Vicente Ferreira de Lucena

Software test automation practices in agile development environment: an industry experience report

The increased importance of Test Automation in software engineering is very evident considering the number of companies investing in automated testing tools nowadays, with the main aim of preventing defects during the development process. Test Automation is considered an essential activity for agile methodologies being the key to speed up the quality assurance process. This paper presents empirical observations and the challenges of a test team new to agile practices and Test Automation using open source testing tools integrated in software projects that use the Scrum methodology. The results obtained showed some important issues to be discussed and the Test Automation practices collected based on the experiences and lessons learned.

Smart composition of reusable software components in mobile application product lines

Mobile application development opens up several challenges to developers. Among these challenges, possibly the most important one is the porting of applications to the heterogeneous devices available on the market. This requires mobile developers to create and maintain several versions of their applications in order to deal with particular features of each platform, including display size, development libraries, sensors, keypad layout, etc. The Software Product Lines (SPL) approach seems to be an useful technique to support mobile application development. A way to make SPL more effective is automating the software components composition for building mobile applications. We present a software infrastructure called AppSpotter that enables the dynamic and automated composition of software components of mobile applications taking into account the particular features of each mobile device. By means of the devices features, AppSpotter determines the components selection and composition of them to build customized mobile applications.

An agile development methodology applied to embedded control software under stringent hardware constraints

In recent years, discrete control systems play an important role in the development and advancement of modern civilization and technology. Practically every aspect of our life is affected by some type of control systems. This kind of system maybe classified as an embedded real-time system and requires rigorous methodologies to develop the software that is under stringent hardware constraints. Therefore, the proposed development methodology adapts agile principles and patterns in order to build embedded control systems focusing on the issues related to the systems constraints and safety. Strong unit testing is the foundation of the proposed methodology for ensuring timeliness and correctness. Moreover, platform-based design approach is used to balance costs and time-to-market in view of performance and functionality constraints. We conclude that the proposed methodology reduces significantly the design time and cost as well as leads to better software modularity and reliability.

Strategies for Agile Software Testing Automation: An Industrial Experience

Testing Automation has been growing in software engineering. Many organizations are investing in automated testing in order to prevent defects and increase testing effectiveness during software development. In agile methodologies, this task is considered an important activity, considered the key of the agile testing. This paper presents three testing automation strategies applied to three different software projects adopting Scrum agile methodology. The results indicated positive agile practices to be considered when adopting testing automation strategy, such as: team collaboration, task distribution, testing tools, knowledge managements. The challenges, results, and lessons learned from this experience are also discussed.

FPN Attenuation by Reset-Drain Actuation in the Linear-Logarithmic Active Pixel Sensor

The three FET CMOS active pixel sensors (APS) operating in the linear-logarithmic mode is one of the most efficient wide-dynamic-range imagers. However, the quality of the image generated at the focal-plane array is often compromised by fixed-pattern noise (FPN) between pixels. The classical correlated double sampling (CDS) technique is used to reduce FPN in imagers operating in the linear mode. But in the complementary linear-logarithmic mode CDS does not work properly and alternative techniques must be applied to reduce FPN. The ordinary alternative techniques increase either the complexity of the pixel or its external circuitry. In order to avoid these problems a new technique was devised to reduce FPN that can be applied to the basic three FET APS architecture. With the purpose to assert the efficacy of the proposed technique a small array was fabricated in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS technology. Experimental results show that the proposed technique is able to reduce FPN quite steadily within the whole illumination range used to test the array. And therefore, the signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) of the array is also improved within the whole range of operation.

Agile Development Methodology for Embedded Systems: A Platform-Based Design Approach

This paper describes an agile development methodology which combines agile principles with organizational patterns and adapts them to build embedded real-time systems focusing on the systems constraints. The hardware/software partitioning and platform-based design are used in the proposed methodology to support the embedded system designer meet the systems constraints in an iterative and incremental way and to reduce substantially the design time and cost of the product. To discuss the strengths and weakness of this methodology, a case study involving a pulse oximeter is also presented

TXM: an agile HW/SW development methodology for building medical devices

Arterial oxygen saturation and heart rate measured by pulse oximetry is widely used to monitor critical care patients. This kind of system is classified as embedded hard real-time system and requires rigorous development methodologies to guarantee the correctness and timeliness of the application. Therefore, the proposed development methodology combines agile principles with organizational patterns and adapts them to build medical devices focusing on the issues related to the systems constraints and safety. Strong unit testing is the foundation of the proposed methodology for ensuring timeliness and correctness. Moreover, platform-based design approach is used to balance costs and time-to-market in view of performance and functionality constraints. We conclude that the proposed methodology reduces significantly the design time and cost as well as leads to better software modularity and safety.

On the use of SCRUM for the management of practcal projects in graduate courses

The premises considered by this work are that projects development in graduate courses is important for knowledge consolidation. However, one of the problems is that, usually, students are not prepared to manage and to be managed. This situation causes higher effort waste and is time-consuming. Additionally, the quality is decreased due to poor self-management and inadequate division of activities. Such problems can be minimized if there is a management policy that provides a wider vision of the projects course, allowing the problems to be anticipated in such a way as to correct the flaws as soon as possible. This work proposes the adaptation of the SCRUM Agile Project Management Methodology in the context of the development of academic projects, both in undergraduate and graduate courses, where students are organized in small teams and execute the project in a systematic way. This method was applied during the practical part of the ¿real-time systems¿ course, whose project was the development of an automated industrial production line with robot arms, using the LEGO NXT robotic kit. Therefore, this paper will show implementation aspects of the proposed method, difficulties and solutions, which parts of Scrum were effectively adopted and, specially, the learnt lessons.

An experience to use robotics to improve Computer Science learning

In the teaching of engineering and computing, one of the major difficulties in modern education is to create an environment to motivate the student to learn, allowing them to assimilate the abstractions of computer science with playful and practical actions. The use of robotics in educational environments has proven to be an appropriate tool for the development of activities that involve creating, designing and planning, thereby facilitating the teaching-learning process and further expanding the integration between different areas of knowledge. Robotics in the educational context is called educational robotic and can be defined as an environment acquisition of concepts through mechanical devices, allowing development of logical reasoning and creativity, besides being a multidisciplinary tool for learning. Our goal in this work is to provide an environment for open source programming by using robotics in education and help students to improve their learning of programming languages and software engineering disciplines through a study case where we used the Lego Mindstorms Educational Kit.

A Platform-Based Software Design Methodology for Embedded Control Systems: An Agile Toolkit

A discrete control system, with stringent hardware constraints, is effectively an embedded real-time system and hence requires a rigorous methodology to develop the software involved. The development methodology proposed in this paper adapts agile principles and patterns to support the building of embedded control systems, focusing on the issues relating to a systems constraints and safety. Strong unit testing, to ensure correctness, including the satisfaction of timing constraints, is the foundation of the proposed methodology. A platform-based design approach is used to balance costs and time-to-market in relation to performance and functionality constraints. It is concluded that the proposed methodology significantly reduces design time and costs, as well as leading to better software modularity and reliability.