| 1. |
- Andersson, Carina
(författare)
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A replicated empirical study of a selection method for software reliability growth models
- 2007
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7616 .- 1382-3256. ; 12:2, s. 161-182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Replications are commonly considered to be important contributions to investigate the generality of empirical studies. By replicating an original study it may be shown that the results are either valid or invalid in another context, outside the specific environment in which the original study was launched. The results of the replicated study show how much confidence we could possibly have in the original study. We present a replication of a method for selecting software reliability growth models to decide whether to stop testing and release software. We applied the selection method in an empirical study, conducted in a different development environment than the original study. The results of the replication study show that with the changed values of stability and curve fit, the selection method works well on the empirical system test data available, i.e., the method was applicable in an environment that was different from the original one. The application of the SRGMs to failures during functional testing resulted in predictions with low relative error, thus providing a useful approach in giving good estimates of the total number of failures to expect during functional testing.
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| 2. |
- Dittrich, Yvonne, et al.
(författare)
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Cooperative method development : Combining qualitative empirical research with method, techniqueand process improvement
- 2008
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Netherlands. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 13:3, s. 231-260
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of methods tools and process improvements is best to be based on the understanding of the development practice to be supported. Qualitative research has been proposed as a method for understanding the social and cooperative aspects of software development. However, qualitative research is not easily combined with the improvement orientation of an engineering discipline. During the last 6 years, we have applied an approach we call ‘cooperative method development’, which combines qualitative social science fieldwork, with problem-oriented method, technique and process improvement. The action research based approach focusing on shop floor software development practices allows an understanding of how contextual contingencies influence the deployment and applicability of methods, processes and techniques. This article summarizes the experiences and discusses the further development of this approach based on several research projects in cooperation with industrial partners.
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| 3. |
- Grindal, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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An Evaluation of Combination Strategies for Test Case Selection
- 2006
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 11:4, s. 583-611
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents results from a comparative evaluation of five combination strategies. Combination strategies are test case selection methods that combine “interesting” values of the input parameters of a test subject to form test cases. This research comparatively evaluated five combination strategies; the All Combination strategy (AC), the Each Choice strategy (EC), the Base Choice strategy (BC), Orthogonal Arrays (OA) and the algorithm from the Automatic Efficient Test Generator (AETG). AC satisfies n-wise coverage, EC and BC satisfy 1-wise coverage, and OA and AETG satisfy pair-wise coverage. The All Combinations strategy was used as a “gold standard” strategy; it subsumes the others but is usually too expensive for practical use. The others were used in an experiment that used five programs seeded with 128 faults. The combination strategies were evaluated with respect to the number of test cases, the number of faults found, failure size, and number of decisions covered. The strategy that requires the least number of tests, Each Choice, found the smallest number of faults. Although the Base Choice strategy requires fewer test cases than Orthogonal Arrays and AETG, it found as many faults. Analysis also shows some properties of the combination strategies that appear significant. The two most important results are that the Each Choice strategy is unpredictable in terms of which faults will be revealed, possibly indicating that faults are found by chance, and that the Base Choice and the pair-wise combination strategies to some extent target different types of faults.
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| 4. |
- Kajko-Mattsson, Miroslawa E J, et al.
(författare)
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A Survey of Documentation Practice within Corrective Maintenance
- 2005
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 10:1, s. 31-55
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of documentation is to describe software systems and software processes. Consistent, correct and complete documentation of a software system is an important vehicle for the maintainer to gain its understanding, to ease its learning and/or relearning processes, and to make the system more maintainable. Poor system documentation, on the other hand, is the primary reason for quick software system quality degradation and ageing. Proper process documentation records the process, its stages and tasks, executing roles, their decisions and motivations, and the results of each individual process task. It is extremely important for achieving insight and visibility into the processes, important for their meaningful process measurement and thereby pivotal for achieving high process maturity. In this paper, we report on the results of an explorative study in which we have identified a number of rudimentary documentation requirements relevant within corrective maintenance, and found out how they were implemented within eighteen software organizations in Sweden. The goal was to examine the industrial documentation practice within corrective maintenance. Our results show that the documentation within corrective maintenance is still a very neglected issue within the organisations studied. None of our organisations has fully implemented all our documentation requirements.
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| 5. |
- Karlsson, Lena, et al.
(författare)
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Pair-wise comparisons versus planning game partitioning-experiments on requirements prioritisation techniques
- 2007
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7616 .- 1382-3256. ; 12:1, s. 3-33
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The process of selecting the right set of requirements for a product release is dependent on how well the organisation succeeds in prioritising the requirements candidates. This paper describes two consecutive controlled experiments comparing different requirements prioritisation techniques with the objective of understanding differences in time-consumption, ease of use and accuracy. The first experiment evaluates Pair-wise comparisons and a variation of the Planning game. As the Planning game turned out as superior, the second experiment was designed to compare the Planning game to Tool-supported pair-wise comparisons. The results indicate that the manual pair-wise comparisons is the most time-consuming of the techniques, and also the least easy to use. Tool-supported pair-wise comparisons is the fastest technique and it is as easy to use as the Planning game. The techniques do not differ significantly regarding accuracy.
