How Software Engineering Transforms Organizations: An Open and Qualitative Study on the Organizational Objectives and Motivations in Agile Transformations

Agile Transformations are challenging processes for organizations that look to extend the benefits of Agile philosophy and methods beyond software engineering.Despite the impact of these transformations on orga-nizations,they have not been extensively studied in academia.We conducted a study grounded in workshops and interviews with 99 participants from 30 organizations,including organizations undergoing transformations(“final organizations”)and companies supporting these processes(“consultants”).The study aims to understand the motivations,objectives,and factors driving and challenging these transformations.Over 700 responses were collected to the question and categorized into 32 objectives.The findings show that organizations primarily aim to achieve customer centricity and adaptability,both with 8%of the mentions.Other primary important objectives,with above 4%of mentions,include alignment of goals,lean delivery,sustainable processes,and a flatter,more team-based organizational structure.We also detect discrepancies in perspectives between the objectives identified by the two kinds of organizations and the existing agile literature and models.This misalignment highlights the need for practitioners to understand with the practical realities the organizations face.

Developing Lexicons for Enhanced Sentiment Analysis in Software Engineering:An Innovative Multilingual Approach for Social Media Reviews

Sentiment analysis is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital age, with social media being a significantsource of user-generated content. The development of sentiment lexicons that can support languages other thanEnglish is a challenging task, especially for analyzing sentiment analysis in social media reviews. Most existingsentiment analysis systems focus on English, leaving a significant research gap in other languages due to limitedresources and tools. This research aims to address this gap by building a sentiment lexicon for local languages,which is then used with a machine learning algorithm for efficient sentiment analysis. In the first step, a lexiconis developed that includes five languages: Urdu, Roman Urdu, Pashto, Roman Pashto, and English. The sentimentscores from SentiWordNet are associated with each word in the lexicon to produce an effective sentiment score. Inthe second step, a naive Bayesian algorithm is applied to the developed lexicon for efficient sentiment analysis ofRoman Pashto. Both the sentiment lexicon and sentiment analysis steps were evaluated using information retrievalmetrics, with an accuracy score of 0.89 for the sentiment lexicon and 0.83 for the sentiment analysis. The resultsshowcase the potential for improving software engineering tasks related to user feedback analysis and productdevelopment.

Building Custom Spreadsheet Functions with Python: End-User Software Engineering Approach

End-user computing empowers non-developers to manage data and applications, enhancing collaboration and efficiency. Spreadsheets, a prime example of end-user programming environments widely used in business for data analysis. However, Excel functionalities have limits compared to dedicated programming languages. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a prototype for integrating Python’s capabilities into Excel through on-premises desktop to build custom spreadsheet functions with Python. This approach overcomes potential latency issues associated with cloud-based solutions. This prototype utilizes Excel-DNA and IronPython. Excel-DNA allows creating custom Python functions that seamlessly integrate with Excel’s calculation engine. IronPython enables the execution of these Python (CSFs) directly within Excel. C# and VSTO add-ins form the core components, facilitating communication between Python and Excel. This approach empowers users with a potentially open-ended set of Python (CSFs) for tasks like mathematical calculations, statistical analysis, and even predictive modeling, all within the familiar Excel interface. This prototype demonstrates smooth integration, allowing users to call Python (CSFs) just like standard Excel functions. This research contributes to enhancing spreadsheet capabilities for end-user programmers by leveraging Python’s power within Excel. Future research could explore expanding data analysis capabilities by expanding the (CSFs) functions for complex calculations, statistical analysis, data manipulation, and even external library integration. The possibility of integrating machine learning models through the (CSFs) functions within the familiar Excel environment.

Agile Development Methods in Software Engineering and Their Efficiency Analysis

This paper delves into Agile Development Methods in Software Engineering,contrasting them with the traditional Waterfall model and analyzing their efficiency.Agile methods,known for their adaptability and customer-centric approach,have gained prominence in the fast-paced software development industry.These methods,including Scrum,Kanban,and Extreme Programming(XP),are characterized by iterative cycles,collaborative efforts,and a focus on rapid delivery and quality improvement.The paper compares these agile methodologies to the sequential and rigid Waterfall model,highlighting agile’s superior flexibility,adaptability,and responsiveness to changing requirements.It emphasizes the importance of customer involvement in agile processes,which leads to higher satisfaction and better alignment with user expectations.The analysis reveals that agile methods not only enhance the speed of delivery but also improve the overall quality of the software product.The paper concludes that agile methodologies are more effective in today's dynamic software development environment,providing a robust framework for managing complex projects and ensuring the delivery of high-quality,relevant software solutions.

