Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Overview of component metrics...

Overview of component metrics - a systematic review...
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.10.001

Once in a while we come across an interesting study - a study which does the related work for us. This is a very good paper describing a set of metrics for component-based software systems.

Things that are measured (from section 5) are:
- Interfaces
- Interface methods
- Property
- Signatures


Top 4 limitations of the current research in the areas are (I cite):
  • The lack of a widely accepted metric and quality model for CBSE from the components consumer and producer perspectives. This lack may arise because most metrics definitions were performed in an ad-hoc fashion, rather than meeting information requirements of a specific framework upon which we plan to interpret the metric. In the absence of such a framework, the data collection and interpretation of the metric becomes subjective. In addition, most of these proposals have not achieved an industrial level validation.
  • The poor quality of some papers identified in the quality evaluation section, which reduces the trustworthiness of the proposed metrics.
  • The poor quality of some metric definitions, which makes it difficult for researchers or practitioners to ensure the correct collection of measurements that were initially intended by the metrics developers. Overall, many metrics have insufficiencies either in their formulation, collection, validation or applications.
  • The elements of metric definitions those are not visible to CBSS developers, including elements that are incompatible with the standard concepts of a component or CBSS, such as a class or source code.
Interesting...

Monday, January 28, 2013

Survey on testing in Canada...

Survey on testing practices in Canadian software industry
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.12.051

I've wrote about Agile in Finland, now I've come across testing in Canada. The paper is a replication of another study in Canada and finds that (I cite):
  1. The importance of testing-related training is increasing,
  2. Functional and unit testing are two common test types that receive the most attentionand efforts spent on them,
  3. Usage of the mutation testing approach is getting attention among Canadian firms,
  4. Traditional Test-last Development (TLD) style is still dominating and a few companies are attempting the new development approachessuch as Test-Driven Development (TDD), and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD),
  5. in terms of the most popular test tools, NUnit and Web application testing tools overtook JUnit and IBM Rational tools,
  6. Most Canadian companies use a combination of two coverage metrics: decision (branch) and condition coverage,
  7. Number of passing user acceptance tests and number of defects found per day (week or month) are regarded asthe most important quality assurance metrics and decision factors to release,
  8. In most Canadian companies, testers are out-numbered by developers, with ratios ranging from 1:2 to 1:5,
  9. The majority of Canadian firms spent less than 40% of their efforts (budget and time) on testing during development, and
  10. More than 70% of respondents participated in online discussion forums related to testing on a regular basis.
Very insteresting findings indeed! Especially the emerging idustrial adoption of BDD and mutation approaches.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Efficiency in source code clone detection

Efficiency in source code clone detection...
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5279980

This is a very interesting paper about detecting advanced type-3 clones, i.e. clones which are modifications of the original code, not just copy-paste or parameter difference.

They've studied a number of projects and came to a conclusion that modern tools can detect only 25% of the clones of type-3. the remaining 75% of the clones detected were false positives.

Depending on the algorithm used to detect the clones detected have different characteristics, e.g. length or complexity of modification.

Looking forward for more work along these lines.

@MiroslawStaron

Friday, January 4, 2013

Simple example of ISO 26262 development items

ISO 26262 Impact on Development of Powertrain Control System
http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-642-33805-2_58 

In this paper the authors present a simple example of how ISO 26262 can impact the development of a simple function - Start/Stop. The examples is limited, but it is easy to understand that for larger examples and more safety critical the complexity raises. Now, imagine that one re-classifies the function or divides the ASIL levels... 

The paper needs more examples and more hard-data to make the illustration better, but it contains the basics. I recommend further reading upon BeSafe - a project done by Volvo Technology in this area - http://www.kth.se/polopoly_fs/1.354272!/Menu/general/column-content/attachment/Presentation,%20Johan%20Karlsson.pdf 

@MiroslawStaron


Thursday, January 3, 2013

Special issue on performance in software development - CFP for April

Information and Software Technology - special issue on Performance in Software Development
http://www.staron.nu/performance_in_sd.htm

We're announcing a special issue of Information and Software Technology. It seems that challenges related to organizational performance are prevailing and my recent post about motivations in software engineering gained a significant attention.

We intend to collect interesting articles in the area and thus we solicit the spacial issue with focus on:

  • Managerial, technical and social aspects of measuring performance of software organization
  • Business aspects of organizational performance measurement
  • Agile and Lean software development and its impact on organizational performance
  • Performance of software development teams and organizations
  • Performance of R&D in software organizations
  • Ability to continuously satisfy customer demands
  • Corporate performance management of software development organizations, teams and supply chains
  • Impact of standardization on operational performance
  • Visualization of organizational performance and its patterns
  • Case studies and experiments of how techniques/methods/technologies influence organizational performance and how it is measured
The submission deadline is 5th of April 2013. Consider submitting or stay tuned for the TOC later this year!

@MiroslawStaron


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Creativity in Agile Software development at BBC

How BBC stimulates creativity - a fresh study to be published at IEEE Software
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx5/5260979/5260980/05261017.pdf?tp=&arnumber=5261017&isnumber=5260980

This paper contains elements of how the domain influences the process. The Agile process at BBC contains such things as 'random stars' to reward creative ideas that can fly.

I recommend this article to see how requirements can be collected and prioritized at different companies in an Agile fashion. I like the fact that they also managed to use statistics - numbers ins always something that I like.

@MiroslawStaron