Software Engineering Commons^™

Personality Dimensions And Temperaments Of Engineering Professors And Students – A Survey, Arif Raza, Zaka Ulmustafa, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This research work aims to study personality profiles and temperaments of Pakistani software engineering professors and students. In this survey we have collected personality profiles of 18 professors and 92 software engineering students. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument, the most prominent personality type among professors as well as among students is a combination of Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging (ISTJ). The study shows ITs (Introverts and Thinking) and IJs (Introverts and Judging) are the leading temperaments among the professors. About the students’ data, the results of the study indicate SJs (Sensing and Judging) and ISs (Introverts and …

A Business Maturity Model Of Software Product Line Engineering, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

In the recent past, software product line engineering has become one of the most promising practices in software industry with the potential to substantially increase the software development productivity. Software product line engineering approach spans the dimensions of business, architecture, software engineering process and organization. The increasing popularity of software product line engineering in the software industry necessitates a process maturity evaluation methodology. Accordingly, this paper presents a business maturity model of software product line, which is a methodology to evaluate the current maturity of the business dimension of a software product line in an organization. This model examines the …

An Architecture Maturity Model Of Software Product Line, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software architecture has been a key research area in the software engineering community due to its significant role in creating high-quality software. The trend of developing product lines rather than single products has made the software product line a viable option in the industry. Software product line architecture (SPLA) is regarded as one of the crucial components in the product lines, since all of the resulting products share this common architecture. The increased popularity of software product lines demands a process maturity evaluation methodology. Consequently,this paper presents an architecture process maturity model for software product line engineering to evaluate the …

Federated Critical Infrastructure Simulators: Towards Ontologies For Support Of Collaboration, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz, Adam Shypanski, Gagandeep S. Gill

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Our society relies greatly on a variety of critical infrastructures (CI), such as power system networks, water distribution, oil and natural gas systems, telecommunication networks and others. Interdependency between those systems is high and may result in cascading failures spanning different infrastructures. Behavior of each CI can be observed and analyzed through the use of domain simulators, but this does not account for their interdependency. To explore CI interdependencies, domain simulators need to be integrated in a federation where they can collaborate.

This paper explores three different simulators: the EPANET water distribution simulator, the PSCAD power system simulator and the …

From Glossaries To Ontologies: Disaster Management Domain, Katarina Grolinger, Kevin P. Brown, Miriam A.M. Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Our society’s reliance on a variety of critical infrastructures (CI) presents significant challenges for disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Experts from different domains including police, paramedics, firefighters and various other CI teams are involved in the fast paced response to a disaster, increasing the risk of miscommunication. To ensure clear communication, as well as to facilitate CI software interoperability, a common disaster ontology is needed. We propose using the knowledge stored in domain glossaries, vocabularies and dictionaries for the creation of a lightweight disaster management domain ontology. Glossaries, vocabularies and dictionaries are semi structured representations of domain knowledge, where significant …

A Unit Test Approach For Database Schema Evolution, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam A M Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Context: The constant changes in today’s business requirements demand continuous database revisions. Hence, database structures, not unlike software applications, deteriorate during their lifespan and thus require refactoring in order to achieve a longer life span. Although unit tests support changes to application programs and refactoring, there is currently a lack of testing strategies for database schema evolution.

Objective: This work examines the challenges for database schema evolution and explores the possibility of using various testing strategies to assist with schema evolution. Specifically, the work proposes a novel unit test approach for the application code that accesses databases with the objective …

An Empirical Study Of Open Source Software Usability – The Industrial Perspective, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the use of open source projects by common novice users; Open Source Software (OSS) is thus no longer a reserved arena for software developers and computer gurus. Although user-centered designs are gaining popularity in OSS, usability is still not considered one of the prime objectives in many design scenarios. This paper analyzes industry users’ perception of usability factors, including understandability, learnability, operability, and attractiveness on OSS usability. The research model of this empirical study establishes the relationship between the key usability factors and OSS usability from industrial perspective. In order to conduct …

