29 research outputs found
Perceptions of Task Interdependence in Software Development: An Industrial Case Study
Context: Task interdependence is a work design factor that expresses the
mutual dependency between tasks that compose a whole work. In software
development, task interdependencies are created by the technical dependencies
between the components of the software system and by how the development tasks
are allocated to individuals in a teamwork context. Despite its importance for
individual and team effectiveness, we still do not have studies about how
software engineers perceive task interdependence in practice. Goal: To
understand the perceptions of software engineers about the interdependence in
their work and how these perceptions interact with other human and technical
factors in the development process. Method: We performed an exploratory
qualitative case study of a single software development team in a Brazilian
software company that developed solutions for the financial market. We
interviewed all 10 team members and used standard coding techniques from
qualitative research to code, categorize, and synthesize data. Results:
Individuals are consistent in their understanding of task interdependence and
how it happens in practice. However, there are asymmetries between the
individual perceptions in an interdependence relationship, which seem to
exacerbate expressed feelings of anxiety and dissatisfaction. Conclusion: Our
results suggest that the perception of task interdependence in software
development is often not symmetrical with potential negative effects on
emotional states that are related to motivation and satisfaction in the
workplace.Comment: 11 page
Risks and Assets: A Qualitative Study of a Software Ecosystem in the Mining Industry
Digitalization and servitization are impacting many domains, including the
mining industry. As the equipment becomes connected and technical
infrastructure evolves, business models and risk management need to adapt. In
this paper, we present a study on how changes in asset and risk distribution
are evolving for the actors in a software ecosystem (SECO) and
system-of-systems (SoS) around a mining operation. We have performed a survey
to understand how Service Level Agreements (SLAs) -- a common mechanism for
managing risk -- are used in other domains. Furthermore, we have performed a
focus group study with companies. There is an overall trend in the mining
industry to move the investment cost (CAPEX) from the mining operator to the
vendors. Hence, the mining operator instead leases the equipment (as
operational expense, OPEX) or even acquires a service. This change in business
model impacts operation, as knowledge is moved from the mining operator to the
suppliers. Furthermore, as the infrastructure becomes more complex, this
implies that the mining operator is more and more reliant on the suppliers for
the operation and maintenance. As this change is still in an early stage, there
is no formalized risk management, e.g. through SLAs, in place. Rather, at
present, the companies in the ecosystem rely more on trust and the incentives
created by the promise of mutual future benefits of innovation activities. We
believe there is a need to better understand how to manage risk in SECO as it
is established and evolves. At the same time, in a SECO, the focus is on
cooperation and innovation, the companies do not have incentives to address
this unless there is an incident. Therefore, industry need, we believe, help in
systematically understanding risk and defining quality aspects such as
reliability and performance in the new business environment
Characterizing and Assessing a Large-Scale Software Maintenance Organization
One important component of a software process is the organizational
context in which the process is enacted. This component is often
missing or incomplete in current process modeling approaches. One
technique for modeling this perspective is the Actor-Dependency (AD)
Model. This paper reports on a case study which used this approach to
analyze and assess a large software maintenance organization. Our goal
was to identify the approach's strengths and weaknesses while
providing practical recommendations for improvement. The AD model was
found to be very useful in capturing the important properties of the
organizational context of the maintenance process, and aided in the
understanding of the flaws found in this process. However, a number of
opportunities for extending and improving the AD model were
identified. Among others, there is a need to incorporate quantitative
information to complement the qualitative model.
(Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-94-112
Evaluating Heuristics for Planning Effective and Efficient Inspections
A significant body of knowledge concerning software inspection practice indicates that the value of inspections varies widely both within and across organizations. Inspection effectiveness and efficiency can be measured in numerous ways, and may be affected by a variety of factors such as Inspection planning, the type of software, the developing organization, and many others. In the early 1990's, NASA formulated heuristics for inspection planning based on best practices and early NASA inspection data. Over the intervening years, the body of data from NASA inspections has grown. This paper describes a multi-faceted exploratory analysis performed on this data to elicit lessons learned in general about conducting inspections and to recommend improvements to the existing heuristics. The contributions of our results include support for modifying some of the original inspection heuristics (e.g. Increasing the recommended page rate), evidence that Inspection planners must choose between efficiency and effectiveness, as a good tradeoff between them may not exist, and Identification of small subsets of inspections for which new inspection heuristics are needed. Most Importantly, this work illustrates the value of collecting rich data on software Inspections, and using it to gain insight into, and Improve, inspection practice
Qualitative Analysis for Maintenance Process Assessment
In order to improve software maintenance processes, we first need to be
able to characterize and assess them. These tasks must be performed in
depth and with objectivity since the problems are complex. One approach is
to set up a measurement-based software process improvement program
specifically aimed at maintenance. However, establishing a measurement
program requires that one understands the problems to be addressed by the
measurement program and is able to characterize the maintenance
environment and processes in order to collect suitable and cost-effective
data. Also, enacting such a program and getting usable data sets takes
time. A short term substitute is therefore needed.
We propose in this paper a characterization process aimed specifically at
maintenance and based on a general qualitative analysis methodology. This
process is rigorously defined in order to be repeatable and usable by
people who are not acquainted with such analysis procedures. A basic
feature of our approach is that actual implemented software changes are
analyzed in order to understand the flaws in the maintenance process.
