Empirical Assessment of the Long-Term Impact of an Embedded Systems Programming Requalification Programme

Digital transformation has increased the demand for skilled Information Technology (IT) professionals, to an extent that universities cannot satisfy it with newly graduated students. Furthermore, the economical downturn has created difficulties and scarcity of opportunities in other areas of activity. This combination of factors led to the need to consider requalification programmes that enable individuals with diverse specialisations and backgrounds to realign their careers to the IT area. This has led to the creation of many coding bootcamps, providing intensive full-time courses focused on unemployed people or unhappy with their jobs, and individuals seeking a career change. A multidisciplinary group of higher education teachers, in collaboration with several industry stakeholders, have designed and promoted an embedded systems programming course, using an intensive project-based learning approach comprising 6 months of daylong classes and a 9 months internship. Having finished two editions of the programme, a questionnaire was presented to the students that finished successfully, in order to evaluate the long-term benefits to graduates and companies. This paper presents a brief discussion of the programme organisation and pedagogical methodologies, as well as the results of the questionnaire, conducted following a Goal–Question–Metric (GQM) approach. The results demonstrate very positive outcomes, both for graduates and companies.

Validation of Rubric Evaluation for Programming Education

In evaluating the learning achievement of programming-thinking skills, the method of using a rubric that describes evaluation items and evaluation stages is widely employed. However, few studies have evaluated the reliability, validity, and consistency of the rubrics themselves. In this study, we introduced a statistical method for evaluating the characteristics of rubrics using the goal question metric (GQM) method. Furthermore, we proposed a method for measuring four evaluation results and characteristics obtained from rubrics developed using this statistical method. Moreover, we showed and confirmed the consistency and validity of the statistical method using the GQM method of the resulting developed rubrics. We show how to verify the consistency and validity of the rubric using the GQM method.

Method to Address Complexity in Organizations Based on a Comprehensive Overview

Digitalization increasingly enforces organizations to accommodate changes and gain resilience. Emerging technologies, changing organizational structures and dynamic work environments bring opportunities and pose new challenges to organizations. Such developments, together with the growing volume and variety of the exchanged data, mainly yield complexity. This complexity often represents a solid barrier to efficiency and impedes understanding, controlling, and improving processes in organizations. Hence, organizations are prevailingly seeking to identify and avoid unnecessary complexity, which is an odd mixture of different factors. Similarly, in research, much effort has been put into measuring, reviewing, and studying complexity. However, these efforts are highly fragmented and lack a joint perspective. Further, this negatively affects the complexity research acceptance by practitioners. In this study, we extend the body of knowledge on complexity research and practice addressing its high fragmentation. In particular, a comprehensive literature analysis of complexity research is conducted to capture different types of complexity in organizations. The results are comparatively analyzed, and a morphological box containing three aspects and ten features is developed. In addition, an established multi-dimensional complexity framework is employed to synthesize the results. Using the findings from these analyses and adopting the Goal Question Metric, we propose a method for complexity management. This method serves to provide key insights and decision support in the form of extensive guidelines for addressing complexity. Thus, our findings can assist organizations in their complexity management initiatives.

Developing an Instrument to Measure Information Assurance Implementation for eGovernment using Goal Question Metric Approach

The eGovernment initiative is aimed to improve government services to the public by improving the quality and availability of services that can be accessed regardless of time and place. Consequently, the services must always be available at any time, and any threat to the information and systems should receive attention to ensure business continuity in the event of an incident. Therefore, in implementing eGovernment, information assurance (IA) must be considered. To determine the extent to which IA implementation status to protect eGovernment services in Indonesia, it is necessary to measure the implementation using an instrument. The measurement instrument was developed using the Goal Question Metric (GQM) approach. The developed instrument was then used in a case study to test its effectiveness in measuring the IA implementation. From the results of the case study, it can be concluded that the IA measurement instrument for eGovernment was proven to be effective within Indonesian context.

Measuring Scalable Business Process Model Complexity Based on Basic Control Structure

The business process model is a representation of business activities illustrated through diagram notations. This model is composed of repeated specific patterns called basic control structure. Each basic control structure has a level of complexity. The metrics for formulating existing complexity are very diverse, but can only define complexity partially and are less sensitive to small changes in the structure of the business process model. In this paper, we propose a formula of complexity metric that can indicate small changes in structure, type of branching logic, number of branches, loops, and depth. We call it the Yaqin complexity formula. To get the Yaqin complexity formula, we carried out several activities. These activities are identifying the metrics involved using the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) method, then formulating the metric complexity, the next activity is testing the formula with several business process models and analyzing the test results, and then validating the Yaqin complexity formula using the Weyuker's properties framework. The Yaqin complexity formula, which involves seven parameters, is proven to be more comprehensive than other complexity formulas that involve less than seven parameters. The Yaqin complexity formula also proved to be more sensitive to other complexity formulas, where 7 out of 8 cases affected the Yaqin complexity metric. The validation results state that the Yaqin complexity formula meets 8 of 9 Weyuker's properties. Thus we have succeeded in formulating the Yaqin complexity, which is more comprehensive in involving parameters and more sensitive in detecting small changes in the structure of the business process model.

