Agile transformation: a multi-dimensional process

Software companies are widely interested to use Agile methodologies instead of traditional methods, mainly because of achieving the values offered by Agile approach. However, literature review implies that the alteration process is subject to various serious challenges that make Agile transformation more difficult than expected. Most of the companies are facing these challenges mainly because of the lack of knowledge and understanding of the transformation process. We have conducted a large-scale empirical research study discover various aspects of Agile transformation. Applying a Grounded Theory study identified the general outline of Agile transformation Process. The main aim of this paper is to illustrate the most important concepts that need to be considered when adopting Agile methodologies. This study showed that Agile transformation comprises many concepts, activities, and steps including transformation prerequisites, facilitators, framework, assessment, coaching, and so on. Software companies and organizations need to be familiar with these concepts before inception of Agile transformation process

System dynamics modelling for the management of long term software evolution processes

An approach and basic concepts for the study of the system dynamics of long-term software evolution processes is presented. The approach provides a generic context and framework that supports at least three crucial process areas requiring management decision, resource allocation, release planning, and process performance monitoring. The report exemplifies the approach with an executable model. The latter reflects the global software process at a high level of abstraction and includes phenomenological observations derived from the laws of software evolution and the behaviours thereby implied. It incorporates concepts such as progressive (e.g., functional enhancement) and anti-regressive (e.g., complexity control) activities and enables the study of policies of human resource allocation to classes of activities. The example shows how the model permits assessment of the impact of alternative policies on various evolutionary attributes. It is part of and exemplifies the methods for software process modelling being developed and applied in the FEAST projects

Use and evaluation of simulation for software process education: a case study

Software Engineering is an applied discipline and concepts are difficult to grasp only at a theoretical level alone. In the context of a project management course, we introduced and evaluated the use of software process simulation (SPS) based games for improving students' understanding of software development processes. The effects of the intervention were measured by evaluating the students' arguments for choosing a particular development process. The arguments were assessed with the Evidence-Based Reasoning framework, which was extended to assess the strength of an argument. The results indicate that students generally have difficulty providing strong arguments for their choice of process models. Nevertheless, the assessment indicates that the intervention of the SPS game had a positive impact on the students' arguments. Even though the illustrated argument assessment approach can be used to provide formative feedback to students, its use is rather costly and cannot be considered a replacement for traditional assessments.Comment: European Conference Software Engineering Education (ECSEE), pp. 1-15, Seeon Monastery, Germany (2014

Integrating Dynamic Models for CMM-Based Software Process Improvement

During the last decade software process simulation has been used to address a wide diversity of management problems. Some of these problems are related to strategic management, technology adoption, understanding, training and learning, and risk management, among others. In this work a dynamic integrated framework for software process improvement is presented. This framework combines traditional estimation static models with an intensive utilization of dynamic simulation models of the software process. The aim of this framework is to support a qualitative and quantitative assessment for software process improvement and decision making to achieve a higher software development process capability according to the Capability Maturity Model. The paper describes the concepts underlying this framework, its implementation, the dynamic approach followed to systematically develop the dynamic modules, and an example of its potential use and benefits.CICYT TIC2001-1143-C03-0

A Software Process Engineering Course

Maturing software development organizations are beginning to identify a distinct role in the software team: Software Process Engineer. A software process engineer designs the software processes used by the organization. The software process includes the process content (identification of the roles, activities, and work products of the processes, along with specific techniques, tools, guidance, examples and other supporting information) and the lifecycle model (the ordering of and dependencies between software engineering activities and work products). A process engineer assembles a process from existing process components, choosing and tailoring components to provide the balance of agility and discipline necessary for their organization and projects. We have developed a graduate software engineering course to educate our students on the basic concepts of software process engineering. We use the OMG Software Process Engineering Metamodel and the IEEE Standard for Developing a Software Project Life Cycle Process as ways to model and compare process design alternatives and to provide mechanisms to assemble reusable process components into enactable processes. We use the Open Unified Process as an example process and we survey a wide range of techniques and methods that can be incorporated into a process. We use the Eclipse Process Framework Composer and associated process component libraries to assemble processes for specific projects. This paper describes the process engineering course and provides an informal assessment of the course effectiveness

A New Framework for Building Secure Collaborative Systems in Ad Hoc Network

Maturing software development organizations are beginning to identify a distinct role in the software team: Software Process Engineer. A software process engineer designs the software processes used by the organization. The software process includes the process content (identification of the roles, activities, and work products of the processes, along with specific techniques, tools, guidance, examples and other supporting information) and the lifecycle model (the ordering of and dependencies between software engineering activities and work products). A process engineer assembles a process from existing process components, choosing and tailoring components to provide the balance of agility and discipline necessary for their organization and projects. We have developed a graduate software engineering course to educate our students on the basic concepts of software process engineering. We use the OMG Software Process Engineering Metamodel and the IEEE Standard for Developing a Software Project Life Cycle Process as ways to model and compare process design alternatives and to provide mechanisms to assemble reusable process components into enactable processes. We use the Open Unified Process as an example process and we survey a wide range of techniques and methods that can be incorporated into a process. We use the Eclipse Process Framework Composer and associated process component libraries to assemble processes for specific projects. This paper describes the process engineering course and provides an informal assessment of the course effectiveness

