A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement Programs

Measures are essential resources to improve quality and control costs during software development. One of the main factors for having successful software measurement programs is measure trustworthiness, defined as how much a user can trust a measure to use it with confidence. Such confidence enables...

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Main Authors: Renata Saraiva, Amaury Medeiros, Mirko Perkusich, Dalton Valadares, Kyller Costa Gorgonio, Angelo Perkusich, Hyggo Almeida
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9246551/
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author Renata Saraiva
Amaury Medeiros
Mirko Perkusich
Dalton Valadares
Kyller Costa Gorgonio
Angelo Perkusich
Hyggo Almeida
author_facet Renata Saraiva
Amaury Medeiros
Mirko Perkusich
Dalton Valadares
Kyller Costa Gorgonio
Angelo Perkusich
Hyggo Almeida
author_sort Renata Saraiva
collection DOAJ
description Measures are essential resources to improve quality and control costs during software development. One of the main factors for having successful software measurement programs is measure trustworthiness, defined as how much a user can trust a measure to use it with confidence. Such confidence enables the users to interpret them and use them for supporting decision-making. ISO/IEC 15939:2007 describes four stages that influence such interpretability: measure selection, measure validation, threshold definition, and data validation. The literature is scarce in supporting data validation, which directly impacts the measure's trustworthiness value. This article aims to detail a method that uses Bayesian networks for supporting data validation and shows its application in practice to four software development projects from one company. The proposed method uses Bayesian networks to calculate the degree to which a collected number or symbol represents the real value for the measures and is integrated with GQM for assessing the measurement program's goals. First, the measurement users must create GQM model hierarchical structures, use it as input for constructing the Bayesian network, validate the Bayesian network, and, finally, use it to support decision-making. A tool to support the proposed method was developed and is freely available. Further, herein, the results of the case study are presented. We identified four benefits in using the proposed method: Externalization, Diagnosis support, Measure interpretation improvement, and Decision-making support. Given this, even though the initial effort to use the proposed method lasted, on average, one hour and fourteen minutes, the benefits of using it outweighed the effort of applying it. Therefore, our findings suggest that there was a positive intention in adopting the proposed method in practice.
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spelling doaj.art-36dd299e7c8045cb84f81f08e43df44e2022-12-21T21:30:45ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-01819880119882110.1109/ACCESS.2020.30352179246551A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement ProgramsRenata Saraiva0Amaury Medeiros1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6863-0613Mirko Perkusich2Dalton Valadares3Kyller Costa Gorgonio4Angelo Perkusich5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7377-1258Hyggo Almeida6Embedded Systems and Pervasive Computing Laboratory, VIRTUS Research, Development and Innovation Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, BrazilEmbedded Systems and Pervasive Computing Laboratory, VIRTUS Research, Development and Innovation Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, BrazilEmbedded Systems and Pervasive Computing Laboratory, VIRTUS Research, Development and Innovation Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, BrazilEmbedded Systems and Pervasive Computing Laboratory, VIRTUS Research, Development and Innovation Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, BrazilEmbedded Systems and Pervasive Computing Laboratory, VIRTUS Research, Development and Innovation Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, BrazilEmbedded Systems and Pervasive Computing Laboratory, VIRTUS Research, Development and Innovation Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, BrazilEmbedded Systems and Pervasive Computing Laboratory, VIRTUS Research, Development and Innovation Center, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, BrazilMeasures are essential resources to improve quality and control costs during software development. One of the main factors for having successful software measurement programs is measure trustworthiness, defined as how much a user can trust a measure to use it with confidence. Such confidence enables the users to interpret them and use them for supporting decision-making. ISO/IEC 15939:2007 describes four stages that influence such interpretability: measure selection, measure validation, threshold definition, and data validation. The literature is scarce in supporting data validation, which directly impacts the measure's trustworthiness value. This article aims to detail a method that uses Bayesian networks for supporting data validation and shows its application in practice to four software development projects from one company. The proposed method uses Bayesian networks to calculate the degree to which a collected number or symbol represents the real value for the measures and is integrated with GQM for assessing the measurement program's goals. First, the measurement users must create GQM model hierarchical structures, use it as input for constructing the Bayesian network, validate the Bayesian network, and, finally, use it to support decision-making. A tool to support the proposed method was developed and is freely available. Further, herein, the results of the case study are presented. We identified four benefits in using the proposed method: Externalization, Diagnosis support, Measure interpretation improvement, and Decision-making support. Given this, even though the initial effort to use the proposed method lasted, on average, one hour and fourteen minutes, the benefits of using it outweighed the effort of applying it. Therefore, our findings suggest that there was a positive intention in adopting the proposed method in practice.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9246551/Goal-question-metricBayesian networksoftware measurement
spellingShingle Renata Saraiva
Amaury Medeiros
Mirko Perkusich
Dalton Valadares
Kyller Costa Gorgonio
Angelo Perkusich
Hyggo Almeida
A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement Programs
IEEE Access
Goal-question-metric
Bayesian network
software measurement
title A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement Programs
title_full A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement Programs
title_fullStr A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement Programs
title_full_unstemmed A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement Programs
title_short A Bayesian Networks-Based Method to Analyze the Validity of the Data of Software Measurement Programs
title_sort bayesian networks based method to analyze the validity of the data of software measurement programs
topic Goal-question-metric
Bayesian network
software measurement
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9246551/
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