Jamaiah Yahaya

SPQF: Software Process Quality Factor

Assuring a good quality software is vital as many software products are available in the market. For a newly developed, the quality of the product is hard to be determined through product based evaluation. Therefore, a study has been introduced an alternative approach for determining the quality level of software through the Software Process Assessment and Certification (SPAC) model. The model consists of seven main components. One of them is the Software Process Quality Factor (SPQF) which acts as a reference model of the SPAC. The SPAC model was validated through collaboration with three leading organizations in Malaysia. This paper discusses the construction of the SPQF by using Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) method which emphasizes on five main factors. The factors are the quality of process, the quality of people, the use of development technology, the quality of working environment and project constraints and were identified through the state of theory and practice. Based on GQM approach, nine measurement goals and forty seven quality metrics were derived. This reference model was embedded in the SPAC model.

Measuring unmeasurable attributes of software quality using Pragmatic Quality Factor

Software quality is evolving beyond static measurement to a wider scope of quality definition. Previous studies have indicated the importance of human aspect in software quality. But the quality models have not included comprehensively this aspect together with the behavioural aspect of software quality. This research has proposed a Pragmatic Quality Factors (or PQF) as a software quality measurement and metrics that includes both aspects of quality. These aspects of quality are essential as to balance between technical and non-technical (human) facet. In addition, this model provides flexibility by giving priorities and weights to the quality attributes. The priority and weight are necessary to reflect business requirement in the real business environment. Therefore, it is more practical that suits with different users and purposes. It is implemented through collaborative perspective approach between users, developers and independent assessor. This model shows how the unmeasurable characteristics can be measured indirectly using measures and metrics approach. It has been tested involving assessment and certification exercises in real case studies in Malaysia.

COTS software evaluation and selection: A pilot study based in Jordan firms

This research paper aims to discuss the empirical study and analysis on current practices and benefits of COTS-Based System (CBS) from Jordan organizations perspectives. It arises because of the gap between state-of-art which represented by many methods that published in literature for evaluating and selecting COTS software and state-of-practice which still have problems in dealing with mismatches between COTS features and customer needs, in dealing with non-functional requirements and learning from past selection cases. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the current practices, mechanisms and techniques for evaluating and selection COTS software in real industries. Survey and data collection was conducted in Jordon. Descriptive statistics analysis was used to rank the identification techniques according to their importance. This paper presents the data, the analysis and finding based on pilot survey. These actual findings of this survey will contribute to framework development for evaluating and selecting COTS software and also will provide useful information to those who are doing research in the same area.

The Development of Software Evaluation and Selection Framework for Supporting COTS-Based Systems: The Theoretical Framework

As a result of increasing demands on COTS technology, there is an increasingly huge market of COTS software. Therefore, one of the most critical activities in COTS-based system development is the COTS evaluation and selection. Unfortunately, most existing methods that have been proposed in previous studies for evaluating and selecting COTS software are still have many limitations to be applicable and used in the industry. So without an effective method to select and evaluate COTS software, the time spent for selecting the correct COTS software may offset the advantages of using it. This paper outlines and discusses the common problems in existing methods and the main processes and criteria (non-functional requirements) that are required for evaluating and selecting COTS software through theoretical and empirical studies which goal is to develop new framework to evaluate and select COTS software.

The success factors and barriers of information technology implementation in small and medium enterprises: an empirical study in Malaysia

The use of information technology IT among entrepreneurs is one of the critical aspects as the usage of IT effectively and efficiently will enable to increase productivity and performance in small and medium enterprises SMEs. Previous reports revealed that SMEs in Malaysia have many concerns about the durability, competitiveness and efficiency due to problems associated such as financial, lack of information and knowledge, capability and capacity. This research is derived based on the issues related to IT implementation in SMEs in Malaysia. It determines the problems and issues related to the implementation, and identify factors for the successful implementation of IT in SMEs. The research approach includes the usage of questionnaires, interviews and case studies. Literature study identified ten critical success factors that include the management, staff, IT planning, financial, consultants, vendors, organisational culture, relationship management and change, and perception. This paper presents the success factors and the barrier of IT implementation based on the empirical study.