An Empirical Study Of Open Source Software Usability: The Industrial Perspective, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the use of open source projects by common novice users; Open Source Software (OSS) is thus no longer a reserved arena for software developers and computer gurus. Although user-centered designs are gaining popularity in OSS, usability is still not considered as one of the prime objectives in many design scenarios. In this paper, we analyze industry users’ perception of usability factors, including understandability, learnability, operability and attractiveness, on OSS usability. The research model of this empirical study establishes the relationship between the key usability factors and OSS usability from industrial perspective. In …

Enhancing Use Case Points Estimation Method Using Soft Computing Techniques, Ali Bou Nassif, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Nfa-Estimation

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software estimation is a crucial task in software engineering. Software estimation encompasses cost, effort, schedule, and size. The importance of software estimation becomes critical in the early stages of the software life cycle when the details of software have not been revealed yet. Several commercial and non-commercial tools exist to estimate software in the early stages. Most software effort estimation methods require software size as one of the important metric inputs and consequently, software size estimation in the early stages becomes essential. One of the approaches that has been used for about two decades in the early size and effort …

An Empirical Study On The Procedure To Derive Software Quality Estimation Models, Jie Xu, Danny Ho, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software quality assurance has been a heated topic for several decades. If factors that influence software quality can be identified, they may provide more insight for better software development management. More precise quality assurance can be achieved by employing resources according to accurate quality estimation at the early stages of a project. In this paper, a general procedure is proposed to derive software quality estimation models and various techniques are presented to accomplish the tasks in respective steps. Several statistical techniques together with machine learning method are utilized to verify the effectiveness of software metrics. Moreover, a neuro-fuzzy approach is …

An Organizational Maturity Model Of Software Product Line Engineering, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software product line engineering is an inter-disciplinary concept. It spans the dimensions of business, architecture, process, and the organization. Some of the potential benefits of this approach include cost reduction, improvements in product quality and a decrease in product development time. The increasing popularity of software product line engineering in the software industry necessitates a process maturity evaluation methodology. Accordingly, this paper presents an organizational maturity model of software product line engineering for evaluating the maturity of organizational dimension. The model assumes that organizational theories, behavior, and management play a critical role in the institutionalization of software product line engineering …

Contributors’ Preference In Open Source Software Usability: An Empirical Study, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The fact that the number of users of open source software (OSS) is practically un-limited and that ultimately the software quality is determined by end user’s experience, makes the usability an even more critical quality attribute than it is for proprietary software. With the sharp increase in use of open source projects by both individuals and organizations, the level of usability and related issues must be addressed more seriously. The research model of this empirical investigation studies and establishes the relationship between the key usability factors from contributors’ perspective and OSS usability. A data set of 78 OSS contributors that …

Making Sense Of Software Development And Personality Types, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed Dr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Improvement Of Open Source Software Usability: An Empirical Evaluation From Developers Perspective, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

User satisfaction has always been important for software success whether it is Open Source Software (OSS) or closed proprietary software. Even though we do not presume that OSS always has poor usability, as there are examples of good usable open source software, it would still be agreed that OSS usability has room for further improvement. This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the impact of some key factors on OSS usability from developers’ points of view. This is one of the series of four studies that we are conducting regarding improvement of OSS usability from OSS developers, users, contributors, …

Building An Oss Quality Estimation Model With Catreg, Athos Origin China, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Open Source Software (OSS) has been a popular form in software development. In this paper, we use statistical approaches to deriveOSSquality estimation models. Our objective is to build estimation models for the number of defects with metrics at project levels. First CATREG (Categorical regression with optimal scaling) is used to obtain quantifications of the qualitative variables. Then the independent variables are validated using the stepwise linear regression. The process is repeated to acquire optimal quantifications and final regression formula. This modeling process is performed based on data from theOSScommunities and is proved to be practically valuable.