Construction and Reflection of Software Engineering Major Based on Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Certification

With the rapid development of information technology,the demand for talents in the field of software engineering is growing.In order to cultivate high-quality software engineering talents who meet the market demand,universities have continuously carried out the construction of software engineering majors.Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology(ABET)certification,as an internationally recognized higher education quality assurance system,provides important reference and guidance for the construction of software engineering majors.Guided by student learning outcomes and core competencies,combined with the characteristics of software engineering talent cultivation,the innovation of talent cultivation mode takes industry-education integration and school-enterprise cooperation as the main development paths and explores comprehensive reform of the major in terms of professional positioning and goals,curriculum system,teaching conditions,and teachers.This comprehensive reform model has effectively promoted the development of major construction and improved the quality of talent cultivation.

Construction of the Curriculum System of Software Engineering Based on the Agile Development Method

Under the background of“new engineering”construction,software engineering teaching pays more attention to cultivating students’engineering practice and innovation ability.In view of the inconsistency between development and demand design,team division of labor,difficult measurement of individual contribution,single assessment method,and other problems in traditional practice teaching,this paper proposes that under the guidance of agile development methods,software engineering courses should adopt Scrum framework to organize course project practice,use agile collaboration platform to implement individual work,follow up experiment progress,and ensure effective project advancement.The statistical data of curriculum“diversity”assessment show that there is an obvious improvement effect on students’software engineering ability and quality.

Empirical Analysis of Software Success Rate Forecasting During Requirement Engineering Processes

Forecasting on success or failure of software has become an interesting and,in fact,an essential task in the software development industry.In order to explore the latest data on successes and failures,this research focused on certain questions such as is early phase of the software development life cycle better than later phases in predicting software success and avoiding high rework?What human factors contribute to success or failure of a software?What software practices are used by the industry practitioners to achieve high quality of software in their day-to-day work?In order to conduct this empirical analysis a total of 104 practitioners were recruited to determine how human factors,misinterpretation,and miscommunication of requirements and decision-making processes play their roles in software success forecasting.We discussed a potential relationship between forecasting of software success or failure and the development processes.We noticed that experienced participants had more confidence in their practices and responded to the questionnaire in this empirical study,and they were more likely to rate software success forecasting linking to the development processes.Our analysis also shows that cognitive bias is the central human factor that negatively affects forecasting of software success rate.The results of this empirical study also validated that requirements’misinterpretation and miscommunication were themain causes behind software systems’failure.It has been seen that reliable,relevant,and trustworthy sources of information help in decision-making to predict software systems’success in the software industry.This empirical study highlights a need for other software practitioners to avoid such bias while working on software projects.Future investigation can be performed to identify the other human factors that may impact software systems’success.

Construction and Innovation of Comprehensive Evaluation Means of PBL+OBE-based Software Engineering Practical Courses

Software engineering is an engineering discipline that guides software developers to carry out software development,software maintenance,and software management.The traditional evaluation methods of software engineering courses do not highlight the training goal of outcomebased education(OBE).This paper systematically studies the evaluation methods for practical courses in software engineering from three aspects:course evaluation guidelines,course evaluation methods and course evaluation effects;establishes a comprehensive,scientific,and objective system of course evaluation;effectively measures students’learning effect;promotes teachers to continuously improve the teaching process;and thus improves the teaching quality of software engineering courses.Besides the general approach,this paper also takes software project construction practice as an example to demonstrate the effect of the proposed approach.

Research on the Cultivation of Innovative Talents in Software Engineering Based on the OBE Concept

Under the background of New Engineering,focusing on talent cultivation,this article explores the teaching reform and innovation of software engineering majors.Starting from the goal of cultivating software engineering talents in the context of New Engineering,the concept of outcome-based education is introduced to study and explore the construction of innovative talent training models for software engineering majors in universities.Through recent years’application practice,initial results have been achieved,which can provide feasible methods and ideas for the cultivation of innovative talents in other majors.

How to Effectively Apply ChatGPT in Software Engineering Education?——A Perspective from Undergraduate Students

As a highly advanced conversational AI chatbot trained on extensive datasets,ChatGPT has garnered significant attention across various domains,including academia,industry,and education.In the field of education,existing studies primarily focus on 2 areas:Assessing the potential utility of ChatGPT in education by examining its capabilities and limitations;exploring the educational scenarios that could benefit from the integration of ChatGPT.In contrast to these studies,we conduct a user survey targeting undergraduate students specializing in Software Engineering,aiming to gain insights into their perceptions,challenges,and expectations regarding the utilization of ChatGPT.Based on the results of the survey,we provide valuable guidance on the effective incorporation of ChatGPT in the realm of software engineering education.

