Alf Inge Wang

COTS products characterization

A way to learn about Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products is to define a set of characteristics or attributes and then to collect information about these attributes. In an industrial context, the attributes used to select COTS clearly depend on project specific goals. In our educational context we made an attempt to define general COTS characterization attributes. The resulting framework provides a structure, which facilitate the learning process. Our proposed attributes have several similarities with the generic evaluation attributes defined by ISO 9126. A comparison with such a standard provides a deeper insight into the problem of characterizing COTS products.

An Evaluation of a Mobile Game Concept for Lectures

This paper describes an evaluation of a new game concept, Lecture Quiz, which can be used in lectures in higher education to promote strong student participation and variation in how lectures are taught. The lecture game uses the equipment and infrastructure already available in lecture halls like the teacherpsilas portable PC, a large screen and a video projector, network connections, and the studentspsila mobile phones. The main game runs on the teacherpsilas portable PC projected on a large screen, whereas the students will interact with the game using their own mobile phones. Lecture Quiz is a multiplayer quiz game, which offers a variation in game modes where unlimited number of players can play simultaneously. Games like Lecture Quiz are most useful for testing and rehearsing theory. As a bonus, the teacher will get quantitative data on how much of the theory the students actually have learned. The evaluation of Lecture Quiz was performed in a software architecture lecture where twenty students first played the game and then were asked to fill in an evaluation form. The focus of the evaluation was on usability of the system and the perceived usefulness of using Lecture Quiz in lectures. The results of the evaluation show that Lecture Quiz was easy to use and that it contributed to increased learning. Further, Lecture Quiz was perceived as entertaining, and half of the students claimed they would attend more lectures if such systems were used regularly.

An Empirical Study of NetEm Network Emulation Functionalities

In this paper we have evaluated the main functionalities of NetEm, a popular Linux based network emulator, which we have used to stress test the performance of the Games@Large distributed gaming system. We have performed a number of tests on different NetEm functionalities in order to evaluate their practical performance conformity and validity versus the NetEm description and theoretical expectations. We have found that the NetEm behaviour conforms to expectations for the emulation of delay and packet loss without correlation. However, in the case of jitter emulation, the actual realized jitter is lower than the given input value. It is an important fact to be aware of when using NetEm for different application testing. This paper also provides a baseline methodology for network emulation tool validation.

Peer2Me - rapid application framework for mobile peer-to-peer applications

This paper presents the Peer2Me framework that enables developers to create mobile peer-to-peer applications. The framework provides an API that is easy to adopt, yet capable of creating advanced peer-to-peer applications. The framework was built to provide applications providing pure peer-to-peer network where all nodes have the same responsibility and services. Further, the framework provides services to transparently manage the detection of new and lost peers. The message component of the framework makes it possible to exchange any kind of data between peers including Java objects. The Peer2Me has been implemented in Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) and runs on standard mobile phones. The framework supports management and communication of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) like Bluetooth. The paper describes the architecture, the API and some of the applications developed using the Peer2Me framework. Further, we share and discuss experiences from developing mobile peer-to-peer applications.

Empirical Methods and Studies in Software Engineering

Software engineering is not only about technical solutions. It is to a large extent also concerned with organizational issues, project management and human behaviour. For a discipline like software engineering, empirical methods are crucial, since they allow for incorporating human behaviour into the research approach taken. Empirical methods are common practice in many other disciplines. This chapter provides a motivation for the use of empirical methods in software engineering research. The main motivation is that it is needed from an engineering perspective to allow for informed and wellgrounded decision. The chapter continues with a brief introduction to four research methods: controlled experiments, case studies, surveys and postmortem analyses. These methods are then put into an improvement context. The four methods are presented with the objective to introduce the reader to the methods to a level that it is possible to select the most suitable method at a specific instance. The methods have in common that they all are concerned with quantitative data. However, several of them are also suitable for qualitative data. Finally, it is concluded that the methods are not competing. On the contrary, the different research methods can preferably be used together to obtain more sources of information that hopefully lead to more informed engineering decisions in software engineering.

