investigating the suitability of web x.y features for software engineers
DESCRIPTION
"Investigating the Suitability of Web X.Y Features for Software Engineers" (Eric Ras, Jörg Rech, Sebastian Weber) Today, software engineers strongly rely on information while they performdevelopment activities in the different software engineering (SE) phases. Theresults of a previous survey showed that most information is required during thephases of requirements engineering (RE), design, programming, and project management.Web X.Y features (i.e., concepts and technologies) facilitate collaborationand communication with distributed individuals and help to cope with theimmense amount of information by simplifying the organization, integration, andreuse of information scattered across diverse content sources. After presenting thefeatures of the different Web X.Y generations (i.e., Web 2.0, Web 2.5, and Web3.0), we propose a weighted mapping for the relevancy of these Web X.Y featuresregarding their support for the four SE phases with the highest need for information.Based on this subjective mapping, a set of research questions and hypothesesis derived that form the basis of an empirical survey. The goal of this survey is toinvestigate the potential of Web X.Y features for SE.TRANSCRIPT
Investigating the Suitability of Web X.Y
Features for Software Engineering –
Towards an Empirical Survey
SENSE 2009 – Kaiserslautern, Germany
Eric Ras
Jörg Rech
Sebastian Weber
Slide 2
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Motivation
• Software engineers go through an incremental process of acquiring, evaluating, organizing, analyzing, presenting, and storing information
• Web X.Y features could provide new possibilities for low threshold lightweight mechanisms for supporting
- search,
- access, sharing, and
- usage of information during the different SE phases
• Several success stories/empirical studies in the domain of SE exist that show the potential of specific Web technologies for specific SE phases/activities/steps
• However, we still lack understanding of Web X. Y usage in SE ...
We need to understand the Big Picture!
Slide 3
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Goal of the paper
Motivate the development of an empirical study (survey)
… to understand the usage of Web X.Y technologies in SE …
on the level of exploration/understanding (1), baselining (2), and relating (3):
• defining terms (1)• understand phenomena (1)• get evidence that we can measure the phenomena (1)• get evidence that measures are valid (1)• identify useful distinctions (1)
• understanding normal patterns (2)• know the occurrence of phenomena (2)
• understanding relationships (correlation) between two different phenomena (3)
Slide 4
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Survey in 2006 – rationales for information gathering
82%
78%
78%
37%
27%
28%
18%
22%
21%
54%
49%
47%
1%
1%
1%
9%
24%
25%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Solving Problems; N=120
Knowledge Gaps; N=120
Personal Motivation; N=119
New Trends ; N=120
General Code of Practice; N=119
Needed for Official Processes;N=118
Full applicable Partially applicable Not Applicable
Slide 5
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Survey in 2006 – information need in SE phases
61%
43%40%
37%
24%23%22%21%18%17%
14%13%13%10%
1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Slide 6
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Features of Web 2.0, Web 2.5, Web 3.0
• Web 2.0: using network effect, collaborative work, desktop-like UIs
- social networking
- annotation/rating and recommendation
- mashup and syndication
- folksonomy and collaborative working
- blog, life streaming
- …
• Web 2.5: pervasive Web, user are „always-on“ using mobile devices
- seamless experience, context sensitivity, dynamic mashups, rule-based services, end-user programming,…
• Web 3.0: semantic Web
- semantic data and services, natural language search, experience-based services, 3D Web,…
Slide 7
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Relevancy of Web X.Y features for SE phases
Feature Project
Management Requirements Engineering
Design Programming
Syndication (e.g., RSS, Mashup)
Social Networking Annotating / Rating Mashup Folksonomy Recommendation Life Streaming Collaboration (e.g., Wiki)
We
b 2
.0
Blog Seamless Experience Off-Site Commenting Device Sensitivity User Sensitivity Location Sensitivity Content Sensitivity Time-Sensitivity Dynamic Mashups
We
b 2
.5
Rule-based Services Semantic Data Semantic Services Natural-Language Search
Experience-based Services
We
b 3
.0
The 3D Web
Judgement of 5
research
ers
Slide 8
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Next steps …
• Develop an empirical survey with focus on Web X.Y usage in professional software engineering:
- information need (what) previous survey
- information usage (why) previous survey
- Web X.Y technologies (how) in SE phases (where)
- Specific aspects such as collaboration and knowledge sharing by means of Web X.Y technologies
- expected potential of Web X.Y for specific SE phases in industry
- …
• Define a first set of research questions, starting today …
Slide 9
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
How? By means of explorative questions (Level 1) • 1. Existence questions
- Does X exist?
• 2. Description and Classification questions
- What is X like?
- What are its properties?
- How can it be categorized?
- How can it be measured?
- What is it purpose?
- What are its components?
- How do the components relate to each other?
- What are the types of X?
• 3. Descriptive-Comparative questions
- How does X differ from Y?
Understanding
Baselining
Relating
Slide 10
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
How? By means of baselining questions (Level 2)
• 4. Frequency and Distribution questions
- How often does X occur?
- What is average amount of X?
• 5. Descriptive-Process questions
- How does X normally work?
- What is the process by which X happens?
- In what sequence do the events of X occur?
- What are the steps X goes through as it evolves?
- How does X achieve its purpose?
Understanding
Baselining
Relating
Slide 11
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
How? By means of relationship (correlation) questions (Level 3)
• 6. Relationship questions (focus on correlation)
- Are X and Y related?
- Do occurrences of X correlate with the occurrences of Y?
Level 4 would be cause effect relationships … this should be done later
Understanding
Baselining
Relating
Slide 12
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Next steps …
• If you like to be involved, please write down your research questions by using the form or just send them to [email protected] until end of March
• Join a pilot study to evaluate the survey questionnaire (online survey) May/June
• Help to distribute the survey and invite people from software engineering industry to take part (Summer)
• Get the results as a report (Dec)
• Thank you …
Slide 13
SENSE 2009/ KaiserslauternMarch 3 2009
Copyright © Fraunhofer IESE 2009
Thanks!
Questions?
Eric Ras, Jörg Rech, Sebastian Weber
{forname.surname}@iese.fraunhofer.de
Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering
Fraunhofer-Platz 1
67633 Kaiserslautern
Germany