146 research outputs found
Managerial commitment towards SPI in small and very small enterprises
This paper compares and contrasts the results of two similar studies into the software process practices in Irish Small and Very Small Enterprises. The first study contains rich findings in relation to the role and influence of managerial experience and style, with particular respect to the company founder and software development managers in small to medium seized enterprises (SMEs), whilst the second study contains extensive findings in relation to people and management involvement / commitment and SPI goal planning in very small enterprises (VSEs). By combining these results of these two studies of Irish SMEs/VSEs we can develop a rich picture of managerial commitment towards SPI and in particular explore the similarities between Small and Very Small Enterprises
Investigating software process in practice: a grounded theory perspective
This thesis is concerned with how software process and software process improvement is practiced within the indigenous Irish software product industry. Using the grounded theory methodology, the study utilises in-depth interviews to examine the attitude and perceptions of practitioners towards software process and software process improvement. The outcome of the work is a theory, grounded in the field data, that explains how software processes are formed and evolve, and when and why software process improvement is undertaken. The resultant grounded theory is based on two conceptual themes, Process Formation and Process Evolution, and one core theoretical category, Cost of Process.
The empirical investigation shows that software process improvement programmes are implemented by companies as a reaction to business events, and how many software managers reject software process improvement because o f the associated costs. In addition, indigenous Irish software companies largely ignore commercial best practice software process improvement models, and the reasons for this are discussed.
The research also argues that software process improvement is not solely technologycentred but is also affected by wider human and organisational factors. As these âsocioculturalâ influences have been more widely addressed in the Information Systems discipline, than in Software Engineering, this work draws on the experiences and lessons from both disciplines and ultimately resides between these two academic fields.
The results o f this work provide new light on the issues facing software process and process improvement in small software product companies and make a contribution towards bridging the gaps between research and practice, and theory and practice, in both Software Engineering and Information Systems
The influence of managerial experience and style on software development process
This paper presents the results of a study of how software process and software process improvement is applied in actual practice in the software industry using the indigenous Irish software product industry as a test-bed. This study focuses on the role and influence of both the Company Founder and the Software Development Manager on the initial formation of software development process practices. The results of this study contain useful lessons for software entrepreneurs who need to make decisions about process and process change within their organisations as they grow
An investigation into software development process formation in software start-ups
Purpose This paper reports on the results of an investigation into how the software development
process is initially established within software product start-ups.
Methodology/Approach The study employs a grounded theory approach to characterize the experiences of small software organizations in developing processes to support their software development activity. Using the indigenous Irish software product industry as a test-bed, we examine how software development processes are established in software product start-ups and the major factors that influence the make up of these processes.
Findings The results show that the previous experience of the person tasked with managing the development work is the prime influencer on the process a company initially uses. Other influencers include the market sector in which the company is operating, the style of management used and the size and scale of the company operations.
Practical implications The model has particular implications for start-up software product organisations that wish to successfully manage their product development from an early stage
A quality software process for rapid application development
Having a defined and documented standardised software process, together with the appropriate techniques and tools to measure its effectiveness, offers the potential to software producers to improve the quality of their output. Many firms have yet to define their own software process. Yet without a defined process it is impossible to measure success or focus on how development capability can be enhanced. To date, a number of software process improvement frameworks have been developed and implemented. However, most of these models have been targeted at large-scale producers. Furthermore, they have applied to companies operating using traditional development techniques. Smaller companies and those operating in development areas where speed of delivery is paramount have not, as yet, had process improvement paradigms available for adoption. This study examined the software process in a small company and emerged with the recommendation of the use of the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) and the Personal Software Process (PSP) for achieving software process improvement.
DSDM has been designed as a framework for Rapid Application Development (RAD) and provides a documented approach for organisations to follow when undertaking RAD projects. Through the mechanisms outlined by DSDM developers become empowered and time-to-market for software can be substantially reduced. The PSP allows individual software engineers to assess, measure and improve their performance. By improving the skills of individual developers, quality can be engineered into RAD projects at all life-cycle stages.