Guidelines are provided and a case study is shown that demonstrates the
usefulness of the approach.
(Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-96-7
Neutralization profiles of HIV-1 viruses from the VRC01 Antibody Mediated Prevention (AMP) trials
The VRC01 Antibody Mediated Prevention (AMP) efficacy trials conducted between 2016 and 2020 showed for the first time that passively administered broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) could prevent HIV-1 acquisition against bnAb-sensitive viruses. HIV-1 viruses isolated from AMP participants who acquired infection during the study in the sub-Saharan African (HVTN 703/HPTN 081) and the Americas/European (HVTN 704/HPTN 085) trials represent a panel of currently circulating strains of HIV-1 and offer a unique opportunity to investigate the sensitivity of the virus to broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) being considered for clinical development. Pseudoviruses were constructed using envelope sequences from 218 individuals. The majority of viruses identified were clade B and C; with clades A, D, F and G and recombinants AC and BF detected at lower frequencies. We tested eight bnAbs in clinical development (VRC01, VRC07-523LS, 3BNC117, CAP256.25, PGDM1400, PGT121, 10–1074 and 10E8v4) for neutralization against all AMP placebo viruses (n = 76). Compared to older clade C viruses (1998–2010), the HVTN703/HPTN081 clade C viruses showed increased resistance to VRC07-523LS and CAP256.25. At a concentration of 1μg/ml (IC80), predictive modeling identified the triple combination of V3/V2-glycan/CD4bs-targeting bnAbs (10-1074/PGDM1400/VRC07-523LS) as the best against clade C viruses and a combination of MPER/V3/CD4bs-targeting bnAbs (10E8v4/10-1074/VRC07-523LS) as the best against clade B viruses, due to low coverage of V2-glycan directed bnAbs against clade B viruses. Overall, the AMP placebo viruses represent a valuable resource for defining the sensitivity of contemporaneous circulating viral strains to bnAbs and highlight the need to update reference panels regularly. Our data also suggests that combining bnAbs in passive immunization trials would improve coverage of global viruses
Viral escape from HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies drives increased plasma neutralization breadth through sequential recognition of multiple epitopes and immunotypes.
Identifying the targets of broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV-1 and understanding how these antibodies develop remain important goals in the quest to rationally develop an HIV-1 vaccine. We previously identified a participant in the CAPRISA Acute Infection Cohort (CAP257) whose plasma neutralized 84% of heterologous viruses. In this study we showed that
breadth in CAP257 was largely due to the sequential, transient ppearance of three distinct broadly neutralizing antibody specificities spanning the first 4.5 years of infection. The first specificity targeted an epitope in the V2 region of gp120 that was also recognized by strain-specific antibodies 7 weeks earlier. Specificity for the autologous virus was determined largely
by a rare N167 antigenic variant of V2, with viral escape to the more common D167 immunotype coinciding with the development of the first wave of broadly neutralizing antibodies. Escape from these broadly neutralizing V2 antibodies through deletion of the glycan at N160 was associated with exposure of an epitope in the CD4 binding site that became the target for a second wave of broadly neutralizing antibodies. Neutralization by these CD4 binding site antibodies was almost
entirely dependent on the glycan at position N276. Early viral escape mutations in the CD4 binding site drove an increase in wave two neutralization breadth, as this second wave of heterologous neutralization matured to recognize multiple immunotypes within this site. The third wave targeted a quaternary epitope that did not overlap any of the four known sites of vulnerability on the HIV-1 envelope and remains undefined. Altogether this study showed that the human immune system is capable of generating multiple broadly neutralizing antibodies in response to a constantly evolving viral population that exposes new targets as a consequence of escape from earlier neutralizing antibodies
Qualitative Methods in Empirical Studies of Software Engineering
AbstractÐWhile empirical studies in software engineering are beginning to gain recognition in the research community, this subarea is also entering a new level of maturity by beginning to address the human aspects of software development. This added focus has added a new layer of complexity to an already challenging area of research. Along with new research questions, new research methods are needed to study nontechnical aspects of software engineering. In many other disciplines, qualitative research methods have been developed and are commonly used to handle the complexity of issues involving human behavior. This paper presents several qualitative methods for data collection and analysis and describes them in terms of how they might be incorporated into empirical studies of software engineering, in particular how they might be combined with quantitative methods. To illustrate this use of qualitative methods, examples from real software engineering studies are used throughout
Inspections and Reviews An Empirical Study of Communication in Code
This paper describes an empirical study which addresses the issue of communication among members of a soft-ware development organization. In particular, data was collected concerning code inspections in one soft-ware development project. The question of interest is whether or not organizational structure (the network of relationships between developers) has an effect on the amount of effort expended on communication between developers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, including participant observation, structured interviews, generation of hypotheses from field notes, some simple statistical tests of relationships, and in-terpretation of results with qualitative anecdotes. The study results show that past and present working re-lationships between inspection participants affect the amount of meeting time spent in different types of dis-cussion, thus affecting the overall meeting length. Re-porting relationships and physical proximity also have an effect, as well as the point in the project that an in-spection occurs. All but the last of these factors are or-ganizational structure relationships. The contribution of the study is a set of well-supported hypotheses for further investigation