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Software analytic tools consume big amounts of data coming from either (or both) the software development process or the system usage and aggregate them into indicators which are rendered to different types of stakeholders, also offering them a portfolio of techniques and capabilities such as what-if analysis, prediction and alerts. Precisely, the variety of stakeholders and the different goals they pursue justifies the convenience of performing an intentional analysis of the use of software analytics tools. With this aim, we first enumerate the different stakeholders and identify their intentional relationships with software analytics tools in the form of dependencies. Then, we focus on one particular stakeholder, namely the requirements engineer, and identify further intentional elements represented in a strategic rationale model. The resulting model provides an abstract view of the domain which may help stakeholders when deciding on the adoption of software analytic tools in their particular context. This paper has been funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under project / funding scheme PID2020-117191RB-I00 / AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

Crowdsourced Software Engineering (CSE) is the act of undertaking any external software engineering tasks by an undefined, potentially large group of online workers in an open call format. Using an open call, CSE recruits global online labor to work on various types of software engineering tasks, such as requirements extraction, design, coding and testing. The field is rising rapidly and touches various aspects of software engineering. CSE has grown significance in both academy and industry. Despite of the enormous usage and significance of CSE, there are many open challenges reported by various researchers. In order to overcome the challenges and realizing the full potential of CSE, it is highly important to understand the concrete advantages and goals of CSE. In this paper, we present a goal model for CSE, to understand the real environment of CSE, and to explore the aspects that can somehow overcome the aforementioned challenges. The model is designed using RiSD, a method for building Strategic Dependency (SD) models in the i* notation, applied in this work using iStar2.0. This work can be considered useful for CSE stakeholders (Requesters, Workers, Platform owners and CSE organizations).

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components selection is an activity that plays an increasingly crucial role in the delivery of software systems. We are using i*, specially Strategic Dependency models, for driving this activity. Software domains are modeled as actors, and the relationships among them and with external actors (people, other software systems, organizations, etc.) are represented using the concept of dependency. While providing some satisfactory findings, our proposal has also given light to some interesting questions that we have tackled or are still dealing with, remarkably: Which are the foundations of COTS components selection? Which are the properties of interest when selecting COTS components and how do we formalize them? How do we build i* models in a consistent way? What is the precise meaning of the i* constructs that we use in our models? How do we organize the knowledge about the marketplace and how do we use this knowledge during selection? What type of tool-support is appropriate? In this chapter, we present our current state of research in the COTS components selection area and provide some partial answers to the questions above.

Requirement elicitation is the process of acquiring the system requirements from the system stakeholders. This process is critical in all software projects: if not all the requirements are elicited, or if some elicited requirements do not describe real stakeholder needs, or if the quality of the requirements is poor (e.g., they suffer from ambiguities), the chance of project failure increases. Techniques supporting requirements elicitation (interviews, meetings, storyboards...) are mostly oriented to obtain requirements from scratch and they may hardly take advantage of a fundamental observation: When specifying a system, it is quite usual that a significant proportion of requirements is recurrent and belongs to a relatively small number of categories, especially in the case of non-functional requirements. Our motivation is to consider this observation for improving the effectiveness of the requirement elicitation process. We are using the concept of software requirement pattern [1] (SRP). An SRP basically consists of a template that generates one or more requirements, and some information to identify its need in a particular project, and how it may be tailored to this project. The main benefits of using SRPs may be summarized as: 1) more effective requirement elicitation (requirements are not built from scratch; a process guides the engineer by giving advices, suggesting information, ...); 2) improved quality and consistency of requirements documents (by using a uniform style); 3) improved requirements management (e.g., clear traceability from requirements to goals).

When building large-scale goal-oriented models using the i* framework, the problem of scalability arises. Modules have been proposed to structure i* models into reusable and combinable fragments. In this work we present an implementation of the module concept over the jUCMNav tool.

Goal-oriented and agent-oriented modelling provides an effective approach to the understanding of distributed information systems that need to operate in open, heterogeneous and evolving environments. Frameworks, firstly introduced more than ten years ago, have been extended along language variants, analysis methods and CASE tools, posing language semantics and tool interoperability issues. Among them, the i* framework is one the most widespread. We focus on i*-based modelling languages and tools and on the problem of supporting model exchange between them. In this paper, we introduce the i* interoperability problem and derive an XML interchange format, called iStarML, as a practical solution to this problem. We first discuss the main requirements for its definition, then we characterise the core concepts of i* and we detail the tags and options of the interchange format. We complete the presentation of iStarML showing some possible applications. Finally, a survey on the i* community perception about iStarML is included for assessment purposes.