Towards developing a software process improvement strategy through the application of ethical concepts

Aligning Software Process Improvement with the business and strategic goals of an enterprise is a core factor for process improvement. Achieving success in Software Process Improvement (SPI) has shown to be a problematic challenge for countless organisations. SPI, as a discipline, can be described as a set of use cases, each use case describing the logically related activities that must be undertaken. In addition, each use case is a description of the interactions between itself and the participants, i.e. the Actors. The nature of these interactions more often than not may demand, from the participant, the recognition, and fulfilment, of ethical duties. In this paper we customise a theoretical framework developed by the US Content Subcommittee of the Impact CS Steering Committee that specifies traditional moral and ethical concepts, which can be used to identify the moral issues concerning the Software Process Improvement field. An application of these conventional and generic ethical concepts is made to use cases such as: Determining Business Needs; Conducting Process Improvement Assessment; the Tailoring and Creation of Processes; and Deployment. In doing so a number of ethical issues are highlighted. In the application and utilisation of SPI: business process engineers, software engineering teams, process improvement managers, and so on must be aware of these ethical duties, which have been identified by the application of the moral and ethical concepts, as presented in this paper, in order to become more responsible professionals in general. We propose a set of heuristics for ethical engagement with the SPI discipline proposing that an effective SPI strategy must be underpinned with ethical consideration

Charting Success: Using Practical Measures to Assess Information Literacy Skills in the First-Year Writing Course

Objective – The aim was to measure the impact of a peer-to-peer model on information literacy skill-building among first-year students at a small commuter college in the United States. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is the state’s flagship public university and UNH Manchester is one of its seven colleges. This study contributed to a program evaluation of the Research Mentor Program at UNH Manchester whereby peer writing tutors are trained in basic library research skills to support first-year students throughout the research and writing process. Methods – The methodology employed a locally developed pre-test/post-test instrument with fixed-choice and open-ended questions to measure students’ knowledge of the library research process. Anonymized data was collected using an online survey with SurveyMonkey™ software. A rubric was developed to score the responses to open-ended questions. Results – The study indicated a positive progression toward increased learning for the three information literacy skills targeted: 1) using library resources correctly, 2) building effective search strategies, and 3) evaluating sources appropriately. Students scored higher in the fixed-choice questions than the open-ended ones, demonstrating their ability to more effectively identify the applicable information literacy skill than use the language of information literacy to describe their own research behavior. Conclusions – The assessment methodology used was an assortment of low-key, locally-developed instruments that provided timely data to measure students understanding of concepts taught and to apply those concepts correctly. Although the conclusions are not generalizable to other institutions, the findings were a valuable component of an ongoing program evaluation. Further assessment measuring student performance would strengthen the conclusions attained in this study

Software tool for simulation of aircraft trajectories

New concepts in air navigation have been introduced recently. Among others, are the concepts of trajectory optimization, 4D trajectories, RBT (Reference Business Trajectory), TBO (trajectory based operations), CDA (Continuous Descent Approach) and ACDA (Advanced CDA), conflict resolution, arrival time (AMAN), introduction of new aircraft (UAVs, UASs) in air space, etc. Although some of these concepts are new, the future Air Traffic Management will maintain the four ATM key performance areas such as Safety, Capacity, Efficiency, and Environmental impact. So much, the performance of the ATM system is directly related to the accuracy with which the future evolution of the traffic can be predicted. In this sense, future air traffic management will require a variety of support tools to provide suitable help to users and engineers involved in the air space management. Most of these tools are based on an appropriate trajectory prediction module as main component. Therefore, the purposes of these tools are related with testing and evaluation of any air navigation concept before they become fully operative. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview to the design of a software tool useful to estimate aircraft trajectories adapted to air navigation concepts. Other usage of the tool, like controller design, vertical navigation assessment, procedures validation and hardware and software in the loop are available in the software tool. The paper will show the process followed to design the tool, the software modules needed to perform accurately and the process followed to validate the output data

Improving Student Learning Through Use of an In-class Material Processing Design Project

At Marquette University, hybrid project-based learning has been implemented in an undergraduate mechanical engineering course on materials processing and forming using a team-based approach. The goals of the project are to 1) introduce more active and student-centered activities to improve student engagement and mastery of core concepts, 2) increase students\u27 confidence in their ability to apply what they learned in the course to solving real-world problems, 3) enable students to gain experience using engineering software as part of the learning process and in applications context. While use of process modeling software in materials processing and manufacturing courses is not entirely new, the project has students actively developing a model around a realistic process, rather than passive users running canned models and reviewing the output. This paper presents details of the project and discusses preliminary results regarding its impact on student learning and confidence related to application of the course concepts. Recommendations for improving and expanding this in-class project are presented, along with a description of the assessment methods used to measure the impact on students