Extreme programming and its development practices

Extreme programming (XP) has attracted attention because of its fierce denial of many well-accepted software engineering practices considered as a sound approach to the development of intensive software systems. XP has been declared to be a new way of software development: a lightweight methodology, which is efficient, low-risk, flexible, predictable, scientific, and distinguishable from any other methodology. In the core of XP practices are programming activities, with strong emphasis on oral communications, automated tests, pair programming, storytelling culture and collective code-ownership at any time in the XP project. The paper gives an overview of XP practices and raises some serious concerns regarding their role in conceptual modelling and code generation; which directly affects software architecture solutions. The paper also tackles similarities between rational unified process (RUP) and XP, which have often been juxtaposed by software developers

An approach to developing a Web site for SME

Web site design and implementation is very often seen within companies and businesses as a 'technical task' whose realisation can improve their business operations dramatically and swiftly. At the same time, they do not consider any additional investment or research prior to the design and implementation of their Web site. Using a case study of a small to medium sized enterprise (SME) and its local operativity at Gatwick Airport (Crawley) in West Sussex, UK, we describe our approach to developing a Web site based on extensive surveys, which helped us to reveal the feasibility, purpose and operability of the company's Web site design. The company is called Aviation Aircraft Services (AAS), and is a SME that relies on major contracts from British Airways for cutlery, blanket and linen packaging

Building an evaluation instrument for OO CASE tool assessment for Unified Modelling Language support

The Unified Modelling Language (UML) as delivered in September 1997 offers the structure and dynamics of its modelling constructs developed in order to standardise different object oriented (OO) development practices. Represented as a language, UML covers some aspects addressed by any methodology and is expected to be accompanied by OO CASE tools through notation and implementation of the UML philosophy. This paper discusses the problem of OO CASE tools as methodology companions that encourage or enforce methodology support. The basis for an evaluation instrument has been developed in order to analyse how commercially available OO CASE tools support the UML. The evaluation instrument is based on extraction of a set of rules that are supposed to be followed in order to claim that the UML itself is being followed. The rules are extracted from the current UML Semantics document and its well-formedness rules. The evaluation instrument is tested against a few OO CASE tools in order to analyse how it can be used on a larger scale for assessing the level of automation and UML support embedded in the tools

Sharing e-Health information through ontological layering

e-Health information, including patient clinical and demographic data, is very often dispersed across various environments, which either generate them or retrieve them from different sources. Healthcare professionals often need related e-health information in order to obtain a more comprehensive picture of a patient's health status. There are many obstacles to retrieving information and data from heterogeneous sources. In this paper we show that our ontological layering helps in (a) classifying requests imposed by healthcare professionals when retrieving e-health information from heterogeneous sources and (b) resolving semantic heterogeneities across repositories and composing an adequate answer to issued requests. We use a layered software architectural model based on Generic ontology for Context-aware, Interoperable and Data sharing (Go- CID) software applications, applicable to e-Health environments. Ontological layering and reasoning have been demonstrated with semantic web technologies

Internet users and online privacy: a study assessing whether Internet users' privacy is adequately protected

The paper examines the current state of Internet privacy. We assess the needs of UK Internet users in terms of online privacy protection, and determine the extent to which current privacy practices were satisfying those needs. Our work examines: (a) Internet users' attitudes towards online privacy; (b) 50 Web sites' privacy policies and practices and (c) existing privacy protection for users such as legislation and technological tools. The survey reveals a high level of concerns amongst Internet users related to their privacy in terms of: (i) personally identifying information that they provide to Web sites, (ii) the information that Web sites collect through the use of cookies and IP addresses and (iii) the information derived by tracking users' online activities

The importance of real-world experience in student learning

A core module for the computer science and computing degree courses at the University of North London provided a vehicle for developing an innovative approach in teaching and learning. It served as a means of bridging the gap between real-world business information systems (BIS) development practice and that which is normally simulated in academia. We also show how students can be encouraged to be proactive in creating their own real-world learning experience within an academic environment

Developing a database for automating regulatory affairs in the pharmaceutical industry

The complex procedure of processing the marketing authorization of medicinal product licenses is a challenging task for government health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry across the world. Regulatory requirements have diverged significantly, and each country has its own regulations and procedures for marketing authorizations. The automation of and adequate software support for such procedures are critical factors that can improve the efficiency of regulatory authorities. In this paper we report on the design and implementation of a database whose role is to (a) support the automation of marketing authorization procedures, (b) address the interoperability of such procedures across the world, and (c) be reusable across a family of related applications. Our database is implemented in Oracle8i, and a distributed and component-based application has been built upon it using the J2EE technology

Cross cultural Web design: an experience of developing UK and Korean cultural markers

The international and multicultural nature of the World Wide Web positions the issues of recognizing and observing cultural differences at the forefront of considerations in the design of Web pages. We address some of these issues. Research has already identified some Web page design elements that may be culturally or genre specific, that may also be generalised as 'cultural markers', and that consequently influence Web page design and usability. These cultural markers represent a significant aspect of today's electronic environments in terms of influencing people's behaviour, changing their practices and attitudes, and affecting their learning and performance abilities. We identify general issues of cross-cultural Web page design by defining a check-list of design elements relevant for developing a Web site and investigate culturally specific design elements, on examples of South Korean and UK Web environments

Software architecture style for interoperable databases

We propose a layered and component based software architecture style which supports interoperability in multiple databases (DB). The architectural style's building blocks and its constraints are described and the deployment of two design patterns outlined. Components placed in our architectural layers exhibit a linear topology and request/reply processing style. The constraints include communications between components which are not in the adjacent architectural layers and extension of the intuitive many : one bindings between components towards many : many. We comment on similarities with mediation architectures and outline some implementation issues