Teaching Reform Based on the Competency Model for Software Engineering-related Courses

This paper explores the reform and practice of software engineering-related courses based on the competency model of the Computing Curricula,and proposes some measures of teaching reform and talent cultivation in software engineering.The teaching reform emphasizes student-centered education,and focuses on the cultivation and enhancement of students’knowledge,skills,and dispositions.Based on the three elements of the competency model,specific measures of teaching reform are proposed for some professional courses in software engineering,to strengthen course relevance,improve knowledge systems,reform practical modes with a focus on skill development,and cultivate good dispositions through student-centered education.The teaching reform’s attempts and practice are conducted in some courses such as Advanced Web Technologies,Software Engineering,and Intelligent Terminal Systems and Application Development.Through the analysis and comparison of the implementation effects,significant improvements are observed in teaching effectiveness,students’mastery of knowledge and skills are noticeably improved,and the expected goals of the teaching reform are achieved.

Meta-SEE:Intelligent and Interactive Learning Framework for Software Engineering Education Based on Metaverse and Metacognition

With the rapid evolution of technology and the increasing complexity of software systems,there is a growing demand for effective educational approaches that empower learners to acquire and apply software engineering skills in practical contexts.This paper presents an intelligent and interactive learning(Meta-SEE)framework for software engineering education that combines the immersive capabilities of the metaverse with the cognitive processes of metacognition,to create an interactive and engaging learning environment.In the Meta-SEE framework,learners are immersed in a virtual world where they can collaboratively engage with concepts and practices of software engineering.Through the integration of metacognitive strategies,learners are empowered to monitor,regulate,and adapt their learning processes.By incorporating metacognition within the metaverse,learners gain a deeper understanding of their own thinking processes and become self-directed learners.In addition,MetaSEE has the potential to revolutionize software engineering education by offering a dynamic,immersive,and personalized learning experience.It allows learners to engage in realistic software development scenarios,explore complex systems,and collaborate with peers and instructors in virtual spaces.

Research and Practice on the Multi-dimensional Course Goal Achievement Evaluation of Software Engineering

According to the standards of engineering education accreditation,the achievement paths and evaluation criteria of course goals are presented,aimed at the objectives of software engineering courses and the characteristics of hybrid teaching in Kunming University of Science and Technology.Then a multi-dimensional evaluation system for course goal achievement of software engineering is proposed.The practice’s results show that the multi-dimensional course goal achievement evaluation is helpful to the continuous improvement of course teaching,which can effectively support the evaluation of graduation outcomes.

Research and Design of Consistent Project Cases for the Software Engineering Course Group

In order to enhance the abilities of practical innovation and solving complex engineering problems of students in the engineering context,we design a course cluster teaching model based on a unified enterprise-level project case.The program divides the knowledge points required by the project into the corresponding courses,and divides their realization into the practical teaching cases,so as to realize the design of teaching practice cases embodied in the unified project framework.This model allows students to practice projects based on the unified project background while learning knowledge from different courses.It not only allows students to learn abstract,fragmented,and difficult-to-understand knowledge systems thoroughly,but also integrates the knowledge into the practice of the enterprise-level project development,helping students experience the value of knowledge in complex engineering projects and thus improving their ability to solve complex engineering problems while learning theoretical knowledge.

Teaching Reform and Practice of Software Engineering Graduate Students by Implanting Scientific Research Literacy into Classroom Teaching Content

How to cultivate and improve graduate students’innovation and practical abilities in software engineering through the curriculum and teaching mode reform is an important issue.In this paper,a research literacy-driven teaching mode is proposed.It assists in the reform of the curriculum system.Then,a curriculum system construction framework is proposed,which involves the integration of research literacy into classroom teaching content.It assists in the cultivation of research abilities of graduate students in software engineering.The effectiveness of the curriculum reform is demonstrated through questionnaire surveys and research outcomes of the project team.The results show that the methods explored in this paper can serve as valuable references for future course design and teaching practice in computer-related courses for graduates.

A New Model of Software Engineering Education and Exploration of Professional Curriculum Teaching

This paper focuses on the problems,opportunities,and challenges faced by software engineering education in the new era.We have studied the core ideas of the new model and reform,the specific measures implemented,and the challenges and solutions faced.The new model and reform must focus on cultivating practical abilities,introducing interdisciplinary knowledge,and strengthening innovation awareness and entrepreneurial spirit.The process of reform and innovation is carried out from the aspects of teaching methods,teaching means,and course performance evaluation in the teaching practice of software engineering courses.We adopt a method of“question guiding,simple and easy to understand,flexible and diverse,and emphasizing practical results”,optimizing the curriculum design,providing diverse learning opportunities,and establishing a platform for the industry-university-research cooperation.Our teaching philosophy is to adhere to the viewpoint of innovative teaching ideas,optimizing teaching methods and teaching means,and comprehensively improving the teaching quality and level of software engineering education.

