This paper summarizes the current state of the art and recent trends in software engineering economics. It provides an overview of economic analysis techniques and their applicability to software engineering and management. It surveys the field of software cost estimation, including the major estimation techniques available, the state of the art in algorithmic cost models, and the outstanding research issues in software cost estimation.

Software engineering economics

A problem-posing system is developed with four phases including posing problem, planning, solving problem, and looking back, in which the ''solving problem'' phase is implemented by game-scenarios. The system supports elementary students in the process of problem-posing, allowing them to fully engage in mathematical activities. In total, 92 fifth graders from four different classes were recruited. The experimental group used the problem-posing system, whereas the control group followed the traditional paper-based approach. The study investigates the effects of the problem-posing system on students' problem-posing ability, problem-solving ability, and flow experiences. The results revealed more flow experiences, and higher problem-solving and problem-posing abilities in the experimental group.

Embedding game-based problem-solving phase into problem-posing system for mathematics learning

Context: This systematic mapping review is set in a Global Software Engineering (GSE) context, characterized by a highly distributed environment in which project team members work separately in different countries. This geographic separation creates specific challenges associated with global communication, coordination and control. Objective: The main goal of this study is to discover all the available communication and coordination tools that can support highly distributed teams, how these tools have been applied in GSE, and then to describe and classify the tools to allow both practitioners and researchers involved in GSE to make use of the available tool support in GSE. Method: We performed a systematic mapping review through a search for studies that answered our research question, ''Which software tools (commercial, free or research based) are available to support Global Software Engineering?'' Applying a range of related search terms to key electronic databases, selected journals, and conferences and workshops enabled us to extract relevant papers. We then used a data extraction template to classify, extract and record important information about the GSD tools from each paper. This information was synthesized and presented as a general map of types of GSD tools, the tool's main features and how each tool was validated in practice. Results: The main result is a list of 132 tools, which, according to the literature, have been, or are intended to be, used in global software projects. The classification of these tools includes lists of features for communication, coordination and control as well as how the tool has been validated in practice. We found that out the total of 132, the majority of tools were developed at research centers, and only a small percentage of tools (18.9%) are reported as having been tested outside the initial context in which they were developed. Conclusion: The most common features in the GSE tools included in this study are: team activity and social awareness, support for informal communication, Support for Distributed Knowledge Management and Interoperability with other tools. Finally, there is the need for an evaluation of these tools to verify their external validity, or usefulness in a wider global environment.

Tools used in Global Software Engineering: A systematic mapping review

Background: Supporting sustainability in software engineering is becoming an active area of research and we want to contribute the first SLR in this field. Researchers who are motivated to contribute to that topic need to accumulate a body of knowledge as starting point through time-consuming literature research. Aim: We aim to provide an overview of different aspects of sustainability in software engineer- ing research with regard to research activity, investigated topics, identified limitations, proposed approaches, used methods, available studies, and considered domains. Method: The applied method is a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) in five reliable and commonly-used databases according to the (quasi-standard) protocol by Kitchenham et al. [288]. We assessed the 100 first results of each database ordered by relevance with respect to the search query. Results: Of 500 classified publications, we regard 96 as relevant for our research questions. Most of the excluded publications were ruled out because of an unfitting usage of terms within the search query. We sketch a taxonomy of their topics and domains, and provide lists of used methods and proposed approaches. Conclusions: Currently, there is little research coverage on the different aspects of sustainability in software engineering. Future work includes extending the study by reviewing a higher number of publications, including dedicated journal and workshop searches, and snowballing.

https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1100401/file.pdf

Sustainability in Software Engineering: A Systematic Literature Review for Building up a Knowledge Base

An adaptive learning environment provides personalised information to the learner through self-directed study. An adaptive learning environment model can be subdivided into a learner model, domain model, instructional model and adaptive engine. Personal traits comprise part of the components in a learner model and can be identified either explicitly or implicitly in an adaptive learning environment. In such an environment, the e-learning system should adapt to a learner's needs. However, even though academic research on adaptive learning environments has increased, the field lacks a comprehensive literature analysis of learners' personal traits in these environments. This study conducts a systematic literature review to identify the most commonly used personal traits in modelling the learner and the existing techniques suitable for identifying personal traits in an adaptive learning environment. A total of 140 articles spanning the years 2010–2017 are initially reviewed, from which 78 are selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria relevant to this study. This study provides an overview of learners' personal traits and the techniques used to identify them to provide a basis for improving adaptive learning environments. The findings indicate that most of the previous works used a learning style from the cognition learning domain category to model individual personal traits, while the computer-based detection technique was commonly applied to identify a learner's personal traits in adaptive learning environments. This study reveals the common learner characteristics used to develop learner models and the techniques for implementing such models. The findings of this paper can guide other researchers to recognise various personal traits and the identification technique for further studies, as well as assist developers in the development of the adaptive learning system.