Elaboração de um conjunto de métricas de qualidade para avaliação de experiências de aprendizagem com realidade aumentada

O presente artigo objetiva apresentar a elaboração de um conjunto de métricas para a avaliação da qualidade das aplicações de realidade aumentada relacionadas à educação. A partir do método Goal Question Metric, foram desenvolvidas 8 classes de métricas e posteriormente aplicadas em um projeto de desenvolvimento de realidade aumentada. As métricas consideradas foram efetivas no mapeamento de problemas no processo de desenvolvimento, facilitando assim os procedimentos de correção e adaptação. Consequentemente, a utilização de métricas adequadas possibilitou um maior controle da qualidade das aplicações, gerando experiências compatíveis com seus objetivos.

Métricas basadas en un enfoque guiado por riesgos para evaluar la comunicación, cooperación y coordinación en equipos de desarrollo global de software

El éxito del desarrollo global de software (DGS) depende, en gran parte, de la forma como se comunican, cooperan y coordinan (3Cs) los esfuerzos en la gestión de los proyectos y los equipos de trabajo geográficamente dispersos. En la literatura, se identifican varios trabajos que proponen riesgos y métricas para proyectos de DGS, pero algunos de ellos no se describen con detalle, son ambiguos o complicados de entender, lo que dificulta ubicarlos en alguna categoría precisa. Además, es necesario clasificar los riesgos de una manera menos subjetiva, que mejore su comprensión; facilite la definición y aplicación de herramientas para medir su impacto, y genere algunos indicadores que apoyen la toma de decisiones en los equipos de DGS. En este artículo, se proponen 37 riesgos para la comunicación, cooperación y coordinación en el DGS, como resultado de la comparación e integración de riesgos identificados en la literatura. También se presenta un conjunto de métricas definidas con la aplicación del paradigma Goal Question Metric (GQM), organizadas con estas interrogantes: ¿qué mide?, donde se establece el atributo por calibrar, y ¿cómo lo mide?, donde se indica la métrica a través de los siguientes elementos: descripción, tipo, escala y función de cálculo. Mediante la técnica de grupo focal, se evaluó la completitud, pertinencia, claridad, precisión y facilidad de uso de las métricas, que podrían resultar útiles para las organizaciones, equipos, proyectos y consultores que operan en contextos de DGS.

Developing a Framework and an Instrument for Measuring System Openness

This article describes the process of developing a framework and an instrument for measuring and ascertaining the openness of a system applicable to system architectures and their implementations. Our process includes an in-depth review of pertinent literature in the areas of Open Systems and Open Architecture, followed by a selection of the appropriate methodology to use. We chose the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) methodology to allow us to select relevant goals, factors and metric that can be used to measure a system's level of openness. The article details these goals, factors and metrics. We carried out studies of these factors with fourteen experts in open systems engineering: an initial study with seven of these experts helping us refine the selected goals, factors and metrics, with a second confirmatory study performed in conjunction with the remaining seven experts. The goals, questions and metrics are detailed in the appendices.

GQM+PA: Um Framework baseado em Goal-Question-Metric e Pesquisa-Ação para Ensino de Medição de Software

A compreensão prática da medição de software demonstra-se pertinente para conscientização dos alunos sobre a garantia de qualidade. Todavia, alinhar teoria e prática no ensino de tal disciplina reflete-se desafiador, requisitando, assim, metodologias colaborativas e engajadoras. Este estudo propõe um framework, denominado GQM+PA, o qual integra o método Pesquisa-Ação com o processo Goal-Question-Metric para ensino de medição de software. Sob uma perspectiva quali-quantitativa, avaliou-se múltiplos estudos de caso na Universidade Federal do Ceará (Campus Crateús). Resultados revelam que os alunos foram capazes de aprimorar seus conhecimentos e perceber empiricamente o valor da medição de software, incluindo métricas de software e GQM.

Experimental and Theoretical Expansion of Access to Credit among Rural Farmers: Case Studies in Boane District, Mozambique

The aim of study is to establish relationship between loan accessibility, repayment capacity, credit terms, and farmers' socioeconomic characteristics using of metrics to extract an indicator for targeting credit financing to rural households. Design/methodology/approach?: The goal question metric GQM paradigm is used to select a sample of 30 settings in the Boane district. The paper adopted validation research on how to perform controlled experiments with small adaptations and involved descriptive, correlation, regression analysis approaches. Data were analyzed using the R, and SPSS statistical model, and Pearson correlation where used to examine the nature of the relationship between the variables.