Elisa Hatsue Moriya Huzita

Knowledge and Contextual Information Management in Global Software Development: Challenges and Perspectives

Global Software development approach has become a reality with growing demand for complex software. However, this approach requires a greater attention because it demands additional coordination and communication among the distributed team members. So, tools and techniques to share information and knowledge generated by each team geographically dispersed are necessary. In this scenario, this position paper presents a set of challenges and opportunities for research in global software development (GSD). These challenges and opportunities are focused on contextual information management, knowledge management, performance management, socio-cultural aspects of GSD, and strategies to store and sharing data. They were mapped into a proposed research agenda with the following items: knowledge management in GSD projects; definition of mechanisms to support the capture of contextual information; use of cloud computing paradigm to store data generated; study of techniques for dealing with the contextual information; and establishment of performance dimensions to provide support for the decision maker that manages the distributed teams. The research agenda also includes strategies defined aiming to strengthen the partnership between university and industry. We believe that the collaboration between university and industry can contribute for the consolidation of the area in Brazil.

Context-awareness on software artifacts in distributed software development: a systematic review

Distributed Software Development (DSD) has brought several competitive advantages, but also many challenges, such as communication among physically distributed teams. In order to establish the collaboration in software development, communication and awareness on artifacts generated and shared among team members are essential. The purpose of this article is to present a systematic review identifying papers in the current literature that address acquisition and presentation techniques of contextual information when software artifacts are generated or updated in DSD. Some important properties and contextual information, such as relationship among artifacts and their change history during the software development, were identified and are presented as well.

IMART: An Interoperability Model for Artifacts of Distributed Software Development Environments

Distributed software development requires mechanisms to support teams working in geographically distinct places. Each team can use tools that access artifacts. In order to enable cooperative work, these teams need support to share artifacts. This paper presents IMART, an interoperability model that can be integrated into distributed software development environments. The model supports the cooperation among developers and the sharing of artifacts produced by different tools

DiSEN-AlocaHR: A Multi-Agent Mechanism for Human Resources Allocation in a Distributed Software Development Environment

The success or failure of a project is directly related to individual talent of the participants and, most important, how they are assigned to the tasks in a project. This paper presents a context-aware multi-agent mechanism to support the human resource allocation in globally distributed software projects. This mechanism performs the human resource allocation to tasks of a project taking into account the participants contextual information, the requirements of the tasks and the interpersonal relationship among the human resources. The participants contextual information includes culture, idiom, temporal distance and previous experience. The mechanism is composed by three elements: (i) capture and inference of information, (ii), validation and consolidation of knowledge, and (iii) human resources allocation.

An Experimental Study of the FIB Framework Driven by the PDCA Cycle

In this paper, we present an experimental study of a framework for construction of graphical interfaces, conducted from the perspective of a tool of quality, the PDCA cycle. The steps related to the implementation of an experimental study, since its planning until the analysis of results are described. The paper aims to show how the PDCA can be used to provide continuous improvement in the conduct of experiments.

Metrics and indicators to assist in the distribution of process steps for distributed software development: A systematic review

The use of indicators provides several benefits among which the effective evaluation of process optimization in Software Development and also supporting the project manager in making strategic decisions. Despite the importance of using metrics in the distribution of the process steps in Distributed Software Development (DSD) given the diversity of existing business model, organizations have neglected their practice. Reasons for this include: (i) processes are poorly defined and controlled and are not mature enough to make use of measurements and (ii) there are no standards for metrics and therefore support is limited to tools for data collection and analysis data. In this context, this paper aims to conduct a systematic review to gather evidence about the existence of metrics and indicators that are specific to development software distributed.

An Insight in Perspective about the Capitalization of Knowledge in Software Engineering

The knowledge-intensive nature of software production and its growing demand suggest the need to define appropriate means to capitalize on the knowledge involved in software production and, thus, minimize the problems relating to time, cost and quality. The capitalization of knowledge can be approached under different views or perspectives. Thus, this article presents four perspectives on which the capitalization of knowledge in software engineering can be analyzed: Value, Safety, Utility and State. Each perspective guides a distinct view, but interrelated, over which the knowledge involved in software engineering can be observed and evaluated.

Context-Based Notification Supporting Distributed Software Teams Management and Coordination

Global Software Development introduced many competitive advantages, however, these advantages brought new challenges together, specially when we talk about communication issues and, consequently, collaborative work participants coordination and management. In this sense, awareness techniques and context management can be used to offer information to project participants, making them perceive the context where workspace actions are occurring. This paper presents DiSEN-Notifier, a notification manager that uses contextual data to send information to collaborative work participants within a distributed software engineering environment. DiSEN-Notifier uses event-based notification, and does not require users to request the information. It also identifies - based on context - who are the participants interested on a specific information keeping them aware of any change at the moment it occurs.

Empirical study of the evaluation of perspectives to knowledge capitalisation in Brazilian software industry

Knowledge capitalisation directs the activities of use, exploitation and reuse of knowledge for performing new tasks, including technical and management aspects. Specifically, considering software development, knowledge capitalisation demands an analysis that considers four complementary and interdependent perspectives on knowledge: value, security, utility and status. These perspectives focus on different facets according to which knowledge can be analysed, in addition to provide a foundation for a better awareness on knowledge and the necessary treatment. This study presents an empirical study with the purpose of evaluating the relevance of these perspectives by using a survey questionnaire distributed to software development companies in the Brazilian market. Three hundred thirty nine individuals from different 339 companies were subjects of such a study. The results indicate that the perspectives are relevant for evaluating knowledge and reinforcing the relevance of exploring knowledge capitalisation in software development; therefore, there is a clear understanding of how the knowledge assets involved can be analysed or assessed.

Strategy to support the software inspection in distributed development environments

Software development should be alert to the time set for implementation, the costs involved and the level of quality that is sought for the software product. Software defect is in one of the factors that most influence the successful development of a software project, both in traditional designs, co-located, as in the design of distributed software development (DDS). One way to find defects in the early stages of development is to use the software inspection, however the inspection in a distributed development environment software becomes even more complex due to the inherent characteristics of the DDS, as geographical distance, time differencezones and cultural differences. This article presents a strategy to support the inspection of software distributed software development, thus tries to minimize the impacts of DDS inspection. Among the many existing business models when considering DDS was used as an example of implementing the proposed strategy offshore insourcing model.