Defining syntax and providing tool support for Agent UML using a textual notation

This challenges and open problems paper discusses the role of software engineers when combining modeling with Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE). With SBSE techniques increasingly providing insights into difficult software modeling problems, the role of the software engineer might be thought of as diminishing. However, given the crucial role of the model understanding in SBSE, we argue that the role of the software engineer will become more important through interactive SBSE, although exploiting this interaction remains a challenge for the field.

Logicians may want to consider the following statements: Engineers use mathematics in their Software Engineers do not use mathematics in their What should we conclude from these axioms? would conclude that Software Engineers are not Engineers. Others would conclude that the first statement must be incorrect and should read, All Engineers except Software Engineers use mathematics in their work. They would argue that mathematics is irrelevant in software development. Still others would conclude that, Some of the people who now call themselves Software Engineers are not qualified to do so. Although much of the mathematics developed by Computer Scientists is not very practical, this talk will argue that mathematics can and should play a central role in software engineering. It will show how classical engineering concepts can be applied in software development. 3rd IEEE International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods (ICFEM'00)

An Internet Marketing Multi-Agent System (IMMAS) has been proposed to enhance traditional Internet marketing mechanism through the mobile agent technique [3]. A critical design of the proposed system is the introduction of two software agents, namely a Sales agent and a Personal agent, for performing the delegated jobs of the designated marketing activity helping customers to assist his own job administration respectively. This paper is aimed to report the architecture for IMMAS represented in form of Agent UML (AUML) specifications. The strength of a multi-agent architecture is highly dependent on the coordination of multiple distributed software components. Therefore, the description of IMMAS architecture will be focused on the coordination and interaction patterns among multiple agents in a three-layer presentation. This architecture could be helpful to and used as the reference for later software engineers in agent-based software systems.

Empirical research is playing a significant role in software engineering (SE), and it has been applied to evaluate software artifacts and technologies. There have been a great number of empirical research articles published recently. There is also a large research community in empirical software engineering (ESE). In this paper, we identify both the overall landscape and detailed implementations of ESE, and investigate frequently applied empirical methods, targeted research purposes, used data sources, and applied data processing approaches and tools in ESE. The aim is to identify new trends and obtain interesting observations of empirical software engineering across different sub-fields of software engineering. We conduct a mapping study on 538 selected articles from January 2013 to November 2017, with four research questions. We observe that the trend of applying empirical methods in software engineering is continuously increasing and the most commonly applied methods are experiment, case study and survey. Moreover, open source projects are the most frequently used data sources. We also observe that most of researchers have paid attention to the validity and the possibility to replicate their studies. These observations are carefully analyzed and presented as carefully designed diagrams. We also reveal shortcomings and demanded knowledge/strategies in ESE and propose recommendations for researchers.

In response to the enormous annual dollar value spent on software, major emphasis is being placed within industry, Government and academia on the establishment of a rigorous discipline for the development of software—i. e., on the establishment of software engineering. This has significance in the realm of computer system simulation for two basic reasons: first, computer system simulation (any simulation for that matter) does itself involve the development of software; and second, computer system simulation is a technique/tool which can be applied to the discipline of software development. It will be the purpose of this workshop to discuss both the role of software engineering in computer system simulation and the role of computer system simulation in software engineering. Potential topics for discussion include, but are not limited to: a. Identification of software engineering b. Disciplines required for software engineering c. Software engineering in support of computer system simulation d. Computer system simulation as a tool in software engineering e. Recent progress in the direction of establishing the software engineering discipline.

Autistic individuals possess many unique skills that are beneficial to the workforce, especially the technology industry. However, research shows the unemployment rate is still considerably high among the autistic population compared to their neurotypical peers. It has been suggested that some autistic individuals may excel in software engineering roles. This paper presents a Multivocal Literature Review (MLR) to highlight the cognitive style and talents of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). An analysis is carried out to fully understand the challenges faced by autistic individuals transitioning into the workplace while also highlighting the challenges faced in their day to day working life. These challenges include workplace environments as well as workplace ceremonies, including, for example, daily stand-up meetings. Many neurotypical software engineers, software engineering firms and academics can benefit from this information as they work towards a more inclusive and more effective software engineering community.

The ongoing trend towards multi-site software development not only brings the benefits but also creates additional challenges regarding remote communication and coordination. The Software Engineering Ontology (SE Ontology) was first developed to clarify the software engineering concepts and project information, and to enable knowledge sharing among dispersed teams. However, the current SE Ontology has the same passive structure as other ontologies that exist on the Web. Passive structure refers to a need to know exactly the concepts and relationships to which users are referring in the ontology. Otherwise, he/she may not be able to obtain the knowledge required. What is needed is active support that can help users find the information they need and provide them with meaningful output. In this paper, we propose an active Software Engineering Ontology through Multi-Agent System (SEOMAS) framework which is intended to provide active support to access software engineering domain knowledge and to recommend software project information captured in the SE Ontology. The UML and Agent UML are used to formalise the SEOMAS framework and to model interactions between the various agents. The prototype is developed and evaluated using several scenarios of the online shopping system development as a case study.

