<p>This thesis presents empirical research in the field of software development with a focus on handling semantic aspects. There is a general lack of empirical data in the field of software development. This makes it difficult for industry to choose an appropriate method for their particular needs. The lack of empirical data also makes it difficult to convey academic results to the industrial world.</p><p>This thesis tries to remedy this problem by presenting a number of empirical evaluations that have been conducted to evaluate some common approaches in the field of semantics handling. The evaluations have produced some interesting results, but their main contribution is the addition to the body of knowledge on how to perform empirical evaluations in software development. The evaluations presented in this thesis include a between-groups controlled experiment, industrial case studies and a full factorial design controlled experiment. The factorial design seems like the most promising approach to use when the number of factors that need to be controlled is high and the number of available test subjects is low. A factorial design has the power to evaluate more than one factor at a time and hence to gauge the effects from different factors on the output.</p><p>Another contribution of the thesis is the development of a method for handling semantic aspects in an industrial setting. A background investigation performed concludes that there seems to be a gap between what academia proposes and how industry handles semantics in the development process. The proposed method aims at bridging this gap. It is based on academic results but has reduced formalism to better suit industrial needs. The method is applicable in an industrial setting without interfering too much with the normal way of working, yet providing important benefits. This method is evaluated in the empirical studies along with other methods for handling semantics. In the area of semantic handling, further contributions of the thesis include a taxonomy for semantic handling methods as well as an improved understanding of the relation between semantic errors and the concept of contracts as a means of avoiding and handling these errors.</p>

This thesis presents empirical research in the field of software development with a focus on handling semantic aspects. There is a general lack of empirical data in the field of software development. This makes it difficult for industry to choose an appropriate method for their particular needs. The lack of empirical data also makes it difficult to convey academic results to the industrial world. This thesis tries to remedy this problem by presenting a number of empirical evaluations that have been conducted to evaluate some common approaches in the field of semantics handling. The evaluations have produced some interesting results, but their main contribution is the addition to the body of knowledge on how to perform empirical evaluations in software development. The evaluations presented in this thesis include a between-groups controlled experiment, industrial case studies and a full factorial design controlled experiment. The factorial design seems like the most promising approach to use when the number of factors that need to be controlled is high and the number of available test subjects is low. A factorial design has the power to evaluate more than one factor at a time and hence to gauge the effects from different factors on the output. Another contribution of the thesis is the development of a method for handling semantic aspects in an industrial setting. A background investigation performed concludes that there seems to be a gap between what academia proposes and how industry handles semantics in the development process. The proposed method aims at bridging this gap. It is based on academic results but has reduced formalism to better suit industrial needs. The method is applicable in an industrial setting without interfering too much with the normal way of working, yet providing important benefits. This method is evaluated in the empirical studies along with other methods for handling semantics. In the area of semantic handling, further contributions of the thesis include a taxonomy for semantic handling methods as well as an improved understanding of the relation between semantic errors and the concept of contracts as a means of avoiding and handling these errors.

GUI testing is expensive to perform manually. Software systems involving a heterogeneous set of components exclude the applicability of specific GUI testing techniques. Visual GUI Testing (VGT) is a test automation technique that combines image recognition with scripts. It applies to almost any GUI driven application. VGT is proven to be cost-effective in comparison with manual testing. Still, it is expensive to maintain. This study investigates if test script design by following specific guidelines positively affects maintenance costs. A case study was conducted to identify best practices for VGT w.r.t. maintenance time. Four VGT versions were developed for each manual test case. These consisted of two design versions, with/without guidelines, for the two VGT-tools EyeAutomate and Sikuli. Data was collected using time measurements, observations, and interviews. Results highlighted differences in initial development time and maintenance time between the two design versions. In total, 44 observations were collected. 17 were related to the design versions, 17 to the VGT-tools, and 10 to VGT in general, initial development, and the system under test. The interviews collected the perceptions of VGT in general, maintenance of the different VGT versions, and guidelines. In conclusion, the combination of the guidelines did not have a positive effect on maintenance in terms of costs and experience. However, some of the individual guidelines did. A rationale why the guidelines did not give the desired result was identified. Future research is necessary to investigate other combinations of guidelines, such as those identified as beneficial.

