210 research outputs found

    Software Design Change Artifacts Generation through Software Architectural Change Detection and Categorisation

    Get PDF
    Software is solely designed, implemented, tested, and inspected by expert people, unlike other engineering projects where they are mostly implemented by workers (non-experts) after designing by engineers. Researchers and practitioners have linked software bugs, security holes, problematic integration of changes, complex-to-understand codebase, unwarranted mental pressure, and so on in software development and maintenance to inconsistent and complex design and a lack of ways to easily understand what is going on and what to plan in a software system. The unavailability of proper information and insights needed by the development teams to make good decisions makes these challenges worse. Therefore, software design documents and other insightful information extraction are essential to reduce the above mentioned anomalies. Moreover, architectural design artifacts extraction is required to create the developer’s profile to be available to the market for many crucial scenarios. To that end, architectural change detection, categorization, and change description generation are crucial because they are the primary artifacts to trace other software artifacts. However, it is not feasible for humans to analyze all the changes for a single release for detecting change and impact because it is time-consuming, laborious, costly, and inconsistent. In this thesis, we conduct six studies considering the mentioned challenges to automate the architectural change information extraction and document generation that could potentially assist the development and maintenance teams. In particular, (1) we detect architectural changes using lightweight techniques leveraging textual and codebase properties, (2) categorize them considering intelligent perspectives, and (3) generate design change documents by exploiting precise contexts of components’ relations and change purposes which were previously unexplored. Our experiment using 4000+ architectural change samples and 200+ design change documents suggests that our proposed approaches are promising in accuracy and scalability to deploy frequently. Our proposed change detection approach can detect up to 100% of the architectural change instances (and is very scalable). On the other hand, our proposed change classifier’s F1 score is 70%, which is promising given the challenges. Finally, our proposed system can produce descriptive design change artifacts with 75% significance. Since most of our studies are foundational, our approaches and prepared datasets can be used as baselines for advancing research in design change information extraction and documentation

    Comparing the production of a formula with the development of L2 competence

    Get PDF
    This pilot study investigates the production of a formula with the development of L2 competence over proficiency levels of a spoken learner corpus. The results show that the formula in beginner production data is likely being recalled holistically from learners’ phonological memory rather than generated online, identifiable by virtue of its fluent production in absence of any other surface structure evidence of the formula’s syntactic properties. As learners’ L2 competence increases, the formula becomes sensitive to modifications which show structural conformity at each proficiency level. The transparency between the formula’s modification and learners’ corresponding L2 surface structure realisations suggest that it is the independent development of L2 competence which integrates the formula into compositional language, and ultimately drives the SLA process forward

    Software Architecture in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities

    Full text link
    Software architecture has been an active research field for nearly four decades, in which previous studies make significant progress such as creating methods and techniques and building tools to support software architecture practice. Despite past efforts, we have little understanding of how practitioners perform software architecture related activities, and what challenges they face. Through interviews with 32 practitioners from 21 organizations across three continents, we identified challenges that practitioners face in software architecture practice during software development and maintenance. We reported on common software architecture activities at software requirements, design, construction and testing, and maintenance stages, as well as corresponding challenges. Our study uncovers that most of these challenges center around management, documentation, tooling and process, and collects recommendations to address these challenges.Comment: Preprint of Full Research Paper, the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE '23

    Quality Measures for ETL Processes

    Get PDF
    ETL processes play an increasingly important role for the support of modern business operations. These business processes are centred around artifacts with high variability and diverse lifecycles, which correspond to key business entities. The apparent complexity of these activities has been examined through the prism of Business Process Management, mainly focusing on functional requirements and performance optimization. However, the quality dimension has not yet been thoroughly investigated and there is a need for a more human-centric approach to bring them closer to business-users requirements. In this paper we take a first step towards this direction by defining a sound model for ETL process quality characteristics and quantitative measures for each characteristic, based on existing literature. Our model shows dependencies among quality characteristics and can provide the basis for subsequent analysis using Goal Modeling techniques

    A data-driven approach for a project management methodology for R&D Projects.

