O objetivo deste trabalho foi definir um processo para a avaliação de componentes de software, que possa ser utilizado em organizações que utilizem componentes comerciais ou de software livre desenvolvidos por terceiros no desenvolvimento de sistemas de software. O Desenvolvimento Baseado em Componentes (CBD - Component-based Development) é um caminho para a diminuição de custos e prazos no desenvolvimento de sistemas de software. A adesão a essa prática pelas organizações incentivou o surgimento do mercado de comercialização de componentes de software e a multiplicação de projetos de componentes de código aberto, distribuídos livremente pela Internet. No entanto, o uso de componentes de software desenvolvidos por terceiros possui um risco associado, pois um componente escolhido pode não possuir a qualidade esperada, ou não apresentar o comportamento desejado dentro das condições reais de uso. Neste contexto, o objetivo do processo de avaliação de componentes é levantar dados referentes à qualidade de um componente e interpretar esses dados, seja para adquirir confiança em um componente, ou para a seleção de um componente em casos em que existe mais de uma opção disponível. Como peça central da avaliação está o modelo de qualidade, que define os atributos de qualidade de cada fator de qualidade, e as métricas para apoiar a avaliação. / The objective of this work is to define a process to software component evaluation to organizations which use third party, commercial off-the-shelf or open source components in the development of software products. The Component-based Development (CBD) is an approach to reduce costs and time-to-market of software projects. The need of components has become an opportunity to the growth of the software component market and to multiplication of projects of open source software components, which can be freely downloaded from Internet. However, the use of third-party components in a project can be risky. It is possible that a component does not present the expected behavior or does not have the needed quality for specific conditions associated to the software system in development. In this context, the objective of the software component evaluation process is to obtain trustful information from the quality of a component and to analyze this information, assessing the component use in a particular context or selecting one component among similar products. The main part of this process is the use of Quality Model which establishes the quality factors and metrics to support the evaluation.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi definir um processo para a avaliação de componentes de software, que possa ser utilizado em organizações que utilizem componentes comerciais ou de software livre desenvolvidos por terceiros no desenvolvimento de sistemas de software. O Desenvolvimento Baseado em Componentes (CBD - Component-based Development) é um caminho para a diminuição de custos e prazos no desenvolvimento de sistemas de software. A adesão a essa prática pelas organizações incentivou o surgimento do mercado de comercialização de componentes de software e a multiplicação de projetos de componentes de código aberto, distribuídos livremente pela Internet. No entanto, o uso de componentes de software desenvolvidos por terceiros possui um risco associado, pois um componente escolhido pode não possuir a qualidade esperada, ou não apresentar o comportamento desejado dentro das condições reais de uso. Neste contexto, o objetivo do processo de avaliação de componentes é levantar dados referentes à qualidade de um componente e interpretar esses dados, seja para adquirir confiança em um componente, ou para a seleção de um componente em casos em que existe mais de uma opção disponível. Como peça central da avaliação está o modelo de qualidade, que define os atributos de qualidade de cada fator de qualidade, e as métricas para apoiar a avaliação. / The objective of this work is to define a process to software component evaluation to organizations which use third party, commercial off-the-shelf or open source components in the development of software products. The Component-based Development (CBD) is an approach to reduce costs and time-to-market of software projects. The need of components has become an opportunity to the growth of the software component market and to multiplication of projects of open source software components, which can be freely downloaded from Internet. However, the use of third-party components in a project can be risky. It is possible that a component does not present the expected behavior or does not have the needed quality for specific conditions associated to the software system in development. In this context, the objective of the software component evaluation process is to obtain trustful information from the quality of a component and to analyze this information, assessing the component use in a particular context or selecting one component among similar products. The main part of this process is the use of Quality Model which establishes the quality factors and metrics to support the evaluation.

This master´s thesis is focused on efficient control of quality economy in an international company operating in the Czech Republic. It relates to standard and modern concept of quality economy management and theoretical basis of cost management related to quality. The purpose of this thesis is to define, choose and implement the best model of monitoring quality related costs. As a part of the implementation phase of the chosen model, project plan including risk analyses which belongs to individual project's phases will be created, cost related actions defined and in the next phase evaluated and optimized.

