Migration of existing software systems to mobile computing platforms: a systematic mapping study

Mobile computing has fast emerged as a pervasive technology to replace the old computing paradigms with portable computation and context-aware communication. Existing software systems can be migrated (while preserving their data and logic) to mobile computing platforms that support portability, context-sensitivity, and enhanced usability. In recent years, some research and development efforts have focused on a systematic migration of existing software systems to mobile computing platforms.To investigate the research state-of-the-art on the migration of existing software systems to mobile computing platforms. We aim to analyze the progression and impacts of existing research, highlight challenges and solutions that reflect dimensions of emerging and futuristic research.We followed evidence-based software engineering (EBSE) method to conduct a systematic mapping study (SMS) of the existing research that has progressed over more than a decade (25 studies published from 1996–2017).We have derived a taxonomical classification and a holistic mapping of the existing research to investigate its progress, impacts, and potential areas of futuristic research and development.The SMS has identified three types of migration namely Static, Dynamic, and State-based Migration of existing software systems to mobile computing platforms.Migration to mobile computing platforms enables existing software systems to achieve portability, context-sensitivity, and high connectivity. However, mobile systems may face some challenges such as resource poverty, data security, and privacy. The emerging and futuristic research aims to support patterns and tool support to automate the migration process. The results of this SMS can benefit researchers and practitioners–by highlighting challenges, solutions, and tools, etc., –to conceptualize the state-ofthe- art and futuristic trends that support migration of existing software to mobile computing.     

Open innovation in software engineering: a systematic mapping study

Open innovation (OI) means that innovation is fostered by using both external and internal influences in the innovation process. In software engineering (SE), OI has existed for decades, while we currently see a faster and broader move towards OI in SE. We therefore survey research on how OI takes place and contributes to innovation in SE. This study aims to synthesize the research knowledge on OI in the SE domain. We launched a systematic mapping study and conducted a thematic analysis of the results. Moreover, we analyzed the strength of the evidence in the light of a rigor and relevance assessment of the research. We identified 33 publications, divided into 9 themes related to OI. 17/33 studies fall in the high–rigor/high–relevance category, suggesting the results are highly industry relevant. The research indicates that start-ups have higher tendency to opt for OI compared to incumbents. The evidence also suggests that firms assimilating knowledge into their internal R&D activities, have higher likelihood of gaining financial advantages. We concluded that OI should be adopted as a complementary approach to facilitate internal innovation and not to substitute it. Further research is advised on situated OI strategies and the interplay between OI and agile practices.     

Model-driven engineering techniques for the development of multi-agent systems

Model-driven engineering (MDE), implicitly based upon meta-model principles, is gaining more and more attention in software systems due to its inherent benefits. Its use normally improves the quality of the developed systems in terms of productivity, portability, inter-operability and maintenance. Therefore, its exploitation for the development of multi-agent systems (MAS) emerges in a natural way. In this paper, agent-oriented software development (AOSD) and MDE paradigms are fully integrated for the development of MAS. Meta-modeling techniques are explicitly used to speed up several phases of the process. The Prometheus methodology is used for the purpose of validating the proposal. The meta-object facility (MOF) architecture is used as a guideline for developing a MAS editor according to the language provided by Prometheus methodology. Firstly, an Ecore meta-model for Prometheus language is developed. Ecore is a powerful tool for designing model-driven architectures (MDA). Next, facilities provided by the Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF) are used to generate the graphical editor. It offers support to develop agent models conform to the meta-model specified. Afterwards, it is also described how an agent code generator can be developed. In this way, code is automatically generated using as input the model specified with the graphical editor. A case of study validates the method put in practice for the development of a multi-agent surveillance system.     

Reusable knowledge in security requirements engineering: a systematic mapping study

Security is a concern that must be taken into consideration starting from the early stages of system development. Over the last two decades, researchers and engineers have developed a considerable number of methods for security requirements engineering. Some of them rely on the (re)use of security knowledge. Despite some existing surveys about security requirements engineering, there is not yet any reference for researchers and practitioners that presents in a systematic way the existing proposals, techniques, and tools related to security knowledge reuse in security requirements engineering. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by looking into drawing a picture of the literature on knowledge and reuse in security requirements engineering. The questions we address are related to methods, techniques, modeling frameworks, and tools for and by reuse in security requirements engineering. We address these questions through a systematic mapping study. The mapping study was a literature review conducted with the goal of identifying, analyzing, and categorizing state-of-the-art research on our topic. This mapping study analyzes more than thirty approaches, covering 20 years of research in security requirements engineering. The contributions can be summarized as follows: (1) A framework was defined for analyzing and comparing the different proposals as well as categorizing future contributions related to knowledge reuse and security requirements engineering; (2) the different forms of knowledge representation and reuse were identified; and (3) previous surveys were updated. We conclude that most methods should introduce more reusable knowledge to manage security requirements.     

