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Full-Text Articles in Software Engineering

Deep Learning: Edge-Cloud Data Analytics For Iot, Katarina Grolinger, Ananda M. Ghosh Jan 2019

Deep Learning: Edge-Cloud Data Analytics For Iot, Katarina Grolinger, Ananda M. Ghosh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Sensors, wearables, mobile and other Internet of Thing (IoT) devices are becoming increasingly integrated in all aspects of our lives. They are capable of collecting massive quantities of data that are typically transmitted to the cloud for processing. However, this results in increased network traffic and latencies. Edge computing has a potential to remedy these challenges by moving computation physically closer to the network edge where data are generated. However, edge computing does not have sufficient resources for complex data analytics tasks. Consequently, this paper investigates merging cloud and edge computing for IoT data analytics and presents a deep learning-based …


Computer Games Are Serious Business And So Is Their Quality: Particularities Of Software Testing In Game Development From The Perspective Of Practitioners, Ronnie Santos, Cleyton Magalhaes, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Jorge Correia-Neto, Fabio Q. B. Silva Dr., Abdelrahman Saher Oct 2018

Computer Games Are Serious Business And So Is Their Quality: Particularities Of Software Testing In Game Development From The Perspective Of Practitioners, Ronnie Santos, Cleyton Magalhaes, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Jorge Correia-Neto, Fabio Q. B. Silva Dr., Abdelrahman Saher

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Over the last several decades, computer games started to have a significant impact on society. However, although a computer game is a type of software, the process to conceptualize, produce and deliver a game could involve unusual features. In software testing, for instance, studies demonstrated the hesitance of professionals to use automated testing techniques with games, due to the constant changes in requirements and design, and pointed out the need for creating testing tools that take into account the flexibility required for the game development process. Goal. This study aims to improve the current body of knowledge regarding software …


Hpc For Predictive Models In Healthcare, Luiz Fernando Capretz Sep 2018

Hpc For Predictive Models In Healthcare, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Increasingly we are faced with complex health data, thus researchers are limited in their capacity to mine data in a way that accounts for the complex inter-relationships between health variables of interest. This research tackles the challenge of producing accurate health prediction models in order to overcome the limitations of simple multivariate regression techniques and the assumption of linear association, also known as algorithmic models, by combining it with a soft computing approach. Predictive models develop methods to enable healthcare researchers and professionals to predict the likelihood of an individual's proclivity to a disease and the likely effectiveness of possible …


Searching For Relevant Lessons Learned Using Hybrid Information Retrieval Classifiers: A Case Study In Software Engineering, Tamer Mohamed Abdellatif Mohamed, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho Jul 2018

Searching For Relevant Lessons Learned Using Hybrid Information Retrieval Classifiers: A Case Study In Software Engineering, Tamer Mohamed Abdellatif Mohamed, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The lessons learned (LL) repository is one of the most valuable sources of knowledge for a software organization. It can provide distinctive guidance regarding previous working solutions for historical software management problems, or former success stories to be followed. However, the unstructured format of the LL repository makes it difficult to search using general queries, which are manually inputted by project managers (PMs). For this reason, this repository may often be overlooked despite the valuable information it provides. Since the LL repository targets PMs, the search method should be domain specific rather than generic as in the case of general …


Analysing Popularity Of Software Testing Careers In Canada, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Pradeep Waychal, Sachin Pardeshi Jun 2018

Analysing Popularity Of Software Testing Careers In Canada, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Pradeep Waychal, Sachin Pardeshi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software testing is critical to prevent software failures. Therefore, research has been carried out in testing but that is largely limited to the processand technology dimensions and has not sufficiently addressed the human dimension. Even though there are reports about inadequacies of testing professionals and their skills, only a few studies have tackled the problem. Therefore, we decided to explore the human dimension. We started with the basic problem that plagues the testing profession, the shortage of talent, by asking why do students and professionals are reluctant to consider testing careers, what can be done about that, and is the …


A Call To Promote Soft Skills In Software Engineering, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Fahem Ahmed Feb 2018

A Call To Promote Soft Skills In Software Engineering, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Fahem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

We have been thinking about other aspects of software engineering for many years; the missing link in engineering software is the soft skills set, essential in the software development process. Although soft skills are among the most important aspects in the creation of software, they are often overlooked by educators and practitioners. One of the main reasons for the oversight is that soft skills are usually related to social and personality factors, i.e., teamwork, motivation, commitment, leadership, multi-culturalism, emotions, interpersonal skills, etc. This editorial is a manifesto declaring the importance of soft skills in software engineering with the intention to …


