copyright © 2010 nara institute of science and technology / osaka university standardizing the...

Copyright © 2010 Nara Institute of Science and Technology / Osaka University

Standardizing the Software Tag in Japan for Transparency of Development

Profes 2010

Masateru Tsunoda†, Tomoko Matsumura†, Hajimu Iida†, Kozo Kubo†,

Shinji Kusumoto‡, Katsuro Inoue‡, and Ken-ichi Matsumoto†

†Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan

‡Osaka University, Japan

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Copyright © 2010 Nara Institute of Science and Technology / Osaka UniversityCopyright © 2010 Nara Institute of Science and Technology / Osaka University

Background

Software failure may cause great economic loss for developers and purchasers. Complex systems are widely used in society.

They become important infrastructure for society. Ex. Banking, communication systems, …

There may be life threatening system failures. Ex. Air-traffic control system, automobile safety system, …

There are high risks of software failure. Software systems are still extending but development periods

are decreasing. Demand of reducing cost and increasing reliability.

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Issues on Non-transparency

Purchasers cannot check the quality of software products during software development. The developer collects project data and analysis it. The purchaser does not know project data and the analysis

results.

Purchaser

Order

Deliver

Developer

Projectdata

Software product

Data collection

Analysisfeedback

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Goal and Approach

Goal Increasing traceability and transparency of software products

and development for purchasers.

Approach Propose the software tag to share various data between

purchasers and developers. It contains various data collected during development.

Key technologies Software tag standard 1.0 Data collection and analysis tools Tag application pattern


Software Tag Usage Model

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Software Tag Usage Model

Depend on development style, purchasers, ...

Typical cases In contract-based development, the purchaser uses the

software tag for evaluation of development. Software tag data cannot be public (Only purchasers can see it).

Legal dispute is occurred between the purchaser and the developer, the software tag is used for evaluation of their liability.

When choosing software components, the developer uses the software tag for the component evaluation.

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Contract-based Development

Project data is selected/abstracted as the software tag, and the tag is associated with software.

The purchaser confirms validity of process and product with the software tag.

Purchaser

Order

Deliver

Developer

Projectdata

Data collection

Analysisfeedback

Software products

Associated

Software tag

Selected/abstracted

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Legal Dispute between the Purchaser and the Developer

Software liability arbiter inspects the software tag to resolve the legal issue.

Purchaser

Order

Deliver

Developer

Projectdata

Data collection

Analysisfeedback

Software products

Associated

Software tag

Selected/abstracted

Software liability arbiter

Inspect Inspect

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When developers search for reusable components, they can select reliable components by evaluating the software tag.

Evaluation of Software Components

Developer

Search for reusable components

Evaluation

Software systemintegration Select reliable

components

Reusable componentlibrary

Softwarecomponent

Softwarecomponent

Softwarecomponent


Key technology:Software tag standard 1.0

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Software Tag Standard 1.0

We defined Software Tag Standard 1.0 based on discussions with industry and academic collaborators. Project information (12 elements)

Basic information for project and system basic info., system info., development info., project organization, other

Progress information (29 elements)Development information of the systemrequirement, design, coding, test, quality, work load, plan and management, other products

Classification

Category No. Tag Element Explanation

ProjectInformation

Development Information

7Development Approach

Development process type or techniques

8Organizational Structure

Structure of development organization

9 Project Duration Information of development length

ProgressInformation Programming

19 Scale Amount of programming products20 Revisions Amount of changed programs21 Complexity Complexity of programs

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Establishing Policy of Software Tag Standard

We considered Including information that are important to the purchasers. Simple structure for the purchaser to understand. The balance of the tag elements.

On the tag standard, Tag elements are selective. Calculation methods of the elements were not described.

Thorough the discussion, we saw that appropriate tag elements set and calculation methods are different for organizations.

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Arbitrary Matters

Tag elements used in the tag. It is not necessary to use all elements.

Metrics used for the tag element. Tag Standard 1.0 shows examples of metrics.

Ex. Function point or lines of code can be used for tag element “scale”

Timing of sending tag data from the vendor to the purchaser. Ex. at the end of the project, at every phase of development

(ex. the end of design phase), at every week, ...

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Empirical Data

Supporting data for the software tag. Ex. source code, design documents, bug reports, progress

reports, ...

Encrypted and stored. Decrypted when serious system failure or legal dispute

is occurred to inspect the project.

