James Noble

Bio: James Noble is an academic researcher from Victoria University of Wellington. The author has contributed to research in topics: Agile software development & Object-oriented programming. The author has an hindex of 45, co-authored 339 publications receiving 8782 citations. Previous affiliations of James Noble include Victoria University, Australia & Microsoft.

Ownership types for flexible alias protection

Abstract: Object-oriented programming languages allow inter-object aliasing. Although necessary to construct linked data structures and networks of interacting objects, aliasing is problematic in that an aggregate object's state can change via an alias to one of its components, without the aggregate being aware of any aliasing.Ownership types form a static type system that indicates object ownership. This provides a flexible mechanism to limit the visibility of object references and restrict access paths to objects, thus controlling a system's dynamic topology. The type system is shown to be sound, and the specific aliasing properties that a system's object graph satisfies are formulated and proven invariant for well-typed programs.

The Qualitas Corpus: A Curated Collection of Java Code for Empirical Studies

Abstract: In order to increase our ability to use measurement to support software development practise we need to do more analysis of code. However, empirical studies of code are expensive and their results are difficult to compare. We describe the Qualitas Corpus, a large curated collection of open source Java systems. The corpus reduces the cost of performing large empirical studies of code and supports comparison of measurements of the same artifacts. We discuss its design, organisation, and issues associated with its development.

Flexible Alias Protection

Abstract: Aliasing is endemic in object oriented programming. Because an object can be modified via any alias, object oriented programs are hard to understand, maintain, and analyse. Flexible alias protection is a conceptual model of inter-object relationships which limits the visibility of changes via aliases, allowing objects to be aliased but mitigating the undesirable effects of aliasing. Flexible alias protection can be checked statically using programmer supplied aliasing modes and imposes no runtime overhead. Using flexible alias protection, programs can incorporate mutable objects, immutable values, and updatable collections of shared objects, in a natural object oriented programming style, while avoiding the problems caused by aliasing.

Flexible Alias protection

Abstract: Aliasing is endemic in object oriented programming. Because an object can be modified via any alias, object oriented programs are hard to understand, maintain, and analyse. Flexible alias protection is a conceptual model of inter-object relationships which limits the visibility of changes via aliases, allowing objects to be aliased but mitigating the undesirable effects of aliasing. Flexible alias protection can be checked statically using programmer supplied aliasing modes and imposes no run-time overhead. Using flexible alias protection, programs can incorporate mutable objects, immutable values, and updatable collections of shared objects, in a natural object oriented programming style, while avoiding the problems caused by aliasing.

Self-Organizing Roles on Agile Software Development Teams

Abstract: Self-organizing teams have been recognized and studied in various forms-as autonomous groups in socio-technical systems, enablers of organizational theories, agents of knowledge management, and as examples of complex-adaptive systems. Over the last decade, self-organizing teams have taken center stage in software engineering when they were incorporated as a hallmark of Agile methods. Despite the long and rich history of self-organizing teams and their recent popularity with Agile methods, there has been little research on the topic within software wngineering. Particularly, there is a dearth of research on how Agile teams organize themselves in practice. Through a Grounded Theory research involving 58 Agile practitioners from 23 software organizations in New Zealand and India over a period of four years, we identified informal, implicit, transient, and spontaneous roles that make Agile teams self-organizing. These roles-Mentor, Coordinator, Translator, Champion, Promoter, and Terminator-are focused toward providing initial guidance and encouraging continued adherence to Agile methods, effectively managing customer expectations and coordinating customer collaboration, securing and sustaining senior management support, and identifying and removing team members threatening the self-organizing ability of the team. Understanding these roles will help software development teams and their managers better comprehend and execute their roles and responsibilities as a self-organizing team.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

Out of the Crisis

Abstract: According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Abstract: How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.