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Guest Editorial of Special Section on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications in Information Technology for Software-Intensive Systems
Information and Software Technology 93 (2018) 246–247
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Information and Software Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infsof
Guest Editorial of Special Section on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications in Information Technology for Software-Intensive Systems
MARK
This special section includes extended versions of two papers that achieved a nomination for the best paper award at the 42nd Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), held in Limassol, Cyprus, on August 31 – September 2, 2016. SEAA is a long-standing international forum for researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to present the latest trends, experiences, and concerns in the field of Software Engineering and Advanced Applications in information technology for software-intensive systems. In the last decades, the SEAA conference editions have reflected the continuous changes in its area by focusing on innovative and advanced software engineering methodologies and applications. To reflect on up-to date trends in research and practice, the 42nd edition of SEAA included the following main tracks:
• Embedded Software Engineering • Model-based Development, Components, and Services • Software Management: Measurement, Peopleware and Innovation • Software Process and Product Improvement • Software Product Lines and Software Ecosystems • Systematic Literature Reviews and Mapping Studies In addition the program also included the following special sessions on emerging and promising topics that are likely to have an impact on both research and industry in the near future:
• Estimation and Prediction in Software & Systems Engineering • Software Engineering for Startups • Cyber-Physical Systems • Advancing Business Process Management • Teaching, Education and Training for Dependable Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems. SEAA 2016 received 97 submissions. After review, 35 papers were accepted as regular papers for presentation at the conference. The papers that achieved positive comments and the best reviewing score were further reviewed by the program co-chairs and invited for a special section of the Information & Software Technology journal. The authors of these papers submitted extended and revised versions, which were further reviewed by some program committee members and external reviewers and passed the IST review process. Based on this, two papers were accepted for the special section. These two papers provide novel contributions on research problems related to automated test generation for testing of graphical user interfaces and identification and estimation of architectural technical debt. Automated test generation has been successfully applied for code-level API testing, taking into account its capacity of reducing the involved manual effort and improving the effectiveness of software testing. However, the same success has not been seen in the area of graphical user interface testing, due to the additional complexity of automating this type of testing. The paper “Adapting Automated Test Generation to GUI Testing of Industry Applications” explores the applicability of automated test generation for testing GUIs of industry applications. A test adapter approach is proposed to bridge the gap between automated test generation tools and industry applications. The approach has been assessed by carrying out a multiple case study in which automated test generation with test adapters has been applied at the unit, integration, and system test level in three industry projects from two different companies. The results show that the proposed approach could be applied at all test levels and allows to get an increased coverage, as well as the detection of new defects that were not found by previous testing activities in the projects. Investigation of architectural technical debt has received particular attention by researchers and practitioners, mainly due to the huge impact that this kind of design or implementation influences the costs for maintaining or evolving a software system. Thus, it is important to continuously monitor the architecture of a system and to identify a costly emerging architectural technical debt. The paper “A Semi-Automated Framework for the Identification and Estimation of Architectural Technical Debt” contributes in this direction by presenting a technique to identify architectural http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2017.10.011
0950-5849/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Information and Software Technology 93 (2018) 246–247
technical debt in the form of a non-modularized component and to quantify the convenience of its repayment. The idea behind this proposal is that a key property of the system is modularity. However, understanding the business benefits of refactoring to achieve modularity is not trivial, in particular for large refactoring efforts involving substantial architectural changes. To this aim, the proposed approach has been evaluated by performing a comparative study of the difference in maintenance and development costs in two coexisting systems, one including the refactored component and one including the non-refactored alternative of the same components. The results show the estimated benefits of refactoring the specific case of architectural technical debt that was causing substantial continuous extra-effort. We would like to thank the program committee members of the conference for their thorough reviewing, the journal anonymous reviewers and the Editor, Claes Wohlin, for his continuous support while dealing with all matters relevant to preparing this special section. We would also like to thank the authors for revising their conference papers for this special section. Carmine Gravino, Martin Höst
