This thesis proposes a novel approach, called Analogy-X to extend and improve the classical data-intensive analogy approach for software effort estimation. The Analogy-X approach combines the notions of distance matrix correlation found in ecology literature and statistic analysis techniques to provide useful inferential statistics to support analogy-based systems. Data-intensive analogy for software effort estimation has been proposed as a viable alternative to other prediction methods such as linear regression. In many cases, researchers found analogy outperformed algorithmic methods. However, the overall performance of analogy depends on the dataset quality or relevance of project cases to the target project, and the feature subset selected in the analogy-based model. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism to assess its appropriateness for a specific dataset, in most of the cases analogy will continue to execute regardless of the dataset quality. The Analogy-X approach is a set of procedures that utilize the principles of Mantel randomization test to provide inferential statistics to Analogy. Inspired by the Mantel correlation randomization test commonly used in ecology and psychology, Analogy-X uses the strength of correlation between the distance matrix of project features and the distance matrix of known effort values of the dataset to assess the suitability of the dataset for analogy, to identify the most appropriate feature subset, and to remove any atypical project cases from the dataset. The empirical studies show that Analogy-X is capable of: -- Detect extremely outlying project cases that will ultimately distort prediction outcomes using a sensitivity analysis strategy. -- Detect relevant project features that are useful to identify potential source analogues in a stepwise fashion similar to that of stepwise regression. -- Identifying whether analogy-based approach is appropriate for the dataset Analogy-X, thus is a robust solution, provides a sound statistical basis for analogy. It removes the need of using any forms of heuristic search and greatly improves its algorithmic performance. The studies also show that the Analogy-X approach is capable of removing the bottlenecks of performance in data-intensive analogy. The overall results obtained also suggest that a fully automated data-intensive analogy for software effort estimation can be implemented using the Analogy-X approach, and it is indeed an effective front end to analogy-based systems. The contribution of this work is significant since it provides an approach that will have major impact on the evolution of data-intensive analogy-based and case-based reasoning systems.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed Feb. 8, 2007). PDF text: 140 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 0.72Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3216341. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

The importance of building maintainable software is being recognized in the community of software development. By developing software that is easy to maintain, the time and resources needed to perform the modifications may be decreased. This will in turn mean economical savings and increased profits. Architectural software patterns are said to promote the development of maintainable software. The aim of this project was therefore to investigate whether architectural software patterns possess this property or not. A case study was performed where two candidate architectures were compared using a method called Architectural analysis of modifiability. This method uses change scenarios and modification ratios to identify differences between candidate architectures. A system developed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB was used for the case study. One of the candidate architectures consisted of two architectural software patterns: the Layers pattern and the Model-View-Controller pattern. The architecture analysis showed that the Layers pattern did promote maintainability whereas the Model-View-Controller pattern did not, from the basis of judgement associated with the method.

This study is to explore how Chinese software users perceive the issues of software copyright and piracy. Tianya Community, the largest online public forum in China, was selected as a site to study users' online communication about software copyright and piracy. Data were collected over five discussion boards in which software copyright and piracy were discussed extensively to retrieve 561 posting threads with 6,150 messages ranging from March 1, 1999 to June 30, 2007. Lindlof and Taylor's (2002) qualitative communication research methods were used to locate and analyze the recurring dominant themes within the online discussion by Chinese Internet users. The study revealed two opposing discourses existing in software users? perceptions, which represent globalization and anti-globalization processes surrounding software copyright and piracy. Mittleman and Chin's (2005) theoretical framework was adopted to interpret material and spiritual tensions between human/material factors, such as software owners, software users, China, and foreign developed countries. Meanwhile, the actor-network theory was applied to map out the roles of non-human/non-material factors, such as new technology, patriotism, and Chinese culture, which function to moderate the existing confrontations between globalization and anti-globalization by preventing software users from totally falling down into either direction of supporting or opposing software piracy. As a result, both forces of conformity and resistance were found to coexist within software users' perceptions and fragment their identities. To deal with fragmented identities, Chinese software users generally adopted a flexible, discriminative position composed by a series of distinctions, between offline purchasing of pirated discs and software download, between enterprise users and individual users, between foreign and local software companies, between freeware/open-source software and copyright/pirated software, between software companies and independent software developers, and between conceptual recognition and behavioral practice. Meanwhile, traditional resistance movements of Polanyi's (1957) counter-movements and Gramsci's (1971) counter-hegemony were reduced from collective contestations with openly declared call for resistance to Scott's (1990) notion of infra-politics that was communicated among software users and expressed in their everyday practice of piracy use but not in public and government discourse.

<p>The importance of building maintainable software is being recognized in the community of software development. By developing software that is easy to maintain, the time and resources needed to perform the modifications may be decreased. This will in turn mean economical savings and increased profits.</p><p>Architectural software patterns are said to promote the development of maintainable software. The aim of this project was therefore to investigate whether architectural software patterns possess this property or not. A case study was performed where two candidate architectures were compared using a method called Architectural analysis of modifiability. This method uses change scenarios and modification ratios to identify differences between candidate architectures. A system developed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB was used for the case study.</p><p>One of the candidate architectures consisted of two architectural software patterns: the Layers pattern and the Model-View-Controller pattern. The architecture analysis showed that the Layers pattern did promote maintainability whereas the Model-View-Controller pattern did not, from the basis of judgement associated with the method.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1998. Graduate Programme in Computer Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-168). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ39314.

Prior work on command recommendations for feature-rich software has relied on data supplied by a large community of users to generate personalized recommendations. In this work, I explored the feasibility of using an alternative data source: web documentation. Specifically, the proposed approach uses QF-Graphs, a previously introduced technique that maps higher-level tasks (i.e., search queries) to commands referenced in online documentation. The proposed approach uses these command-to-task mappings as an automatically generated plan library, enabling our prototype system to make personalized recommendations for task-relevant commands. Through both offline and online evaluations, I explored potential benefits and drawbacks of this approach.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Computer Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

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