1,721,173 research outputs found
Ontology-based similarity applied to business process clustering
No full textReverse engineering of business process enables business process to be discovered and retrieved from existing information systems, which embed many business rules that are not available anywhere else. These techniques are especially useful when business process models are unavailable, outdated, or misaligned because of uncontrolled maintenance. Reverse engineering techniques obtain well-designed business processes, but these are often retrieved with harmful quality faults as a consequence of the abstraction. Clustering techniques are then applied to reduce these quality faults and improve the understandability and modifiability of business process models. Regrettably, the most challenging concern is how to determine the similarity between two business activities to be clustered. Formal ontologies help to represent the essential concepts and constraints of a universe of discourse and determine the similarity in accordance with the given ontology. This paper shows how to compute and use the ontology-based similarity within a clustering algorithm whose aim is to improve the quality of business process models previously obtained from legacy information systems by reverse engineering. The principal contribution of this paper is the usage of an ontology-based similarity function and its application to 43 business process models retrieved from four real-life information system
FMESP: Framework for the modelling and evaluation of Software Processes
No full textProcess modelling is a key activity of software process management and it is the starting point for enacting, evaluating and
improving software processes. The current competitive marketplace calls for the continuous improvement of processes and there-
fore, it is fundamental to have software process models with a high maintainability. In this paper we introduce a set of metrics
for software process models and discuss how these can be used as maintainability indicators. In particular, we report the results
of a family of experiments that assess relationships between the structural properties, as measured by the defined metrics, of the
process models and their maintainability
Comparing ISO/IEC 12207 and CMMI-DEV: Towards a Mapping of ISO/IEC 15504-7
No full textSoftware process improvement is a planned, managed and controlled effort which aims to enhance the capability of the software development processes of an organization. In particular, SPI often involves process reference models, process assessment methods and models that guide process improvement though specific standards such as the ISO and CMMI families. Recently, growing interest has been shown towards the need for harmonization of different improvement technologies with the aim of presenting an integrated vision about the standards. In this sense this paper presents a comparison between the process areas of CMMI-DEV and the processes described in the latest version of ISO/IEC 12207:2008. Based on these results we investigate the relationship between the CMMI-DEV and ISO/IEC 15504-7 models with the aim of identifying the degree of coverage of CMMI-DEV maturity levels in relation to ISO/IEC 15504-7
Relationship between maturity levels of ISO/IEC 15504-7 and CMMI-DEV v1.2
No full textWith the objective of determining the extent to which an organization consistently implements processes that contribute to achievement of its business goals, the ISO has recently published Part 7 of the ISO/IEC 15504 standards. This allows organizations to be assessed by maturity levels like the CMMI-DEV model. In this paper we present the relationship between the CMMI-DEV and the ISO/IEC 15504-7 models with the aim of identifying the degree of coverage of the CMMI-DEV maturity levels in relation to the ISO/IEC 15504-7. This relationship is based on a comparison that we have carried out between the process areas of CMMI-DEV and the processes described by the latest version of ISO/IEC 12201:200
Harmonizing maturity levels from CMMI-DEV and ISO/IEC 15504
No full textISO has recently published Part 7 of the ISO/IEC 15504 standard, with the aim of determining the extent
to which an organization consistently implements processes that contribute to achievement of its business
goals. This new Part 7 of ISO/IEC 15504 has addressed issues related to the assessment of organizational
maturity, as the CMMI-DEV model also does. Recently, growing interest has been shown towards the
need to harmonize different improvement models or standards, thereby presenting an integrated vision
about them. All this being so and in an effort to offer information on how the maturity levels described
in these two models are related, we have carried out the harmonization of these two models. It is based,
firstly, on a mapping between processes of ISO 12207:08 and process areas of CMMI-DEV, and in second
place, on a matching between processes of ISO 12207:08 and ISO 15504-5. For this work, we have taken
into account the latest versions of the models, and defined a suitable process to carry out the mapping
in a systematic way. We established differences and similarities between the maturity levels (and their
processes) described in these models, our goal being to support organizations which are interested in
tackling organizational maturity
Building measure-based prediction models for UML class diagram maintainability
No full textThe usefulness of measures for the analysis and design of object oriented (OO) software is increasingly being recognized in the field of software engineering research. In particular, recognition of the need for early indicators of external quality attributes is increasing. We investigate through experimentation whether a collection of UML class diagram measures could be good predictors of two main subcharacteristics of the maintainability of class diagrams: understandability and modifiability. Results obtained from a controlled experiment and a replica support the idea that useful prediction models for class diagrams understandability and modifiability can be built on the basis of early measures, in particular, measures that capture structural complexity through associations and generalizations. Moreover, these measures seem to be correlated with the subjective perception of the subjects about the complexity of the diagrams. This fact shows, to some extent, that the objective measures capture the same aspects as the subjective ones. However, despite our encouraging findings, further empirical studies, especially using data taken from real projects performed in industrial settings, are needed. Such further study will yield a comprehensive body of knowledge and experience about building prediction models for understandability and modifiability
Assessing the greenability of ensembles
No full textEnsembles are the engines that keep large computing infrastructures and architectures running, such as smart cities and smart campuses, among others. Being critical elements for the correct functioning of an entire system, constant and rigorous assessments or evaluations are performed on different aspects such as performance, quality, design, etc. But among these aspects, energy consumption and environmental impact that the ensembles have are not usually considered. Sustainability is a fundamental characteristic nowadays and ensembles are the elements that most directly affect it. For this reason, assessments should be extended towards the sustainability or "greenability" of ensembles. In this study we propose the use of the "Governance and Management Framework for Green IT", a framework that we have developed, to conduct the assessment of the greenability of ensembles. Through this framework, we identify which are the goals and metrics that should be considered, as well as the practices and activities that must be assessed to ensure that the ensembles work individually in an eco-sustainable manner, to achieve an entire green system
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Assessing the Understandability of UML Statechart Diagrams with Composite States in an Industrial Environment
No full textWe have carried out a family of empirical studies to investigate whether the use of composite states improves the understandability of UML statechart diagrams. Our hypothesis derived from conventional wisdom, which says that hierarchical modeling mechanisms are helpful to master a system’s complexity. We carried out three studies that have gradually evolved in the size of the UML statecharts models, the type of subjects (students vs. professionals), the familiarity of the subjects with the domains of the diagrams, and other factors. In this work we briefly review the first and second studies and present the third one, performed with practitioners as experimental subjects. Surprisingly, our results do not seem to show that the use of composite states improves the understandability of UML statechart diagrams
- …