Towards anti-ageing model for the evergreen software system

Over the years, software ageing became a significant field of study. The degradations of software performance and the accumulation of errors or software faults are the sign of software system is getting old. Past researcher had drawn the analogies between the ageing of software systems and biological systems. Contradict with human ageing, software ageing can be delayed by understand the influenced factors. As ageing is inescapable, there are numbers of researches that have been conducted in order to indicate the factors that might influence the occurrence of the software ageing phenomenon. Degradation performance based on software quality has been observed. Previous study specifies that software ageing factors can be possibly classified into some categorization such as technology, functionality, cost, human and environment. Anti-ageing is a process that slows down and prevents ageing from occurring. Software anti-ageing is a process to prevent software from ageing which results the young and evergreen software. Our past experiences in software quality and certification inspires us to the development of the preliminary anti-ageing model. This paper presents the empirical study on software ageing factors, the conceptual software anti-ageing model, and validation by a case study.

Software ageing measurement model (SAMM): The conceptual framework

In the first software evolution theory, good software must evolve to fulfil the user requirement or it will be progressively less satisfactory. In order to fulfil the requirements, software should be well maintain and the quality of the software should be assured. However, once the maintenance activities interrupted by any causes the quality of software might be degraded and this phenomenon known as software ageing. In this study software ageing is defined as a phenomenon of software is not useful to users and not relevant to the environment because of certain causes. Software ageing cannot be prevented but we can slow down the effects by understanding the cause of it. This paper presents a conceptual framework on how software evolution and maintenance, software quality, software ageing, software measurements and indexing concept can be used to the development of Software Ageing Measurement Model (SAMM). This paper also shows analysis of empirical study that conducted among software practitioners in Malaysia. From the analysis of empirical study there are four factors that can cause software ageing. The factors are product profile, functional, environment and human. Factors derived from the literature review strongly supported by empirical research and discussions with expert will be used as input to the development of the SAMM. This paper will explain all the concept that included in developing SAMM.

Perspective and perception on software ageing: The empirical study

The notion of software ageing was introduced about twenty years ago. Since then the knowledge and idea of it were increasingly accepted by the academia and researchers. Software ageing is a phenomenon when the software is degraded in its quality, users satisfaction and dynamic environment adaptation. In human being, ageing is inevitable process, but with an understanding of the causes, it way helps to delay the ageing process. But unlike human ageing, software ageing can be delayed by identifying factors that influence and accelerate the ageing process. In this study software ageing is defined as the phenomenon when the software drops its quality values accepted by the users and environment. This paper presents the empirical study done to investigate the issues of software ageing among software practitioners in Malaysia. The findings show that software ageing factors can be classified into four main classifications: functional, human, environment and product profile.

Evergreen Software Preservation: The Conceptual Framework of Anti-Ageing Model

The symptom of degradation in term of quality is observed as the indicator of ageing phenomenon in software system. In human and living creators, ageing is an inescapable manifestation for every living creature on earth. In human being, this phenomenon of delaying the ageing process is normally known as anti-ageing. We try to understand and learn the process of ageing in software through understanding the human ageing process. Unlike human ageing, software ageing can be delayed by identifying factors that influence the ageing. Ageing in software is occurring when the software is degraded in term of its quality, user’s satisfaction and dynamic. Previous studies indicated that software ageing factors possibly will be classified into some categorization such as cost, technology, human, functionality and environment. Our past experiences in software quality and certification motivate us to the development of software anti-ageing model and its related areas which are the ageing factors and rejuvenation index. This paper presents the background issues in software ageing which includes software quality and certification, and focus further on the conceptual framework of software anti-ageing model and preliminary formulation of anti-ageing model.

Security Issues Model on Cloud Computing: A Case of Malaysia

By developing the cloud computing, viewpoint of many people regarding the infrastructure architectures, software distribution and improvement model changed significantly. Cloud computing associates with the pioneering deployment architecture, which could be done through grid calculating, effectiveness calculating and autonomic calculating. The fast transition towards that, has increased the worries regarding a critical issue for the effective transition of cloud computing. From the security viewpoint, several issues and problems were discussed regarding the cloud transfer. The goal of this study is to represent a general security viewpoint of cloud computing through signifying the security problems that must be focused and accomplished appropriately for identifying a better perspective about current world of cloud computing. This research also is to clarify the particular interrelationships existing between cloud computing security and other associated variables such as data security, virtual machine security, application security and privacy. In addition, a model of cloud computing security which depends on the investigation regarding previous studies has been developed. To examine the model a type of descriptive survey is applied. The survey sample population is selected from employers and managers IT companies in Malaysia. By testing the correlation, the results of study indicated that there are those identified security challenges in current world of cloud computing. Furthermore, the results showed that the cloud computing security correlation with data security, virtual machine security, application security and privacy is positive.