Context Sensitive Solution for Collaborative Decision Making on Quality Assurance in Software Development Processes

Software Testing from an Agile and Traditional view

Over the years, software development has evolved from being a simple coding activity into a highly organized and structured process that requires the use of a wide variety of tools and techniques. These tools are essential for improving productivity, ensuring accuracy, managing time efficiently, and delivering quality software within deadlines. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of different tools and techniques used in software projects and how they contribute to the overall success of a project. Software development is no longer limited to just writing code; it involves several critical phases such as requirement gathering, planning, designing, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance. Each of these phases benefits from specialized tools that simplify tasks, enhance collaboration, reduce errors, and increase overall efficiency. With the growing popularity of agile methodologies and the widespread adoption of DevOps culture, the use of automated tools, project management platforms, testing frameworks, and version control systems has become essential for modern software teams. Selecting the right tools and integrating them effectively into the development process plays a major role in determining whether a project will meet its objectives. This study aims to analyze the significance of these tools in real-world software projects, highlighting their advantages, practical applications, and limitations. The findings of this study will provide valuable insights for developers, project managers, and organizations looking to optimize their software development practices using modern tools and techniques. This research focuses on key areas such as project planning, development life cycle, team collaboration, agile and DevOps practices, version control, and testing tools—all of which contribute to successful and high-quality software delivery. Keywords: software project, software development, tools and techniques, project success, agile methodology, DevOps, software development life cycle, project planning, version control, testing tools, automation, productivity, collaboration, deployment.

The software development process (SDP) contains many variables depending on the methodology chosen. Software development methodologies such as Agile or Waterfall can specify how and in what sequence software is developed. However, the SDP remains a hot topic among practitioners and academics, who seek to clarify the key aspects that influence the successful implementation of the SDP. As the SDP is a dynamic and knowledge-intensive business process (BP), one of its most impact components is the human factor (HF). It is difficult to predict how the HF impacts the sequence and results of SDP implementation. This paper proposes a new approach to investigate the impact of the HF on the SDP through the perspectives of different software development methodologies. The advantages and novelties of this approach include modelling HF uncertainties through their fuzzification in SDP activities, modelling different SDP methodologies using a case-handling approach, and simulating a dynamic, case-based SDP with real HF-related data collected from several IT organizations. The results show that the impact of the HF on SDP performance differs across the Waterfall and Agile methodologies. The results also allow researchers and practitioners working on software development projects to familiarize themselves with the impact of the HF on different SDPs, and to assess the degree of development risk associated with the SDP depending on the methodology chosen.

agile information systems, flexible information systems development, distributed information systems development, global software development, software development, special issue

Open Source Software (OSS) is software products available to the public, with its source code to study, change, and improves its design. Open Source Software Development (OSSD) is the process by which open source software is developed within the confines of software engineering life-cycle methods. However when open source used for commercial purpose, then an open source license is required. Open source software is very often developed in a public and collaborative manner. The quality assurance principle under open source software development is an approach to improve software product quality against traditional methods and techniques. Despite the fact that the open source developments have seen remarkable successful in recent years, there are a number of product quality issues and challenges facing the open source development model. Many industries and business sectors are following or using OSSD, since they realize the benefits, but they do have some reservations concerning quality assurance in the form of program code quality, maintenance of the code and its quality, over the life-cycle of the product and third party usage. This paper reviews the literature of the process of the latest quality assurance, under open source software development methods and techniques. The result from this review is to show the process of quality assurance of open source software and that how it can affect the overall quality assurance principal.

In the dynamic development context of the information technology sector, especially crucial for Russia at the moment, the adoption of agile project management methodologies becomes a necessary step for companies to effectively respond to changes, enhance product quality, and achieve market success while maintaining competitiveness. Therefore, the aim of this research is to assess the degree of implementation of agile project management methodologies in IT companies in Russia. The study was conducted through online surveys of practicing specialists in the field of managing innovative projects. Specialists were asked a general question about their application of agile methodologies, as well as four questions regarding specific aspects: requirements gathering, planning, communication with clients, and team communication. The article describes which aspects of agile project management methodologies are practiced by surveyed specialists. In conclusion, it is noted that employees tend to use hybrid project management approaches more frequently than pure agile methodologies. Agile principles are more commonly integrated into client communication and team communication, and less so in requirements gathering and planning.

