Azrai Abdullah

A Review of Prominent Work on Agile Processes Software Process Improvement and Process Tailoring Practices

Global software development has changed the overall software development practices. It has introduced various new software development processes and methodologies. A new generation of processes has increasingly replaced the traditional software engineering practices. Emerging practices such as agile based methodologies, software process tailoring, process improvement and management approaches have gained much attention during the recent years. Software engineering researchers have produced a number of good quality works in such areas. In this paper, a review of major contributions of the researchers on various aspects of software development processes is presented. Specifically, the analysis on different approaches of process improvement and tailoring is critically discussed in the paper. This research provides guidelines to the researchers on future research directions. The research emphasizes on the need of industry oriented practical approaches of software development to meet the challenges of global software development.

Designing 3 Dimensional Virtual Reality Using Panoramic Image

The high demand to improve the quality of the presentation in the knowledge sharing field is to compete with rapidly growing technology. The needs for development of technology based learning and training lead to an idea to develop an Oil and Gas Plant Virtual Environment (OGPVE) for the benefit of our future. Panoramic Virtual Reality learning based environment is essential in order to help educators overcome the limitations in traditional technical writing lesson. Virtual reality will help users to understand better by providing the simulations of real-world and hard to reach environment with high degree of realistic experience and interactivity. Thus, in order to create a courseware which will achieve the objective, accurate images of intended scenarios must be acquired. The panorama shows the OGPVE and helps to generate ideas to users on what they have learnt. This paper discusses part of the development in panoramic virtual reality. The important phases for developing successful panoramic image are image acquisition and image stitching or mosaicing. In this paper, the combination of wide field-of-view (FOV) and close up image used in this panoramic development are also discussed.

The dynamic relationship between structural change and CO2 emissions in Malaysia: a cointegrating approach

The current study investigates the dynamic relationship between structural changes, real GDP per capita, energy consumption, trade openness, population density, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions within the EKC framework over a period 1971–2013. The study used the autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL) approach to investigate the long-run relationship between the selected variables. The study also employed the dynamic ordinary least squared (DOLS) technique to obtain the robust long-run estimates. Moreover, the causal relationship between the variables is explored using the VECM Granger causality test. Empirical results reveal a negative relationship between structural change and CO2 emissions in the long run. The results indicate a positive relationship between energy consumption, trade openness, and CO2 emissions. The study applied the turning point formula of Itkonen (2012) rather than the conventional formula of the turning point. The empirical estimates of the study do not support the presence of the EKC relationship between income and CO2 emissions. The Granger causality test indicates the presence of long-run bidirectional causality between energy consumption, structural change, and CO2 emissions in the long run. Economic growth, openness to trade, and population density unidirectionally cause CO2 emissions. These results suggest that the government should focus more on information-based services rather than energy-intensive manufacturing activities. The feedback relationship between energy consumption and CO2 emissions suggests that there is an ominous need to refurbish the energy-related policy reforms to ensure the installations of some energy-efficient modern technologies.

An insight into real software industry paradigms and software engineering research

Since years software development industry is trying hard to show a remarkable performance in its project development work. Issues related to the software processes improvement, risk management, peoples factors and effective project management still exist. Though academic researchers have produced good quality work on software industry issues, but unluckily, software industry could not get benefit of it as was being expected. Software engineering research work also seems unable to identify and understand the real industry problems and providing hands on solutions. The gap between researchers and actual industry practitioners is the sole reason behind it. It is the foremost need to learn from the academic research work and experiences of real software development industry practitioners. The objective of this study is to bridge this gap by highlighting the root causes of differences between software engineering research works and actual industry practices. An analysis of real industry projects, academic projects, research publications, and industry people is made to complete this research work. The outcome of this research is twofold. First, the identification of factors behind the academic-industry gap; second, presenting a set of measures to bridge this gap to produce actual industry based research works.

Simulation of EAP method selection and negotiation mechanism

Authentication is an important aspect in network security, especially in wireless network where unauthorized user can gain access to the network without any physical access. One of the authentication protocols that have been used in wireless networks is the extensible authentication protocol (EAP). This paper discusses the simulation development and simulation results of a mechanism to select and negotiate the suitable EAP method to be used in EAP authentication between two nodes.

A meta‐model of software development project states behavioral study of software projects

Software development project during its lifecycle passes through various states. These states describe the condition, status, and behavior of software projects. In the present study, these states are defined based on the various activities performed during project lifecycle like initial environment setup, requirement analysis, coding, testing, problem resolution, and completion. The taxonomy of these states and substates is defined, and a project states meta‐model is designed. The meta‐model is composed of states and substates of the software projects. Detailed case studies of real projects have been conducted to validate the states of the meta‐model. Evidences are collected; and events and observations are recorded about existence of the states, execution flow, duration, and behavior. The evidences, events, and observations are presented in the sequence to translate them into results. Results show that project states exist in all projects such that each software project passes through these states serially and in particular cases, a few states may exist in parallel. Project states show the status and progress of the software projects. It is found that issues in software projects can effectively be resolved by performing micro project management activities of the projects states. Project states meta‐model provides basic structure for deriving new models.

The long-run relationship between economic growth, financial development, trade openness and CO 2 emissions in Malaysia

The proposed study will investigate the relationship between the carbon dioxide and its determinants like economic growth, financial development and trade openness for a time period 1970-2012. Theoretical and empirical contradictions in literature exists on the relationship between the variables of the study, but these variables are still very important in determining the CO2 emissions. In line with the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis it is expected that economic growth will improve environmental quality in the long-run. Similarly, it is hypothesized that financial sector development will reduce the CO2 emissions which will lead to the betterment in quality of environment in case of Malaysia during the study period. It is supposed that increase in the imports of the country will focus on the environmental friendly technology and openness will decrease the level of pollution. The relationship and impact of the variables is unclear and controversial in different case studies and also panel studies, which make it a center of discussion for further research. The proposed study will employ vector error correction model (VECM) approach to investigate the relationship between the variables. For the robustness of results it is suggested to employ impulse response function (IRF) and variance decomposition (VD).

Software development process tailoring for small and medium sized companies

Software development process tailoring is an emerging practice in todays IT industry. A limited number of research works have been published in this area. The existing process tailoring approaches describe similar set of operations and do not provide proper guidelines on performing process tailoring. These tailoring approaches mainly focus on large companies and tailor only one or two agile methods instead of providing specific guidelines on tailoring agile based methodologies. Unlike large companies, attention has not been given to small and medium sized companies. The present study addresses this limitation, identifies process tailoring operations, key processes of agile based methodologies and uses them for tailoring processes for small and medium sized companies. Qualitative research methods are used to identify and validate tailoring operations and key processes of agile based methodologies. The results show that performing these tailoring operations to tailor key agile based processes is an effective and applicable process tailoring approach for small and medium sized companies. The outcome of the present study would provide basis for formulating process tailoring framework for small and medium sized companies.

Software development project states and project behavior

The behavior of software development projects is a characteristic phenomenon that is difficult to study and analyze. The behavior of a software project is a true indicator of its progress and condition. Unfortunately, very less attention has been given to this important aspect of the software projects and rarely any research study has been presented in this regard. The present study addresses this limitation of existing research work and analyzes the behavior of software development projects based on the project states. Project states and their sub-states for the first time in the present study have been derived from the project lifecycle phases. The behavior of the project states have been analyzed based on the risks faced by the projects and project client factors. A case study of real projects has been conducted to validate the project states and their behavior. The project states reflect the true behavior of the software development projects and determine the status and progress of the project. Initial findings of the study have been presented in this paper which will be followed by publishing more detailed findings on the project states in upcoming paper.