Androklis Mavridis

An Empirical Study on the Reuse of Third-Party Libraries in Open-Source Software Development

Software development based on third-party libraries is becoming increasingly popular in recent years. Nowadays, the plethora of open-source libraries that are freely available to developers, offer great reuse opportunities, with relatively low cost. However, the reuse process is in many cases rather ad-hoc. In this paper, we investigate reuse processes in five successful open-source projects, with respect to: (a) the extent to which software functionality is built from scratch or reused, (b) the frequency with which reuse decisions are modified, and (c) the effect of reuse on software product quality. The results of the study suggest that: (a) OSS projects heavily reuse third-party libraries, (b) reuse decisions are not frequently revisited, and (c) there is no clear evidence that reuse decisions are quality-driven.

FUSE: A framework to support services unified process

Traditional methodologies for Software development life cycle such as the Unified Process or the Object Oriented Process, Environment and Notation (OPEN) are proven to be flexible and robust for developing traditional Information Systems. However in the new SOC (Service Oriented Computing) paradigm large systems emerge comprised of self contained building blocks: the services, which can be combined to form complex business processes located in different servers and companies, where users may customize and create their services dynamically and negotiate Service Level Agreements electronically. In such systems the traditional software development methodologies are simply inefficient. This paper presents the FUSE approach which provides a methodology and a framework to be used both by the IT industry and individuals with little or no IT-experience, such as specific domain experts, end users, testers and community members. This will support their common efforts in the efficient development of more reliable Service Oriented systems of the future. FUSE Framework is based and makes use of the Unified Process, OPEN, extended participatory design (PD) and other similar methodologies.

A proposed conceptual framework for the study of research ecosystems

The concept of ecosystems serves as a powerful metaphor in organizational studies that helps to handle the complexity of the environment in contemporary organizations and steps forward the movement towards symbiotic and co-evolutionary organizational networks. This paper elaborates on the concept of ecosystems to propose a conceptual framework for research ecosystems. The proposed concept of research ecosystems can offer significant benefits for the coordination of research initiatives because it clarifies the attributes of the research environments, outlines the general context in which research activities take place and supports the movement from the contextual level to the particular projectspsila level. The paper delineates also two methods for the study of research ecosystems that refer to the assessment of the density of relationships in research ecosystems and the development of research networks as temporary constellations of research entities.

A european union research partner collaboration creation system

The construction of an appropriate consortium for a European Union (EU) research project is a complex and time-consuming procedure. This paper proposes the creation an EU research partner collaboration creation system to provide a more efficient way of selecting partners. The system is comprised of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and, via a web platform, provides researchers with a means of finding actors in the research ecosystem who could be potential partners in an EU project. The location of the appropriate partners is accomplished by mapping research actors to a profile ontology. To facilitate the partner selection process we propose the use of Request Based Virtual Organizations (RBVOs), i.e. flexible clusters of organizations which could perform the required research tasks.

Real options as tool enhancing rationale of OSS components selection

Selecting suitable software entities to adopt in a software project can be a challenging task, as along with the desired characteristics, come risks associated with the inherent quality. Despite source transparency in the Open Source Software (OSS) realm, the vast number of available components hinder the component selection process. To overcome this, various software evaluation methods have been proposed, offering assistance in measuring various qualities and aspects of software components. However, these methods fail to take into consideration the profit generated due to selected quality characteristics, and thus, to provide an additional value-based view to decision makers. Real Options Theory has been proposed as a tool to enhance decision making, where alternatives are treated as “options” of an exercised value. This paper proposes Real Options as a tool assisting the components’ selection process in OSS projects. To achieve that, we first employ state of the art OSS evaluation methods in order to identify the quality risks associated with the adoption of each candidate component, and move on to exploit the flexibility hidden in these risks with real options analysis to calculate the systems generated value.

Selecting Refactorings: An Option Based Approach

Refactoring, aims to improve the design of existing code to cope with foreseen software architecture evolution. The selection of the optimum refactoring strategy can be a daunting task involving the identification of refactoring candidates, the determination of which refactorings to apply and the assessment of the refactoring impact on software product quality characteristics. As such, the benefits from refactorings are measured from the quality advancements achieved through the application of state of the art structural quality assessments on refactored code. Perceiving refactoring trough the lens of value creation, the optimum strategy should be the one that maximizes the endurance of the architecture in future imposed changes. We argue that an alternative measurement and examination of the refactoring success is possible, one, that focuses on the balance between effort spent and anticipated cost minimization. In this arena, traditional, quality evaluation methods fall short in examining the financial implications of uncertainties imposed by the frequent updates/modifications and by the dynamics of the XP programming. In this paper we apply simple Real Options Analysis techniques and we perceive the selection of the optimum refactoring strategy as an option capable of generating value (cost minimization) upon adoption. Doing so, we link the endurance of the refactored architecture to its true monetary value. To get an estimation of the expected cost that is needed to apply the considered refactorings and to the effect of applying them, in the cost of future adoptions we conducted a case study. The results of the case study suggest that every refactoring can be associated with different benefit levels during system extension.

A practical model for the study of living labs complex environment

The concept of this paper is to help Living Labs to handle the complexity of their environment and step forward the movement towards co-evolutionary organizational networks. The proposed concept can offer significant benefits for the coordination of Living Lab initiatives because it clarifies the attributes of the research environments, outlines the general context in which research activities take place and supports the movement from the contextual level to the particular projects’ level. The paper outline also two that refer to the assessment of the density of relationships in the network of Living Labs and the development of research networks as temporary constellations of research entities.

Semantic Maps Capturing Organization Knowledge in e-Learning

e-learning, shows much promise in accessibility and opportunity to learn, due to its asynchronous nature and its ability to transmit knowledge fast and effectively. However without a universal standard for online learning and teaching, many systems are proclaimed as “e-learning-compliant”, offering nothing more than automated services for delivering courses online, providing no additional enhancement to reusability and learner personalization. Hence, the focus is not on providing reusable and learner-centered content, but on developing the technology aspects of e-learning. This current trend has made it crucial to find a more refined definition of what constitutes knowledge in the e-learning context. We propose an e-learning system architecture that makes use of a knowledge model to facilitate continuous dialogue and inquiry-based knowledge learning, by exploiting the full benefits of the semantic web as a medium capable for supplying the web with formalized knowledge.

An Evaluation Framework for EU Research and Development e-Health Projects’ Systems

Over the past years it has become evident that an evaluation system was necessary for the European Research and Competitive funded projects which are large and complex structures needing constant monitoring. This is especially so for e-Health projects. The race to complete assignments means that this area is usually neglected. A proposed framework for the evaluation of R & D project systems using ATAM, ISO 14598 and ISO 9126 standards is presented. The evaluation framework covers a series of steps which ensures that the offered system satisfies quality, attributes such as operability, usability and maintainability imposed by the end users. The main advantage of this step by step procedure is that faults in the architecture, software or prototype can be recognised early in the development phase and corrected more rapidly. The system has a common set of attributes against which the various project’s deliverables are assessed.