Several studies in high-latitude catchments have demonstrated the importance of near-stream riparian zones as hydrogeochemical hotspots with a substantial influence on stream chemistry. An adequate representation of the spatial variability of riparian-zone processes and characteristics is the key for modeling spatio-temporal variations of stream-water quality. This thesis contributes to current knowledge by refining landscape-analysis techniques to describe riparian zones and by introducing a conceptual framework to quantify solute exports from riparian zones. The utility of the suggested concepts is evaluated based on an extensive set of hydrometric and chemical data comprising measurements of streamflow, groundwater levels, soil-water chemistry and stream chemistry. Standard routines to analyze digital elevation models that are offered by current geographical information systems have been of very limited use for deriving hydrologically meaningful terrain indices for riparian zones. A model-based approach for hydrological landscape analysis is outlined, which, by explicitly simulating groundwater levels, allows better predictions of saturated areas compared to standard routines. Moreover, a novel algorithm is presented for distinguishing between left and right stream sides, which is a fundamental prerequisite for characterizing riparian zones through landscape analysis. The new algorithm was used to derive terrain indices from a high-resolution LiDAR digital elevation model. By combining these terrain indices with detailed hydrogeochemical measurements from a riparian observatory, it was possible to upscale the measured attributes and to subsequently characterize the variation of total organic-carbon exports from riparian zones in a boreal catchment in Northern Sweden. Riparian zones were recognized as highly heterogeneous landscape elements. Organic-rich riparian zones were found to be hotspots influencing temporal trends in stream-water organic carbon while spatial variations of organic carbon in streams were attributed to the arrangement of organic-poor and organic-rich riparian zones along the streams. These insights were integrated into a parsimonious modeling approach. An analytical solution of the model equations is presented, which provides a physical basis for commonly used power-law streamflow-load relations. / At the time of doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: In press; Paper 4: Manuscript. / Swedish Research Council (VR, grant no. 2005-4289)

The purpose with the thesis was to create a general model that can help companies to take the best decision when it comes to improving the quality of an object. The model was created to solve the problem formulation; How to find the best way to improve the quality of an object, focusing primarily on the relationship between cost and quality but also take other important aspects into consideration. Before the model was created a literature study was performed in ELIN without any useable result. After the literature study was performed quality models like Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Total Quality Management (TQM) were studied. The study of QFD and TQM showed that they are somewhat complicated and often consider the entire organisation. Simple Quality Model is a smaller model and focuses only at one object at a time. TQM and QFD have however been good inspiration for the creation of SQM. The model was tested in a real-time situation at Saab Communication. Together with Saab Communication we decided to apply SQM to the Swedish defence telenetwork (FTN). In FTN the model was tested at the basic connections. SQM generated 7 different alternatives to improve the dependability in a basic connection. After the application of SQM it showed that alternative 7 was the best alternative. Alternative 7 was to decrease the switch over time. The switch over is today not handled by a special employee and is instead shared among several workers. By employing two new employees there is a possibility to lower the switch over time with 50% down from today’s 60 minutes to 30. To implement this alternative would bring a cost of 5 374 034 SEK and a quality increase of 0,1398955% for the basic connections in the Swedish defence tele-network.

As the introduction of semiconductor¡Bcomputer¡Bnetwork communcation¡Bmulti-media technology¡K¡Ketc. and the development and application of relevant automotive electronics, the car has becoming a high technological product instead of a traditional and machnical conveyance. Based on IC Insights, over 40% of vehicles will be equipped with automotive electronics and the automotive electronics market will reach the scale of US$192 billion in 2010. The scale of market is expected to reach the record of US$400 billion that represented over 50% of vehicles will be equiped with automotive electronics in 2015. The automotive electronics was divided to six functional field including ¡§Powertrain¡¨¡B¡¨Body¡¨¡B¡¨Chassis¡BSecurity¡¨¡B¡¨Safety¡¨ and ¡§Driver information¡¨. According to the research of IEK, ¡§Tire Pressure Monitoring System¡¨ is the most potential product in ¡§Safety¡¨ field for Taiwan manufacturers of IT industry to invest their resource. Based on Strategy Analytics, the global market of Tire Pressure Monitoring System reaches the scale of US$200 million in 2004 and the growth is expected to reach the record of US$1,279 million in 2008 and 63.6% annual compound growth. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematical tool with customer orientated concept. Adopting QFD method to product design efficiently is able to shorten development time¡Breduce cost and improve quality to satisfy customer¡¦s needs in his or her mind. This research is completed by case study of Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) which is developed by certain Taiwan company with potentials that is chosen by specialists. In this research we try to collect related information about certain company and explore customer¡¦s real-life needs by conducting questionnaire surveys. Kano¡¦s two-dimensional quality model is applied to identify customer¡¦s critical quality requirements. Quality factor¡Bsub-system/component and process are deployed by the matrix method of QFD to recognize key items for improving product design.

