2351489
An Empirical Study Using Task Assignment Patterns to Improve the Accuracy of Software Effort Estimation
In most software development organizations, there is seldom a one-to-one mapping between software developers and development tasks. It is frequently necessary to concurrently assign individuals to multiple tasks and to assign more than one individual to work cooperatively on a single task. A principal goal in making such assignments should be to minimize the effort required to complete each task. But what impact does the manner in which developers are assigned to tasks have on the effort requirements? This paper identifies four task assignment factors: team size, concurrency, intensity, and fragmentation. These four factors are shown to improve the predictive ability of the well-known intermediate COCOMO cost estimation model. A parsimonious effort estimation model is also derived that utilizes a subset of the task assignment factors and unadjusted function points. For the data examined, this parsimonious model is shown to have goodness of fit and quality of estimation superior to that of the COCOMO model, while utilizing fewer cost factors.
17812918
Acquiring and delivering lessons learned for NASA scientists and engineers: a dynamic approach
Web forms are a common mechanism for collecting information online. They pose some limitations which negatively affect ease and flexibility of user interaction. These limitations are more pronounced when collecting information that can not be broken down into well defined and agreed upon structures. Lessons Learned or any kind of 'knowledge' is an example of such information. In this paper we introduce a concept of 'Dynamic Forms' which is aimed at enhancing user interaction while collecting unstructured information, 'Lessons Learned' in particular.
9913634
Generalized and stationary scrolling
We present a generalized definition of scrolling that unifies a wide range of existing interaction techniques, from conventional scrolling through pan and zoom systems and fish-eye views. Furthermore it suggests a useful class of new scrolling techniques in which objects do not move across the display. These “stationary scrolling” techniques do not exhibit either of two problems that plague spatial scrolling system: discontinuity in salience and the undermining of the user's spatial memory.
31744347
Undergraduate Software Engineering - An Innovative Degree at Swinburne
In this paper we outline the context for the development of an undergraduate degree in Software Engineering in Australia, reflect on curriculum development ideas relevant to such a degree, and describe aspects of the Computer Science degree at Swinburne which, despite its title, may be viewed as a Software Engineering degree. We emphasise the role of project-based units within the degree.
5111320
Work rhythms: analyzing visualizations of awareness histories of distributed groups
We examined records of minute-by-minute computer activity coupled with information about the location of the activity, online calendar appointments, and e-mail activity. We present a number of visualizations of the data that exhibit meaningful patterns in users' activities. We demonstrate how the patterns vary between individuals and within individuals according to time of day, location, and day of the week. Some patterns augment the schedule information found in people's online calendars. We discuss applications for group coordination (especially across time zones) plus opportunities for future research. In light of the popularity of instant messaging, this research identifies some of the benefits and privacy risks associated with the uses of online presence and awareness information.
18329843
Fitness inheritance in genetic algorithms
GAS have proven effective on a broad range of search problems. However, when each population member’s fitness evaluation is computationally expensive, the prospect of evaluating an entire population can prohibit use of the GA. This paper examines a GA that overcomes this difficulty by evaluating only a portion of the population. The remainder of the population has its fitness assigned by inheritance. Theoretical arguments justify this approach. An application to a GA-easy problem shows that greater efficiency can be obtained by evaluating only a small portion of the population. A real-world search problem confirms these results. Implications and future directions are discussed.
18629340
Report on the 1984 Distributed Artificial Intelligence Workshop
The fifth Distributed Artificial Intclligencc Workshop tias held at the Schlumberger-Doll Research Laboratory from October 14 to 17, 1984 It was attended by 20 participants from academic and industrial institutions. As in the past,’ this workshop was designed as an informal meeting It included brief research rcport,s from individual groups along with genera1 discussion of questions of common interest. This report summarizes the general discussion and contains summaries of group presentations that have been contributed by individual speakers to scale the resources applied to a problem). Others arc motivated by problem characteristics, such as natural spatial or functional distribution. Finally, some researchers are motivated by the observation that some issues in problcm solving and reasoning (e.g., communication and coherent cooperation) are brought into sharp focus in the distributed setting. The main body of this report contains summaries written by individual attcndces of the workshop. This is, in turn, followed by a brief smnmary of the gcncral discus