Guoping Rong

SCRUM-PSP: Embracing Process Agility and Discipline

With the research and debates on software process, the mainstream software processes can be grouped into two categories, the plan-driven (disciplined) processes and the agile processes. In terms of the classification, personal software process (PSP) is a typical plan-driven process while SCRUM is an agile-style instance. Although they are distinct from each other per se, our research found that PSP and SCRUM may also complement each other when SCRUM provides an agile process management framework, and PSP provides the skills and disciplines that a qualified team member needs to estimate, plan and manage his/her job. This paper proposes an integrated process model, SCRUM-PSP, which combines the strengths of each. We also verified that this integrated process by adopting it into a real project environment where typical agile processes are favored, i.e. change-prone requirements, rapid development, fast delivery, etc. As a result, manageability and predictability which traditional plan-driven processes usually benefit can also be achieved. The work described in this paper is a worthy attempt to embrace both process agility and discipline.

Empirical studies of embedded software development using agile methods: a systematic review

Agile approaches are proved by numerous case studies and reports to be effective and constructive in desktop software development. However, the situation is quite different in the embedded world due to the unique characteristics of the embedded software projects, which bring many difficulties to developers. And little is known about the current application status of agile methods to cope with this special domain. In this paper, a systematic review was conducted to explore the particularity of the embedded software development and the relevant solutions using agile methods and practices. The result will supply a guideline to choose the appropriate agile elements to deal with the challenges derived from embedded characteristics.

The adoption of capture-recapture in software engineering: a systematic literature review

Context: Capture-recapture method has long been adopted in software engineering as a relatively objective way for defect estimation. While many relevant studies have been carried out to evaluate various capture-recapture models and estimators, there still lacks common understanding on the adoption status of the method in software engineering. It is necessary to systematically collect empirical evidence of Capture-recapture adoption hence form necessary understanding on the method. Objective: This study aims to synthesize relevant primary studies on the adoption of capture-recapture method in software engineering, and try to identify possible gaps between the state-of-practice and the state-of-art so as to provide clues for future research. Method: By following the guidelines of Kitchenham, we conducted a Systematic Literature Review(SLR) on studies of the adoption of capture-recapture method in software engineering. Results: From 5 common digital libraries, we retrieved 506 published articles, among them 44 were identified as relevant primary studies. We identified 18 capture-recapture estimators under 4 basic models. Types of the currently existing studies as well as the relevant influencing factors to adoption of the capture-recapture method are also discussed. Conclusion: Results show that there are no conclusive decisions on the best capture-recapture models and estimators. Besides, the number of inspectors and their capability to detect defects as well as the difficulty to detect defects are most critical influencing factors. In addition, lacking of industrial application may be the major issue of current adoption status of capture-recapture method in software engineering.

The Effect of Checklist in Code Review for Inexperienced Students: An Empirical Study

Code review is believed to be an effective technique to remove defects in early development stage and improve software quality. Therefore, it is regarded as one of the basic skills of qualified software engineers. Consequently, most curricula for SE students incorporated knowledge about code review in different courses. However, how to teach students to conduct efficient code review remains challenging. Many reports claimed that using checklist during code review could increase review efficiency (percentage of defects removed in code review). Nevertheless, we found a quite different result through analyzing the data collected from a PSP course took by freshmen. Results indicate that checklist contributes more to helping beginners conduct code review than to improving review efficiency. This finding implies that educators need to properly recognize the role of checklist in code review for students and explore more approaches to help students master skills to conduct efficient code reviews.

CMMI guided process improvement for DevOps projects: an exploratory case study

Very recently, an increasing number of software companies adopted DevOps to adapt themselves to the ever-changing business environment. While it is important to mature adoption of the DevOps for these companies, no dedicated maturity models for DevOps exist. Meanwhile, maturity models such as CMMI models have demonstrated their effects in the traditional paradigm of software industry, however, it is not clear whether the CMMI models could guide the improvements with the context of DevOps. This paper reports a case study aiming at evaluating the feasibility to apply the CMMI models to guide process improvement for DevOps projects and identifying possible gaps. Using a structured method(i.e., SCAMPI C), we conducted a case study by interviewing four employees from one DevOps project. Based on evidence we collected in the case study, we managed to characterize the maturity/capability of the DevOps project, which implies the possibility to use the CMMI models to appraise the current processes in this DevOps project and guide future improvements. Meanwhile, several gaps also are identified between the CMMI models and the DevOps mode. In this sense, the CMMI models could be taken as a good foundation to design suitable maturity models so as to guide process improvement for projects adopting the DevOps.

