Adel Khelifi

Usability Meanings and Interpretations in ISO Standards

The usability of a software product has recently become a key software quality factor. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a variety of models to specify and measure software usability but these individual models do not support all usability aspects. Furthermore, they are not yet well integrated into current software engineering practices and lack tool support. The aim of this research is to survey the actual representation (meanings and interpretations) of usability in ISO standards, indicate some of existing limitations and address them by proposing an enhanced, normative model for the evaluation of software usability.

Developing an Initial Open-Source Platform for the Higher Education Sector—A Case Study: Alhosn University

The higher education community is concerned about the cost and performance of commercial software products. A common view is that existing proprietary options do not have the features required by instructors and students or allow for cost-effective customization. One way to address these problems in poorer countries, and hence improve their quality of education and access to knowledge, would be to consider the modern educational tools available with no license fees through open-source software. This paper presents an initial development of a complete open-source software platform called the Open University Project, which contains software that precisely fulfills user requirements in the higher education sector. The paper also highlights the financial advantages of introducing open-source software in developing countries and its positive impact on educational quality.

Techniques for Quantitative Analysis of Software Quality throughout the SDLC: The SWEBOK Guide Coverage

This paper presents an overview of quantitative analysis techniques for software quality and their applicability during the software development life cycle (SDLC). This includes the Seven Basic Tools of Quality, Statistical Process Control, and Six Sigma, and it highlights how these techniques can be used for managing and controlling the quality of software during specification, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. We verify whether or not these techniques, which are generally accepted for most projects, most of the time, and have value that is recognized by the peer community, have indeed been included in the SWEBOK Guide.

An exploratory study on the accuracy of FPA to COSMIC measurement method conversion types

Background: Functional size measurement methods are increasingly being adopted by software organizations due to the benefits they provide to software project managers. The Function Point Analysis (FPA) measurement method has been used extensively and globally in software organizations. The COSMIC measurement method is considered a second generation FSM method, because of the novel aspects it brings to the FSM field. After the COSMIC method was proposed, the issue of convertibility from FPA to COSMIC method arose, the main problem being the ability to convert FPA historical data to the corresponding COSMIC Function Point (CFP) data with a high level of accuracy, which would give organizations the ability to use the data in their future planning. Almost all the convertibility studies found in the literature involve converting FPA measures to COSMIC measures statistically, based on the final size generated by both methods. Objectives: This paper has three main objectives. The first is to explore the accuracy of the conversion type that converts FPA measures to COSMIC measures statistically, and that of the type that converts FPA transaction function measures to COSMIC measures. The second is to propose a new conversion type that predicts the number of COSMIC data movements based on the number of file type references referenced by all the elementary processes in a single application. The third is to compare the accuracy of our proposed conversion type with the other two conversion types found in the literature. Method: One dataset from the management information systems domain was used to compare the accuracy of all three conversion types using a systematic conversion approach that applies three regression models: Ordinary Least Squares, Robust Least Trimmed Squares, and logarithmic transformation were used. Four datasets from previous studies were used to evaluate the accuracy of the three conversion types, to which the Leave One Out Cross Validation technique was applied to obtain the measures of fitting accuracy. Results: The conversion type most often used as well as the conversion type based on transaction function size were found to generate nonlinear, inaccurate and invalid results according to measurement theory. In addition, they produce a loss of measurement information in the conversion process, because of the FPA weighting system and FPA structural problems, such as illegal scale transformation. Our proposed conversion type avoids the problems inherent in the other two types but not the nonlinearity problem. Furthermore, the proposed conversion type has been found to be more accurate than the other types when the COSMIC functional processes comprise dataset applications that are systematically larger than their corresponding FPA elementary processes, or when the processes vary from small to large. Finally, our proposed conversion type delivered better results over the tested datasets, whereas, in general, there is no statistical significant difference between the accuracy of the conversion types examined for every dataset, particularly the conversion type most often used is not the most accurate. Conclusions: Our proposed conversion type achieves accurate results over the tested datasets. However, the lack of knowledge needed to use it over all the datasets in the literature limits the value of this conclusion. Consequently, practitioners converting from FPA to COSMIC should not stay with only one conversion type, assuming that it is the best. In order to achieve a high level of accuracy in the conversion process, all three conversion types must be tested via a systematic conversion approach.

A Convertibility Study on the Conversion between FPA and COSMIC for Real Time Systems

Function Point Analysis (FPA) measurement method was proposed primarily to measure the functional size of management information systems. The method has been criticized as an inadequate method to measure the functional size of Real Time (RT) applications. Many extensions have been made to the original method to extend its applicability to size RT applications. The Common Software Measurement International Consortium (COSMIC) designed COSMIC function point measurement method to meet the requirement of measuring a wider scope of software domains, particularly, RT applications. This paper aims to derive a convertibility equation between the two methods for small-size RT applications. A systematic conversion approach was applied using two types of conversion (using the unadjusted FPA size and transaction functions size) using 13 small-size RT applications, considering the quality of requirements, via linear and non-linear regression models. The results show that RT applications have a varied functional size for processes, in which FPA method could not quantify it adequately, mainly because of the FPA weighting system tables and the inadequate representation of data files. Moreover, the results show that there is a significant correlation between the two methods, but the conversion factor is slightly larger than the previous studies, in which the conversion factor is more than 1. However, some limitations of FPA method rules relative to RT applications cast some doubts on the possibility to extend the conversion for larger applications size.

