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Practically all information retrieval based approaches developed to date for automatic bug localization are based on the bag-of-words assumption that ignores any positional and ordering relationships between the terms in a query. In this paper, we argue that bug reports are ill-served by this assumption because such reports frequently contain various types of structural information whose terms must obey certain positional and ordering constraints. It therefore stands to reason that the quality of retrieval for bug localization would improve if these constraints could be taken into account when searching for the most relevant files. In this paper, we demonstrate that such is indeed the case. We show how the well-known Markov Random Field based retrieval framework can be used for taking into account the term-term proximity and ordering relationships in a query vis-à-vis the same relationships in the files of a source-code library to greatly improve the quality of retrieval of the most relevant source files. We have carried out our experimental evaluations on popular large software projects using over 4000 bug reports. The results we present demonstrate unequivocally that the new proposed approach is far superior to the widely used bag-of-words based approaches. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Evolvability of software lies in intersection of 3 factors: evolving system properties, human factors present in the developer team, and evolution demands. The paper presents 5 recommendations that enhance software evolvability: defined processes of software change, distinction between evolving and stabilized part of the code, analyzable code segments, significant concept encapsulation, and avoidance of wrapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes developer-related factors that could influence the likelihood for a commit to induce a fix. Specifically, we focus on factors that could potentially hinder developers' ability to correctly understand the code components involved in the change to be committed as follows: (i) the coherence of the commit (i.e., how much it is focused on a specific topic); (ii) the experience level of the developer on the files involved in the commit; and (iii) the interfering changes performed by other developers on the files involved in past commits. The results of our study indicate that 'fix-inducing' commits (i.e., commits that induced a fix) are significantly less coherent than 'clean' commits (i.e., commits that did not induce a fix). Surprisingly, 'fix-inducing' commits are performed by more experienced developers; yet, those are the developers performing more complex changes in the system. Finally, 'fix-inducing' commits have a higher number of past interfering changes as compared with 'clean' commits. Our empirical study sheds light on previously unexplored factors and presents significant results that can be used to improve approaches for defect prediction. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in software development often experience problems in mastering their development processes. This can lead to time and cost overruns or failure to address functional and nonfunctional requirements. In general, this can significantly affect customer satisfaction and hamper business growth potential. This paper reports on a survey conducted in Belgium to assess more precisely which and how SMEs are affected by problems related to development processes. The survey was driven by the ISO29110 lightweight standard focusing on very small entities developing software, ie, whose internal IT department is less than 25 people. Worldwide, and in particular in Belgium, this represents a very large portion of SMEs in business. Survey results highlight the most frequent issues and how they may be linked to organization and project characteristics. The survey is based on a free online self-assessment tool. Therefore, results go 1 step further than identifying issues encountered in companies: the tool also infers a set of quick-win high-level recommendations to solve these issues. Our results are also compared with those reported by other surveys targeting both large and small companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distance learning (DL) is undergoing a rapid growth in academia, business, industry, and the military. Recent technological developments in computer-based training, along with shrinking internal resources, and rising industry interest in sustainable workforce development, provide a strong impetus for DL investments. Due to the multiplicity of efforts involved in planning and executing a DL program, it is imperative that organizations view this nontraditional mode of knowledge transfer from a systems perspective. This paper presents a coordination-centric systems framework for implementing a DL program using the SIMILAR systems engineering process. The paper also suggests linking SIMILAR to two complementary models, Triple C and D-E-J-I, to enhance the overall systems approach. Implementing DL from a systems view aids in identifying the interrelating components, resource interfaces, and improvements needed in techniques used to deliver educational material at a distance. The proposed framework is effective in assisting DL instructors, students, administrators, and other stakeholders to improve the learning environment and manage the complex interaction of people, technology, and instructional processes. Because of its large and diverse operational base, the military is embracing DL programs aggressively. An example is presented of the DL program for graduate systems engineering program at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An application framework provides a reusable design and implementation for a family of software systems. Frameworks are introduced to reduce the cost of a product line (i.e., family of products that share the common features) and to increase the maintainability of software products through the deployment of reliable large-scale reusable components. A key challenge with frameworks is the development, evolution and maintenance of test cases to ensure the framework operates appropriately in a given application or product. Reusable test cases increase the maintainability of the software products because an entirely new set of test cases does not have to be generated each time the framework is deployed. At the framework deployment stage, the application developers (i.e., framework users) may need the flexibility to ignore or modify part of the specification used to generate the reusable class-based test cases. This paper addresses how to deal effectively with the different modification forms such that the use of the test cases becomes easy and straightforward in testing the framework interface classes (FICs) developed at the application development stage. Finally, the paper discusses the fault coverage and experimentally examines the specification coverage of the reusable test cases. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve a working process, one or more process components can be replaced by innovative ones. The literature provides a possible source of innovative process components. However, it is often difficult to evaluate whether a particular innovative process component satisfying an improvement goal can be introduced to replace a process component in the working software process to be improved. In previous works, the authors of this paper proposed a characterization and evaluation framework to address the above problem. To improve the usability of the framework, a scenario was defined for each question to help the user answer it methodically. The experiment presented in this paper aims to verify if a scenario-based reading technique improves the usability of the framework. The results obtained show that the technique proposed makes assessment of which process components of a working process are candidates for making innovation more reliable. Moreover, the scenario-based reading technique is user independent and only a little training may be sufficient to sensibly improve the effectiveness of use of the scenarios. The trustworthy results of this technique and its independence of the user's previous knowledge and ability ensure that it can be applied methodically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well‐known that process improvement change requires “tools‐processes‐people.” Engineers have spent most energy on the tools and processes, but everything is done by people, and success depends on people and their competencies. The increasing focus on people is reflected in many change models; some are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web 2.0 sociable technologies and social software are presented as enablers in health and health care, for organizations, clinicians, patients and laypersons. They include social networking services, collaborative filtering, social bookmarking, folksonomies, social search engines, file sharing and tagging, mashups, instant messaging, and online multi-player games. The more popular Web 2.0 applications in education, namely wikis, blogs and podcasts, are but the tip of the social software iceberg. Web 2.0 technologies represent a quite revolutionary way of managing and repurposing/remixing online information and knowledge repositories, including clinical and research information, in comparison with the traditional Web 1.0 model. The paper also offers a glimpse of future software, touching on Web 3.0 (the Semantic Web) and how it could be combined with Web 2.0 to produce the ultimate architecture of participation. Although the tools presented in this review look very promising and potentially fit for purpose in many health care applications and scenarios, careful thinking, testing and evaluation research are still needed in order to establish ‘best practice models’ for leveraging these emerging technologies to boost our teaching and learning productivity, foster stronger ‘communities of practice’, and support continuing medical education/professional development (CME/CPD) and patient education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the original development of program slicing in 1979 there have been many attempts to define a suitable semantics, which will precisely define the meaning of a slice. Particular issues include handling termination and nontermination, slicing nonterminating programs, and slicing nondeterministic programs. In this paper we review and critique the main attempts to construct a semantics for slicing and present a new operational semantics, which correctly handles slicing for nonterminating and nondeterministic programs. We also present a modified denotational semantics, which we prove to be equivalent to the operational semantics. This provides programmers with 2 different methods to prove the correctness of a slice or a slicing algorithm and means that the program transformation theory and FermaT transformation system, developed last 25 years of research, and which has proved so successful in analyzing terminating programs, can now be applied to nonterminating interactive programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]