Logic is not only of foundational importance in mathematics, it is also playing a big role in software engineering and formal verification. Its different roles influence its teaching, which has to take into consideration the recent developments in category theory and proof theory. We show that teaching set theory from a categorical viewpoint, in contrast with Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms, helps develop proper skills that are essential in mathematics and software engineering. The use of a proof assistant provides students with another perspective on both subjects: basic category theory and proof theory.

Conservative extensions of logical theories play an important role in software engineering. They provide a formal basis for program refinement and guarantee the integrity and transparency of modules and objects. This paper studies conservative extension ideas in the context of default logic. In particular, we define several alternative concepts, study their properties, and derive interconnections among the concepts. The main result provides an interesting distinctive feature of Reiter's default logic over some well-known variants.

Traditional waterfall or iterative waterfall methods are being used in software industries since its birth. In the last decade, time to market and flexibility in accommodating customer requirements became very important aspects in software project delivery. Keeping these two driving factors in mind, agile methodology became very popular, where continuous cycle of development and testing involving high customer interaction is promoted and this practice results in an early time to market. Hence, the quality aspects for these projects become very important in today’s context. Quality metrics play an important role in software engineering as they transform both the customer expectation and operational performance to metrics which can be measured, evaluated and compared. These metrics focus primarily on three aspects: the quality aspects of the product, the process which was followed during its development and some important project parameters. These metrics are influenced by different factors such as functionality, usability, reliability and portability. This research work focuses on literature survey on different quality metrics used in traditional software development, their applicability in agile method and finally searches for the right kind of quality metrics which can be used in agile projects.

Software modules and components have always played a key role in software engineering, primarily as coarse-grained abstractions that embody the principle of information hiding. The fundamental contribution of component-based software engineering lies in making the black-box property a core requirement. In this paper we point out that this important notion tends to be neglected in component model analyses, and define the black-box property in terms of detailed characteristics which help to evaluate component models from this perspective. A survey of typical representatives of industrial and research component models shows that especially the former ones leave much to be desired, and the paper discusses the consequences of the weak aspects of their design.

The role of design pattern in the form of software metric and internal code architecture for object-oriented design plays a critical role in software en-gineering in terms of production cost efficiency. This paper discusses about code reusability that is a frequently exercised cost saving methodology in IT produc-tion. After reviewing existing literatures towards study on software metrics, we found that very few studies are witnessed to incline towards code reusability. Hence, we developed a simple analytical model that establishes relationship between the design components of standard software metric and code reusability using case studies of three software projects (Customer Relationship Management project, Supply Chain Management project, and Enterprise Relationship Management project). We also testify our proposal using stochastic based Markov model to find that proposed system can extract significant information of maximized values of code reusability with increasing level of uncertainties of software project methodologies.

Generative AI is revolutionizing software development by providing intelligent programming assistance, automating code generation, debugging, and refactoring. This paper evaluates the impact of AI-powered coding assistants, such as GitHub Copilot and OpenAI Codex, on developer productivity and code quality. We analyze AI’s effectiveness in improving coding efficiency, reducing errors, and maintaining best practices while addressing challenges such as bias, over-reliance, and security risks. Our study compares AI-assisted and human-written code using empirical data and controlled experiments across multiple programming languages. Key metrics, including defect rates, maintainability, and adherence to industry standards, are used to assess AI’s influence on code quality. Additionally, we explore its implications for software engineering workflows, education, and future advancements in AI-driven development. Findings reveal that AI-assisted coding enhances productivity but requires human oversight to mitigate risks like code vulnerabilities and inconsistencies. This research provides valuable insights into AI’s evolving role in software engineering, offering guidance for developers, researchers, and industry practitioners. DOI:https://doi.org/10.52783/pst.1668

Cloud-based technologies play an increasing role in software engineering because of their scalability, availability, and cost efficiency. However, due to privacy issues, developers and organizations still hesitate to host applications that handle sensitive data on servers of external cloud providers. Modern hardware extensions, such as Intel's Software Guard Extensions (SGX), are an attempt to provide confidentiality and integrity for applications running on external hardware. Still, enabling SGX in cloud systems poses new challenges considering scalability and flexibility. In this paper, we propose an approach to address these issues by employing concepts from the domain of Dynamic Software Product Lines (DSPLs). We aim to enable applications running on SGX-based cloud systems to be securely reconfigurable and extendable during runtime. In particular, we describe properties that such an approach should fulfill and discuss corresponding challenges.

The role of the design pattern in the form of software metric and internal code architecture for object-oriented design plays a critical role in software engineering regarding production cost efficiency. This paper discusses code reusability that is a frequently exercised cost saving methodology in IT production. After reviewing existing literature towards a study on software metrics, we found that very few studies are witnessed to incline towards code reusability. Hence, we developed a simple analytical model that establishes a relationship between the design components of standard software metric and code reusability using case studies of three software projects (Customer Relationship Management project, Supply Chain Management project, and Enterprise Relationship Management project). We also testify our proposal using stochastic based Markov model to find that proposed system can extract significant information of maximized values of code reusability with increasing level of uncertainties of software project methodologies.