模型驱动工程在分布式实时嵌入式系统QoS评价中的应用

在分析传统的分布式实时嵌入式系统开发过程中,针对服务质量(QoS)评价方法存在弊端的问题,总结了运用模型驱动工程(MDE)对分布式实时嵌入式系统的服务质量进行管理,将服务质量评价引入系统开发周期的各种探索,指出该方法应解决的几个关键问题,并分析了几种具有代表性解决方案的优缺点,提出了解决方法和建议.     

Replication of empirical studies in software engineering research: a systematic mapping study

In this article, we present a systematic mapping study of replications in software engineering. The goal is to plot the landscape of current published replications of empirical studies in software engineering research. We applied the systematic review method to search and select published articles, and to extract and synthesize data from the selected articles that reported replications. Our search retrieved more than 16,000 articles, from which we selected 96 articles, reporting 133 replications performed between 1994 and 2010, of 72 original studies. Nearly 70 % of the replications were published after 2004 and 70 % of these studies were internal replications. The topics of software requirements, software construction, and software quality concentrated over 55 % of the replications, while software design, configuration management, and software tools and methods were the topics with the smallest number of replications. We conclude that the number of replications has grown in the last few years, but the absolute number of replications is still small, in particular considering the breadth of topics in software engineering. We still need incentives to perform external replications, better standards to report empirical studies and their replications, and collaborative research agendas that could speed up development and publication of replications.     

Combining service-orientation and software product line engineering: A systematic mapping study

ContextService-Orientation (SO) is a rapidly emerging paradigm for the design and development of adaptive and dynamic software systems. Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) has also gained attention as a promising and successful software reuse development paradigm over the last decade and proven to provide effective solutions to deal with managing the growing complexity of software systems.ObjectiveThis study aims at characterizing and identifying the existing research on employing and leveraging SO and SPLE.MethodWe conducted a systematic mapping study to identify and analyze related literature. We identified 81 primary studies, dated from 2000–2011 and classified them with respect to research focus, types of research and contribution.ResultThe mapping synthesizes the available evidence about combining the synergy points and integration of SO and SPLE. The analysis shows that the majority of studies focus on service variability modeling and adaptive systems by employing SPLE principles and approaches.In particular, SPLE approaches, especially feature-oriented approaches for variability modeling, have been applied to the design and development of service-oriented systems. While SO is employed in software product line contexts for the realization of product lines to reconcile the flexibility, scalability and dynamism in product derivations thereby creating dynamic software product lines.ConclusionOur study summarizes and characterizes the SO and SPLE topics researchers have investigated over the past decade and identifies promising research directions as due to the synergy generated by integrating methods and techniques from these two areas.     

A systematic mapping study of search-based software engineering for software product lines

ContextSearch-Based Software Engineering (SBSE) is an emerging discipline that focuses on the application of search-based optimization techniques to software engineering problems. Software Product Lines (SPLs) are families of related software systems whose members are distinguished by the set of features each one provides. SPL development practices have proven benefits such as improved software reuse, better customization, and faster time to market. A typical SPL usually involves a large number of systems and features, a fact that makes them attractive for the application of SBSE techniques which are able to tackle problems that involve large search spaces.ObjectiveThe main objective of our work is to identify the quantity and the type of research on the application of SBSE techniques to SPL problems. More concretely, the SBSE techniques that have been used and at what stage of the SPL life cycle, the type of case studies employed and their empirical analysis, and the fora where the research has been published.MethodA systematic mapping study was conducted with five research questions and assessed 77 publications from 2001, when the term SBSE was coined, until 2014.ResultsThe most common application of SBSE techniques found was testing followed by product configuration, with genetic algorithms and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms being the two most commonly used techniques. Our study identified the need to improve the robustness of the empirical evaluation of existing research, a lack of extensive and robust tool support, and multiple avenues worthy of further investigation.ConclusionsOur study attested the great synergy existing between both fields, corroborated the increasing and ongoing interest in research on the subject, and revealed challenging open research questions.     

