Determining the effectiveness of three software evaluation techniques through informal aggregation

An accepted fact in software engineering is that software must undergo verification and validation process during development to ascertain and improve its quality level. But there are too many techniques than a single developer could master, yet, it is impossible to be certain that software is free of defects. So, it is crucial for developers to be able to choose from available evaluation techniques, the one most suitable and likely to yield optimum quality results for different products. Though, some knowledge is available on the strengths and weaknesses of the available software quality assurance techniques but not much is known yet on the relationship between different techniques and contextual behavior of the techniques. Objective: This research investigates the effectiveness of two testing techniques ? equivalence class partitioning and decision coverage and one review technique ? code review by abstraction, in terms of their fault detection capability. This will be used to strengthen the practical knowledge available on these techniques

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

Design, implementation, and testing of advanced virtual coordinate-measuring machines

Copyright @ 2011 IEEE. This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Advanced virtual coordinate-measuring machines (CMMs) (AVCMMs) have recently been developed at Brunel University, which provide vivid graphical representation and powerful simulation of CMM operations, together with Monte-Carlo-based uncertainty evaluation. In an integrated virtual environment, the user can plan an inspection strategy for a given task, carry out virtual measurements, and evaluate the uncertainty associated with the measurement results, all without the need of using a physical machine. The obtained estimate of uncertainty can serve as a rapid feedback for the user to optimize the inspection plan in the AVCMM before actual measurements or as an evaluation of the measurement results performed. This paper details the methodology, design, and implementation of the AVCMM system, including CMM modeling, probe contact and collision detection, error modeling and simulation, and uncertainty evaluation. This paper further reports experimental results for the testing of the AVCMM

Open-source digital technologies for low-cost monitoring of historical constructions

This paper shows new possibilities of using novel, open-source, low-cost platforms for the structural health monitoring of heritage structures. The objective of the study is to present an assessment of increasingly available open-source digital modeling and fabrication technologies in order to identify the suitable counterparts of the typical components of a continuous static monitoring system for a historical construction. The results of the research include a simple case-study, which is presented with low-cost, open-source, calibrated components, as well as an assessment of different alternatives for deploying basic structural health monitoring arrangements. The results of the research show the great potential of these existing technologies that may help to promote a widespread and cost-efficient monitoring of the built cultural heritage. Such scenario may contribute to the onset of commonplace digital records of historical constructions in an open-source, versatile and reliable fashion.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

X-ray satellite

A mock-up for the development of the Engineering Model (EM) and Flight Model (FM) is introduced which shortens the delay of 7 weeks regarding the previous planned launch date of September 30, to about 3 weeks maintaining the 4 weeks reserve is discussed. As compared with the new assembly integration test (EM-AIT) schedule of March 11, 1985, the EM data handling system is on the critical path. For the attitude measurement and control subsystem, sufficiently flexibility is achieved through combination of dummies and EM hardware to catch up with the existing delays