Implementando o Gitflow para Gerencia de Configuração em um Projeto de Desenvolvimento de Software Ágil: Um Relato de Experiência

In software engineering, Software Configuration Management is a set of support activities that allows for the orderly absorption of changes inherent to software development. For that, organization models for code versioning like Gitflow have been proposed. In Gitflow, two fixed branches (master and develop) are used to store the project history and be the starting point for changes. Despite the popularity of Gitflow for being considered a simple workflow, there are few: (a) reports of its use in practice and / or (b) documentation on how to deploy it in a real environment. This paper presents the process of adapting Gitflow and creating rules for its application in a real software development project. This adaptation took into account the opinions of managers and developers of a team of approximately 30 people within an agile Scrum life cycle. As a result, definitions and documents were generated to keep track of development, in addition to defining the necessary steps for its application considering the development process adopted by the team.

Human Competency Assessment for Software Configuration Management

Late product delivery is a common problem in software projects. Late delivery can be attributed to software change especially in the development and maintenance phases, leading to more work than originally planned, thus increasing project completion time. One approach for managing software change is Software Configuration Management (SCM). SCM was first introduced in the 1970s to ensure the timely delivery of software products. To date, SCM implementation is supported by recognized standards, best practice, and countless commercial and proprietary tools. However, after more than 50 years, the issue of late software product delivery still prevails, questioning the practice of SCM in software organizations. One aspect of SCM that has received little focus in mainstream research is the human aspects. This study aims to identify how the competency of SCM practitioners can be assessed through the identification of SCM competency criteria and the development of a competency assessment framework. The framework was validated through expert reviews and case studies involving practitioners from the public sector, industry, institutes of higher learning and international organizations. Results confirmed the reliability of the SCM competency criteria and the plausibility of the competency assessment framework.

UCDiff: Difference Detection in Use Case Models of Healthcare System

Development of large-scale healthcare software projects essentially need the efficient management of the created software artifacts during software development process. In such projects different versions of an artifact are created at different times. Traditional software configuration management systems, such as Git, Subversion (SVN), etc., are designed for later phases of software development, which mainly handle the source code document. These systems are unable to perform difference detection and version management tasks on models such as unified modeling language diagrams. UML use case model is used for capturing functional requirements at analyses phase. Different versions of the use case model are created during analyses phase. This paper addresses the detection of differences between two versions of a use case model. In order to perform difference detection, we need to perform three main tasks, i. e., extract the contents of the model, comparison of models and difference representation. Most of the existing approaches in literature of model comparison deal with UML class diagrams. To the best of our knowledge, so far no appropriate approach addresses difference computation of use case model. Existing approaches are not applicable on use case model due to different semantics of use case model. In this research, the concept of model-based software configuration management (SCM) for use case difference detection is proposed. The use case models are created in an open source tool, starUML. The proposed difference algorithm is applied on intermediate tree structure representation of models. As a case study, different versions of a patient appointment healthcare system is used to evaluate different evaluation parameters, such as accuracy, domain independence, high conceptual level and tool independence.

A Feature-Based Evaluation of Model Merge Methods for e-Health Solutions

Model-driven engineering (MDE) paradigm considers models as central artifacts for software development lifecycle during which models evolve. Developing an e-health solution using MDE poses challenges of model version control, model differencing and model merging, which requires appropriate software configuration management (SCM). In this paper we focus on model-driven merging, which refers to combining two or more versions of a model into a single consolidated version. SCM for model-driven merging leverages evolution of valid configurations, which is a highly desired behavior. Our investigation is based on the features that are required for model-driven SCM realization. Initially, we identify these features using which the existing model-driven merging techniques are evaluated. It is observed that though various proposals are made by academia and research community, a standard model-driven SCM solution that can cater to the needs of industry is still absent. This is in contrary to the situation of traditional SCM systems where standard solutions exist. We also present the usefulness of each technique along with the tradeoffs involved. Finally, guidelines are provided to select techniques appropriate for given circumstances.

A Feature-Based Evaluation of Model Merge Methods for e-Health Solutions

Model-driven engineering (MDE) paradigm considers models as central artifacts for software development lifecycle during which models evolve. Developing an e-health solution using MDE poses challenges of model version control, model differencing and model merging, which requires appropriate software configuration management (SCM). In this paper we focus on model-driven merging, which refers to combining two or more versions of a model into a single consolidated version. SCM for model-driven merging leverages evolution of valid configurations, which is a highly desired behavior. Our investigation is based on the features that are required for model-driven SCM realization. Initially, we identify these features using which the existing model-driven merging techniques are evaluated. It is observed that though various proposals are made by academia and research community, a standard model-driven SCM solution that can cater to the needs of industry is still absent. This is in contrary to the situation of traditional SCM systems where standard solutions exist. We also present the usefulness of each technique along with the tradeoffs involved. Finally, guidelines are provided to select techniques appropriate for given circumstances.

UCDiff: Difference Detection in Use Case Models of Healthcare System

Development of large-scale healthcare software projects essentially need the efficient management of the created software artifacts during software development process. In such projects different versions of an artifact are created at different times. Traditional software configuration management systems, such as Git, Subversion (SVN), etc., are designed for later phases of software development, which mainly handle the source code document. These systems are unable to perform difference detection and version management tasks on models such as unified modeling language diagrams. UML use case model is used for capturing functional requirements at analyses phase. Different versions of the use case model are created during analyses phase. This paper addresses the detection of differences between two versions of a use case model. In order to perform difference detection, we need to perform three main tasks, i. e., extract the contents of the model, comparison of models and difference representation. Most of the existing approaches in literature of model comparison deal with UML class diagrams. To the best of our knowledge, so far no appropriate approach addresses difference computation of use case model. Existing approaches are not applicable on use case model due to different semantics of use case model. In this research, the concept of model-based software configuration management (SCM) for use case difference detection is proposed. The use case models are created in an open source tool, starUML. The proposed difference algorithm is applied on intermediate tree structure representation of models. As a case study, different versions of a patient appointment healthcare system is used to evaluate different evaluation parameters, such as accuracy, domain independence, high conceptual level and tool independence.

Survey of software configuration management tools of nodes in heterogeneous distributed computing environment

The paper discusses the problem of preparing a computing environment for large-scale scientific experiments in the process of continuous integration of applied and system software. A comparative analysis of software configuration management tools (such as Chef, Ansible, Puppet, and SaltStack) of computational nodes in a heterogeneous environment is being performed. These tools are intended for automating the configuration of different nodes. Such automation reduces the setup time of nodes and increases the reliability of computations by minimizing the number of software and hardware failures, associated with the human factor in the manual configuration process. For the development of scientific applications, the Orlando Tools framework is used. Based on the results of the comparative analysis and requirements of this framework, the Ansible framework was selected for further integration into the chain of continuous integration of applied and system software. Practical experiments have shown the advantages of using Ansible in comparison with other systems of a similar purpose.