Implications of Onshore Development on Global Software Engineering

Recently software industry has paid significant attention to customizing software products across distributed boundaries.Communicating the requirements of multiple clients across distributed borders is a crucial challenge for the software customization process.Local decision-making and local development at the client site are considered methods for reducing difficulties in communicating the requirements of multiple clients across distributed boundaries.This paper introduces a new model called the onshore development model(ODM)for accomplishing the customization requests in the distributed development process of software.This model presents a scenario for enhancing the onsite development of specific requirements to reduce delays andmisunderstandings between the clients and the team involved.This model depends on moving the development process to the client’s location.Three empirical studies were conducted to evaluate the proposed model to measure its productivity,time performance,and cost reduction.The proposed model has been compared with two other models:the basic model(BM),which allocates the decision-making process and the development process for teams at the vendor’s location,and the local decision-making model(LDec),which assigns the decision-making process for team at the client’s location.The results of the empirical studies showed significant outperforming of the proposed model over the basic model and local decision-making model in productivity,time performance,and cost reduction.The productivity of the proposed model improved by 39%and 10%more than the basic model and the local decision-making model,respectively.In addition,the time performance of the proposed model became faster by 49%and 20.8%than the basic model and the local decision-making model,respectively.Also,it reduced the total cost of the development process by 31%in terms of the salaries of all persons involved in requirements collecting,decision-making,and development.

Remolding Software Engineering Course Based on Engineering Education Concepts

The core of the engineering education concepts is student-centered teaching,result-oriented teaching,and continuous improvement.It is necessary to carry out course remolding of software engineering course guided by engineering education concepts.This paper first analyzes the pain points of teaching the course of software engineering,and then introduces how to remold the course based on engineering education concepts,including reformulating the teaching objectives,teaching modes,and assessment methods.Through teaching practice,we find that the improved course has achieved a better teaching result,which reflects the advantages of the engineering education concepts.

Biomimetic natural biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine:new biosynthesis methods,recent advances,and emerging applications

Biomimetic materials have emerged as attractive and competitive alternatives for tissue engineering(TE)and regenerative medicine.In contrast to conventional biomaterials or synthetic materials,biomimetic scaffolds based on natural biomaterial can offer cells a broad spectrum of biochemical and biophysical cues that mimic the in vivo extracellular matrix(ECM).Additionally,such materials have mechanical adaptability,micro-structure interconnectivity,and inherent bioactivity,making them ideal for the design of living implants for specific applications in TE and regenerative medicine.This paper provides an overview for recent progress of biomimetic natural biomaterials(BNBMs),including advances in their preparation,functionality,potential applications and future challenges.We highlight recent advances in the fabrication of BNBMs and outline general strategies for functionalizing and tailoring the BNBMs with various biological and physicochemical characteristics of native ECM.Moreover,we offer an overview of recent key advances in the functionalization and applications of versatile BNBMs for TE applications.Finally,we conclude by offering our perspective on open challenges and future developments in this rapidly-evolving field.

Compositional and Hollow Engineering of Silicon Carbide/Carbon Microspheres as High-Performance Microwave Absorbing Materials with Good Environmental Tolerance

Microwave absorbing materials(MAMs)characterized by high absorption efficiency and good environmental tolerance are highly desirable in practical applications.Both silicon carbide and carbon are considered as stable MAMs under some rigorous conditions,while their composites still fail to produce satisfactory microwave absorption performance regardless of the improvements as compared with the individuals.Herein,we have successfully implemented compositional and structural engineering to fabricate hollow Si C/C microspheres with controllable composition.The simultaneous modulation on dielectric properties and impedance matching can be easily achieved as the change in the composition of these composites.The formation of hollow structure not only favors lightweight feature,but also generates considerable contribution to microwave attenuation capacity.With the synergistic effect of composition and structure,the optimized SiC/C composite exhibits excellent performance,whose the strongest reflection loss intensity and broadest effective absorption reach-60.8 dB and 5.1 GHz,respectively,and its microwave absorption properties are actually superior to those of most SiC/C composites in previous studies.In addition,the stability tests of microwave absorption capacity after exposure to harsh conditions and Radar Cross Section simulation data demonstrate that hollow SiC/C microspheres from compositional and structural optimization have a bright prospect in practical applications.