Improvement Of Oss Usability: An Empirical Evaluation From Developers Perspective, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Arif Raza, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Improving Effort Estimation By Voting Software Estimation Models, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Venus Marza

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Estimating software development effort is an important task in the management of large software projects. The task is challenging, and it has been receiving the attentions of researchers ever since software was developed for commercial purpose. A number of estimation models exist for effort prediction. However, there is a need for novel models to obtain more accurate estimations. The primary purpose of this study is to propose a precise method of estimation by selecting the most popular models in order to improve accuracy. Consequently, the final results are very precise and reliable when they are applied to a real dataset …

Calibrating Function Point Backfiring Conversion Ratios Using Neuro-Fuzzy Technique, Justin Wong, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software estimation is an important aspect in software development projects because poor estimations can lead to late delivery, cost overruns, and possibly project failure. Backfiring is a popular technique for sizing and predicting the volume of source code by converting the function point metric into source lines of code mathematically using conversion ratios. While this technique is popular and useful, there is a high margin of error in backfiring. This research introduces a new method to reduce that margin of error. Neural networks and fuzzy logic in software prediction models have been demonstrated in the past to have improved performance …

Unifying Framework For Building Social Computing Applications, Renato Costa, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

There have been a number of frameworks and models developed to

support different aspects of social computing. Some were developed to deal

with online interaction through the application of computer-mediated communications

tools, whereas others such as social network analyses and reputation

systems were more specific in their focus. While these methodologies are interrelated,

current social computing research has dealt with them as separate aspects.

This paper presents a comprehensive framework for social computing

that aims at integrating all these three aspects into a unified model so that discovery

and exploration of community members are not only made possible, but

also …

A Model Of Open Source Software-Based Product Line Development, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Babar

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software Product Line (SPL) and Open Source Software (OSS) have emerged as successful modes of developing software. There is an increased interest in developing suitable approaches for combining the promised advantages of SPL andOSS. Researchers and practitioners have been emphasizing the need of exploiting the ever growing repositories ofOSScomponents for developing SPLs. However, there is no conceptual model for guiding the process of developing OSS-based SPLs. In this paper, we propose a model for developing software product line using open source software. This paper identifies and elaborates the essential phases and activities of the proposed model of developing OSS-based SPLs. …

Fuzzy Inference System For Software Product Family Process Evaluation, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Jagath Samarabandu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

When developing multiple products within a common application domain, systematic use of a software product family process can yield increased productivity in cost, quality, effort and schedule. Such a process provides the means for the reuse of software assets which can considerably reduce the development time and the cost of software products. A comprehensive strategy for the evaluating the maturity of a software product family process is needed due to growing popularity of this concept in the software industry. In this paper, we propose a five-level maturity scale for software product family process. We also present a fuzzy inference system …

A New Calibration For Function Point Complexity Weights, Wei Xia, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Function Point (FP) is a useful software metric that was first proposed twenty-five years ago, since then, it has steadily evolved into a functional size metric consolidated in the well-accepted Standardized International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) Counting Practices Manual - version 4.2. While software development industry has grown rapidly, the weight values assigned to count standard FP still remain same, which raise critical questions about the validity of the weight values. In this paper, we discuss the concepts of calibrating Function Point, whose aims are to estimate a more accurate software size that fits for specific software application, to …

Cots-Based Software Product Line Development, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed, Shereef Al-Maati, Zaher Alaghbari

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software Product Line (SPL) is at the forefront among the techniques for reducing costs, decreasing schedule time, and ensuring commonality of features across a family of products - as components off-the-shelf (COTS) are reused in multiple products. A disciplined process for software product line development is still needed. We propose the Y-model for COTS-based software product line development. The model put forward identifies and elaborates the essential phases and activities of software product line development from COTS-based repository. The Y-model provides an efficient way of integrating the approaches of software product line and COTS-based development as a cohesive software development …

