma de decisiones basado en datos (DDDM) para la mejora escolar a partir del análisis de evidencias del estado real. Hemos estudiado, pues, el caso específico de un centro para su mejora, pero también hemos sido capaces de integrar dos modelos teóricos (DigCompOrg y DDDM) en una propuesta práctica. Los objetivos de investigación se concretan en: a) Analizar el grado de desarrollo de la competencia digital de un colegio en Grecia según las áreas contempladas en el modelo DigCompOrg teniendo en cuenta la opinión de profesores y alumnos. b) Analizar cómo se afectan entre sí las variables del modelo DigCompOrg a partir del cuestionario de docentes, con el fin de tener una autoevaluación y mejora escolar. c) Diseñar un plan de toma de decisiones basado en un modelo DDDM y los resultados previos obtenidos sobre la competencia digital de la organización. El análisis de los resultados de la investigación destacó una correlación negativa moderada entre la influencia psicológica positiva por el uso de las TIC y la influencia negativa en la educación de los estudiantes por el uso de las TIC. Se ha comprobado una correlación positiva moderada entre la influencia psicológica positiva por el uso de las Las TIC y la cooperación con otros estudiantes mediante el uso de las TIC, lo que indica que el uso de las TIC mejoró el desarrollo psicológico de los estudiantes según su percepción y al mismo tiempo aumentó la cooperación entre ellos. Finalmente, esta tesis llegó a la propuesta de un plan de acción DDDM relacionado con las áreas DigCompOrg de la dimensión docente y extrajo datos para la mejora escolar.Digital technologies are a key element of great importance for educational organisations and can help lead the way towards quality education. The integration of digital technologies requires a process of educational innovation based on three basic pillars: pedagogical, technological and organisational. In the European Commission's proposal to promote the digitisation of education, digital competence is highlighted as one of the eight key competences that European governments should work on in the field of skills training. Another basic and important element of the key competences is the assessment models of digital competences. to new and better assessment methods. The main pillars of this thesis are the DigCompOrg-based assessment of digital competences and the collection of the obtained data to be used in a Data Driven Decision Making (DDDM) model for school improvement. The DigCompOrg model guides the analysis and decision-making processes on organisational digitalisation and DDDM exploits the importance of decision-making processes supported by real organisational data, in this case oriented towards school improvement processes. Data in the context of schools is understood as the set of information that is collected and organised to represent some aspect of the schools under study and as the theoretical framework of our research indicates, the best way to retrieve information on data concerning digital competences is the DigCompOrg model. For the above reasons, the main objective of this research is to assess the digital competence of a primary school in Greece in terms of the DigCompOrg areas and to propose a data-driven decision making (DDDM) plan for school improvement based on the analysis of real state evidence. We have therefore studied the specific case of a school for improvement, but we have also been able to integrate two theoretical models (DigCompOrg and DDDM) into a practical proposal. The research objectives are as follows: a) To analyse the degree of development of the digital competence of a school in Greece according to the areas covered by the DigCompOrg model taking into account the opinion of teachers and students. b) To analyse how the variables of the DigCompOrg model affect each other on the basis of the teachers' questionnaire, in order to have a self-evaluation and school improvement. c) To design a decision-making plan based on a DDDM model and the previous results obtained on the organisation's digital competence. The analysis of the research results highlighted a moderate negative correlation between the positive psychological influence of ICT use and the negative influence of ICT use on students' education. A moderate positive correlation was found between the positive psychological influence of ICT use and cooperation with other students through ICT use, which indicates that ICT use improved students' psychological development according to their perception and at the same time increased cooperation among them. Finally, this thesis came to the proposal of a DDDM action plan related to the DigCompOrg areas of the teaching dimension and extracted data for school improvement