Context: several companies, particularly Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), often face software maintenance issues due to the lack of Software Quality Assurance (SQA). SQA is a complex task that requires a lot of effort and expertise, often not available in SMEs. Several SQA models, including maintenance prediction models, have been defined in research papers. However, these models are commonly defined as "one-size-fits-all" and are mainly targeted at the big industry, which can afford software quality experts who undertake the data interpretation tasks. Objective: in this work, we propose an approach to continuously monitor the software operated by end users, automatically collecting issues and recommending possible fixes to developers. The continuous exception monitoring system will also serve as knowledge base to suggest a set of quality practices to avoid (re) introducing bugs into the code. Method: first, we identify a set of SQA practices applicable to SMEs, based on the main constraints of these. Then, we identify a set of prediction techniques, including regressions and machine learning, keeping track of bugs and exceptions raised by the released software. Finally, we provide each company with a tailored SQA model, automatically obtained from companies' bug/issue history. Developers are then provided with the quality models through a set of plug-ins for integrated development environments. These suggest a set of SQA actions that should be undertaken, in order to maintain a certain quality level and allowing to remove the most severe issues with the lowest possible effort. Conclusion: The collected measures will be made available as public dataset, so that researchers can also benefit of the project's results. This work is developed in collaboration with local SMEs and existing Open Source projects and communities.

A Dynamical Quality Model to Continuously Monitor Software Maintenance

Lenarduzzi, V;Taibi, D;Tosi, D;
2017-01-01

Abstract

Context: several companies, particularly Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), often face software maintenance issues due to the lack of Software Quality Assurance (SQA). SQA is a complex task that requires a lot of effort and expertise, often not available in SMEs. Several SQA models, including maintenance prediction models, have been defined in research papers. However, these models are commonly defined as "one-size-fits-all" and are mainly targeted at the big industry, which can afford software quality experts who undertake the data interpretation tasks. Objective: in this work, we propose an approach to continuously monitor the software operated by end users, automatically collecting issues and recommending possible fixes to developers. The continuous exception monitoring system will also serve as knowledge base to suggest a set of quality practices to avoid (re) introducing bugs into the code. Method: first, we identify a set of SQA practices applicable to SMEs, based on the main constraints of these. Then, we identify a set of prediction techniques, including regressions and machine learning, keeping track of bugs and exceptions raised by the released software. Finally, we provide each company with a tailored SQA model, automatically obtained from companies' bug/issue history. Developers are then provided with the quality models through a set of plug-ins for integrated development environments. These suggest a set of SQA actions that should be undertaken, in order to maintain a certain quality level and allowing to remove the most severe issues with the lowest possible effort. Conclusion: The collected measures will be made available as public dataset, so that researchers can also benefit of the project's results. This work is developed in collaboration with local SMEs and existing Open Source projects and communities.
2017
Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems Management, ECISM 2017
9781911218524
Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems Management, ECISM 2017
Genova, Italy
14 September 2017 through 15 September 2017
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11383/2079450
 Attenzione

L'Ateneo sottopone a validazione solo i file PDF allegati

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 17
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 4
social impact