Combining PSP and DSDM, therefore, enables the production of high-quality software and at the same time allows reductions in development time to be achieved
Software development processes for games: a systematic literature review
This paper describes the methodology and results from a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of the software processes used in game development. A total of 404 papers were analyzed as part of the review and the various process models that are used in industry and academia/research are presented. Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives for game development are dis-cussed. The factors that promote or deter the adoption of process models, and implementing SPI in practice are highlighted. Our findings indicate that there is no single model that serves as a best practice process model for game development and it is a matter of deciding which model is best suited for a particular game. Agile models such as Scrum and XP are suited to the knowledge intensive domain of game development where innovation and speed to market are vital. Hybrid approaches such as reuse can also be suitable for game development where the risk of the upfront investment in terms of time and cost is mitigated with a game that has stable requirements and a longer lifespan
Regularized Green's Function for the Inverse Square Potential
A Green's function approach is presented for the D-dimensional inverse square
potential in quantum mechanics. This approach is implemented by the
introduction of hyperspherical coordinates and the use of a real-space
regulator in the regularized version of the model. The application of
Sturm-Liouville theory yields a closed expression for the radial energy Green's
function. Finally, the equivalence with a recent path-integral treatment of the
same problem is explicitly shown.Comment: 10 pages. The final section was expande
Effects of Resonant Cavity on Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling of Fluxon in Long Josephson Junctions
We investigate the effects of high-Q_c resonant cavity on macroscopic quantum
tunneling (MQT) of fluxon both from a metastable state to continuum and from
one degenerate ground-state of a double-well potential to the other. By using a
set of two coupled perturbed sine-Gordon equations, we describe the tunneling
processes in linear long Josephson junctions (LJJs) and find that MQT in the
resonant cavity increases due to potential renomalization, induced by the
interaction between the fluxon and cavity.Enhancement of the MQT rate in the
weak-coupling regime is estimated by using the experimantally accessible range
of the model parameters. The tunneling rate from the metastable state is found
to increase weakly with increasing junction-cavity interaction strength.
However, the energy splitting between the two degenerate ground-states of the
double-well potential increases significantly with increasing both the
interaction strength and frequency of the resonant cavity mode. Finally, we
discuss how the resonant cavity may be used to tune the property of Josephson
vortex quantum bits.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phy. Rev.
Using grounded theory to understand software process improvement: A study of Irish software product companies
Software Process Improvement (SPI) aims to understand the software process as it is used within an organisation and thus drive the implementation of changes to that process to achieve specific goals such as increasing development speed, achieving higher product quality or reducing costs. Accordingly, SPI researchers must be equipped with the methodologies and tools to enable them to look within organisations and understand the state of practice with respect to software process and process improvement initiatives, in addition to investigating the relevant literature. Having examined a number of potentially suitable research methodologies, we have chosen Grounded Theory as a suitable approach to determine what was happening in actual practice in relation to software process and SPI, using the indigenous Irish software product industry as a test-bed. The outcome of this study is a theory, grounded in the field data, that explains when and why SPI is undertaken by the software industry. The objective of this paper is to describe both the selection and usage of grounded theory in this study and evaluate its effectiveness as a research methodology for software process researchers. Accordingly, this paper will focus on the selection and usage of grounded theory, rather than results of the SPI study itself
Renormalized Path Integral for the Two-Dimensional Delta-Function Interaction
A path-integral approach for delta-function potentials is presented.
Particular attention is paid to the two-dimensional case, which illustrates the
realization of a quantum anomaly for a scale invariant problem in quantum
mechanics. Our treatment is based on an infinite summation of perturbation
theory that captures the nonperturbative nature of the delta-function bound
state. The well-known singular character of the two-dimensional delta-function
potential is dealt with by considering the renormalized path integral resulting
from a variety of schemes: dimensional, momentum-cutoff, and real-space
regularization. Moreover, compatibility of the bound-state and scattering
sectors is shown.Comment: 26 pages. The paper was significantly expanded and numerous equations
were added for the sake of clarity; the main results and conclusions are
unchange
- âŠ