La selección de componentes COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) se realiza no sólo mediante el análisis de su calidad técnica sino también (y algunas veces principalmente) connsiderando cómo dichos componentes cumplen con los requisitos no-técnicos considerados relevantes. En este artículo proponemos un catálogo de factores no-técnicos que tiene como objetivo ayudar en la definición de este tipo de requisitos. El catálogo se presenta como una estructura jerárquica de características, subcaracterísticas y atributos análoga a la establecida en el estándar ISO/IEC 9126-1. También mostramos la utilización del catálogo en la especificación de requisitos, justificamos el contenido del catálogo y lo comparamos con otras propuestas existentes en la bibliografía.

Software product line approaches produce reusable platforms and architectures for products set developed by specific companies. These approaches are strategic in nature requiring coordination, discipline, commonality and communication. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) contains important guidelines for process improvement, and specifies "what" we must have into account to achieve the disciplined processes (among others things). On the other hand, the agile context is playing an increasingly important role in current software engineering practices, specifying "how" the software practices must be addressed to obtain agile processes. In this paper, we carry out a preliminary analysis for reconciling agility and maturity models in software product line domain, taking advantage of both.

The use of quality models during the selection of Commercial, Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products provides a framework for the description of the domains which the COTS products belong to. Descriptions of COTS products and user quality requirements may be translated into the quality concepts defined in the model, making selection more efficient and reliable. In this paper we address the construction of quality models for Composite COTS-based Software Systems (CCSS), defined as systems that are composed by several interconnected COTS products. Selection processes carried out when procuring a CCSS require not a single COTS product to be selected but a set of them. As a consequence, instead of a classical quality model, we need a more elaborated one, defined as the composition of those models that belong to the domains of the COTS products that form the CCSS. We propose a method aimed at supporting the construction of quality models for CCSS as a composition of four activities. Most of the new quality features that appear in the CCSS model are defined in terms of the quality features of the component COTS products. As a result, we obtain quality models easier to understand, maintain and reuse, as well as compliant with the ISO/IEC 9126-1 quality standard.

En este artículo se presenta PROMENADE, un lenguaje para la modelización de procesos de software. PROMENADE utiliza UML para definir sus construcciones, mediante la generación de un profile para este ámbito. PROMENADE ofrece tanto control proactivo como reactivo para expresar el comportamiento dinámico de los procesos; en el caso del control proactivo, se usan relaciones de precedencia de diversa índole para relacionar temporalmente las actividades. PROMENADE proporciona además un marco para la reutilización de procesos de software. En el artículo se compara PROMENADE con otros lenguajes de modelización de procesos de segunda generación.

This paper presents an approach for incorporating non-functional information of software system into software architectures. To do so, components present two distinguished slots: their non-functional specification, where non-functional requirements on components are placed, and their non-functional behaviour with respect to these requirements. Also, connector protocols may describe which non-functional aspects are relevant to component connections. We propose a notation to describe non-functionality in a systematic manner, and we use it to analyse two particular aspects of the meeting scheduler case study, user interaction and performance.

We present in this paper a framework embracing different aspects involved in COTS component selection that influence the success of this activity. Playing a crucial role in this framework appears the concept of quality model, aimed at structuring the description of the quality of COTS components. We propose a methodology for building quality models based on the ISO/IEC 9126-1 standard which allows to create hierarchies of models appropriate for categories and domains of COTS components, and also for particular contexts of COTS selection activities. Such quality models facilitate the expression and refinement of quality requirements during COTS selection. We present also a formal notation for expressing these quality models, the quality requirements and the product descriptions themselves; the notation supports model analysis and makes feasible tool support during CO TS selection. Last, we enumerate at the conclusions some issues matter of current and future research.

We present a proposal for selecting enterprise resource planning (ERP) products from a formal description of their relevant characteristics. The work is based on a previous and successfull collaboration with a midsize company in the field of software package selection. An ERP was selected following a systematic methodology called SHERPA. In past experience, SHERPA relied on natural language descriptions of the application domain, user needs and candidate ERP solutions. We show that a formal language may be used for modeling this application domain, translating user needs into requirements for the ERP products, and for reflecting how concrete ERP products adjust to them. Having selection criteria used during ERP acquisition formally modeled as well as user needs and ERP product descriptions, we expect to obtain more reliable and understandable results in this process.

