It is important to manage iterative projects in a way to maximize quality and minimize cost. To achieve high quality, accurate project estimates are of high importance. It is challenging to predict the effort that is required to perform test activities in an iterative development. If testers put extra effort in testing then schedule might be delayed, however, if testers spend less effort then quality could be affected. Currently there is no model for test effort prediction in iterative development to overcome such challenges. This paper introduces and validates a dynamic Bayesian network to predict test effort in iterative software development. In this research work, the proposed framework is evaluated in a number of ways: First, the framework behavior is observed by considering different parameters and performing initial validation. Then secondly, the framework is validated by incorporating data from two industrial projects. The accuracy of the results has been verified through different prediction accuracy measurements and statistical tests. The results from the verification confirmed that the framework has the ability to predict test effort in iterative projects accurately.

[pt] O desenvolvimento de frameworks é caro, não só pela dificuldade intrínseca relacionada à captura do conhecimento do domínio, mas também por causa da falta de métodos e técnicas apropriados para dar suporte à sua evolução e desenvolvimento iterativo. Neste trabalho de tese é proposta a utilização de duas técnicas complementares para dar suporte a evolução de frameworks: regras de refactoring e regras de extensão. A técnica de refactoring foi desenvolvida para restruturar software de forma a tornar o código mais legível e fácil de ser reutilizado. Regras da extensão são propostas para modificar a estrutura de pontos de variação do framework, possibilitando a adição mais fácil de novas funcionalidades no design. Ambas as técnicas preservam o comportamento observável dos programas. Esta propriedade é verificada formalmente usando-se CCS e técnicas de verificação de modelo. A abordagem proposta é testada com o auxílio de uma ferramenta semiautomática, desenvolvida para dar suporte à aplicação das regras definidas. / [en] Framework development is expensive not only because of the intrinsic difficulty related to the elicitation of domain knowledge but also because of the lack of methods and techniques to support its evolution and interactive development. The present thesis proposes the use of two complementary techniques to support framework evolution: refactoring and extension rules. The refactoring technique has been developed to enable software re-structuring in a way to produce more readable and reusable code. Extension rules have been proposed to change the structure of the framework variation points by allowing the addition of new design functionalities. Both techniques preserve the observable behavior of programs. This property is formally verified in this work by using CCS approach to model checking. The proposed approach has been tested by means of a tool specially developed to support the application of the defined rules.

Microservices are a way of decentralizing software services into smaller, isolated environments with contained, specific responsibilities. The traditional approach of monolithic applications introduces many problems regarding complexity due to scaling of functionality. Microservices emerged as a way of dealing with these problems by separating services into modules independent of one another, promoting communication between each component to fulfill the service requirements. This architectural style of software development separates concern of business logic, data models, and other domain specific modules to their respective domains where they are isolated from the rest of the system. Communication is key in the world of microservices as modules rely on transferring information to the rest of the system rather than mutating and operating on global data bound to the entirety of the system. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) expose data from individual software modules to other parts of the application, and this can be done in a multitude of ways. This thesis focuses on APIs following the REST (Representational State Transfer) protocol as a means to exchange data between software modules. This project dives into the concept of microservices by developing a service through an iterative development process in order to incrementally implement the requirements of the service. The purpose of the microservice is to integrate third-party APIs into the existing service, Link Visualizer. Instead of directly implementing the required functionalities from the external API into the core source code of Link Visualizer, a microservice was built to isolate the responsibilities, removing co-dependence from the integrating APIs.

An industrial product development project can be extensive and put a significant financial strain on the company that executes it, especially if the developed product underperforms. For startup companies this becomes considerably noticeable since they often have limited resources with respect to capital and personnel. Additionally, startups seldom have an established customer base and thus do not have established customer needs to go after during a development project. The iterative development method often used in software was hypothesised to be beneficial to use on hardware as well to circumvent these issues, encourage innovation, accelerate progress, and be cost-effective with its cyclic characteristics.  This thesis was carried out in partnership with the external partner AirForestry, an innovative startup company developing a tree harvesting drone that will have its primary usage in forestry thinning operations. Through action research, the iterative development method was researched by applying it to the development of a large system aimed to aerially receive full-length trees, cut into appropriate logs, and stack these to be collected by a logging truck. A proposal for how a system of this nature could be designed which the external partner was satisfied with.  The iterative development method proved to be efficient in forcing innovative advancements and a way to quickly move forward in a project. Limitations to the method’s compatibility with larger projects and unclear framework for its usage were however identified. This meant that future research on its capability with projects of different natures is required.

Bereits vor der Pandemie stellten räumliche Distanz, fehlende Ausbildung im Bereich der Kollaborationskompetenzen, der Umgang mit digitalen Medien sowie in der interkulturellen Interaktion Hemmschwellen für die virtuelle Zusammenarbeit dar (Händel et al., 2021; Scherer et al., 2021). Potenziale für hochschul- und landesübergreifende Lehrangebote und Projekte zur Vernetzung werden weiterhin unzureichend umgesetzt. Existierende Projekte werden zumeist auf Basis von aufwändigen Reisen sowie Videokonferenzen abgehandelt. Der tatsächliche Austausch der Studierenden und der damit einhergehende Wissenstransfer durch Vernetzung rückt in diesen Umsetzungsvarianten in den Hintergrund. Einen alternativen Ansatz stellt die kollaborative Onlinelehre, mit starkem Fokus auf die Entwicklung der nötigen Kompetenzen, Vernetzungsaktivitäten, sowie asynchrone und synchrone Kollaborationstools, dar. In diesem Kontext stellt das Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) Framework erprobte Ansätze bereit, welche zur Entwicklung von Lehrangeboten genutzt werden können. Als Laborumgebung zur Weiterentwicklung des Frameworks werden Lehrangebote beforscht, durch iterative Weiterentwicklung neue Erkenntnisse gewonnen sowie bestehende Annahmen überprüft (Schoop et al., 2020). [Aus: Einführenden Beitrag]

Goal of my work is to introduce software development process metods specialized to Rational Unified Process metod from IBM. I aplicate inception and elaboration phases of RUP on practical example.