<p>The purpose with the thesis was to create a general model that can help companies to take the best decision when it comes</p><p>to improving the quality of an object. The model was created to solve the problem formulation; How to find the best way to</p><p>improve the quality of an object, focusing primarily on the relationship between cost and quality but also take other</p><p>important aspects into consideration. Before the model was created a literature study was performed in ELIN without any</p><p>useable result. After the literature study was performed quality models like Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Total</p><p>Quality Management (TQM) were studied. The study of QFD and TQM showed that they are somewhat complicated and</p><p>often consider the entire organisation. Simple Quality Model is a smaller model and focuses only at one object at a time.</p><p>TQM and QFD have however been good inspiration for the creation of SQM. The model was tested in a real-time situation</p><p>at Saab Communication. Together with Saab Communication we decided to apply SQM to the Swedish defence telenetwork</p><p>(FTN). In FTN the model was tested at the basic connections. SQM generated 7 different alternatives to improve</p><p>the dependability in a basic connection. After the application of SQM it showed that alternative 7 was the best alternative.</p><p>Alternative 7 was to decrease the switch over time. The switch over is today not handled by a special employee and is</p><p>instead shared among several workers. By employing two new employees there is a possibility to lower the switch over time</p><p>with 50% down from today’s 60 minutes to 30. To implement this alternative would bring a cost of 5 374 034 SEK and a</p><p>quality increase of 0,1398955% for the basic connections in the Swedish defence tele-network.</p>

Dentre as tecnologias de desenvolvimento de software que promovem o reuso com o objetivo de construir sistemas com prazos e custos menores, sem sacrificar a qualidade dos produtos, está o Desenvolvimento Baseado em Componentes (DBC). O Desenvolvimento Baseado em Componentes consiste na construção de sistemas pela composição de componentes de software de acordo com um processo de desenvolvimento específico. Para garantir a qualidade desses sistemas, é importante garantir a qualidade de seus componentes. A falta da garantia da qualidade dos componentes de software destinados à reutilização é um dos fatores de inibição do DBC, e existe certa carência de pesquisas sobre a qualidade de componentes de software. Desta maneira, o principal objetivo deste trabalho foi a definição de um modelo de qualidade específico para componentes de software, fornecendo a base para a especificação de requisitos de qualidade e para a avaliação de qualidade dos mesmos. O Modelo está embasado nas normas ISO/IEC 9126 e ISO/IEC 12119, e também na literatura especializada. Uma ferramenta para apoiar avaliações de componentes (e de produtos de software de forma geral) também foi desenvolvida. Foram realizadas ainda quatro avaliações de componentes através de estudos de casos para verificar a aplicabilidade e utilidade do modelo de qualidade e da ferramenta desenvolvida. Dois questionários foram respondidos pelos avaliadores responsáveis pelas avaliações coletando assim, suas considerações sobre o modelo de qualidade e sobre a ferramenta / Among the software development technologies that promote the reuse aiming to build systems with periods and smaller costs, without sacrificing the quality of products, is the Component-Based Development (CBD). The Component-Based Development consists on the construction of systems by the composition of software components according to a specific development process. To guarantee the quality of those systems, it is important to guarantee the quality of their components. The lack of warranty of the quality of the software components destined to reuse is one of the inhibition factors of CBD, and there is certain lack of researches about quality of software components. This way, the main objective of this work was the formalization of a specific quality model for software components, supplying the base for the specification of quality requirements and for the quality evaluation of the same ones. The model is based on the norms ISO/IEC 9126 and ISO/IEC 12119, and also in the specialized literature. A tool to support components evaluations (and software products in a general way) was also developed. It was realized four components evaluations through case studies to verify the applicability and usefulness of the quality model and the developed tool. Two questionnaires were answered by the appraisers responsible for the evaluations collecting thereby, their considerations on the quality model and the tool