An application of a game development framework in higher education

This paper describes how a game development framework was used as a learning aid in a software engineering. Games can be used within higher education in various ways to promote student participation, enable variation in how lectures are taught, and improve student interest. In this paper, we describe a case study at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) where a game development framework was applied to make students learn software architecture by developing a computer game. We provide a model for how game development frameworks can be integrated with a software engineering or computer science course. We describe important requirements to consider when choosing a game development framework for a course and an evaluation of four frameworks based on these requirements. Further, we describe some extensions we made to the existing game development framework to let the students focus more on software architectural issues than the technical implementation issues. Finally, we describe a case study of how a game development framework was integrated in a software architecture course and the experiences from doing so.

Improving the effectiveness of root cause analysis in post mortem analysis: A controlled experiment

Retrospective analysis is a way to share knowledge following the completion of a project or major milestone. However, in the busy workday of a software project, there is rarely time for such reviews and there is a need for effective methods that will yield good results quickly without the need for external consultants or experts. Building on an existing method for retrospective analysis and theories of group involvement, we propose improvements to the root cause analysis phase of a lightweight retrospective analysis method known as post mortem analysis (PMA). In particular, to facilitate brainstorming during the root cause analysis phase of the PMA, we propose certain processual changes to facilitate more active individual participation and the use of less rigidly structured diagrams. We conducted a controlled experiment to compare this new variation of the method with the existing one, and conclude that in our setting of small software teams with no access to an experienced facilitator, the new variation is more effective when it comes to identifying possible root causes of problems and successes. The modified method also produced more specific starting points for improving the software development process.

Extensive Evaluation of Using a Game Project in a Software Architecture Course

This article describes an extensive evaluation of introducing a game project to a software architecture course. In this project, university students have to construct and design a type of software architecture, evaluate the architecture, implement an application based on the architecture, and test this implementation. In previous years, the domain of the software architecture project has been a robot controller for navigating a maze. In 2008, the students on the software architecture course chose between the two domains: Khepera robot simulation in Java and XNA game development in C#. Independent of the domain chosen, the students had to go through the same phases, produce the same documents based on the same templates, and follow exactly the same process. This article describes an evaluation where we wanted to investigate if a game development project could successfully be used to teach software architecture. Specifically in the evaluation, the effect of the choice of COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) and domain is compared in relation to popularity of the project type, how the students perceive the project, the complexity of the software architectures produced, the effort put into the project, and the grades achieved for the project and the written examination. The main conclusion is that game development projects can successfully be used to teach software architecture. Further, the results of the evaluation show among other things that students who chose the Game project produced software architecture with higher complexity, and put more effort into the project than the Robot project students. No significant statistical differences were found in final grades awarded to the Game project students vs. Robot project students. However, the Game project students obtained a higher grade in their project than in the written examination, whereas the Robot project students scored higher in the written examination than in their project. Finally compared to the Robot project students, those that chose the Game project had fewer problems with COTS hindering the architecture design and introducing technical challenges.

TeMPS: A Conceptual Framework for Pervasive and Social Games

Pervasive and social game is an emerging game genre which brings more physical movement and social interactions into game. This article proposes the conceptual framework TeMPS that systematically characterizes the important aspects of pervasive and social games. Further, around thirty games in different sub-genres are reviewed by analyzing and fitting them into the framework. The framework is helpful for game designers to understand and communicate about such games. Further, it contributes to conceptual modeling of pervasive and social games, and to the construction of a game modeling tool.

Issues related to Development of Wireless Peer-to-Peer Games in J2ME

This paper describes and discusses challenges related to development of peer-to-peer games in J2ME using the available Bluetooth API (JSR82). By using Bluetooth on wireless devices, new types of personal network peer-topeer games can be developed. In this paper, we present a classification framework for wireless peer-to-peer games that divides types of games into two different dimensions. The first dimension groups games according to the user interaction patterns and the second dimension groups games according to how data is updated. Further, the paper investigates problems that must be solved before peer-to-peer games using the existing Bluetooth API in J2ME can be developed. Here issues related to the Bluetooth API and limitations in the Bluetooth standard are discussed. Finally, the classification framework is used to reveal what types of games that can be implemented using current J2ME virtual machines and current Bluetooth API. The results presented in this paper are based on experiences from development of cooperative peer-to-peer applications for mobile phones using a framework called Peer2ME.