247
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Information and Software Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infsof
Guest Editorial of Special Section on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications in Information Technology for Software-Intensive Systems
MARK
This special section includes extended versions of two papers that achieved a nomination for the best paper award at the 42nd Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), held in Limassol, Cyprus, on August 31 – September 2, 2016. SEAA is a long-standing international forum for researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to present the latest trends, experiences, and concerns in the field of Software Engineering and Advanced Applications in information technology for software-intensive systems. In the last decades, the SEAA conference editions have reflected the continuous changes in its area by focusing on innovative and advanced software engineering methodologies and applications. To reflect on up-to date trends in research and practice, the 42nd edition of SEAA included the following main tracks:
• Embedded Software Engineering • Model-based Development, Components, and Services • Software Management: Measurement, Peopleware and Innovation • Software Process and Product Improvement • Software Product Lines and Software Ecosystems • Systematic Literature Reviews and Mapping Studies In addition the program also included the following special sessions on emerging and promising topics that are likely to have an impact on both research and industry in the near future:
• Estimation and Prediction in Software & Systems Engineering • Software Engineering for Startups • Cyber-Physical Systems • Advancing Business Process Management • Teaching, Education and Training for Dependable Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems. SEAA 2016 received 97 submissions. After review, 35 papers were accepted as regular papers for presentation at the conference. The papers that achieved positive comments and the best reviewing score were further reviewed by the program co-chairs and invited for a special section of the Information & Software Technology journal. The authors of these papers submitted extended and revised versions, which were further reviewed by some program committee members and external reviewers and passed the IST review process. Based on this, two papers were accepted for the special section. These two papers provide novel contributions on research problems related to automated test generation for testing of graphical user interfaces and identification and estimation of architectural technical debt. Automated test generation has been successfully applied for code-level API testing, taking into account its capacity of reducing the involved manual effort and improving the effectiveness of software testing. However, the same success has not been seen in the area of graphical user interface testing, due to the additional complexity of automating this type of testing. The paper “Adapting Automated Test Generation to GUI Testing of Industry Applications” explores the applicability of automated test generation for testing GUIs of industry applications. A test adapter approach is proposed to bridge the gap between automated test generation tools and industry applications. The approach has been assessed by carrying out a multiple case study in which automated test generation with test adapters has been applied at the unit, integration, and system test level in three industry projects from two different companies. The results show that the proposed approach could be applied at all test levels and allows to get an increased coverage, as well as the detection of new defects that were not found by previous testing activities in the projects. Investigation of architectural technical debt has received particular attention by researchers and practitioners, mainly due to the huge impact that this kind of design or implementation influences the costs for maintaining or evolving a software system. Thus, it is important to continuously monitor the architecture of a system and to identify a costly emerging architectural technical debt. The paper “A Semi-Automated Framework for the Identification and Estimation of Architectural Technical Debt” contributes in this direction by presenting a technique to identify architectural http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2017.10.011
0950-5849/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Information and Software Technology 93 (2018) 246–247
technical debt in the form of a non-modularized component and to quantify the convenience of its repayment. The idea behind this proposal is that a key property of the system is modularity. However, understanding the business benefits of refactoring to achieve modularity is not trivial, in particular for large refactoring efforts involving substantial architectural changes. To this aim, the proposed approach has been evaluated by performing a comparative study of the difference in maintenance and development costs in two coexisting systems, one including the refactored component and one including the non-refactored alternative of the same components. The results show the estimated benefits of refactoring the specific case of architectural technical debt that was causing substantial continuous extra-effort. We would like to thank the program committee members of the conference for their thorough reviewing, the journal anonymous reviewers and the Editor, Claes Wohlin, for his continuous support while dealing with all matters relevant to preparing this special section. We would also like to thank the authors for revising their conference papers for this special section. Carmine Gravino, Martin Höst
247