[pt] Um dos objetivos da engenharia de software é a construção de software com um nível de qualidade elevado com o menor custo e no menor tempo possível. Nesse contexto, muitas técnicas para o controle da qualidade de design de software têm sido definidas. Além disso, mecanismos baseados em métricas para a detecção de problemas também têm sido definidos. A maioria dessas técnicas e mecanismos foca a análise do código fonte. Porém, para reduzir retrabalho inútil, é importante utilizar técnicas de análise da qualidade capazes de detectar problemas de design já desde os modelos dos sistemas. Esta dissertação propõe: (i) um conjunto de estratégias de detecção para identificar, em modelos UML, problemas de design específicos e recorrentes na literatura: Long Parameter List, God Class, Data Class, Shotgun Surgery, Misplaced Class e God Package, e (ii) a utilização do modelo da qualidade QMOOD para avaliar design de software a partir de seus diagramas de classes. Para automatizar a aplicação destes mecanismos foi implementada uma ferramenta: a QCDTool. Os mecanismos desenvolvidos foram avaliados no contexto de dois estudos experimentais. O primeiro estudo avaliou a acurácia, precisão e recall das estratégias de detecção propostas. Esse estudo mostrou os benefícios e desvantagens da aplicação, em modelos, das estratégias de detecção propostas. O segundo estudo avaliou a utilidade da aplicação do modelo da qualidade QMOOD em diagramas UML. Esse estudo mostrou que foi possível identificar, em diagramas de classes, variações das propriedades de design, e, conseqüentemente, dos atributos da qualidade nos sistemas analisados. / [en] One of the goals of software engineering is the development of high quality software at a small cost an in a short period of time. In this context, several techniques have been defined for controlling the quality of software designs. Furthermore, many metrics-based mechanisms have been defined for detecting software design flaws. Most of these mechanisms and techniques focus on analyzing the source code. However, in order to reduce unnecessary rework it is important to use quality analysis techniques that allow the detection of design flaws earlier in the development cycle. We believe that these techniques should analyze design flaws starting from software models. This dissertation proposes: (i) a set of strategies to detect, in UML models, specific and recurrent design problems: Long Parameter List, God Class, Data Class, Shotgun Surgery, Misplaced Class and God Package; (ii) and the use of QMOOD quality model to analyze class diagrams. To automate the application of these mechanisms we implemented a tool: the QCDTool. The detection strategies and QMOOD model were evaluated in the context of two experimental studies. The first study analyzed the accuracy, precision and recall of the proposed detection strategies. The second study analyzed the utility of use QMOOD quality model in the class diagrams. The results of the first study have shown the benefits and drawbacks of the application in class diagrams of some of the proposed detection strategies. The second study shows that it was possible to identify, based on class diagrams, variations of the design properties and consequently, of the quality attributes in the analyzed systems.

Ces dernières années, de nombreuses entreprises ont introduit la technologie orientée composant dans leurs développements logiciels. Le paradigme composant, qui prône l’assemblage de briques logiciels autonomes et réutilisables, est en effet une proposition intéressante pour diminuer les coûts de développement et de maintenance tout en augmentant la qualité des applications. Dans ce paradigme, comme dans tous les autres, les architectes et les développeurs doivent pouvoir évaluer au plus tôt la qualité de ce qu’ils produisent, en particulier tout au long du processus de conception et de codage. Les métriques sur le code sont des outils indispensables pour ce faire. Elles permettent, dans une certaine mesure, de prédire la qualité « externe » d’un composant ou d’une architecture en cours de codage. Diverses propositions de métriques ont été faites dans la littérature spécifiquement pour le monde composant. Malheureusement, aucune des métriques proposées n’a fait l’objet d’une étude sérieuse quant à leur complétude, leur cohésion et surtout quant à leur aptitude à prédire la qualité externe des artefacts développés. Pire encore, l’absence de prise en charge de ces métriques par les outils d’analyse de code du marché rend impossible leur usage industriel. En l’état, la prédiction de manière quantitative et « a priori » de la qualité de leurs développements est impossible. Le risque est donc important d’une augmentation des coûts consécutive à la découverte tardive de défauts. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, je propose une réponse pragmatique à ce problème. Partant du constat qu’une grande partie des frameworks industriels reposent sur la technologie orientée objet, j’ai étudié la possibilité d’utiliser certaines des métriques de codes "classiques", non propres au monde composant, pour évaluer les applications à base de composants. Parmi les métriques existantes, j’ai identifié un sous-ensemble d’entre elles qui, en s’interprétant et en s’appliquant à certains niveaux de granularité, peuvent potentiellement donner des indications sur le respect par les développeurs et les architectes des grands principes de l’ingénierie logicielle, en particulier sur le couplage et la cohésion. Ces deux principes sont en effet à l’origine même du paradigme composant. Ce sous-ensemble devait être également susceptible de représenter toutes les facettes d’une application orientée composant : vue interne d’un composant, son interface et vue compositionnelle au