2021116
Industry experience in migrating to object technology
Object oriented software engineering (OOSE) is becoming a common approach to software development. As third generation OOSE processes are established (e.g. OPEN (I. Graham, 1997) and the Unified Software Development Process (I. Jacobson, 1999)) organisations will start to consider OOSE as a mature technology. This recognition will mean that more organisations will go through the process of changing their current software development processes. The paper reports on the experience of one team at a large technical firm as they adopted OOSE processes for a major project. The experience of this team confirms most of what has been previously reported in the literature, and adds two additional observations. The first observation is that other literature in this field does not consider team motivation as a factor that contributes to migration success. The second observation is that other literature does not consider the relative impact of some factors over other factors.
3050709
Quality assurance in a student-based agile software engineering process
Agile methodologies have proven to be a popular addition to the software engineering toolbox, promising significant advances in quality for small teams, with developers no longer weighed under by the documentation said to characterise traditional approaches. Yet, in spite of these claims, quality assurance remains a question to which agile methodologies have given only a partially satisfactory answer. This work examines quality assurance practices among student developers working within a lightweight iterative development process. Our focus is upon the linkages between their reported practices and the quality levels observed in the systems delivered. The study has identified a range of approaches to improving quality for small, inexperienced teams, with applications to both the educational and SME environments.
6336074
Developing Case Studies to Enhance Student Learning
In this paper we describe the cases developed in response to the multifaceted challenges we faced in educating IT professionals in intermediate-level programming. The challenges included: the practical nature of the subject, the level of skill attained, preparing students for the workplace and class size. We implemented Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as the teaching and learning method to meet these challenges by helping first-year university students learn programming while simultaneously developing graduate capabilities. This necessitated redevelopment of the curriculum and the way it was taught. We combined software engineering and information systems approaches in real-world scenarios. The cases were designed to help students come to terms with the human side of information technology through the context and method of teaching and learning as they worked through the cases.
29982810
A proposal for object oriented Modula-2
12699179
Developing the Software Engineering Team
Teamwork is often considered one of the most important "generic skills" that we can provide to graduates entering the information technology profession. Often though, through the rush of covering important content, we short change our students by giving them limited opportunities to learn how to work effectively in teams. Students also often complain that although they are expected to work in teams on projects, they are never given any advice or guidance on how to work in a team (Hart and Stone, 2002). Or, if they are given guidance, it is often from a business perspective that students find difficult to integrate into their software development practice.In this paper we discuss a course-spanning initiative to help students learn teamwork skills. This initiative starts in first year by emphasising a core set of skills directly related to working in teams. These skills are applied in small software development teams, with close tutor supervision focusing students on teamwork rather than upon individual software development. The theme then continues into second and third year where the growing sophistication of the students' teamwork skills is complemented by increasing their independence and requiring students to apply a professional software engineering process as a development team. By the end of their course students are then in a position to work together effectively solving complex problems for a real industry client.
8512382
Five-Connected Toroidal Graphs Are Hamiltonian
We prove that every edge in a 5-connected graph embedded in the torus is contained in a Hamilton cycle. Our proof is constructive and implies a polynomial time algorithm for finding a Hamilton cycle.
36594745
A Distributed Usage Monitoring System
We are developing a distributed computer system that supports usability and interaction studies, by handling the collection, storage and analysis of usage data, such as that generated by user-computer interaction and associated sensing devices (e.g., cameras). Data sources may be distributed as may be the data repositories and data consumers (other computer processes and human investigators). The system supports dynamic configuration of the entire process, including changes in the goals of the investigation itself. In this paper we describe the system’s key features, including a generic and evolvable data transport and processing network, a set of tools for capturing and cleaning usage data, a tool for instrumenting software for data capture, and a system for managing the entire process. We also report on several trials of the system, identifying successes, failures, lessons learned and areas for future development.
45805701
A survey of linkless embeddings
37344904
Power System Bidding Tournaments for a Deregulated Environment
In this paper we describe certain tools for understanding and operating power systems in a deregulated environment. Many of the current models for this competitive market that employ an independent system operator (ISO) for controlling transmission, ensuring fair access and security, and providing a spot market for power will be studied. This centrally-dispatched power pool also ensures that generation meets demand based on bids submitted daily from independent generators (and from customers offering interruptible loads). Currently, most I S 0 bidding models allow only a single bid per day. In this paper, we present an asynchronous bidding scheme as a possible alternative. In particular, we examine the effects of including a feedback mechanism such that upon receiving generation levels from the ISO, independent generators (IGs) be allowed to modify their bid if they so desire. This competitive or ‘sequential’ bidding process should be allowed to take place each day for a predetermined period of time; in this way, IGs will have a chance to compete and hopefully optimize their profit margins. This paper also discusses the development tools necessary for examining the effects of different bidding processes on the I S 0 model and evaluating their capability of driving the market to an efJicient state of operation.
51685
An improved linear edge bound for graph linkages
A graph is said to be k-linked if it has at least 2k vertices and for every sequence S1,...,Sk, t1,...,tk of distinct vertices there exist disjoint paths P1,...,Pk such that the ends of Pi are si and ti. Bollobas and Thomason showed that if a simple graph G on n vertices is 2k-connected and G has at least 11kn edges, then G is k-linked. We give a relatively simple inductive proof of the stronger statement that 8kn edges and 2k-connectivity suffice, and then with more effort improve the edge bound to 5kn.