The agile approaches are setting new paradigms to software development. The old ideas about testing at the end of the coding will no longer be applicable. Agile is about small teams incrementally delivering quality software. However, traditionally, quality assurance (QA) tasks are dealt with externally by a QA team whose role is to ensure that QA process has been followed and required QA standards have been met. So, the main challenge is how to embed quality assurance in agile projects. This paper addresses this shortcoming by proposing a process-driven e-learning system to support QA in agile software development. An ontological approach is adopted to develop a system that senses the developer’s current software activity and suggests resources that deal with all SQA related aspects of the software process at hand. A prototype system has been implemented and experimental results are provided.

In project-based organizations knowledge is a critical resource used to develop and deliver products and services with a high level of quality. Therefore, a systematic and sustainable process is necessary to coordinate knowledge management, project management and product lifecycle. This scenario predominates in companies focused on the creation and maintenance of information systems. This article presents an exploratory study based on a framework that integrates cognitive, managerial, and operational processes in a public Brazilian organization that provides services in the area of information and communications technology, focusing on the construction and maintenance of information systems. Those processes are operationalized by three management models considering knowledge, project, and software development processes. Our proposal aims to understand the relationships between those three management models and their influence on the software development process in the organization under study. Our premise is based on the principle that cognitive management, project management, and software development management must be integrated to fulfill the demands of product development and service provision. The research data was composed of registers of working hours spent on software development and maintenance projects involving 244 people allocated to 5064 projects in the period from 2007 to 2013. The study resulted in the identification of the relationships among the three management models adopted by the organization, with emphasis on knowledge management activities, which were not directly identified, making it difficult to account for and measure them. We established a set of activities connected to each one of the knowledge management model phases. Since those activities were not visible before, our approach contributed to build a systematic process to register and relate activities linked to the dimensions of cognitive processes, project management, and software construction.

In earlier software development all process is completed and implemented but now this is not a scenario. In modern era changes are frequent to any software product or module which is under development phase, due to market competitions priority of requirement changes Due to the fact that the traditional process models are incompatible with these changes, agile methodology is used instead.. Earlier waterfall model was convenient because of less requirement of features and emergency of the application in the short period of time .This Paper Discusses the comparative Analysis of waterfall model and agile methodologies while agile methodologies are taking over, even the waterfall model is older and time consuming it is still use in many sectors The paper will help other software development process models. Agile method plays important role in the areas of software project management, software schedule management etc. The main aim of the agile is Customer satisfaction as well as faster development with low defect rate. This paper reflects the comparison of the agile processes with waterfall model software development life cycle model. Agile processes aren't always beneficial; they have their own set of downsides. Agile method promotes continuous iteration of development and testing throughout the software developed.

This work applied statistical process control to establish the control limits of the % gamma pass of patient-specific intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) quality assurance (QA), and to evaluate the efficiency of the QA process by using the process capability index (Cpml). A total of 278 IMRT QA plans in nasopharyngeal carcinoma were measured with MapCHECK, while 159 VMAT QA plans were undertaken with ArcCHECK. Six megavolts with nine fields were used for the IMRT plan and 2.5 arcs were used to generate the VMAT plans. The gamma (3%/3 mm) criteria were used to evaluate the QA plans. The % gamma passes were plotted on a control chart. The first 50 data points were employed to calculate the control limits. The Cpml was calculated to evaluate the capability of the IMRT/VMAT QA process. The results showed higher systematic errors in IMRT QA than VMAT QA due to the more complicated setup used in IMRT QA. The variation of random errors was also larger in IMRT QA than VMAT QA because the VMAT plan has more continuity of dose distribution. The average % gamma pass was 93.7% ± 3.7% for IMRT and 96.7% ± 2.2% for VMAT. The Cpml value of IMRT QA was 1.60 and VMAT QA was 1.99, which implied that the VMAT QA process was more accurate than the IMRT QA process. Our lower control limit for % gamma pass of IMRT is 85.0%, while the limit for VMAT is 90%. Both the IMRT and VMAT QA processes are good quality because Cpml values are higher than 1.0.