Em projetos de desenvolvimento a qualidade do produto de software é fundamental para o seu sucesso. Uma das etapas que busca garantir a qualidade do produto final é a validação, verificação e teste (VV&T). O teste é uma das atividades chave de VV&T realizada para garantir a qualidade. Técnicas de teste foram desenvolvidas para verificar e validar tanto requisitos funcionais como não funcionais. Além disso, essas técnicas são aplicadas nas organizações por meio de estratégias que definem os tipos de teste que serão realizados, a ordem de realização, a sua automatização e a frequência de ocorrência. Uma questão importante é verificar como essa atividade é realizada na indústria de software, como essas técnicas são utilizadas e a sua adoção em organizações desenvolvedoras de software. Este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa qualitativa da atividade de teste. Ela utilizou a técnica teoria fundamentada aplicada em cinco empresas desenvolvedoras de software para estabelecer uma teoria da atividade de teste. Foram realizadas entrevistas com gestores de teste das empresas e, a partir dessas entrevistas, foi desenvolvido uma teoria sobre a organização da atividade de teste. Nesta teoria, observou-se que a estrutura organizacional direciona a escolha das técnicas e ferramentas, bem como o tipo do sistema; o prazo e orçamento condicionam a utilização de técnicas de automatização / In development projects the quality of the software product is critical to its success. One of the steps that enforces the quality of the final product is validation, verification and testing (VV&T). Testing is one of the key VV&T activities to ensure quality. Testing techniques were developed to verify and validate both functional and non-functional requirements. In addition, these techniques are applied in organizations using strategies that define the testing techniques that will be performed, the order of application, their automation and the frequency of occurrence. An important issue is to verify how testing is carried out in the software industry, how these techniques are used and their adoption in industrial settings. This work presents a qualitative research of the testing activity. It used the grounded theory technique applied in five software development organizations to establish a model of the testing activity. Interviews were conducted with testing managers and, from these interviews, an organizational theory of the testing activity was developed. In this theory, it was observed that the organizational structure directs the choice of techniques and tools, as well as the type of the system; project schedule and budget limit the use of automation techniques

Em projetos de desenvolvimento a qualidade do produto de software é fundamental para o seu sucesso. Uma das etapas que busca garantir a qualidade do produto final é a validação, verificação e teste (VV&T). O teste é uma das atividades chave de VV&T realizada para garantir a qualidade. Técnicas de teste foram desenvolvidas para verificar e validar tanto requisitos funcionais como não funcionais. Além disso, essas técnicas são aplicadas nas organizações por meio de estratégias que definem os tipos de teste que serão realizados, a ordem de realização, a sua automatização e a frequência de ocorrência. Uma questão importante é verificar como essa atividade é realizada na indústria de software, como essas técnicas são utilizadas e a sua adoção em organizações desenvolvedoras de software. Este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa qualitativa da atividade de teste. Ela utilizou a técnica teoria fundamentada aplicada em cinco empresas desenvolvedoras de software para estabelecer uma teoria da atividade de teste. Foram realizadas entrevistas com gestores de teste das empresas e, a partir dessas entrevistas, foi desenvolvido uma teoria sobre a organização da atividade de teste. Nesta teoria, observou-se que a estrutura organizacional direciona a escolha das técnicas e ferramentas, bem como o tipo do sistema; o prazo e orçamento condicionam a utilização de técnicas de automatização / In development projects the quality of the software product is critical to its success. One of the steps that enforces the quality of the final product is validation, verification and testing (VV&T). Testing is one of the key VV&T activities to ensure quality. Testing techniques were developed to verify and validate both functional and non-functional requirements. In addition, these techniques are applied in organizations using strategies that define the testing techniques that will be performed, the order of application, their automation and the frequency of occurrence. An important issue is to verify how testing is carried out in the software industry, how these techniques are used and their adoption in industrial settings. This work presents a qualitative research of the testing activity. It used the grounded theory technique applied in five software development organizations to establish a model of the testing activity. Interviews were conducted with testing managers and, from these interviews, an organizational theory of the testing activity was developed. In this theory, it was observed that the organizational structure directs the choice of techniques and tools, as well as the type of the system; project schedule and budget limit the use of automation techniques

Process mining (PM) has already found its place in analyzing and visualizing business processes across different sectors such as banking, healthcare, insurance, and logistics. However, its application is very limited in production systems. Production systems are very complex and dynamic, hindering the accurate capture of different process chain events. Generating the event log data out of the recorded events requires a proper understanding of the processes. The results of the bottleneck analysis can help the production experts to optimize the process. This study analyzes three to four PM tools to select an appropriate tool that can perform bottleneck analysis. The initial research will focus on various features of the PM tools such as modeling support, user friendliness, flexibility, stability, animation support, and BPMN modeling support. The feature analysis uses the event-log data generated from simulating the process model created in a Simulation-based Optimization tool FACTS Analyzer. Some PM tools can generate the BPMN model from the process model; animation support and modeling support features are vital for the bottleneck analysis. The PM tool's ability to create the process model automatically from the event log data can help save time involved in data collection through a physical visit to the site, conducting interviews, observations, etc. In contrast, the bottleneck analysis used simulated event log data and an event log generated from a real-world production system. The study focuses on finding whether PM can support the bottleneck analysis of the real-world production systems and find the appropriate PM tool available in the market for the same application. The use of process mining tools in the bottleneck analysis requires human intervention in identifying the bottlenecks in the process as the PM tools are incapable of recognizing them on their own. But, appropriate use of the PM tools in the bottleneck analysis can help save a considerable amount of time in manually building the simulation model. Performing iterative optimization could lead to socio, economic, and environmental sustainability as it helps avoid wastages in time, material, and energy.