Scale

Complexity

Lines of code

Cyclomaticcomplexity

Source code　 repository

Tag elements MerticsEmpirical data

Software tag

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Standardizing Tag Data Format

To store, exchange and reuse the software tag, we settled the draft of the standard software tag format. Based on XML format. Software tag support tools treats software tag format data.

We are making the tool which converts existing tools’ data into standard software tag format data.

Standard software tag format data

Visualization tools

Convert toolSoftware configuration management


Key technology:Data collection and analysis tools

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Software Tag Data Collection Tool CollectTag (1/2)

Supports collection of empirical data and creation of a software tag.

Automatic data collection mechanisms for 11 tag elements using software configuration management or bug tracking system. Ex. LOC (Scale) and CK metrics (Complexity) are

automatically collected from SCM tools (CVS/Subversion).

Wizard type user interface.

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Software Tag Data Collection Tool CollectTag (2/2)

1. A user selects a tag element, and settles a metric for the element.

2. The user selects data input method.

3. CollectTag generates the software tag elements in standard software tag format.

[Programming]-[Scale] (#19) is selected

The user can select [Lines of code] or [Function point]

Input Manually (LOC)

Obtain from repositories

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Software Tag Visualization Tool TagReplayer (1/2)

Provide fundamental features for integrated visualization of the software tag.

Employ the metaphor of video player manipulation for its user interface. Users can replay the progress of the project just like watching

video on TV.

Align progress information from the software tag as a series of events.

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Software Tag Visualization Tool TagReplayer (2/2)

Time bar

Event list view

Graph view

Member view

File view

Mail view

Transition of LOC during the project

Completion rate of each file, computed from cumulative changed LOC at the end of the project

Assigned and completed task history of each member

Topics list, mail subject list, and a mail body

By moving slider, replay goes to a certain point of time


Key technology:Tag Application Pattern

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Tag Application Pattern (1/2)

Catalog to explain which metrics should be used and how to analysis them. Software tag standard 1.0 does not include concrete metrics. It is not easy to settle metrics for many tag elements from

scratch.

Goal achieved by the software tag

Metric indicating whether the goal is achieved or not

Metrics indicating whether progress is smooth or not.(Tag elements)

Enhance software quality

Defect density after6 months of release

Code coverage

Defect density at unit testing

Defect density at integration testing

Found problem rate at code review

Defect density at system testing

Purchaser's goalDeveloper’s goal

KGI

Software reliability growth modelKPIs

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Tag Application Pattern (2/2)

Explain usages of each KGI/KPI.

KGI/KPI Base

measure Measurement

method Measurement

function Decision criteria Corrective action

Defect density at unit testing

Number of defects

Collect defects at unit testing

Number of defects at unit testing / program size

Compare the value between modules.

Case1: When the value of a module is too low, number of test cases is suspected of insufficiency.

Case2: When the value of a module is too high, quality of module is suspected of low.

Case1: Confirm number of test cases of the module, and test the module again.

Case2: Code review of the module is conducted again.

Program size

Measure program size by a program size measurement tool

How to measure base values

How to compute the value

How to analysis the metric

How to react based on the analysis

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Discussions (1/2)

There are projects which involve some companies to establishment of software quality[1][2]. The software tag provides a unique approach to involve

software purchasers in the quality improvement framework.

Tag elements are not very unique. Some developers disclose progress information at the meeting

with the purchaser. Still, the software tag is effective to propagate such a good

practice involved the purchaser.

[1] The Consortium for IT Software Quality: CISQ – The Global Standard for IT Software Quality.

[2] The Quamoco Consortium: Quamoco – The Benchmark for Software Quality.

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Discussions (2/2)

The tag standard is set as a lightweight set. As a standard used for various projects, the set should be

minimal and low cost.

The risk of tampering software tag data is low. Difficult to tamper several tag elements recorded by time

series with keeping consistency. Not difficult to rebuild the software tag from empirical data.

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Conclusions and Future Works

Conclusions The software tag contains software development data, and it

brings purchasers transparency of software development. We identified 41 items for seeing software process and products,

and defined them as the standard tag element set. To support software tag scheme, we made tools for collecting,

and analyzing tag data. Tag application pattern explains how to use software tag.

Future Works Focus on making international/domestic standards of the

software tag. Delivery software tag support tools and tag application

pattern.

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