An Empirical Validation Of Object-Oriented Design Metrics For Fault Prediction, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Jie Xu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Object-oriented design has become a dominant method in software industry and many design metrics of object-oriented programs have been proposed for quality prediction, but there is no well-accepted statement on how significant those metrics are. In this study, empirical analysis is carried out to validate object-oriented design metrics for defects estimation. Approach: The Chidamber and Kemerer metrics suite is adopted to estimate the number of defects in the programs, which are extracted from a public NASA data set. The techniques involved are statistical analysis and neuro-fuzzy approach. Results: The results indicate that SLOC, WMC, CBO and RFC are reliable metrics …

Managing The Business Of Software Product Line: An Empirical Investigation Of Key Business Factors, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Business has been highlighted as a one of the critical dimensions of software product line engineering. This paper’s main contribution is to increase the understanding of the influence of key business factors by showing empirically that they play an imperative role in managing a successful software product line. A quantitative survey of software organizations currently involved in the business of developing software product lines over a wide range of operations, including consumer electronics, telecommunications, avionics, and information technology, was designed to test the conceptual model and hypotheses of the study. This is the first study to demonstrate the relationships between …

A Multi-Agent Framework For Testing Distributed Systems, Hany Elyamany, Miriam Capretz, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software testing is a very expensive and time consuming process. It can account for up to 50% of the total cost of the software development. Distributed systems make software testing a daunting task. The research described in this paper investigates a novel multi-agent framework for testing 3-tier distributed systems. This paper describes the framework architecture as well as the communication mechanism among agents in the architecture. Web-based application is examined as a case study to validate the proposed framework. The framework is considered as a step forward to automate testing for distributed systems in order to enhance their reliability within …

Maturity Assessment Framework For Business Dimension Of Software Product Family, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The software product family approach aims at curtailing the concept of “reinventing the wheel” in the software development process. The business has been highlighted as one of the critical dimensions in the process of software product family. This work presents an assessment framework for evaluating the business dimension of software product family process. Additionally, a software product family business evaluation tool has been designed and implemented on the basis of the presented framework. The tool preprocesses the data of key business factors, and it evaluates the overall business maturity of an organization. To demonstrate the application of the framework, and …

A Binary Data Stream Scripting Language, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Lihua Wang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Any file is fundamentally a binary data stream. A practical solution was achieved to interpret binary data stream. A new scripting language named Data Format Scripting Language (DFSL) was developed to describe the physical layout of the data in a structural, more intelligible way. On the basis of the solution, a generic software application was implemented; it parses various binary data streams according to their respective DFSL scripts and generates human-readable result and XML document for data sharing. Our solution helps eliminate the error-prone low-level programming, especially in the hardware devices or network protocol development/debugging processes.

A Soft Computing Framework For Software Effort Estimation, Xishi Huang, Danny Ho, Jing Ren, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Accurate software estimation such as cost estimation, quality estimation and risk analysis is a major issue in software project management. In this paper, we present a soft computing framework to tackle this challenging problem. We first use a preprocessing neuro-fuzzy inference system to handle the dependencies among contributing factors and decouple the effects of the contributing factors into individuals. Then we use a neuro-fuzzy bank to calibrate the parameters of contributing factors. In order to extend our framework into fields that lack of an appropriate algorithmic model of their own, we propose a default algorithmic model that can be replaced …

Integrating Schedulability Analysis With Uml-Rt, Qimin Gao, Lyndon Brown, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The use of object oriented techniques and methodologies for the design of real-time control systems appear to be necessary in order to deal with the increasing complexity of such systems. Recently many object-oriented methods have been used for the modeling and design of real-time control systems. We believe that an approach that integrates the advancements in both object modeling and design methods, and real-time scheduling theory is the key to successful use of object oriented technology for real-time software. However, past approaches to integrate the two either restrict the object models, or do not allow sophisticated schedulability analysis techniques. In …