1,721,295 research outputs found
How can agile practices minimize global software development co-ordination risks?
No full textThe distribution of project stakeholders in Global Software Development (GSD) projects provides significant risks related to project communication, coordination and control processes. There is growing interest in applying agile practices in GSD projects in order to leverage the advantages of both approaches. In some cases, GSD project managers use agile practices to reduce project distribution challenges. We use an existing coordination framework to identify GSD coordination problems due to temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distances. An industry-based case study is used to describe, explore and explain the use of agile practices to reduce development coordination challenges.Emam Hossain, Muhammad Ali Babar, and June Verne
The use of empirical methods in open source software research: Facts, trends and future directions
No full textOpen Source Software (OSS) is a field of study with increasing interest of researchers. By its nature, OSS is especially suitable for empirical research. A great number of OSS related empirical studies have been conducted, but no effort has been made to systematically review the published evidence. This paper presents the results of a systematic review to investigate research topics and used methods in OSS related research. We present our results as facts and trends in this field and provide directions for future research.Klaas-Jan Stol, Muhammad Ali Babar, Barbara Russo and Brian Fitzgeral
Global software engineering: Identifying challenges is important and providing solutions is even better
No full textMuhammad Ali Babar, Christian Lesche
Designing a security platform for collaborating autonomous systems - an experience report
No full textCollaborative autonomous systems operating at edges, e.g., TurtleBots, need adaptive security mechanisms (i.e., Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) that meet the changing mission requirements and the available processing capacities. We have designed and implemented a security platform that supports secure communication among autonomous systems of robots (e.g., TurtleBots), security of Robot Operating System (ROS) communication network, the integrity of the information exchanged among the robots and secured availability of the data and access to services. For designing the security platform, we have used architecture and design patterns along with the respective security protocols. Our solution provides seamless security incorporation in heterogeneous collaborative autonomous entities. We have leveraged architectural strategies to incorporate publickey encryption, maintain global order of events and incorporate fault tolerance. We assert that the presented security platform can facilitate easy adoption of secure control, communication and information gathering in collaborative autonomous systems with resource constraint edge nodes.Muhammad Aufeef Chauhan, Muhammad Ali Babar, Steven Grainge
Towards a framework for using agile approaches in global software development
No full textAs agile methods and Global Software Development (GSD) are become increasingly popular, GSD project managers have been exploring the viability of using agile approaches in their development environments. Despite the expected benefits of using an agile approach with a GSD project, the overall combining mechanisms of the two approaches are not clearly understood. To address this challenge, we propose a conceptual framework, based on the research literature. This framework is expected to aid a project manager in deciding what agile strategies are effective for a particular GSD project, taking into account project context. We use an industry-based case study to explore the components of our conceptual framework. Our case study is planned and conducted according to specific published case study guidelines. We identify the agile practices and agile supporting practices used by a GSD project manager in our case study and conclude with future research directions.Emam Hossain, Muhammad Ali Babar and June Verne
Middleware architecture evaluation for dependable self-managing systems
No full textMiddleware provides infrastructure support for creating dependable software systems. A specific middleware implementation plays a critical role in determining the quality attributes that satisfy a system's dependability requirements. Evaluating a middleware architecture at an early development stage can help to pinpoint critical architectural challenges and optimize design decisions. In this paper, we present a method and its application to evaluate middleware architectures, driven by emerging architecture patterns for developing self-managing systems. Our approach focuses on two key attributes of dependability, reliability and maintainability by means of fault tolerance and fault prevention. We identify the architectural design patterns necessary to build an adaptive self-managing architecture that is capable of preventing or recovering from failures. These architectural patterns and their impacts on quality attributes create the context for middleware evaluation. Our approach is demonstrated by an example application - failover control of a financial application on an enterprise service bus.Yan Liu, Muhammad Ali Babar, and Ian Gorto
Software Process Improvement barriers: a cross-cultural comparison
No full textAbstract not availableMahmood Niazi, Muhammad Ali Babar, June M. Verne
A comparative survey of economic models for software product lines
Full text linkSoftware product line engineering aims at achieving systematic reuse by exploiting commonalities among related products in order to reduce cost and time-to market. Before adopting this approach, organizations are likely to estimate the benefits they can expect to achieve and the level of investment required to transition to product line engineering. Several economic models and analysis approaches have been developed in order to help make a sound business case. There is a need to review the existing approaches in order to better understand the overall landscape of economic models. To this objective, this paper provides an overview of some existing economic models and discusses important issues and directions in product line economic modeling.Muhammad Sarmad Ali, Muhammad Ali Babar, Klaus Schmi
Model-Centered Customizable Architectural Design Decisions Management
No full textArchitectural Design Decisions (ADD) form a key element of Architectural Knowledge (AK), which plays a vital role in the software architecture process. To help manage ADDs, several tools have been proposed. However, most of them have prescribed fixed data models to be followed and do not provide sufficient customizability. Mismatches between a tool's data model and users' specific needs make the tool less usable, or even unusable. We propose a highly customizable solution that enables users to define specialized ADD models according to the specific needs of their individual preferences and working situations to achieve perfect fitness between the required model by users and the provided model by the tool. The results of the initial evaluation of the proposed solution are encouraging.Lianping Chen, Muhammad Ali Babar, Haiqi Lian
Risk identification and mitigation processes for using scrum in global software development: a conceptual framework
No full textThere is growing interest in applying agile practices in Global Software Development (GSD) projects. But project stakeholder distribution in GSD creates a number of challenges that make it difficult to use some agile practices. Moreover, little is known about what the key challenges or risks are, and how GSD project mangers deal with these risks while using agile practices. We conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) following existing guidelines to identify primary papers that discuss the use of Scrum practices in GSD projects. We identify key challenges, due to global project distribution, that restrict the use of Scrum and explore the strategies used by project managers to deal with these challenges. Our findings are consolidated into a conceptual framework and we discuss various elements of this framework. This research is relevant to project managers who are seeking ways to use Scrum in their globally distributed projects.Emam Hossain, Muhammad Ali Babar, Hye-young Paik, June Verne
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