We present here an approach to component programming which defines languages and tools at both the product and the process levels. At the product level, we allow the use of already existing languages to write functional specifications and implementations of components; also, we provide a notation to state their non-functional specifications, which involve operational attributes as efficiency. Functional specifications can be employed to perform prototyping in a mixed execution framework, which allows the combination of algebraic specifications and imperative code, while non-functional specifications are used to select automatically the best implementation of every component appearing in a software system. At the process level, we have introduced a set of basic program development tasks and we have defined a process language to formulate software process models as particular combinations of these tasks. A process assistant can be used to guide software development following any model defined with this language.

The main concern of this paper is to present the author's approach to support software development in the component programming framework taking functional and non-functional requirements into account. Functional requirements are written as algebraic specifications, while non-functional information is bound to specifications and implementations by means of ad hoc modules: the nonfunctional information is used to select automatically the most appropriate implementations of software components (the selection algorithm is not presented here). The existence of multiple type implementations is supported by a process model based on the prototyping paradigm. Prototyping is achieved by means of a mixed execution mechanism being able to operate in the context of incremental software development process allowing the execution of incomplete (partially implemented) systems. The ideas we present here are not bound to any particular programming language, giving rise to a method of wide applicability.

This article presents a procedure for constructing a taxonomy of COTS products in the field of Requirements Engineering (RE). The taxonomy and the obtained information reach transcendental benefits to the selection of systems and tools that aid to RE-related actors to simplify and facilitate their work. This taxonomy is performed by means of a goal-oriented methodology inspired in GBRAM (Goal-Based Requirements Analysis Method), called GBTCM (Goal-Based Taxonomy Construction Method), that provides a guide to analyze sources of information and modeling requirements and domains, as well as gathering and organizing the knowledge in any segment of the COTS market. GBTCM claims to promote the use of standards and the reuse of requirements in order to support different processes of selection and integration of components.

Software systems are characterised both by their functionality (what the system does) and by their non-functionality (how does the system behave with respect to some observable attributes like performance, reusability, reliability, etc.). Both aspects are relevant to software development. However, non-functional issues have received little attention compared to functional ones. In this position paper we highlight the role of non-functionality, and we claim for a notation to deal with them. We enumerate some design principles for such a notation, and then we make a proposal, which allows to de ne non-functional attributes of software, non-functional behaviour of components with respect to these attributes, and also non-functional requirements over implementations.

Taking into account the drawbacks presented above for each asset in the PABRE framework, the objectives of this thesis are: 1. Do a systematic review of the existent published works on reuse in Requirements Engineering stage, particularly on the use of patterns to achieve the reuse of requirements during Requirements Engineering. 2. Construction of a complete set of non-technical SRP that can be obtained from the Software Requirement Specifications (SRSs) corresponding to 6 real projects. 3. Study of the Content Management System domain and construction of some examples of functional SRP for this domain from the same 6 SRSs. 4. Check the validity of the current SRP metamodel for its suitability for non-technical and functional SRPs. 5. Validate the structure of SRPs (as it is the base of this thesis) and construct a survey which will be used to know what requirements engineers think about the usability of SRP catalogues in real projects in their different enterprises or organizations and if it will be applicable or not.