Universality Of Egoless Behavior Of Software Engineering Students, Pradeep Waychal, Luiz Fernando Capretz Jan 2018

Universality Of Egoless Behavior Of Software Engineering Students, Pradeep Waychal, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software organizations have relied on process and technology initiatives to compete in a highly globalized world. Unfortunately, that has led to little or no success. We propose that the organizations start working on people initiatives, such as inspiring egoless behavior among software developers. This paper proposes a multi-stage approach to develop egoless behavior and discusses the universality of the egoless behavior by studying cohorts from three different countries, i.e., Japan, India, and Canada. The three stages in the approach are self-assessment, peer validation, and action plan development. The paper covers the first stage of self-assssment using an instrument based on …


Energy Slices: Benchmarking With Time Slicing, Katarina Grolinger, Hany F. Elyamany, Wilson Higashino, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald Jan 2018

Energy Slices: Benchmarking With Time Slicing, Katarina Grolinger, Hany F. Elyamany, Wilson Higashino, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Benchmarking makes it possible to identify low-performing buildings, establishes a baseline for measuring performance improvements, enables setting of energy conservation targets, and encourages energy savings by creating a competitive environment. Statistical approaches evaluate building energy efficiency by comparing measured energy consumption to other similar buildings typically using annual measurements. However, it is important to consider different time periods in benchmarking because of differences in their consumption patterns. For example, an office can be efficient during the night, but inefficient during operating hours due to occupants’ wasteful behavior. Moreover, benchmarking studies often use a single regression model for different building categories. …


Would You Like To Motivate Software Testers? Ask Them How, Ronnie Santos, Cleyton Magalhaes, Jorge Correia-Neto, Fabio Queda Silva, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Rodrigo Souza Nov 2017

Would You Like To Motivate Software Testers? Ask Them How, Ronnie Santos, Cleyton Magalhaes, Jorge Correia-Neto, Fabio Queda Silva, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Rodrigo Souza

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Considering the importance of software testing to the development of high quality and reliable software systems, this paper aims to investigate how can work-related factors influence the motivation of software testers. Method. We applied a questionnaire that was developed using a previous theory of motivation and satisfaction of software engineers to conduct a survey-based study to explore and understand how professional software testers perceive and value work-related factors that could influence their motivation at work. Results. With a sample of 80 software testers we observed that software testers are strongly motivated by variety of work, creative tasks, recognition for their …


Finding An Effective Classification Technique To Develop A Software Team Composition Model, Abdul Rehman Gilal, Jafrezal Jaafar, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Mazni Omar, Shuib Basri Oct 2017

Finding An Effective Classification Technique To Develop A Software Team Composition Model, Abdul Rehman Gilal, Jafrezal Jaafar, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Mazni Omar, Shuib Basri

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Ineffective software team composition has become recognized as a prominent aspect of software project failures. Reports from results extracted from different theoretical personality models have produced contradicting fits, validity challenges, and missing guidance during software development personnel selection. It is also believed that the technique/s used while developing a model can impact the overall results. Thus, this study aims to: 1) discover an effective classification technique to solve the problem, and 2) develop a model for composition of the software development team. The model developed was composed of three predictors: team role, personality types, and gender variables; it also contained …


Soft Sides Of Software, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed, Fabio Queda Silva Jul 2017

Soft Sides Of Software, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed, Fabio Queda Silva

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software is a field of rapid changes: the best technology today becomes obsolete in the near future. If we review the graduate attributes of any of the software engineering programs across the world, life-long learning is one of them. The social and psychological aspects of professional development is linked with rewards. In organizations, where people are provided with learning opportunities and there is a culture that rewards learning, people embrace changes easily. However, the software industry tends to be short-sighted and its primary focus is more on current project success; it usually ignores the capacity building of the individual or …


Direct And Mediating Influences Of User-Developer Perception Gaps In Requirements Understanding On User Participation, Jingdong Jia, Luiz Fernando Capretz Apr 2017

Direct And Mediating Influences Of User-Developer Perception Gaps In Requirements Understanding On User Participation, Jingdong Jia, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