Model-based testing for software safety: a systematic mapping study

Testing safety-critical systems is crucial since a failure or malfunction may result in death or serious injuries to people, equipment, or environment. An important challenge in testing is the derivation of test cases that can identify the potential faults. Model-based testing adopts models of a system under test and/or its environment to derive test artifacts. This paper aims to provide a systematic mapping study to identify, analyze, and describe the state-of-the-art advances in model-based testing for software safety. The systematic mapping study is conducted as a multi-phase study selection process using the published literature in major software engineering journals and conference proceedings. We reviewed 751 papers and 36 of them have been selected as primary studies to answer our research questions. Based on the analysis of the data extraction process, we discuss the primary trends and approaches and present the identified obstacles. This study shows that model-based testing can provide important benefits for software safety testing. Several solution directions have been identified, but further research is critical for reliable model-based testing approach for safety.     

Test case prioritization: a systematic mapping study

Test case prioritization techniques, which are used to improve the cost-effectiveness of regression testing, order test cases in such a way that those cases that are expected to outperform others in detecting software faults are run earlier in the testing phase. The objective of this study is to examine what kind of techniques have been widely used in papers on this subject, determine which aspects of test case prioritization have been studied, provide a basis for the improvement of test case prioritization research, and evaluate the current trends of this research area. We searched for papers in the following five electronic databases: IEEE Explorer, ACM Digital Library, Science Direct, Springer, and Wiley. Initially, the search string retrieved 202 studies, but upon further examination of titles and abstracts, 120 papers were identified as related to test case prioritization. There exists a large variety of prioritization techniques in the literature, with coverage-based prioritization techniques (i.e., prioritization in terms of the number of statements, basic blocks, or methods test cases cover) dominating the field. The proportion of papers on model-based techniques is on the rise, yet the growth rate is still slow. The proportion of papers that use datasets from industrial projects is found to be 64 %, while those that utilize public datasets for validation are only 38 %. On the basis of this study, the following recommendations are provided for researchers: (1) Give preference to public datasets rather than proprietary datasets; (2) develop more model-based prioritization methods; (3) conduct more studies on the comparison of prioritization methods; (4) always evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique with well-known evaluation metrics and compare the performance with the existing methods; (5) publish surveys and systematic review papers on test case prioritization; and (6) use datasets from industrial projects that represent real industrial problems.     

Model-driven development of accessible software: a systematic literature review

Universal Access in the Information Society - The lack of accessibility in software products is a problem, which is difficult to solve, due to the absence of accessible support tools and the scarce...     

Investigations about replication of empirical studies in software engineering: A systematic mapping study

ContextTwo recent mapping studies which were intended to verify the current state of replication of empirical studies in Software Engineering (SE) identified two sets of studies: empirical studies actually reporting replications (published between 1994 and 2012) and a second group of studies that are concerned with definitions, classifications, processes, guidelines, and other research topics or themes about replication work in empirical software engineering research (published between 1996 and 2012).ObjectiveIn this current article, our goal is to analyze and discuss the contents of the second set of studies about replications to increase our understanding of the current state of the work on replication in empirical software engineering research.MethodWe applied the systematic literature review method to build a systematic mapping study, in which the primary studies were collected by two previous mapping studies covering the period 1996–2012 complemented by manual and automatic search procedures that collected articles published in 2013.ResultsWe analyzed 37 papers reporting studies about replication published in the last 17 years. These papers explore different topics related to concepts and classifications, presented guidelines, and discuss theoretical issues that are relevant for our understanding of replication in our field. We also investigated how these 37 papers have been cited in the 135 replication papers published between 1994 and 2012.ConclusionsReplication in SE still lacks a set of standardized concepts and terminology, which has a negative impact on the replication work in our field. To improve this situation, it is important that the SE research community engage on an effort to create and evaluate taxonomy, frameworks, guidelines, and methodologies to fully support the development of replications.     

Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update

ContextSystematic mapping studies are used to structure a research area, while systematic reviews are focused on gathering and synthesizing evidence. The most recent guidelines for systematic mapping are from 2008. Since that time, many suggestions have been made of how to improve systematic literature reviews (SLRs). There is a need to evaluate how researchers conduct the process of systematic mapping and identify how the guidelines should be updated based on the lessons learned from the existing systematic maps and SLR guidelines.ObjectiveTo identify how the systematic mapping process is conducted (including search, study selection, analysis and presentation of data, etc.); to identify improvement potentials in conducting the systematic mapping process and updating the guidelines accordingly.MethodWe conducted a systematic mapping study of systematic maps, considering some practices of systematic review guidelines as well (in particular in relation to defining the search and to conduct a quality assessment).ResultsIn a large number of studies multiple guidelines are used and combined, which leads to different ways in conducting mapping studies. The reason for combining guidelines was that they differed in the recommendations given.ConclusionThe most frequently followed guidelines are not sufficient alone. Hence, there was a need to provide an update of how to conduct systematic mapping studies. New guidelines have been proposed consolidating existing findings.     

Accessible wayfinding and navigation: a systematic mapping study

Urban environments, university campuses, and public and private buildings often present architectural barriers that prevent people with disabilities and special needs to move freely and independently. This paper presents a systematic mapping study of the scientific literature proposing devices, and software applications aimed at fostering accessible wayfinding and navigation in indoor and outdoor environments. We selected 111 out of 806 papers published in the period 2009–2020, and we analyzed them according to different dimensions: at first, we surveyed which solutions have been proposed to address the considered problem; then, we analyzed the selected papers according to five dimensions: context of use, target users, hardware/software technologies, type of data sources, and user role in system design and evaluation. Our findings highlight trends and gaps related to these dimensions. The paper finally presents a reflection on challenges and open issues that must be taken into consideration for the design of future accessible places and of related technologies and applications aimed at facilitating wayfinding and navigation.

     

Understanding requirement prioritization artifacts: a systematic mapping study

The importance of prioritizing requirements stems from the fact that not all requirements can usually be met with available time and resource constraints. Efficient and trustworthy methods for prioritizing requirements are therefore in high demand. In this article, we present results of a systematic mapping study in order to appreciate the different considerations that have influenced prioritization of software requirements, identify the various types of artifacts proposed toward prioritizing software requirements, and examine certain characterizations of these artifacts. The results emphasize the heightened attention the domain of requirement prioritization has received in recent years. On the basis of this study, we are able to provide the following inferences regarding possible future research trajectories in software requirement prioritization artifacts: (1) focus on frameworks and tools; (2) emphasis on specialization; and (3) proposition of theory-based artifacts. Additional research possibilities are also pointed out at the end and are expected to stimulate further research on the topic.     

Software Design Smell Detection: a systematic mapping study

Design Smells are indicators of situations that negatively affect software quality attributes such as understandability, testability, extensibility, reusability, and maintainability in general. Improving maintainability is one of the cornerstones of making software evolution easier. Hence, Design Smell Detection is important in helping developers when making decisions that can improve software evolution processes. After a long period of research, it is important to organize the knowledge produced so far and to identify current challenges and future trends. In this paper, we analyze 18 years of research into Design Smell Detection. There is a wide variety of terms that have been used in the literature to describe concepts which are similar to what we have defined as “Design Smells,” such as design defect, design flaw, anomaly, pitfall, antipattern, and disharmony. The aim of this paper is to analyze all these terms and include them in the study. We have used the standard systematic literature review method based on a comprehensive set of 395 articles published in different proceedings, journals, and book chapters. We present the results in different dimensions of Design Smell Detection, such as the type or scope of smell, detection approaches, tools, applied techniques, validation evidence, type of artifact in which the smell is detected, resources used in evaluation, supported languages, and relation between detected smells and software quality attributes according to a quality model. The main contributions of this paper are, on the one hand, the application of domain modeling techniques to obtain a conceptual model that allows the organization of the knowledge on Design Smell Detection and a collaborative web application built on that knowledge and, on the other, finding how tendencies have moved across different kinds of smell detection, as well as different approaches and techniques. Key findings for future trends include the fact that all automatic detection tools described in the literature identify Design Smells as a binary decision (having the smell or not), which is an opportunity to evolve to fuzzy and prioritized decisions. We also find that there is a lack of human experts and benchmark validation processes, as well as demonstrating that Design Smell Detection positively influences quality attributes.