Global Software Development (GSD) is a well established field of software engineering with the be... more Global Software Development (GSD) is a well established field of software engineering with the benefits of a global environment. Software Project Management (SPM) plays a key role in the success of GSD. As a result, the need has arisen to study and evaluate the downsides of SPM for GSD, to thereby pave the way for the development of new methods, techniques, and tools with which to tackle them. This paper aims to identify and classify research on SPM approaches for GSD that are available in the literature, to identify their current weaknesses and strengths, and to analyze their applications in industry. We performed a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) based on six classification criteria. Eighty-four papers were selected and analyzed. The results indicate that interest in SPM for GSD has been increasing since 2006. As a class of approaches, the most frequently reported methods (40%) are those used for coordination, planning, and monitoring, along with estimation techniques that can be used to better match a distributed project. SPM for GSD requires further investigation by researchers and practitioners, particularly with respect to cost and time estimations. These findings will help overcome the challenges that must to be considered in future SPM research for GSD, especially regarding collaboration and time-zone differences.
Software Project Management is a core topic in software engineering courses because it teaches ho... more Software Project Management is a core topic in software engineering courses because it teaches how software projects planned, implemented, controlled, monitored, and evaluated. The development of theories in software metrics and prediction models builds on the broader project management field but also attempt to overcome the difficulties inherent in measuring an intangible object like software. This paper is situated within research into the factors that influence cost and time estimation for software projects that continue to challenge software development organizations. The study described in this paper explored technical and non-technical factors seen by Sudanese software practitioners as critical in estimation, and if not managed, can result in cost and time overrun or in some cases lead to project failure. Using a mixed-method approach, the research project was first informed through a qualitative study that explored the kinds of problems that face the estimation process from the perspectives of different staff levels. This part of the study revealed a number of factors that can be broadly categorized as technical factors, e.g. the skills of those involved in the estimation process, and non-technical factors such as the high level of uncertainty in the local business environment. The second part of the study focused on one of the leading factors, software project staff training and experience, using the survey method to examine how well the software engineering curriculum is aligned with skills required in the software market, especially those related to estimation. The recommendations this study produced on reducing estimation errors, whether geared towards companies or academia, are preliminary and may only reflect the local setting. However, they also drew upon the vast literature on cost estimation techniques and case studies in similar and more advanced settings. The problem of software effort prediction and estimation models has been a thorny issue in the software engineering field since the concept of "software crisis" and the field itself, as a response to the crisis, emerged in the late 1960s. It still seems to some that "After forty years of currency the phrase 'software engineering' still denotes no more than a vague and largely unfulfilled aspiration" [2]. This study develops our understanding of problems facing one of the young professions in the country, as well as contributes to the global body of research on developing techniques to manage the intricacy of software engineering compared to more established engineering disciplines.
This work tackles the issue of the protection of confidential private data. Special attention is ... more This work tackles the issue of the protection of confidential private data. Special attention is given to online banking. We made profit random functions to produce unpredictable results for intruders. By creating a list of passwords and by encrypting each word in two different steps based on random functions we obtain efficient double protection. Additional security is offered by biometrical data such as fingerprints. The fingerprints are watermarked in a well-chosen image which serves a shared key between the bank and its customer. This image is merged in the customer's fingerprints by using the mathematical principle of singular value decomposition (SVD). As a result we get a blurred image that is only understandable by the bank.
Global Software Development (GSD) is a well established field of software engineering with the be... more Global Software Development (GSD) is a well established field of software engineering with the benefits of a global environment. Software Project Management (SPM) plays a key role in the success of GSD. As a result, the need has arisen to study and evaluate the downsides of SPM for GSD, to thereby pave the way for the development of new methods, techniques, and tools with which to tackle them. This paper aims to identify and classify research on SPM approaches for GSD that are available in the literature, to identify their current weaknesses and strengths, and to analyze their applications in industry. We performed a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) based on six classification criteria. Eighty-four papers were selected and analyzed. The results indicate that interest in SPM for GSD has been increasing since 2006. As a class of approaches, the most frequently reported methods (40%) are those used for coordination, planning, and monitoring, along with estimation techniques that can be used to better match a distributed project. SPM for GSD requires further investigation by researchers and practitioners, particularly with respect to cost and time estimations. These findings will help overcome the challenges that must to be considered in future SPM research for GSD, especially regarding collaboration and time-zone differences.
Software Project Management is a core topic in software engineering courses because it teaches ho... more Software Project Management is a core topic in software engineering courses because it teaches how software projects planned, implemented, controlled, monitored, and evaluated. The development of theories in software metrics and prediction models builds on the broader project management field but also attempt to overcome the difficulties inherent in measuring an intangible object like software. This paper is situated within research into the factors that influence cost and time estimation for software projects that continue to challenge software development organizations. The study described in this paper explored technical and non-technical factors seen by Sudanese software practitioners as critical in estimation, and if not managed, can result in cost and time overrun or in some cases lead to project failure. Using a mixed-method approach, the research project was first informed through a qualitative study that explored the kinds of problems that face the estimation process from the perspectives of different staff levels. This part of the study revealed a number of factors that can be broadly categorized as technical factors, e.g. the skills of those involved in the estimation process, and non-technical factors such as the high level of uncertainty in the local business environment. The second part of the study focused on one of the leading factors, software project staff training and experience, using the survey method to examine how well the software engineering curriculum is aligned with skills required in the software market, especially those related to estimation. The recommendations this study produced on reducing estimation errors, whether geared towards companies or academia, are preliminary and may only reflect the local setting. However, they also drew upon the vast literature on cost estimation techniques and case studies in similar and more advanced settings. The problem of software effort prediction and estimation models has been a thorny issue in the software engineering field since the concept of "software crisis" and the field itself, as a response to the crisis, emerged in the late 1960s. It still seems to some that "After forty years of currency the phrase 'software engineering' still denotes no more than a vague and largely unfulfilled aspiration" [2]. This study develops our understanding of problems facing one of the young professions in the country, as well as contributes to the global body of research on developing techniques to manage the intricacy of software engineering compared to more established engineering disciplines.
This work tackles the issue of the protection of confidential private data. Special attention is ... more This work tackles the issue of the protection of confidential private data. Special attention is given to online banking. We made profit random functions to produce unpredictable results for intruders. By creating a list of passwords and by encrypting each word in two different steps based on random functions we obtain efficient double protection. Additional security is offered by biometrical data such as fingerprints. The fingerprints are watermarked in a well-chosen image which serves a shared key between the bank and its customer. This image is merged in the customer's fingerprints by using the mathematical principle of singular value decomposition (SVD). As a result we get a blurred image that is only understandable by the bank.
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