A holistic method for improving software product and process quality

The concept of quality in general is elusive, multi-faceted and is perceived differently by different stakeholders. Quality is difficult to define and extremely difficult to measure. Deficient software systems regularly result in failures which often lead to significant financial losses but more importantly to loss of human lives. Such systems need to be either scrapped and replaced by new ones or corrected/improved through maintenance. One of the most serious challenges is how to deal with legacy systems which, even when not failing, inevitably require upgrades, maintenance and improvement because of malfunctioning or changing requirements, or because of changing technologies, languages, or platforms. In such cases, the dilemma is whether to develop solutions from scratch or to re-engineer a legacy system. This research addresses this dilemma and seeks to establish a rigorous method for the derivation of indicators which, together with management criteria, can help decide whether restructuring of legacy systems is advisable. At the same time as the software engineering community has been moving from corrective methods to preventive methods, concentrating not only on both product quality improvement and process quality improvement has become imperative. This research investigation combines Product Quality Improvement, primarily through the re-engineering of legacy systems; and Process Improvement methods, models and practices, and uses a holistic approach to study the interplay of Product and Process Improvement. The re-engineering factor rho, a composite metric was proposed and validated. The design and execution of formal experiments tested hypotheses on the relationship of internal (code-based) and external (behavioural) metrics. In addition to proving the hypotheses, the insights gained on logistics challenges resulted in the development of a framework for the design and execution of controlled experiments in Software Engineering. The next part of the research resulted in the development of the novel, generic and, hence, customisable Quality Model GEQUAMO, which observes the principle of orthogonality, and combines a top-down analysis of the identification, classification and visualisation of software quality characteristics, and a bottom-up method for measurement and evaluation. GEQUAMO II addressed weaknesses that were identified during various GEQUAMO implementations and expert validation by academics and practitioners. Further work on Process Improvement investigated the Process Maturity and its relationship to Knowledge Sharing, resulted in the development of the I5P Visualisation Framework for Performance Estimation through the Alignment of Process Maturity and Knowledge Sharing. I5P was used in industry and was validated by experts from academia and industry. Using the principles that guided the creation of the GEQUAMO model, the CoFeD visualisation framework, was developed for comparative quality evaluation and selection of methods, tools, models and other software artifacts. CoFeD is very useful as the selection of wrong methods, tools or even personnel is detrimental to the survival and success of projects and organisations, and even to individuals. Finally, throughout the many years of research and teaching Software Engineering, Information Systems, Methodologies, I observed the ambiguities of terminology and the use of one term to mean different concepts and one concept to be expressed in different terms. These practices result in lack of clarity. Thus my final contribution comes in my reflections on terminology disambiguation for the achievement of clarity, and the development of a framework for achieving disambiguation of terms as a necessary step towards gaining maturity and justifying the use of the term “Engineering” 50 years since the term Software Engineering was coined. This research resulted in the creation of new knowledge in the form of novel indicators, models and frameworks which can aid quantification and decision making primarily on re-engineering of legacy code and on the management of process and its improvement. The thesis also contributes to the broader debate and understanding of problems relating to Software Quality, and establishes the need for a holistic approach to software quality improvement from both the product and the process perspectives

An ISO/IEC 12207 perspective on software development process adaptation

In their earlier work, the authors had a sustained engagement with situational factors affecting software development, particularly how these factors affect the software development process. Part of this previous engagement involved the development of a situational factors reference framework. As part of an ongoing industrial engagement, the authors are currently examining situational factors and software development processes in a series of case studies. This latest case study is concerned with a small start-up organization. They start by identifying the software development process in this organization. Thereafter, the authors examine the situational context of the company, leading to an analysis of the relationship between the process and the situational context. Their general findings are consistent with their previous related work, supporting the case that a software development process is dependent on the organizational context, perhaps in a highly complex manner. In this particular case study, the authors also find that the role of organizational learning and process adaption is considered to be central to organizational survival

Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe

The Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe describes what Easy Language is and how it is used in European countries. It demonstrates the great diversity of actors, instruments and outcomes related to Easy Language throughout Europe. All people, despite their limitations, have an equal right to information, inclusion, and social participation. This results in requirements for understandable language. The notion of Easy Language refers to modified forms of standard languages that aim to facilitate reading and language comprehension. This handbook describes the historical background, the principles and the practices of Easy Language in 21 European countries. Its topics include terminological definitions, legal status, stakeholders, target groups, guidelines, practical outcomes, education, research, and a reflection on future perspectives related to Easy Language in each country. Written in an academic yet interesting and understandable style, this Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe aims to find a wide audience

Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe

The Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe describes what Easy Language is and how it is used in European countries. It demonstrates the great diversity of actors, instruments and outcomes related to Easy Language throughout Europe. All people, despite their limitations, have an equal right to information, inclusion, and social participation. This results in requirements for understandable language. The notion of Easy Language refers to modified forms of standard languages that aim to facilitate reading and language comprehension. This handbook describes the historical background, the principles and the practices of Easy Language in 21 European countries. Its topics include terminological definitions, legal status, stakeholders, target groups, guidelines, practical outcomes, education, research, and a reflection on future perspectives related to Easy Language in each country. Written in an academic yet interesting and understandable style, this Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe aims to find a wide audience

Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe

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La gamificación en el ámbito de la mejora del proceso software: marco metodológico

La industria software es una piedra angular en el desarrollo de las sociedades. En las iniciativas de mejora de procesos de software (SPI), la gestión del cambio organizacional se ha identificado como una de las áreas fundamentales a tener en cuenta. El software es altamente dependiente del capital humano y cualquier iniciativa SPI que aspire al éxito debe tener en cuenta los factores humanos, en especial, la motivación y el compromiso de las personas involucradas. De hecho, contar con aspectos motivadores que permitan mejorar el rendimiento de los equipos de desarrollo de software se presenta como uno de los principales retos de la gestión de la Ingeniería del Software en todo el mundo. A pesar de todo esto, se sigue sin prestar la suficiente atención a los aspectos humanos y el alto grado de fracaso en las iniciativas SPI está directamente relacionado con una falta de compromiso de la alta dirección y de motivación. La base sobre las que se sustenta la gamificación -principios psicológicos y elementos del juego- nos permite definir mecanismos que canalizan la motivación de las personas al desarrollo de tareas de manera más eficiente, además de fomentar y acelerar la aceptación de iniciativas SPI. Este trabajo de investigación supone un enfoque pionero e innovador dado que aprovecha el carácter transversal de la gamificación y aplica, de manera metodológica, sus fundamentos a la gestión del cambio organizacional de SPI. Esta vinculación de cuerpos de conocimiento cristaliza en el marco metodológico validado por expertos de ambas áreas. A través de la gamificación, se ha validado empíricamente en un entorno productivo cómo el marco permite incrementar el rendimiento en la gestión del cambio organizacional implícita en toda propuesta de SPI, a pesar de no verse afectada la motivación intrínseca.Software industry is a cornerstone in the development of societies. In software process improvement (SPI) initiatives, organizational change management has been identified as one of the crucial areas to manage. Software is highly dependent on human capital and any SPI initiative that aspires to success must consider human factors, especially motivation and commitment of the people involved. In fact, motivational aspects that improve the performance of software development teams is presented as one of the main challenges of software engineering management worldwide. Despite all this, it still does not pay sufficient attention to the human aspects and the high degree of failure in SPI initiatives is directly related to a lack of commitment and motivation. The foundations on which gamification is based -psychological principles and game elements-, allows us to define mechanisms that channel the motivation of people to the more efficient development of tasks to promote and accelerate the acceptance of process improvement. This research is a pioneering and innovative approach that leverages the given transverse nature of gamification and apply, in a methodological way, its fundamentals to SPI organizational change management. This entailment of bodies of knowledge crystallizes in the methodological framework validated by experts from both areas. Through gamification, it was empirically validated in a real software organization that this framework allows to increase performance in managing organizational change in SPI, despite not being affected the intrinsic motivation. iniciativas de mejora de procesos de software (SPI), la gestión del cambio organizacional se ha identificado como una de las áreas fundamentales a tener en cuenta. El software es altamente dependiente del capital humano y cualquier iniciativa SPI que aspire al éxito debe tener en cuenta los factores humanos, en especial, la motivación y el compromiso de las personas involucradas. De hecho, contar con aspectos motivadores que permitan mejorar el rendimiento de los equipos de desarrollo de software se presenta como uno de los principales retos de la gestión de la Ingeniería del Software en todo el mundo. A pesar de todo esto, se sigue sin prestar la suficiente atención a los aspectos humanos y el alto grado de fracaso en las iniciativas SPI está directamente relacionado con una falta de compromiso de la alta dirección y de motivación. La base sobre las que se sustenta la gamificación -principios psicológicos y elementos del juego- nos permite definir mecanismos que canalizan la motivación de las personas al desarrollo de tareas de manera más eficiente, además de fomentar y acelerar la aceptación de iniciativas SPI. Este trabajo de investigación supone un enfoque pionero e innovador dado que aprovecha el carácter transversal de la gamificación y aplica, de manera metodológica, sus fundamentos a la gestión del cambio organizacional de SPI. Esta vinculación de cuerpos de conocimiento cristaliza en el marco metodológico validado por expertos de ambas áreas. A través de la gamificación, se ha validado empíricamente en un entorno productivo cómo el marco permite incrementar el rendimiento en la gestión del cambio organizacional implícita en toda propuesta de SPI, a pesar de no verse afectada la motivación intrínseca.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Informática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Gonzalo Cuevas Agustín.- Secretario: María Isabel Sánchez Segura.- Vocal: Fernando Llopis Pascua

XXI Workshop de Investigadores en Ciencias de la Computación - WICC 2019: libro de actas

Trabajos presentados en el XXI Workshop de Investigadores en Ciencias de la Computación (WICC), celebrado en la provincia de San Juan los días 25 y 26 de abril 2019, organizado por la Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI) y la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales de la Universidad Nacional de San Juan.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informátic