Detecting Coordination Problems in Collaborative Software Development Environments

Software development is rarely an individual effort and generally involves teams of developers collaborating to generate good reliable code. Among the software code there exist technical dependencies that arise from software components using services from other components. The different ways of assigning the design, development, and testing of these software modules to people can cause various coordination problems among them. We claim\ud that the collaboration of the developers, designers and testers must be related to and governed by the technical task structure. These collaboration practices are handled in what we call Socio-Technical Patterns.\ud The TESNA project (Technical Social Network Analysis) we report on in this paper addresses this issue. We propose a method and a tool that a project manager can use in order to detect the socio-technical coordination problems. We test the method and tool in a case study of a small and innovative software product company

TESNA: A Tool for Detecting Coordination Problems

Detecting problems in coordination can prove to be very difficult. This is especially true in large globally distributed environments where the Software Development can quickly go out of the Project Manager’s control. In this paper we outline a methodology to analyse the socio-technical coordination structures. We also show how this can be made easier with the help of a tool called TESNA that we have developed

Exploring the Impact of Socio-Technical Core-Periphery Structures in Open Source Software Development

In this paper we apply the social network concept of core-periphery structure to the sociotechnical structure of a software development team. We propose a socio-technical pattern that can be used to locate emerging coordination problems in Open Source projects. With the help of our tool and method called TESNA, we demonstrate a method to monitor the socio-technical core-periphery movement in Open Source projects. We then study the impact of different core-periphery movements on Open Source projects. We conclude that a steady core-periphery shift towards the core is beneficial to the project, whereas shifts away from the core are clearly not good. Furthermore, oscillatory shifts towards and away from the core can be considered as an indication of the instability of the project. Such an analysis can provide developers with a good insight into the health of an Open Source project. Researchers can gain from the pattern theory, and from the method we use to study the core-periphery movements

The applicability of a use value-based file retention method

The determination of the relative value of files is important for an organization while determining a retrieval service level for its files and a corresponding file retention policy. This paper discusses via a literature review methods for developing file retention policies based on the use values of files. On basis of these results we propose an enhanced version of one of them. In a case study, we demonstrate how one can develop a customized file retention policy by testing causal relations between file parameters and the use value of files. This case shows that, contrary to suggestions of previous research, the file type has no significant relation with the value of a file and thus should be excluded from a retention policy in this case. The case study also shows a strong relation between the position of a file user and the value of this file. Furthermore, we have improved the Information Value Questionnaire (IVQ) for subjective valuation of files. However, the resulting method needs software to be efficient in its application. Therefore, we developed a prototype for the automatic execution of a file retention policy. We conclude with a discussio

Hybrid Project Management Approach for Software Modernization

Software modernization or legacy modernization, refers to the conversion, rewriting or porting of a legacy system to a modern computer programming language, software libraries, protocols, or hardware platform. Legacy transformation aims to retain and extend the value of the legacy investment through migration to new platforms [1]. Currently, I am working as a Senior Business Analyst with Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the largest insurance provider in the United States across the health sector. I am deployed to work on their initiative towards software modernization along the healthcare industry through their software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform – “The Healthcare Online Resources (THOR)”. This service is available to numerous providers in the healthcare vertical to leverage their current operations and comprises of multiple modules including but not limited to claim adjustments, preauthorization and group coverage status. With the ongoing centralization of resources and increased competition, most of the companies are focusing on software modernization by leveraging their current technologies and hardware platforms, to remain the trendsetters and viable in the marketplace. To enhance my efficacy and understanding of the business requirements, I would like to conduct my thesis research towards the topic of “Software Modernization”. I would be able to leverage my experience as Senior Business Analyst to understand and bridge the gap between business requirements and the supporting technology backup. Being working in a multinational company, with multiple cross-functional teams, I plan to include different research results through self-surfing and interaction with these team members. Additionally, I had like to conduct surveys across these cross-functional teams mainly business and technical teams to understand and document their challenges and experience. Therefore, I strongly feel that I would be able to justify the thesis and the corresponding research

Systems Identification of Sensorimotor Control for Visually Guided Wrist Movements

The sensorimotor control system is a complicated system in which the neural controller uses the feedback information from sensory modalities (visual, proprioceptive, vestibular, auditory, etc.) to actuate the musculo-skeletal system in order to execute intended movements. It has been an ongoing research to decode this sensorimotor integration. The current study utilized a systems identification approach in conjunction with a one-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulandum to quantify (delays, noises, wrist dynamics and controller parameters) a simplified (linear time-invariant) model of sensorimotor control for visually guided wrist stabilization movements. Four sensorimotor tasks were used to characterize the parameters of the sensorimotor control model. Open loop visual and proprioceptive delays along with effective feedforward delay (associated with motor processing and feedforward conduction) were estimated from subject\u27s response to perturbation (Exp. 1) using cross-correlation analysis. Multiplicative feedforward (motor) noise was estimated by measuring the force variability in isometric torque contractions at 5 different torque levels (Exp. 2). Frequency response analysis (Exp.3 and 4) was used to obtain estimates of wrist dynamics (inertia, viscosity and stiffness), the feedback (visual and proprioceptive) gains, the controller gains (proportional, integral and derivative) and an additive sensory noise. The experimental paradigms were validated by simulating and testing the experimental task along with the sensorimotor control model in SIMULINK®. The ability of the experiments to characterize the model was tested over a range of parameter values to determine the robustness of the approach. Model performance was measured by characterizing the sensorimotor control system in 11 subjects. Variance Accounted For (VAF) by the model was used as a performance metric to compare model\u27s response (obtained using the parameters measured for each subject in the model) with subject\u27s performance (Exp. 5). The proposed model of sensorimotor control contained 13 parameters, which were measured successively to study their interaction during wrist stabilization in 11 neurologically-intact subjects. The model parameters estimated for human subjects resulted in accurate predictions of hand position, with a high percentage of variance accounted for (VAF) across all subjects (78.3±3.3 %). Future studies will use these techniques to quantify how the sensorimotor control changes across tasks (tracking vs. stabilization), age and neuro-motor disabilities

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FAST PYROLYSIS OF ARUNDO DONAX IN A NOVEL PADDLE REACTOR

The main objective of this research was to show the effectiveness of a novel paddle reactor for fast pyrolysis and study the effect of biomass particle size and reaction temperature of Arundo Donax a type of energy crop on the bio-oil yields. The novel paddle reactor showed effective mixing and heat transfer which were proved with the help of studying the residence time and the heating characteristics of the system respectively. The effect of different biomass particle sizes on the bio-oil yield was not significant, the bio-oil yield was approximately 50% for all the sizes. For Arundo Donax particle sizes less than 1.0 mm would not have any significant effect on the bio-oil yield. The effect of reaction temperature on the bio-oil yield was not significant as the reaction temperature was increased from 500 to 530ºC, the bio-oil yield decreased by 7% within that temperature range. Maximum bio-oil yield was obtained in the range of 470-500ºC which was approximately 50%. A parabolic curve was obtained for reaction temperature vs bio-oil yield as predicted. For Arundo Donax the temperature for maximum bio-oil yield is about the same as for woody biomass, around 500ºC