An Empirical Evaluation of Capture-Recapture Estimators in Software Inspection

Context: Capture-recapture approach has been adopted in software inspection for decades for estimating remaining defects and supporting post-inspection decisions. A number of capture-recapture models and estimators have been borrowed from other disciplines (e.g., Biology and social sciences) and applied in software inspections. These models and estimators were created with different assumptions and the violation to these assumptions may lead to invalid application. Most of the reported empirical evaluations of the capture-recapture models and estimators used relatively small data sets (i.e., Small number of inspectors and/or defects), which leads varying conclusions. Objective: The research reported in this paper aims to better understand this approach for software inspection, and the efficacy of the models and estimators in particular, with large data sets. Method: We carried out an empirical study that evaluated several typical capture-recapture estimators (i.e., M0-ML, Mt-ML, Mt-CH, Mh-CH and Mh-JK). The study employed 57 student inspectors in reviewing software requirement specification and formed 1000 virtual teams at each team size in the post statistic testing. Results: The data analysis indicates that: 1) M0-ML and Mt-ML could not generate accurate estimates even with many inspectors. 2) All estimators suffer high level of failure rate with few inspectors. 3) For a small team, estimator Mh-CH performs the best, while with many inspectors, Mt-CH and Mh-JK perform better regarding the accuracy and the failure rate. Conclusion: Our work reveals that no estimator was superior to others under all situations. With an increased team size, estimates generated by estimator Mt-CH and Mh-JK turn to be more accurate than others. While, M0-ML and Mt-ML are able to offer reference value to support post-inspection because of their convergent underestimates.

Software process simulation modeling: preliminary results from an updated systematic review

Software Process Simulation Modeling (SPSM) has raised research interest since 1980s. However, it is observed that SPSM studies published in the ICSSP community may have dropped in recent years. The objective of this research is to update the recent status of this area. We conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) using the QGS-based search strategy. The review identified 74 primary studies in the past five years (2008-2012). This paper presents the preliminary results from this updated SLR by answering the first four research questions. Based on the findings from this updated review, it can be concluded that in terms of the number of SPSM studies found in the overall software engineering community, there is no significant change (drop) compared to the former review stage (1998-2007).

Can software engineering students program defect-free?: an educational approach

Quality of software intensive systems is the priority con- cern and focus in industry and the research community. In practice, the increasing demand for experienced software developers in industry requires developers mature themselves in a timely manner to be able to produce high quality pro- grams. It has become a realistic challenge to both software engineering educators and researchers. To address this challenge, we devised the PSP+ process, in particular for students majored in software engineering, that enhances the original PSP (Personal Software Process) with an ultimate goal at Defect-Free Programming (DFP). Based on the original PSP, the PSP+ incorporates a set of explicitly defined practices to facilitate experience gaining and sharing among students with the special concern on DFP. This paper elaborates the proposed PSP+ process and also reports a con- trolled experiment that was designed and executed to investigate the effectiveness of the PSP+ within an educational setting. The experiment results indicate that students using the PSP+ are more likely to perform high quality program- ming without extra effort. They also gain higher confidence with DFP compared to those using the original PSP.

Are we ready for software process selection, tailoring, and composition?

Software projects are performed in different contexts and, thus, require a context-specific selection and adoption of adequate methods. The suitable selection and tailoring, however, still constitute a challenging task. For this, in this paper, we discuss several issues concerning process definition and adoption, and motivate more research regarding the improvement of evidence-based method selection and adoption for the respective context.

Processes for embedded systems development: preliminary results from a systematic review

With the proliferation of embedded ubiquitous systems in all aspects of human life, the development of embedded systems has been facing more and more challenges (e.g., quality, time to market, etc.). Meanwhile, lots of software processes have been reported to be applied in Embedded Systems Development (ESD) with various advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it’s important to portrait a big picture of the state-of-the-practice of the adoption of the software processes in ESD, which may benefit both practitioners and researchers in this area. This paper presents our investigation on this topic using systematic review that is intended to: 1) identify typical challenging factors and how software processes and practices address them; and 2) discover improvement opportunities from both academic and industrial perspectives.