Many regular business operations are transforming into digital services, increasing advanced multi-platforms, rapid operational alignment, flexibility, and environmental impact through energy consumption, hardware waste, and technology investments. Flexible and sustainable system development models emphasizing energy efficiency can help innovate software development as digital servicing applications shift. This research is motivated by the need to improve energy consumption in early software design and development due to rising technological efficiency and sustainability demands. Although effective in iterative development and stakeholder engagement, traditional Agile methodologies often struggle with long-term sustainability and energy efficiency. Extended Agile, combining Agile, layered architecture, and aspect-oriented frameworks (ALAI), promises to improve system modularity, flexibility, maintainability, and sustainability. This study’s findings are not just theoretical, but also practically relevant, as they explore the energy efficiency of ALAI software development methodologies, using graduate admission information system services (GAISS) as an example. GAISS is a complex system that handles the entire process of graduate admissions, from application submission to final decision. The study quantifies the energy usage of a student-list webpage by analyzing Microsoft IIS server logs from February 2022 to May 2024. Directly applicable findings show that the GAISS based on the ALAI framework reduces energy consumption by 10.7914% compared to traditional Agile software developments. ALAI used 892.80 kWh versus Agile’s 1000.80 kWh during operations, saving energy. These findings demonstrate the benefits of integrating aspect-oriented frameworks and layering approaches into Agile methodologies, contributing to sustainable software development discourse. The study emphasizes the importance of energy-efficient frameworks such as ALAI to reduce software systems’ environmental impact and promote software development sustainability. The findings of this study, with their practical relevance, assist software developers and organizations in choosing software design and development methods that maximize operational efficiency and environmental sustainability.

This comprehensive review paper delves into the application and impact of Agile methodologies in the realm of project management. Agile methodologies, initially rooted in software development, have gained widespread acceptance across various industries due to their flexibility, adaptability, and customer-centric approach. The primary objective of this review is to synthesize the current body of knowledge on Agile methodologies, highlighting their evolution, principles, and diverse applications in project management. The methodology of this review involves a systematic analysis of existing literature, encompassing peer-reviewed journals, industry reports, and case studies. This approach ensures a holistic understanding of Agile methodologies, encompassing both theoretical frameworks and practical implementations. The review categorizes Agile methodologies, such as Scrum, Kanban, and Lean, and examines their unique features and contexts of application. Key findings indicate that agile methodologies significantly enhance project performance, particularly in dynamic and uncertain environments. They foster greater collaboration, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction. However, challenges such as resistance to change, lack of skilled personnel, and difficulties in scaling Agile practices are also identified. The review concludes that while Agile methodologies offer substantial benefits in project management, their successful implementation requires a cultural shift within organizations, adequate training, and a nuanced understanding of when and how to apply these methodologies. Future research directions include exploring the integration of Agile with traditional project management approaches and its impact on organizational performance in various sectors. Keywords: Agile Methodologies, Project Management, Industry Adaptation, Scalability, Technological Advancements, Global Economic Shifts, Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The complexity of generating radiotherapy treatments demands a rigorous quality assurance (QA) process to ensure patient safety and to avoid clinically significant errors. Machine learning classifiers have been explored to augment the scope and efficiency of the traditional radiotherapy treatment planning QA process. However, one important gap in relying on classifiers for QA of radiotherapy treatment plans is the lack of understanding behind a specific classifier prediction. We develop explanation methods to understand the decisions of two automated QA classifiers: (1) a region of interest (ROI) segmentation/labeling classifier, and (2) a treatment plan acceptance classifier. For each classifier, a local interpretable model-agnostic explanation (LIME) framework and a novel adaption of team-based Shapley values framework are constructed. We test these methods in datasets for two radiotherapy treatment sites (prostate and breast), and demonstrate the importance of evaluating QA classifiers using interpretable machine learning approaches. We additionally develop a notion of explanation consistency to assess classifier performance. Our explanation method allows for easy visualization and human expert assessment of classifier decisions in radiotherapy QA. Notably, we find that our team-based Shapley approach is more consistent than LIME. The ability to explain and validate automated decision-making is critical in medical treatments. This analysis allows us to conclude that both QA classifiers are moderately trustworthy and can be used to confirm expert decisions, though the current QA classifiers should not be viewed as a replacement for the human QA process.

Software development methodologies offer a methodical way to working on projects in accordance with client expectations. In the software development process, the customer is seen as the main entity. In order to build valuable software quickly and within a given budget, firms are now seeking to implement customer-centric techniques. Customer satisfaction plays a crucial part in the development and deployment of software products. One software development process that helps to best fulfil changing customer requirements is agile software development. In the following part, a table of comparisons between the various agile modelling methodologies with regard to requirements and the role of the customer follows a discussion of agile methodology. The Scrum & Extreme Programming framework is presented, along with how different firms use the approach for projects of various sizes.

Putting Requirements and Quality at the Core of Global Service Delivery: Current Efforts and Future Plans at Pace University