Evaluation of Software Development Practices through Error Analysis

This thesis studies evaluation of software development practices through an error analysis. The work presents software development process, software testing, software errors, error classification and software process improvement methods. The practical part of the work presents results from the error analysis of one software process. It also gives improvement ideas for the project. It was noticed that the classification of the error data was inadequate in the project. Because of this it was impossible to use the error data effectively. With the error analysis we were able to show that there were deficiencies in design and analyzing phases, implementation phase and in testing phase. The work gives ideas for improving error classification and for software development practices.

Eliminating Software Failures - A Literature Survey

Software faults are expensive and cause serious damage, particularly if discovered late or not at all. Some software faults tend to be hidden. One goal of the thesis is to figure out the status quo in the field of software fault elimination since there are no recent surveys of the whole area. Basis for a structural framework is proposed for this unstructured field, paying attention to compatibility and how to find studies. Bug elimination means are surveyed, including bug knowhow, defect prevention and prediction, analysis, testing, and fault tolerance. The most common research issues for each area are identified and discussed, along with issues that do not get enough attention. Recommendations are presented for software developers, researchers, and teachers. Only the main lines of research are figured out. The main emphasis is on technical aspects. The survey was done by performing searches in IEEE, ACM, Elsevier, and Inspect databases. In addition, a systematic search was done for a few well-known related journals from recent time intervals. Some other journals, some conference proceedings and a few books, reports, and Internet articles have been investigated, too. The following problems were found and solutions for them discussed. Quality assurance is testing only is a common misunderstanding, and many checks are done and some methods applied only in the late testing phase. Many types of static review are almost forgotten even though they reveal faults that are hard to be detected by other means. Other forgotten areas are knowledge of bugs, knowing continuously repeated bugs, and lightweight means to increase reliability. Compatibility between studies is not always good, which also makes documents harder to understand. Some means, methods, and problems are considered method- or domain-specific when they are not. The field lacks cross-field research.

Project Management Tools in Agile Embedded Systems Development

Agile methods have become increasingly popular in the field of software engineering. While agile methods are now generally considered applicable to software projects of many different kinds, they have not been widely adopted in embedded systems development. This is partly due to the natural constraints that are present in embedded systems development (e.g. hardware–software interdependencies) that challenge the utilization of agile values, principles and practices. The research in agile embedded systems development has been very limited, and this thesis tackles an even less researched theme related to it: the suitability of different project management tools in agile embedded systems development. The thesis covers the basic aspects of many different agile tool types from physical tools, such as task boards and cards, to web-based agile tools that offer all-round solutions for application lifecycle management. In addition to these two extremities, there is also a wide range of lighter agile tools that focus on the core agile practices, such as backlog management. Also other non-agile tools, such as bug trackers, can be used to support agile development, for instance, with plug-ins. To investigate the special tool requirements in agile embedded development, the author observed tool related issues and solutions in a case study involving three different companies operating in the field of embedded systems development. All three companies had a distinct situation in the beginning of the case and thus the tool solutions varied from a backlog spreadsheet built from scratch to plug-in development for an already existing agile software tool. Detailed reports are presented of all three tool cases. Based on the knowledge gathered from agile tools and the case study experiences, it is concluded that there are tool related issues in the pilot phase, such as backlog management and user motivation. These can be overcome in various ways epending on the type of a team in question. Finally, five principles are formed to give guidelines for tool selection and usage in agile embedded systems development.

How to Hack the DSpace Community

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Verkkopalveluiden jatkuvan ylläpidon kehittäminen: Case Aucor Oy ja WordPress

Verkkopalveluiden ylläpitovaiheessa halutaan varmistua, etteivät palveluun tehdyt muutokset aiheuta verkkopalvelussa virhetilanteita ja palvelu toimii moitteetta. Muutoksen hyväksyntätestaus voidaan tehdä regressiotestauksena vertaamalla palvelun tilaa ennen ja jälkeen muutoksen. Sisältöpainotteisessa verkkopalvelussa testaaminen keskittyy loppukäyttäjälle esitetyn sivun semanttiseen sekä visuaaliseen oikeellisuuteen sekä erilaisiin toiminnallisiin testeihin. Työssä tarkastellaan etenkin suositulla WordPress-julkaisujärjestelmällä toteutettujen verkkopalveluiden ylläpitoa. Keskeisenä osana julkaisujärjestelmillä toteutettujen verkkopalveluiden ylläpitoa on julkaisujärjestelmän ja sitä täydentävien lisäosien päivittämistä ajantasaisiin versioihin. Nämä päivitykset paitsi tuovat uusia ominaisuuksia verkkopalvelun kehittäjille, myös paikkaavat järjestelmän tietoturvahaavoittuvuuksia sekä korjaavat aiemmissa versioissa esiintyneitä virheitä. Tässä työssä kehitettiin kohdeyrityksen aiempia verkkopalveluiden ylläpitoprosesseja niissä tunnistettujen kehityskohteiden perusteella. Uudistettu kokonaisuus jakautuu kahteen kokonaisuuteen: päivitystarpeen seurantaan sekä päivitysten tekemiseen. Päivitystarpeen seurantaa varten kehitettiin uusi työkalu helpottamaan kokonaiskuvan hahmottamista. Päivitysten tekemisen osalta työssä keskityttiin automatisoidun regressiotestauksen kehittämiseen, missä tärkeimpänä testauskeinona käytetään verkkopalvelusta tallennettujen kuvankaappausten vertailuun perustuvaa visuaalista testausta. Uusien ylläpitoprosesseille määriteltiin myös seurannan kohteet uudistuksen onnistumisen ja jatkokehityksen arviointia varten.