Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows
Abstract It is important to count on tools to help software professionals to evaluate the software process and how it may be affected by factors related to its deployment. Simulation models are a valuable means to illustrate the behaviour of such a process since scenario generation supports the pred...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Hindawi-IET
2021-12-01
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| Series: | IET Software |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12031 |
| _version_ | 1797420824079106048 |
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| author | German‐Lenin Dugarte‐Peña María‐Isabel Sánchez‐Segura Antonio deAmescua Fuensanta Medina‐Domínguez Stefano Armenia |
| author_facet | German‐Lenin Dugarte‐Peña María‐Isabel Sánchez‐Segura Antonio deAmescua Fuensanta Medina‐Domínguez Stefano Armenia |
| author_sort | German‐Lenin Dugarte‐Peña |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract It is important to count on tools to help software professionals to evaluate the software process and how it may be affected by factors related to its deployment. Simulation models are a valuable means to illustrate the behaviour of such a process since scenario generation supports the prediction of potential outcomes and the prevention of undesired scenarios which are harmful to the process and the company in charge of the project to be developed. This work explores the effectiveness of introducing system dynamics (SD) models in the software engineers’ process of understanding, from a management perspective, the software process dynamics. The used SD simulation model of the software process emphasises the representation of an iterative process. The COCOMO II model drivers and their main attributes were used, providing a set of reference factors that affect the software process, the estimation of project cost and the effort required. A set of 59 junior software professionals with no previous knowledge about SD participated in a validation study. For simple predictive scenarios, there was no important improvement effect, while for more complex predictive scenarios SD helped them to guess better and provide a rationale for the expected behaviour of the software process performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:07:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-300b5e2262ca4f6ea9415ba553ee9581 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1751-8806 1751-8814 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:07:05Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Hindawi-IET |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IET Software |
| spelling | doaj.art-300b5e2262ca4f6ea9415ba553ee95812023-12-03T09:22:12ZengHindawi-IETIET Software1751-88061751-88142021-12-0115635136410.1049/sfw2.12031Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflowsGerman‐Lenin Dugarte‐Peña0María‐Isabel Sánchez‐Segura1Antonio deAmescua2Fuensanta Medina‐Domínguez3Stefano Armenia4Computer Science and Engineering Department Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Madrid SpainComputer Science and Engineering Department Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Madrid SpainComputer Science and Engineering Department Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Madrid SpainComputer Science and Engineering Department Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Madrid SpainLink Campus University Rome ItalyAbstract It is important to count on tools to help software professionals to evaluate the software process and how it may be affected by factors related to its deployment. Simulation models are a valuable means to illustrate the behaviour of such a process since scenario generation supports the prediction of potential outcomes and the prevention of undesired scenarios which are harmful to the process and the company in charge of the project to be developed. This work explores the effectiveness of introducing system dynamics (SD) models in the software engineers’ process of understanding, from a management perspective, the software process dynamics. The used SD simulation model of the software process emphasises the representation of an iterative process. The COCOMO II model drivers and their main attributes were used, providing a set of reference factors that affect the software process, the estimation of project cost and the effort required. A set of 59 junior software professionals with no previous knowledge about SD participated in a validation study. For simple predictive scenarios, there was no important improvement effect, while for more complex predictive scenarios SD helped them to guess better and provide a rationale for the expected behaviour of the software process performance.https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12031software cost estimationsoftware qualitysoftware process improvementsoftware metricssoftware development managementproject management |
| spellingShingle | German‐Lenin Dugarte‐Peña María‐Isabel Sánchez‐Segura Antonio deAmescua Fuensanta Medina‐Domínguez Stefano Armenia Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows IET Software software cost estimation software quality software process improvement software metrics software development management project management |
| title | Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows |
| title_full | Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows |
| title_fullStr | Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows |
| title_short | Using system dynamics to teach about dependencies, correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows |
| title_sort | using system dynamics to teach about dependencies correlation and systemic thinking on the software process workflows |
| topic | software cost estimation software quality software process improvement software metrics software development management project management |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12031 |
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