CLEI Electronic Journal

Collaboration Models in Distributed Software Development: a Systematic Review

Abstract Several years ago software development has become critical to the global market. In the past decade, as a reflection of globalization, software companies began to distribute their development processes in different places, creating distributed software development (DSD). With the growing of Distributed Software Development, organizations have attempt to sketch the best possible development structure, in order to improve productivity and quality. The aim of this paper is to present a Systematic Review of Literature to identify which ways of collaboration are commonly used by software organizations where teams are temporal and geographically dispersed, with also different native languages and culture. Further, the research was based on the basic life cycle of the traditional development, and where phases of the project are performed: onsite, distributed/offshore and multi-site. The systematic review have examined 868 papers published between 2000 and 2010.

Abstract Com a ascensão do Desenvolvimento Distribuído de Software as organizações tentam distribuir da melhor maneira possível suas atividades de desenvolvimento com interesse de melhorá-las. O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar a revisão sistemática da literatura utilizada para identificar quais as formas de colaboração são utilizados pelas organizações para desenvolver software no contexto distribuído, tendo como base o ciclo de vida básico do desenvolvimento tradicional, e onde as fases do mesmo são realizadas (onsite, distribuído/offshore e multi-site). A revisão sistemática analisou 868 trabalhos publicados desde 2000 até 2010.

OntoDiSENv1: an Ontology to Support Global Software Development

Abstract Global Software Development (GSD) brought competitive advantages to organizations, but it has also imposed some drawbacks due to the physical distribution. A critical aspect of this approach is related to communication. In order to provide the same semantic understanding about information exchanged on the environment to all team members it is necessary to minimize the ambiguity. This paper presents OntoDiSENv1, application ontology for a distributed software development environment. The goal of this ontology is support communication among geographically dispersed team members. The ontology is integrated to a contextual information dissemination model, which notifies the team members about the actions that occur on the shared workspace and can influence their work. The main contribution of OntoDiSENv1 is to support contextual information representation and processing, providing inference capability and semantic consistency of the information disseminated.

Abstract O Desenvolvimento Distribuído de Software (DDS) trouxe vantagens competitiva às organizações, mas também impôs alguns desafios relacionados à distribuição física. Um aspecto crítico dessa abordagem diz respeito à comunicação. Para que todos os membros de um time tenham o mesmo entendimento semântico sobre as informações trocadas no ambiente, é necessário minimizar a ambiguidade. Este artigo apresenta a OntoDiSENv1, uma ontologia de aplicação para um ambiente de desenvolvimento distribuído de software. A ontologia é integrada a um modelo de disseminação de informações contextuais, que notifica os membros da equipe sobre as ações que ocorrem no ambiente compartilhando e que possam influenciar seu trabalho. A principal contribuição da OntoDiSENv1 é apoiar a representação e processamento das informações contextuais, provendo capacidade de inferência e consistência semântica nas informações disseminadas.

Influence of Process Models on Requirement Volatility, and Strategies for its Management: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract The current research aims to investigate the preparedness among organizations in managing requirement volatility, and how it is influenced by process factors characterizing a software project. A combination of interviews and survey organized in two phases has been used to assess the level of awareness related to requirement volatility, and the current level of organizational competencies in dealing with the problem. Frameworks regarded suitable for handling volatility has been presented. Factors governing process model selection and usage and their applicability under requirement volatility have also been explored. Concerns were raised over the high percentage of projects found affected because of requirement volatility. Two widely used approaches for managing projects under volatility were found to be involving the business side and resorting to iterative project development. Difference in usage of the approaches based on process models could be observed. Influence of business/customers, project complexity and managerial preferences emerged as the top three factors guiding process model selection. The variation of these factors under requirement volatility has been pointed out. The results also highlight incongruence between perception and practice related to process model usage in projects endangered because of requirement volatility.

Abstract Este trabajo apunta a investigar la preparación deorganizaciones para gestionar la volatilidad de requerimentos, y como es influenciada por factores de procesos que caracterizan un proyecto de software. Una combinación de entrevistas y relevamiento organizado en dos fases se utilizó para evaluar el nivel de conciencia relacionado con la volatilidad de requerimientos, y el nivel actual de competencias organizacionales para manejar el problema. Se presentan entornos que parecen adecuados para manejar la volatilidad. También se exploran factores que gobiernan la selección y uso de modelos de procesos, y su aplicablidad bajo volatilidad de requerimientos. Se presenta la preocupación sobre el algo porcentaje de proyectos que se encontró fueron afectados por la volatilidad de requerimentos. Dos enfoques ampliamente utilizados para gestionar proyectos bajo volatilidad se encontraron involucrando el lado de negocios y relacionados con el desarrollo iterativo de proyectos. Se observaron diferencias en el uso de estos enfoques basados en modelos de procesos. Los tres factores principales que emergieron guiando la selección de modelo de procesos son la influencia de los negocios y clientes, la complejidad de proyecto, y las preferencias gerenciales. La variación de estos tres factores bajo volatilidad de requerimientos se ha hecho notar. Los resultados muestran también incongruencias entre la percepción y la práctica relacionada con el uso de modelos de procesos bajo riesgo debido a la volatilidad de requerimientos.

An efficient version of the RMA-11 model

Abstract RMA-11 is a numerical model widely used for studing the transport of constituents and water quality in rivers and estuaries. When applied to large water systems like the Río de la Plata, RMA-11 demands long execution times to compute a simulation. This paper presents the analysis of the computational efficiency for the RMA-11 applied to a transport model of the Río de la Plata, and introduces a proposal for improving the efficiency by using high performance computing techniques. The improved implementation modifies the linear system resolution methodology implemented in the model. A high performance computing strategy was applied to the FRONTALL routine of the RMA-11, by changing their logical structure and using a sparse storage format. The experimental results obtained when solving representative test cases show a significant improvement on the performance, achieving significant gains in computational speed: the execution time of the implemented version decreased up to one third of the time of the original implementation.

Abstract El RMA-11 es un modelo numérico ampliamente utilizado para estudios del transporte de constituyentes y de la calidad del agua en ríos y estuarios. Cuando se aplica este modelo a cuerpos de agua de grandes dimensiones, como es el caso del Río de la Plata, el RMA-11 insume tiempos de ejecución largos para computar las simulaciones. Este artículo presenta un análisis de la eficiencia del modelo RMA-11 aplicado al modelado del transporte de sustancias del Río de la Plata, además se presenta una propuesta para mejorar el desempeño del modelo utilizando técnicas de computación de alto desempeño. La implementación propuesta modifica la estrategia para resolver los sistemas lineales provista en el modelo original. En particular, estrategias de computación de alto desempeño son aplicadas a la rutina FRONTALL del RMA-11, cambiando su estructura lógica y empleando formatos de almacenamiento disperso. Los resultados experimentales obtenidos al resolver casos de prueba representativos muestran mejoras significativas en el desempeño, alcanzando ganancias importantes en los tiempos de ejecución: el tiempo de ejecución de la versión propuesta es un tercio del tiempo de la versión original.