    Get PDF
    267 p.The thesis is based on the proposal of an R&D project management methodology based on the Earned Quality Method (EQM) and data analysis to improve the efficiency of R&D projects in a near-real production environment in a TRL 5 to 7. The thesis relies upon published papers that propose measuring and improving the management of R&D projects. The methodology leans on the formulation and gradual and recurrent evaluation of quality criteria as a performance indicator of the work carried out. The thesis stands on the concept that quality is a measurable quantity that accumulates throughout the project. The proposed project management methodology is built on three main aspects: Collaboration between the University and Industry; The correct interpretation of the TRL where research projects are developed; The study of different metrics for project management, such as the measurement of the success of projects, the KPIs of a project-based organisation, and the EQM. The methodology has been tested with three actual use cases with different characteristics in terms of project size, funding and team members; and validated on an R&D Centre in Advanced Manufacturing in Aeronautics. The pillars of the thesis are focused on the analysis of the mentioned components and their integration for the development of a methodology to improve the efficiency in the use of resources and the quality of obtained results in the R&D projects' framework. The key findings of these studies demonstrate the effectiveness of using quality criteria for measuring progress in the management of R&D projects, as well as providing a better understanding of several critical aspects of the realisation of these projects

    Assessment of English Idiom Comprehension among University Students in Unguja.

    Get PDF
    Understanding English idioms is essential in mastering the language. Despite idioms being extensively studied in the African context, showing the importance of idiomatic competence, studies on how Zanzibari students comprehend idioms are still very limited. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the comprehension of English idioms among University students in Unguja, which will lead to increasing their English proficiencies. It includes the extent of students’ comprehension of idioms, factors affecting comprehension of the idioms and whether inherent features of an idiom influence students’ comprehension. The study adopted a quantitative approach and a descriptive research design. The researcher used questionnaires and cloze tests to collect data from 180 respondents from three universities in Zanzibar; the State University of Zanzibar, Sumait University, and Zanzibar University. The findings revealed that the respondents’ performance in idiom comprehension was below average. The results showed that the respondents performed better in idioms presented with an enabling context than those presented in isolation, i.e. without an enabling context. The results also showed that the inherent factors such as ambiguity, transparency, and compositeness of idioms influenced the comprehension of English idioms. The findings from this research have several implications for the students, lecturers, syllabus designers, material developers, and researchers. Idioms should be emphasised in classroom instruction, introduced in vocabulary lists, and provided more exercises to motivate learners to apply various effective language learning strategies

    Globalisation, Geopolitics, and Gender in Professional Communication

    Get PDF
    This edited collection investigates the linguistics of globalisation, geopolitics and gender in workplace cultures in a range of different contemporary international settings. The chapters examine how issues of globalisation, gender and geopolitics affect professionals in different workplace contexts, including domestic workers; IT professionals; teachers, university staff; engineers; entrepreneurs; CEOs of different corporates including locally based businesses as well as multinationals; farmers; co-operative leaders; NGO leaders; bloggers; healthcare assistants and caregivers. Taking different sociolinguistic approaches to exploring language and the geopolitics of gender at work in Dubai, Kuwait, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Nigeria, Malaysia, Turkey, Belgium, Switzerland, New Zealand, Uganda, the UK and the USA, each chapter focuses on a range of salient geopolitical issues which often have global applicability, but which may also be subject to more localised socio-cultural variation. The chapters critically discuss issues of gendered language, perceptions and representations of workplace cultures, discrimination, the role of gendered stereotyping and deeply ingrained socio-cultural myths about gender and the importance of examining the intersections of identity – all of which continue to persist as barriers to equality and inclusion in workplaces worldwide. Despite the variation and diversity in professions and geopolitical contexts captured across the chapters, remarkably similar issues of gender discrimination and persisting inequalities are identified and critically discussed, thus pointing to the global nature of these issues

    Using Design Science Research to Develop a Framework for Effective Business Model Design