User participation is considered an effective way to conduct requirements engineering, but user-developer perception gaps in requirements understanding occur frequently. Since user participation in practice is not as active as we expect and the requirements perception gap has been recognized as a risk that negatively affects projects, exploring whether user-developer perception gaps in requirements understanding will hinder user participation is worthwhile. This will help develop a greater comprehension of the intertwined relationship between user participation and perception gap, a topic that has not yet been extensively examined. This study investigates the direct and mediating influences of user-developer requirements perception gaps …


An Ensemble Learning Framework For Anomaly Detection In Building Energy Consumption, Daniel B. Araya, Katarina Grolinger, Hany F. Elyamany, Miriam Am Capretz, Girma T. Bitsuamlak Jan 2017

An Ensemble Learning Framework For Anomaly Detection In Building Energy Consumption, Daniel B. Araya, Katarina Grolinger, Hany F. Elyamany, Miriam Am Capretz, Girma T. Bitsuamlak

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

During building operation, a significant amount of energy is wasted due to equipment and human-related faults. To reduce waste, today's smart buildings monitor energy usage with the aim of identifying abnormal consumption behaviour and notifying the building manager to implement appropriate energy-saving procedures. To this end, this research proposes a new pattern-based anomaly classifier, the collective contextual anomaly detection using sliding window (CCAD-SW) framework. The CCAD-SW framework identifies anomalous consumption patterns using overlapping sliding windows. To enhance the anomaly detection capacity of the CCAD-SW, this research also proposes the ensemble anomaly detection (EAD) framework. The EAD is a generic framework …


Game Development Software Engineering Process Life Cycle: A Systematic Review, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed Nov 2016

Game Development Software Engineering Process Life Cycle: A Systematic Review, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software game is a kind of application that is used not only for entertainment, but also for serious purposes that can be applicable to different domains such as education, business, and health care. Multidisciplinary nature of the game development processes that combine sound, art, control systems, artificial intelligence (AI), and human factors, makes the software game development practice different from traditional software development. However, the underline software engineering techniques help game development to achieve maintainability, flexibility, lower effort and cost, and better design. The purpose of this study is to assesses the state of the art research on the game …


Neural Network Models For Software Development Effort Estimation: A Comparative Study, Ali Bou Nassif, Mohammad Azzeh, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho Nov 2016

Neural Network Models For Software Development Effort Estimation: A Comparative Study, Ali Bou Nassif, Mohammad Azzeh, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software development effort estimation (SDEE) is one of the main tasks in software project management. It is crucial for a project manager to efficiently predict the effort or cost of a software project in a bidding process, since overestimation will lead to bidding loss and underestimation will cause the company to lose money. Several SDEE models exist; machine learning models, especially neural network models, are among the most prominent in the field. In this study, four different neural network models – Multilayer Perceptron, General Regression Neural Network, Radial Basis Function Neural Network, and Cascade Correlation Neural Network – are compared …


Critical Success Factors To Improve The Game Development Process From A Developer's Perspective, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed Sep 2016

Critical Success Factors To Improve The Game Development Process From A Developer's Perspective, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The growth of the software game development industry is enormous and is gaining importance day by day. This growth imposes severe pressure and a number of issues and challenges on the game development community. Game development is a complex process, and one important game development choice is to consider the developer’s perspective to produce good-quality software games by improving the game development process. The objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of the developer’s dimension as a factor in software game success. It focuses mainly on an empirical investigation of the effect of key developer’s factors on …


How Software Development Group Leaders Influence Team Members’ Behavior, Fabio Queda Silva, Cleviton Monteiro, Igor Ebrahim Santos, Luiz Fernando Capretz Sep 2016

How Software Development Group Leaders Influence Team Members’ Behavior, Fabio Queda Silva, Cleviton Monteiro, Igor Ebrahim Santos, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Evidence in the literature from several business sectors shows that exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies are complementarily important for competitiveness. Our empirical findings reinforced those evidences in the context of software development companies. The innovative behaviour of individuals is an essential ingredient to success in both types of innovations strategies and leaders can have a big influence on this behaviour. Adopting a leadership style that combines transactional and transformational practices is more likely to produce effective results in supporting innovative behaviour. In software development, project managers and other group leaders should be stimulated and supported in adopting such practices to …


A Digital Game Maturity Model (Dgmm), Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed Aug 2016

A Digital Game Maturity Model (Dgmm), Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Game development is an interdisciplinary concept that embraces artistic, software engineering, management, and business disciplines. This research facilitates a better understanding of important dimensions of digital game development methodology. Game development is considered as one of the most complex tasks in software engineering. The increased popularity of digital games, the challenges faced by game development organizations in developing quality games, and high competition in the digital game industry demand a game development maturity assessment. Consequently, this study presents a Digital Game Maturity Model to evaluate the current development methodology in an organization. The framework of this model consists of assessment …


Why A Testing Career Is Not The First Choice Of Engineers, Pradeep Kashinath Waychal, Luiz Fernando Capretz Jun 2016

Why A Testing Career Is Not The First Choice Of Engineers, Pradeep Kashinath Waychal, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.


