The reuse and integration of Open Source Software (OSS) components provided by OSS communities is becoming an economical and strategic need for today's organizations. The integration of OSS components provides many benefits, but also... more
The reuse and integration of Open Source Software (OSS) components provided by OSS communities is becoming an economical and strategic need for today's organizations. The integration of OSS components provides many benefits, but also risks and challenges. One of the most important risks is the lack of effective and timely OSS community support for dealing with possible integration problems. For gaining an understanding of the common problems that organizations face when integrating OSS components, and the role played ...
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ABSTRACT Software package selection plays a crucial role in the development of the software systems. One of its main current problems is how to deal with the vast amount of unstructured, incomplete, evolvable and widespread information... more
ABSTRACT Software package selection plays a crucial role in the development of the software systems. One of its main current problems is how to deal with the vast amount of unstructured, incomplete, evolvable and widespread information that highly increases the risks of taking wrong decisions. Based on the information quality research, the authors empirically examine the meaning of information quality as perceived by software package selectors. The results were used to envisage a framework for gauging information quality in the context of diverse software package selection projects. The aim of the framework is to support software package selection decision-making by informing selectors about the quality of the information to be used in a specific project as a risk mitigation strategy. A software tool prototype is also provided to facilitate the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and reuse of information in a quality assurance environment. A potential scenario of use is also described as future work to be implemented in the context of an European funded project.
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ABSTRACT Context: Software reference architectures (SRA) have emerged as an approach to systematically reuse architectural knowledge and software elements in the development of software systems. Over the last years, research has been... more
ABSTRACT Context: Software reference architectures (SRA) have emerged as an approach to systematically reuse architectural knowledge and software elements in the development of software systems. Over the last years, research has been conducted to uncover the artifacts that SRAs provide in order to build software systems. However, empirical studies have not focused on providing industrial evidence about such artifacts. Aim: This paper investigates which artifacts constitute an SRA, how SRAs are designed, the potential reuse of SRA's artifacts, and how they are used in practice. Method: The study consists of a case study made in collaboration with a multinational consulting company that designs SRAs for diverse client organizations. A total of nine European client organizations that use an SRA participated in the study. We analyzed available documentation and contacted 28 practitioners. Results: In the nine analyzed projects, we observed that the artifacts that constitute an SRA are mainly software elements, guidelines and documentation. The design and implementation of SRAs are influenced by the reuse of artifacts from previous software system development and experiences, and the reuse of an SRA across different business domains may be possible when they are platform-oriented. Regarding SRAs usage, we observed that conformance checking is seldom performed. Conclusions: This study reports artifacts of SRAs as stated by practitioners in order to help software architects and scientists in the inception, design, and application of SRAs.