El proceso de construir software a partir del ensamblaje e integración de soluciones de software pre-fabricadas, conocidas como componentes COTS (Comercial-Off-The-Shelf) se ha convertido en una necesidad estratégica en una amplia variedad de áreas de aplicación. En general, los componentes COTS son componentes de software que proveen una funcionalidad específica, que están disponibles en el mercado para ser adquiridos e integrados dentro de otros sistemas de software. Los beneficios potenciales de esta tecnología son principalmente la reducción de costes y el acortamiento del tiempo de desarrollo, a la vez que fomenta la calidad. Sin embargo, numerosos retos que van desde problemas técnicos y legales deben ser afrontados para adaptar las actividades tradicionales de ingeniería de software para explotar los beneficios del uso de COTS para el desarrollo de sistemas.Actualmente, existe un incrementalmente enorme mercado de componentes COTS; así, una de las actividades más críticas en el desarrollo de sistemas basados en COTS es la selección de componentes que deben ser integrados en el sistema a desarrollar. La selección está básicamente compuesta de dos procesos principales: La búsqueda de componentes candidatos en el mercado y su posterior evaluación con respecto a los requisitos del sistema. Desafortunadamente, la mayoría de los métodos existentes para seleccionar COTS, se enfocan en el proceso de evaluación, dejando de lado el problema de buscar los componentes en el mercado. La búsqueda de componentes en el mercado no es una tarea trivial, teniendo que afrontar varias características del mercado de COTS, tales como su naturaleza dispersa y siempre creciente, cambio y evolución constante; en este contexto, la obtención de información de calidad acerca de los componentes no es una tarea fácil. Como consecuencia, el proceso de selección de COTS se ve seriamente dañado. Además, las alternativas tradicionales de reuso también carecen de soluciones apropiadas para reusar componentes COTS y el conocimiento adquirido en cada proceso de selección. Esta carencia de propuestas es un problema muy serio que incrementa los riesgos de los proyectos de selección de COTS, además de hacerlos ineficientes y altamente costosos. Esta disertación presenta el método GOThIC (Goal- Oriented Taxonomy and reuse Infrastructure Construction) enfocado a la construcción de infraestructuras de reuso para facilitar la búsqueda y reuso de componentes COTS. El método está basado en el uso de objetivos para construir taxonomías abstractas, bien fundamentadas y estables para lidiar con las características del mercado de COTS. Los nodos de las taxonomías son caracterizados por objetivos, sus relaciones son declaradas como dependencias y varios artefactos son construidos y gestionados para promover la reusabilidad y lidiar con la evolución constante.El método GOThIC ha sido elaborado a través de un proceso iterativo de investigación-acción para identificar los retos reales relacionados con el proceso de búsqueda de COTS. Posteriormente, las soluciones posibles fueron evaluadas e implementadas en varios casos de estudio en el ámbito industrial y académico en diversos dominios. Los resultados más relevantes fueron registrados y articulados en el método GOThIC. La evaluación industrial preliminar del método se ha llevado a cabo en algunas compañías en Noruega., The process of building software systems by assembling and integrating pre-packaged solutions in the form of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software components has become a strategic need in a wide variety of application areas. In general, COTS components are software components that provide a specific functionality, available in the market to be purchased, interfaced and integrated into other software systems. The potential benefits of this technology are mainly its reduced costs and shorter development time, while maintaining the quality. Nevertheless, many challenges ranging form technical to legal issues must be faced for adapting the traditional software engineering activities in order to exploit these benefits.Nowadays there is an increasingly huge marketplace of COTS components; therefore, one of the most critical activities in COTS-based development is the selection of the components to be integrated into the system under development. Selection is basically composed of two main processes, namely: searching of candidates from the marketplace and their evaluation with respect to the system requirements. Unfortunately, most of the different existing methods for COTS selection focus their efforts on evaluation, letting aside the problem of searching components in the marketplace. Searching candidate COTS is not an easy task, having to cope with some challenging marketplace characteristics related to its widespread, evolvable and growing nature; and the lack of available and well-suited information to obtain a quality-assured search. Indeed, traditional reuse approaches also lack of appropriate solutions to reuse COTS components and the knowledge gained in each selection process. This lack of proposals is a serious drawback that makes the whole selection process highly risky, and often expensive and inefficient. This dissertation introduces the GOThIC (Goal- Oriented Taxonomy and reuse Infrastructure Construction) method aimed at building a domain reuse infrastructure for facilitating COTS components searching and reuse. It is based on goal-oriented approaches for building abstract, well-founded and stable taxonomies capable of dealing with the COTS marketplace characteristics. Thus, the nodes of these taxonomies are characterized by means of goals, their relationships declared as dependencies among them and several artifacts are constructed and managed for reusability and evolution purposes. The GOThIC method has been elaborated following an iterative process based on action research premises to identify the actual challenges related to COTS components searching. Then, possible solutions were envisaged and implemented by several industrial and academic case studies in different domains. Successful results were recorded to articulate the synergic GOThIC method solution, followed by its preliminary industrial evaluation in some Norwegian companies.

Partint d'una eina ja operativa per a l'edició de models en el llenguatge i*, s'efectua un procés de reenginyeria per adaptar-lo a una arquitectura 3 capes.