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| 6. |
- Karlström, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Integrating agile software development into stage-gate managed product development
- 2006
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7616 .- 1382-3256. ; 11:2, s. 203-225
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agile methods have evolved as a bottom-up approach to software development. However, as the software in embedded products is only one part of development projects, agile methods must coexist with project management models typically of the stage-gate type. This paper presents a qualitative case study of two large independent software system projects that have used eXtreme Programming (XP) for software development within contexts of stage-gate project management models. The study is comprised of open ended interviews with managers as well as practitioners, followed by a structured, fully traceable, qualitative analysis. We conclude that it is possible to integrate XP in a gate model context. Key issues for success are the interfaces towards the agile subproject and management attitudes towards the agile approach.
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| 7. |
- Natt och Dag, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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An experiment on linguistic tool support for consolidation of requirements from multiple sources in market-driven product development
- 2006
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7616 .- 1382-3256. ; 11:2, s. 303-329
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents an experiment with a linguistic support tool for consolidation of requirements sets. The experiment is designed based on the requirements management process at a large market-driven software development company that develops generic solutions to satisfy many different customers. New requirements and requests for information are continuously issued, which must be analyzed and responded to. The new requirements should first be consolidated with the old to avoid reanalysis of previously elicited requirements and to complement existing requirements with new information. In the presented experiment, a new open-source tool is evaluated in a laboratory setting. The tool uses linguistic engineering techniques to calculate similarities between requirements and presents a ranked list of suggested similar requirements, between which links may be assigned. It is hypothesized that the proposed technique for finding and linking similar requirements makes the consolidation more efficient. The results show that subjects that are given the support provided by the tool are significantly more efficient and more correct in consolidating two requirements sets, than are subjects that do not get the support. The results suggest that the proposed techniques may give valuable support and save time in an industrial requirements consolidation process.
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| 8. |
- Runeson, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering
- 2009
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7616 .- 1382-3256. ; 14:2, s. 131-164
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Case study is a suitable research methodology for software engineering research since it studies contemporary phenomena in its natural context. However, the understanding of what constitutes a case study varies, and hence the quality of the resulting studies. This paper aims at providing an introduction to case study methodology and guidelines for researchers conducting case studies and readers studying reports of such studies. The content is based on the authors’ own experience from conducting and reading case studies. The terminology and guidelines are compiled from different methodology handbooks in other research domains, in particular social science and information systems, and adapted to the needs in software engineering. We present recommended practices for software engineering case studies as well as empirically derived and evaluated checklists for researchers and readers of case study research.
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| 9. |
- Svahnberg, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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An Investigation of a Method for Identifying a Software Architecture Candidate with respect to Quality Attributes
- 2005
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Kluwer Academic Publishers. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 10:2, s. 149-81
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To sustain the qualities of a software system during evolution, and to adapt the quality attributes as the requirements evolve, it is necessary to have a clear software architecture that is understood by all developers and to which all changes to the system adheres. This software architecture can be created beforehand, but must also be updated to reflect changes in the domain, and hence the requirements of the software. The choice of which software architecture to use is typically based on informal decisions. There exist, to the best of our knowledge, little factual knowledge of which quality attributes are supported or obstructed by different architecture approaches. In this paper, we present an empirical study of a method that enables quantification of the perceived support different software architectures give for different quality attributes. This in turn enables an informed decision of which architecture candidate best fit the mixture of quality attributes required by a system being designed
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| 10. |
- weyuker, elaine, et al.
(författare)
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Do Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth? Using the Number of Developers to Enhance Defect Prediction Models
- 2008
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 13:5, s. 539-559
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fault prediction by negative binomial regression models is shown to be effective for four large production software systems from industry. A model developed originally with data from systems with regularly scheduled releases was successfully adapted to a system without releases to identify 20% of that system's files that contained 75% of the faults. A model with a pre-specified set of variables derived from earlier research was applied to three additional systems, and proved capable of identifying averages of 81, 94 and 76% of the faults in those systems. A primary focus of this paper is to investigate the impact on predictive accuracy of using data about the number of developers who access individual code units. For each system, including the cumulative number of developers who had previously modified a file yielded no more than a modest improvement in predictive accuracy. We conclude that while many factors can "spoil the broth" (lead to the release of software with too many defects), the number of developers is not a major influence.
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| 11. |
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