Theoretical and Probabilistic Conversion Model between FPA and COSMIC Measurement Method

Functional Size Measurement (FSM) has been widely adopted by software organizations over the past years. In particular, Function Point Analysis (FPA) measurement method as the eldest and the most globally FSM method used. In the middle of 90s, COSMIC measurement method was designed to cover the limitations of previous FSM methods, and to size wider scope of application domains. COSMIC measurement method had received special attention due to its novelties and merits it offers. In this respect, many organizations have moved from using FPA to the COSMIC measurement method, mainly because FPA cannot size as many software project types as COSMIC. Since there have been many projects sized with FPA are available in various databases, researchers undertook to compare the Unadjusted FPA (UFP) size and COSMIC Function Point (CFP) size unit statistically, towards converting FPA data in to its corresponding value in CFP. In the literature, there is only one conversion model that converts the size at the level of Basic Functional Components (BFCs) between the two methods. This paper examines the accuracy of the conversion model that converts the size at the level of BFCs. Moreover, this paper presents a theoretical and probabilistic conversion model that converts the FPA transaction functions size to the most likely corresponding CFP size at the level of BFCs. The proposed model considers the primary intent and the processing logic forms of each FPA transaction function BFC, measurement best practices and COSMIC method rules. The proposed model has been validated using 14 industrial business applications. The model was found to adequately and high accurately convert all the projects tested precisely. The model might be useful for companies that are using both methods or planning to adopt the COSMIC method as a conversion or validation procedure.

A Mobile Device Software to Improve Construction Sites Communications "MoSIC"

Effective communication among project participants in construction sites is a real dilemma for construction projects productivity. To improve the efficiency of participants in construction projects and have a speedy delivery of these projects, this paper presents the development of a mobile application system to support construction site communication. The developed system is designed to enhance communication between home office employees, field office staff, and mobile users at the construction sites. It has two components: a mobile application and a website. The mobile application component provides users with valuable features such as, receive sites’ instructions, send requests for interpretations and retrieve information about projects. Whereas, the website component allows users, such as, home office employees to track projects’ progress and find projects’ location. The developed system is tested first on emulators and then on Android devices. After that the system was tested on a highway improvement project. Through their mobile phones, site users are able to interact with field office and home office personnel who use the web application to communicate with mobile users. It is expect that this work will contribute to facilitate communication in construction sites, which is much needed in this information intensive sector.

Enhancing Protection Techniques of E-Banking Security Services Using Open Source Cryptographic Algorithms

Security and the privacy features concerning e-banking needs to be improved rapidly to continue its growing. It is really difficult to ensure enough adequate security by using the conventional algorithms for a long time period, due to recent advances such as high progress in cryptanalysis techniques, improvement of computing skills and continuous hacking trials. This paper refers important issues regarding how to enhance the transition to more secure cryptographic and encryption algorithms in the financial sector. This paper recommends that adopting and implementing open source applications following international standards can be considered as a good replacement to the conventional algorithms to offer more enhancement security techniques and highest performance encryption algorithms for e-banking transaction services. We proposed a modified algorithm for AES, in which substitute byte, shift row will remain as in the original AES while mix column operation is replaced by 128 permutation operation followed by add round key operation. Comparative study with traditional encryption algorithms is shown the superiority of the modified algorithm and its high ability to overcome the problem of computational overhead. We additionally suggested another level of e-banking security services using Confidence Building Metric (CBM). The CBMs are computed based on certain parameters and can be implemented on any platform at the client side.

A Reliable Mobile Application for Safety on Roads

Abstract Road traffic jams, roads construction works, maintenance activities, traffic incidents and other unplanned events represent a major concern in almost all countries that can result in considerable delays, higher fuel consumption, higher cost expenses and many other indirect effects which ultimately require immediate attention to alleviate such concerns that can influence the users. This was a motivation to combine mobile applications with traffic load analysis and develop an application that assists in giving drivers an access to traffic information, mainly road works and incidents, to help them better plan their daily journeys across the city. With this Mobile Application for the SAfety on Roads (MASAR), drivers can now stay in touch with latest information and traffic updates on the move in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. MASAR is dedicated to making drivers journey as safe and reliable as possible. Where delays occur, MASAR wants to make sure that you can access information quickly and easily. Furthermore, drivers can now take advantage of free travel news through MASAR. The current version of the application allows drivers to check how the traffic is flowing on highways and roads in Abu Dhabi before they begin their journey. The app only provides information for roads that are managed within Abu Dhabi, which are detailed within Abu Dhabi Network Maps. The travel information covers unplanned incidents such as accidents and congestion, plus lane closures and other restrictions due to improvement works. As future enhancements, the team is planning to covers all United Arab Emirates roads and makes the application compatible with almost all mobile phone platforms.

CoMet: A Tool Using CUMM to Measure Unused Component Members

Software component technology has become a major pillar of the IT evolution. The benefits of this technology, such as reuse, enhanced quality and relatively short application development time, have been key drivers of its industrial adoption. However, in its progress towards maturity, component technology has suffered from a number of limitations, such as unused component members (data and functionalities). For instance, a reusable software component incorporates a set of members, a sizevarying subset of which is actually used to satisfy the functional requirements of a particular software application. This means that a complementary subset of unused members will persist in the deployed application, where this subset provides no functional value to the host application. Furthermore, these unused members can consume memory and network resources and might compromise application integrity and/or security if they are exploited inappropriately. In this paper, we propose CoMet, a prototype tool which applies CUMM (Component Unused Member Measurement) method to measure unused component members (attributes and functionalities) and their usage percentages in a software application.