Environmental Factors Influencing Individual Decision-Making Behavior In Software Project: A Systematic Literature Review, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Jingdong Jia May 2016

Environmental Factors Influencing Individual Decision-Making Behavior In Software Project: A Systematic Literature Review, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Jingdong Jia

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

As one of the crucial human aspects, individual decision-making behavior that may affect the quality of a software project is adaptive to the environment in which the individual is. However, no comprehensive reference framework of the environmental factors influencing individual decision-making behavior in software projects is presently available. This paper undertakes a systematic literature review (SLR) to gain insight into existing studies on this topic. After a careful SLR process, 40 studies were targeted to solve this question. Based on these extracted studies, we first provided a taxonomy of environmental factors comprising eight categories. Then a total of 237 factors …


Empirical Investigation Of Key Business Factors For Digital Game Performance, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed Jan 2016

Empirical Investigation Of Key Business Factors For Digital Game Performance, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Game development is an interdisciplinary concept that embraces software engineering, business, management, and artistic disciplines. This research facilitates a better understanding of the business dimension of digital games. The main objective of this research is to investigate empirically the effect of business factors on the performance of digital games in the market and to answer the research questions asked in this study. Game development organizations are facing high pressure and competition in the digital game industry. Business has become a crucial dimension, especially for game development organizations. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate empirically the influence of …


Predicting Energy Demand Peak Using M5 Model Trees, Sara S. Abdelkader, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz Dec 2015

Predicting Energy Demand Peak Using M5 Model Trees, Sara S. Abdelkader, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Predicting energy demand peak is a key factor for reducing energy demand and electricity bills for commercial customers. Features influencing energy demand are many and complex, such as occupant behaviours and temperature. Feature selection can decrease prediction model complexity without sacrificing performance. In this paper, features were selected based on their multiple linear regression correlation coefficients. This paper discusses the capabilities of M5 model trees in energy demand prediction for commercial buildings. M5 model trees are similar to regression trees; however they are more suitable for continuous prediction problems. The M5 model tree prediction was developed based on a selected …


Energy Forecasting For Event Venues: Big Data And Prediction Accuracy, Katarina Grolinger, Alexandra L'Heureux, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald Dec 2015

Energy Forecasting For Event Venues: Big Data And Prediction Accuracy, Katarina Grolinger, Alexandra L'Heureux, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Advances in sensor technologies and the proliferation of smart meters have resulted in an explosion of energy-related data sets. These Big Data have created opportunities for development of new energy services and a promise of better energy management and conservation. Sensor-based energy forecasting has been researched in the context of office buildings, schools, and residential buildings. This paper investigates sensor-based forecasting in the context of event-organizing venues, which present an especially difficult scenario due to large variations in consumption caused by the hosted events. Moreover, the significance of the data set size, specifically the impact of temporal granularity, on energy …


Students' Perspectives Of Mobile Learning Platforms: An Empirical Study, Muasaad Alrasheedi, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Arif Raza Dec 2015

Students' Perspectives Of Mobile Learning Platforms: An Empirical Study, Muasaad Alrasheedi, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Arif Raza

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Educational institutions are becoming involved in adopting technological innovations like th e mobile learning (m-Learning) platform for education. Mobile technologies are the next frontier as infrast ructure for m-Learning because they can provide high-quality learning capab ilities to satisfy the rising student demand for mobility and flexibility due to the ubiquitous nature of mobile tec hnology (smartphones) and the va st opportunities it offers, there ar e indications that smartphones could lead the next generation for learning platforms. Researchers have examin ed the idea from several angles and produced a copious amount of literature devoted to explaining the interrelationships of …


Management's Perspective On Critical Success Factors Affecting Mobile Learning In Higher Education Institutions - An Empirical Study, Muasaad Alrasheedi, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Arif Raza Dec 2015