    Get PDF
    The ever-changing and increasingly complex business world makes new successful business models a key challenge for entrepreneurs. Accordingly, business model design is an essential task for startups to explore, define and communicate new business opportunities. Simultaneously, there has been insufficient knowledge, either in theory or in practice, on how to realize an effective business model design process. Therefore, this dissertation\u27s approach was to develop a framework with the support of which startups can effectively design their business model. For this purpose, the thesis identified content and process steps necessary for an effective business model design. Furthermore, based on a literature review, the business model concept, as well as the basic steps of an effective process for designing a business model, were defined. Furthermore, through the analysis of existing frameworks and the examination of entrepreneurial practice in the context of a quantitative survey, insights were gained into how startups currently design their business models, and for which reasons the existing frameworks have so far been assessed as not effective enough. Methodologically, the work was guided by a design science research approach. In all steps of this work, the Design Science research framework and guidelines found on the principle that new knowledge and understanding are derived from the design, application, and evaluation of an artifact, were strictly followed. Based on the theoretical findings of the literature and the study\u27s practical insights, the requirements for the design of the framework were derived. Its initial design was developed with the help of a group of experts. It was then tested in two iterative evaluation cycles with 42 startups in seven multi-day workshops in different accelerator programs. After each application, the framework was evaluated through interviews and questionnaires and adapted based on the lessons learned. This iteration was conducted until the previously defined requirements for the artifact were fully met. Within the work scope, it was thus possible to develop an artifact that contains significant structural and content-related enhancements com-pared to existing approaches to business model design. The developed framework can sup-port startups, regardless of their development stage and economic background, in effectively designing their business model

    A network of Spanish consecutive discourse markers from a usage-based perspective: corpus and experimental evidences

    Get PDF
    Esta tesis se plantea la necesidad de describir las diferencias entre determinados sintagmas preposicionales y marcadores del discurso y de representar cómo estas se reflejan en un cline evolutivo, donde la primera categoría avanza gradualmente hacia la segunda. Una premisa fundamental del trabajo consiste en que el esquema sincrónico conformado por unidades que comparten origen composicional y muestran, en cambio, diferentes propiedades formales o funcionales nos proporciona un marco fiable del proceso diacrónico que han recorrido. En este sentido, las unidades consecutivas del español por eso, por ello y por esto han sido frecuentemente diferenciadas del marcador del discurso por tanto en virtud de ciertas propiedades distintivas. Así pues, el estudio de este paradigma consecutivo nos permite obtener una imagen ilustradora del mencionado cline, por lo que deviene en nuestro objeto de estudio particular. Tales diferencias en su comportamiento formal o funcional son, de acuerdo con la perspectiva adoptada en esta tesis, el resultado de procesos de cambio que afectan a las construcciones, a saber, cambios construccionales y construccionalizaciones. Estos procesos pueden dar cuenta del estatus actual de las construcciones, y las relaciones que estas mantienen se representan adecuadamente en una red construccional con múltiples vínculos que aspira a conceptualizar de manera más dinámica la noción tradicional de paradigma. Otro presupuesto del trabajo se refiere a la metodología que puede reflejar mejor el estatus de estos marcadores consecutivos, soslayando los problemas que este tipo de unidades plantean desde un punto de vista evolutivo. En este sentido, se ha llevado a cabo una combinación de métodos en la que se investigan y se ponen en correlación dos dimensiones: por un lado, el lenguaje como actividad, a través de un estudio de eye-tracking; por otro lado, el lenguaje como producto, a partir de un estudio de corpus. Esta correlación no solo consiste en una triangulación de métodos en un sentido tradicional, sino que concuerda realmente con los enfoques basados en el uso, en los que la lengua se concibe como el reflejo de la categorización de los hablantes a partir de eventos de uso. Por tanto, los métodos experimentales en línea, como el eye-tracking, nos proporcionan una herramienta complementaria para este tipo de análisis, en la medida en que ofrecen un esbozo de los patrones de procesamiento desencadenados por cada marcador, que puede ponerse en relación con los patrones de uso que exhiben las distintas unidades analizadas en enunciados reales de corpus. La combinación de los estudios de corpus y de eye-tracking realizados revela una arquitectura del paradigma de conectores consecutivos ciertamente compleja. Todas las unidades despliegan una estrategia de procesamiento que encaja con los principios de procesamiento de la marcación del discurso. Un escrutinio mayor de algunos parámetros demuestra que ciertas diferencias del estudio de eye-tracking se pueden correlacionar con los distintos patrones de uso que se hallan en el estudio de corpus. Se confirman, por tanto, los beneficios de la combinación de corpus y métodos experimentales y de las perspectivas basadas en el uso para la descripción sincrónica y diacrónica de los marcadores del discurso y de las categorías y unidades vecinas
    • …
    corecore