An Analysis of Process Characteristics for Developing Scientific Software

2012 ◽  
pp. 347-363
Author(s):  
Diane Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Scientific Software ◽  
Development Environment ◽  
Engineering Development ◽  
Process Characteristics ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Development Methods ◽  
Software Development Methods

The development of scientific software is usually carried out by a scientist who has little professional training as a software developer. Concerns exist that such development produces low-quality products, leading to low-quality science. These concerns have led to recommendations and the imposition of software engineering development processes and standards on the scientists. This paper utilizes different frameworks to investigate and map characteristics of the scientific software development environment to the assumptions made in plan-driven software development methods and agile software development methods. This mapping exposes a mismatch between the needs and goals of scientific software development and the assumptions and goals of well-known software engineering development processes.

An Analysis of Process Characteristics for Developing Scientific Software

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 64-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Scientific Software ◽  
Development Environment ◽  
Engineering Development ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Agile Software ◽  
Development Methods ◽  
Software Development Methods

The development of scientific software is usually carried out by a scientist who has little professional training as a software developer. Concerns exist that such development produces low-quality products, leading to low-quality science. These concerns have led to recommendations and the imposition of software engineering development processes and standards on the scientists. This paper utilizes different frameworks to investigate and map characteristics of the scientific software development environment to the assumptions made in plan-driven software development methods and agile software development methods. This mapping exposes a mismatch between the needs and goals of scientific software development and the assumptions and goals of well-known software engineering development processes.

Positive and Negative Innovations in Software Engineering

2012 ◽  
pp. 252-263
Author(s):  
Capers Jones
Keyword(s):  
Software Engineering ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Productivity Costs ◽  
Software Applications ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Methods ◽  
Software Development Methods ◽  
The Way

The software engineering field has been a fountain of innovation. Ideas and inventions from the software domain have literally changed the world as we know it. For software development, we have a few proven innovations. The way software is built remains surprisingly primitive. Even in 2008 major software applications are cancelled, overrun their budgets and schedules, and often have hazardously bad quality levels when released. There have been many attempts to improve software development, but progress has resembled a drunkard’s walk. Some attempts have been beneficial, but others have been either ineffective or harmful. This article puts forth the hypothesis that the main reason for the shortage of positive innovation in software development methods is due to a lack of understanding of the underlying problems of the software development domain. A corollary hypothesis is that lack of understanding of the problems is due to inadequate measurement of quality, productivity, costs, and the factors that affect project outcomes.

Software Engineering in Australasia

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-17
Author(s):  
Sherlock A. Licorish ◽  
Christoph Treude ◽  
John Grundy ◽  
Kelly Blincoe ◽  
Stephen MacDonell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Software Engineering ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Engineering Community ◽  
Development Methods ◽  
Software Development Methods ◽  
The Way

Six months ago an important call was made for researchers globally to provide insights into the way Software Engineering is done in their region. Heeding this call, we hereby outline the position Software Engineering in Australasia (New Zealand and Australia). This article first considers the software development methods, practices and tools that are popular in the Australasian software engineering community. We then briefly review the particular strengths of software engineering researchers in Australasia. Finally, we make an open call for collaborators by reflecting on our current position and identifying future opportunities.

Exploring the Effects of Process Characteristics on Products Quality in Open Source Software Development

2009 ◽  
pp. 3008-3036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Koch ◽  
Christian Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Open Source Software Development ◽  
Development Environment ◽  
Product Metrics ◽  
Software Products ◽  
Process Characteristics ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Process Metrics

There has been considerable discussion on the possible impacts of open source software development practices, especially in regard to the quality of the resulting software product. Recent studies have shown that analyzing data from source code repositories is an efficient way to gather information about project characteristics and programmers, showing that OSS projects are very heterogeneous in their team structures and software processes. However, one problem is that the resulting process metrics measuring attributes of the development process and of the development environment do not give any hints about the quality, complexity, or structure of the resulting software. Therefore, we expanded the analysis by calculating several product metrics, most of them specifically tailored to object-oriented software. We then analyzed the relationship between these product metrics and process metrics derived from a CVS repository. The aim was to establish whether different variants of open source development processes have a significant impact on the resulting software products. In particular we analyzed the impact on quality and design associated with the numbers of contributors and the amount of their work, using the GINI coefficient as a measure of inequality within the developer group.

Exploring the Effects of Process Characteristics on Product Quality in Open Source Software Development

2011 ◽  
pp. 132-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Koch ◽  
Christian Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Open Source Software Development ◽  
Development Environment ◽  
Product Metrics ◽  
Software Products ◽  
Process Characteristics ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Process Metrics

There has been considerable discussion on the possible impacts of open source software development practices, especially in regard to the quality of the resulting software product. Recent studies have shown that analyzing data from source code repositories is an efficient way to gather information about project characteristics and programmers, showing that OSS projects are very heterogeneous in their team structures and software processes. However, one problem is that the resulting process metrics measuring attributes of the development process and of the development environment do not give any hints about the quality, complexity, or structure of the resulting software. Therefore, we expanded the analysis by calculating several product metrics, most of them specifically tailored to object-oriented software. We then analyzed the relationship between these product metrics and process metrics derived from a CVS repository. The aim was to establish whether different variants of open source development processes have a significant impact on the resulting software products. In particular we analyzed the impact on quality and design associated with the numbers of contributors and the amount of their work, using the GINI coefficient as a measure of inequality within the developer group.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document