travers l’architecture. Cette suite de métrique, identifiée à la main, a été ensuite appliquée sur 10 applications OSGi open- source afin de s’assurer, par une étude de leur distribution, qu’elle véhiculait effectivement pour le monde composant une information pertinente. J’ai ensuite construit des modèles prédictifs de propriétés qualité externes partant de ces métriques internes : réutilisation, défaillance, etc. J’ai décidé de construire des modèles qui permettent de prédire l’existence et la fréquence des défauts et les bugs. Pour ce faire, je me suis basée sur des données externes provenant de l’historique des modifications et des bugs d’un panel de 6 gros projets OSGi matures (avec une période de maintenance de plusieurs années). Plusieurs outils statistiques ont été mis en œuvre pour la construction des modèles, notamment l’analyse en composantes principales et la régression logistique multivariée. Cette étude a montré qu’il est possible de prévoir avec ces modèles 80% à 92% de composants fréquemment buggés avec des rappels allant de 89% à 98%, selon le projet évalué. Les modèles destinés à prévoir l’existence d’un défaut sont moins fiables que le premier type de modèle. Ce travail de thèse confirme ainsi l’intérêt « pratique » d’user de métriques communes et bien outillées pour mesurer au plus tôt la qualité des applications dans le monde composant. / Over the past decade, many companies proceeded with the introduction of component-oriented software technology in their development environments. The component paradigm that promotes the assembly of autonomous and reusable software bricks is indeed an interesting proposal to reduce development costs and maintenance while improving application quality. In this paradigm, as in all others, architects and developers need to evaluate as soon as possible the quality of what they produce, especially along the process of designing and coding. The code metrics are indispensable tools to do this. They provide, to a certain extent, the prediction of the quality of « external » component or architecture being encoded. Several proposals for metrics have been made in the literature especially for the component world. Unfortunately, none of the proposed metrics have been a serious study regarding their completeness, cohesion and especially for their ability to predict the external quality of developed artifacts. Even worse, the lack of support for these metrics with the code analysis tools in the market makes it impossible to be used in the industry. In this state, the prediction in a quantitative way and « a priori » the quality of their developments is impossible. The risk is therefore high for obtaining higher costs as a consequence of the late discovery of defects. In the context of this thesis, I propose a pragmatic solution to the problem. Based on the premise that much of the industrial frameworks are based on object-oriented technology, I have studied the possibility of using some « conventional » code metrics unpopular to component world, to evaluate component-based applications. Indeed, these metrics have the advantage of being well defined, known, equipped and especially to have been the subject of numerous empirical validations analyzing the predictive power for imperatives or objects codes. Among the existing metrics, I identified a subset of them which, by interpreting and applying to specific levels of granularity, can potentially provide guidance on the compliance of developers and architects of large principles of software engineering, particularly on the coupling and cohesion. These two principles are in fact the very source of the component paradigm. This subset has the ability to represent all aspects of a component-oriented application : internal view of a component, its interface and compositional view through architecture. This suite of metrics, identified by hand, was then applied to 10 open-source OSGi applications, in order to ensure, by studying of their distribution, that it effectively conveyed relevant information to the component world. I then built predictive models of external quality properties based on these internal metrics : reusability, failure, etc. The development of such models and the analysis of their power are only able to empirically validate the interest of the proposed metrics. It is also possible to compare the « power » of these models with other models from the literature specific to imperative and/or object world. I decided to build models that predict the existence and frequency of defects and bugs. To do this, I relied on external data from the history of changes and fixes a panel of 6 large mature OSGi projects (with a maintenance period of several years). Several statistical tools were used to build models, including principal component analysis and multivariate logistic regression. This study showed that it is possible to predict with these models 80% to 92% of frequently buggy components with reminders ranging from 89% to 98%, according to the evaluated projects. Models for predicting the existence of a defect are less reliable than the first type of model. This thesis confirms thus the interesting « practice » of using common and well equipped metrics to measure at the earliest application quality in the component world.