Management's Perspective On Critical Success Factors Affecting Mobile Learning In Higher Education Institutions - An Empirical Study, Muasaad Alrasheedi, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Arif Raza

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Mobile learning (m-Learning) is considered to be one of the fastest growing learning platforms. The immense interest in m-Learning is attributed to the incredible rate of growth of mobile technology and its proliferation into every aspect of modern life. Despite this, m-Learning has not experienced a similar adoption rate in the education sector, chiefly higher education. Researchers have attempted to explain this anomaly by conducting several studies in the area. However, mostly the research in m-Learning is examined from the perspective of the students and educators. In this research, it is contended that there is a third important stakeholder group …


Mlaas: Machine Learning As A Service, Mauro Ribeiro, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz Nov 2015

Mlaas: Machine Learning As A Service, Mauro Ribeiro, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The demand for knowledge extraction has been increasing. With the growing amount of data being generated by global data sources (e.g., social media and mobile apps) and the popularization of context-specific data (e.g., the Internet of Things), companies and researchers need to connect all these data and extract valuable information. Machine learning has been gaining much attention in data mining, leveraging the birth of new solutions. This paper proposes an architecture to create a flexible and scalable machine learning as a service. An open source solution was implemented and presented. As a case study, a forecast of electricity demand was …


In Need Of A Domain-Specific Language Modeling Notation For Smartphone Applications With Portable Capability, Hamza Ghandorh, Luiz Fernando Capretz Dr., Ali Bou Nassif Dr. Aug 2015

In Need Of A Domain-Specific Language Modeling Notation For Smartphone Applications With Portable Capability, Hamza Ghandorh, Luiz Fernando Capretz Dr., Ali Bou Nassif Dr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The rapid growth of the smartphone market and its increasing revenue has motivated developers to target multiple platforms. Market leaders, such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, develop their smartphone applications complying with their platform specifications. The specification of each platform makes a platform-dedicated application incompatible with other platforms due to the diversity of operating systems, programming languages, and design patterns. Conventional development methodologies are applied to smartphone applications, yet they perform less well. Smartphone applications have unique hardware and software requirements. All previous factors push smartphone developers to build less sophisticated and low-quality products when targeting multiple smartphone platforms. Model-driven …


A Generalized Service Replication Process In Distributed Environments, Hany F. Elyamany, Marwa F. Mohamed, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz Jan 2015

A Generalized Service Replication Process In Distributed Environments, Hany F. Elyamany, Marwa F. Mohamed, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Replication is one of the main techniques aiming to improve Web services’ (WS) quality of service (QoS) in distributed environments, including clouds and mobile devices. Service replication is a way of improving WS performance and availability by creating several copies or replicas of Web services which work in parallel or sequentially under defined circumstances. In this paper, a generalized replication process for distributed environments is discussed based on established replication studies. The generalized replication process consists of three main steps: sensing the environment characteristics, determining the replication strategy, and implementing the selected replication strategy. To demonstrate application of the generalized …


Energy Cost Forecasting For Event Venues, Katarina Grolinger, Andrea Zagar, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald Jan 2015

Energy Cost Forecasting For Event Venues, Katarina Grolinger, Andrea Zagar, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Electricity price, consumption, and demand forecasting has been a topic of research interest for a long time. The proliferation of smart meters has created new opportunities in energy prediction. This paper investigates energy cost forecasting in the context of entertainment event-organizing venues, which poses significant difficulty due to fluctuations in energy demand and wholesale electricity prices. The objective is to predict the overall cost of energy consumed during an entertainment event. Predictions are carried out separately for each event category and feature selection is used to select the most effective combination of event attributes for each category. Three machine learning …


Personality Profiles Of Software Engineers And Their Software Quality Preferences, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Zaka Ul-Mustafa Sep 2014

Personality Profiles Of Software Engineers And Their Software Quality Preferences, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Zaka Ul-Mustafa

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Studies related to human aspects in software engineering (SE) have been performed from different perspectives. These perspectives include the study of human factors in different phases of software life cycle, effect of team performance in software development, how can a personality trait suit a particular task, and about some other miscellaneous issues. This research work aims to establish personality profiles of Pakistani software engineers using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument. In this survey, we have collected personality profiles of 110 software engineers. Moreover, their preferences of software quality attributes have also been collected. Analysis of the study shows that …