Identification of personal traits in adaptive learning environment: Systematic literature review

Due to the widespread proliferation of today’s Internet of Things (IoT), a system designer needs the IoT system and software design patterns to assist in designing scalable and replicable solutions. Patterns are encapsulations of reusable common problems and solutions under specific contexts. Many IoT patterns have been published, such as IoT design patterns and IoT architecture patterns to document the successes (and failures) in IoT systems and software development. However, because these patterns are not well classified, their adoption does not live up to their potential. To understand the reasons, we conducted a systematic literature review. From the 32 identified papers, 143 IoT architecture and design patterns were extracted. We analyzed these patterns according to several characteristics and outlined directions for improvements when publishing and adopting IoT patterns. Of the extracted patterns, 57% are non-IoT patterns, suggesting that IoT systems and software are often designed via conventional architecture and design patterns that are not specific to IoT design. Although most IoT design patterns are applicable to any domain, IoT architecture patterns tend to be domain specific, implying that the unique nature of IoT adoption in specific domains appears at the architecture level. As more domains adopt IoT, the number of domain-specific IoT design patterns should increase. In terms of quality attributes, many IoT patterns address compatibility, security, and maintainability.

/pdf/landscape-of-architecture-and-design-patterns-for-iot-5fy81znzj4.pdf

Landscape of Architecture and Design Patterns for IoT Systems

Security patterns (SPs) are reusable solutions to security problems. We study here research papers that use security patterns to build secure systems or analyze the nature of security patterns. The goal of this paper is neither listing nor direct mapping of existing over 200 SPs but finding about how SPs are being investigated within research works to guide future research targeting SPs. Although the number of SPs has recently grown, the current trends and future prospects of SP research (e.g., research content and their modeling methods of SPs) are uncertain due to the diversity in the research results themselves. To elucidate the current trends and future prospects, herein we classify 30 works on SPs using a technique called systematic mapping (SM), which addresses the following three research questions with nine facets for classification: RQ1. Is SP research an active field? RQ2. What are the current trends of SP research? RQ3: What are the future prospects of SP research? Obtained answers are: A1. SP research has been conducted constantly in the past decade, confirming that the field is active. A2. The most common research topic is the SP application, demonstrating that efficient and reliable techniques to apply SPs are necessary to guarantee security. A3. There could be several future prospects aligned with the facets. For example, Access Control is a common concrete SP in current SP research and is likely in actual development; however, it needs to be further examined for other SPs in addition to access control to handle various threats. These answers are expected to improve further SP research and the effectiveness of SPs.

Systematic mapping of security patterns research

To effectively respond to vulnerabilities, information must not only be collected efficiently and quickly but also the vulnerability and the attack techniques must be understood. A security knowledge repository can collect such information. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) provides known vulnerabilities of products, while the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit known weaknesses. Because the information in these two repositories is not directly related, identifying the related CAPEC attack information from the CVE vulnerability information is challenging. One proposed method traces some related CAPEC-ID from CVE-ID through Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). However, it is not applicable to all patterns. Here, we propose a method to automatically trace the related CAPEC-IDs from CVE-ID using TFIDF and Doc2Vec. Additionally, we experimentally confirm that TF-IDF is more accurate than Doc2vec.

/pdf/tracing-capec-attack-patterns-from-cve-vulnerability-3sgktzwucq.pdf

Tracing CAPEC Attack Patterns from CVE Vulnerability Information using Natural Language Processing Technique

Patterns are encapsulations of problems and solutions under specific contexts. As the industry is realizing many successes (and failures) in IoT systems development and operations, many IoT patterns have been published such as IoT design patterns and IoT architecture patterns. Because these patterns are not well classified, their adoption does not live up to their potential. To understand the reasons, this paper analyzes an extensive set of published IoT architecture and design patterns according to several dimensions and outlines directions for improvements in publishing and adopting IoT patterns.

Landscape of IoT patterns

This paper proposes a Web-based collaborative learning system, which supports question-posing by learners, assessment from peers, and discussions with question-poser and peers It also describes evaluation of effectiveness of the system Based on the results, the system contributed to enhancement of understanding of those who used the system Although facilities for discussions were not used as much as we expected, we found some functions to be enhanced for discussions support

Atsuo Hazeyama

Papers

Landscape of Architecture and Design Patterns for IoT Systems

Systematic mapping of security patterns research

Tracing CAPEC Attack Patterns from CVE Vulnerability Information using Natural Language Processing Technique

Landscape of IoT patterns

A Learning Support System based on Question-posing and Its Evaluation