Optimal Coordination in Distributed Software Development

The construction of a software system requires not only individual coding effort from team members to realize the various functionalities, but also adequate team coordination to integrate the developed code into a consistent, efficient, and bug‐free system. On the one hand, continuous coding without adequate coordination can cause serious system inconsistencies and faults that may subsequently require significant corrective effort. On the other hand, frequent integrations can be disruptive to the team and delay development progress. This tradeoff motivates the need for a good coordination policy. Both the complexity and the importance of coordination is accentuated in distributed software development (DSD), where a software project is developed by multiple, geographically‐distributed sub‐teams. The need for coordination in DSD exists both within one sub‐team and across different sub‐teams. The latter type of coordination involves communication across spatial boundaries (different locations) and possibly temporal boundaries (different time zones), and is a major challenge that DSD faces. In this study, we model both inter‐ and intra‐sub‐team coordination in DSD based on the characteristics of the systems being developed by the sub‐teams, the deadline for completion, and the nature of division adopted by the sub‐teams with respect to development and integration activities. Our analysis of optimal coordination policies in DSD shows that integration activities by one sub‐team not only benefit that sub‐team (as is the case in co‐located development) but can also help the other sub‐teams by providing greater visibility, thereby resulting in a higher integration frequency relative to co‐located development. Analytical results are presented to demonstrate how the characteristics of the projects and the sub‐teams, and the efficiency of communication across the sub‐teams, affect coordination and productivity. We also investigate the pros and cons of using specialized integration sub‐teams and find that their advantage decreases as the project schedule becomes tighter. Decentralized decisions and asymmetric subsystems are also discussed.     

基于系统动力学的软件产业技术创新动力因素研究

软件产业技术创新动力机制是持续提升软件产业技术创新的内在动力源泉。运用系统动力学的研究方法,在对软件产业技术创新现状分析的基础上,提出了软件产业技术创新的5个内部动力要素：企业 R&D 投入、企业知识管理、企业家精神、企业科技人才和企业文化,以及4个外部动力要素：软件产业基地、市场需求、政府支持和知识产权保护。探讨了各个动力要素对软件产业技术创新的促进作用,建立了因果关系模型图,分析了反馈路径。在反馈环分析的基础上提出了增强软件产业技术创新能力的对策与建议。     

基于SCKey组态软件的电子产品高温老化室控制系统设计

针对现有的电子产品高温老化室控制系统在进行电子产品高温老化过程中存在的温度控制灵敏度低,温度变化 速率难以控制,操作过程可视性差等问题,提出了一种基于SCKey系统组态软件的电子产品高温老化室控制系统。设计 了基于PLC控制器的控制系统硬件结构,给出了电气控制线路图和PLC外部接线图;设计了基于SCKev系统组态软件 和AdvanTrol实时监控软件的现场控制组态界面。实际运行结果表明,该系统运行可靠,温度控制精度高,温度变化速率 符合高温老化工艺的技术要求,具有较好的控制效果。     

Product Life‐Cycle Management of Packaged Software

A software product becomes less valuable for its consumers over time due to technological and economic obsolescence. As a result, firms have an opportunity to introduce and sell upgrades that provide higher utility to consumers compared to an older and out‐of‐date software product. In a market that is growing and consists of homogeneous customers, we prove that the optimal upgrade intervals are monotonically increasing throughout the product's life cycle solely because of demand and cost considerations. This finding is in conformity with empirical evidence, thus validating our theoretical model. We then present comparative statics results to show that increase in the rate of obsolescence or network externalities may sometimes increase upgrade intervals for early upgrades and decrease these for later upgrades in the product's life cycle, but increase in market growth rate always decreases these intervals. Further, when successive software upgrades are forward compatible, upgrade intervals are longer than when they are not. Finally, we present three separate extensions of our model to showcase the robustness of our results. Since upgrade development costs depend on upgrade intervals, these insights help managers understand how costing for upgrades changes over the product's life cycle.     

浅谈地方普通院校本科软件人才培养的问题与对策

本文分析了当前地方普通院校本科计算机类专业教育学校方面存在的问题,提出一些如何科学地进行教育改革、培养高质量的计算机软件人才的措施和改革建议,以期对地方普通院校软件人才培养有所裨益。     

The Effect of Liability and Patch Release on Software Security: The Monopoly Case

An abundance of flawed software has been identified as the main cause of the poor security of computer networks because major viruses and worms exploit the vulnerabilities of such software. As an incentive mechanism for software security quality improvement, software liability has been intensely discussed among both academics and practitioners for a long time. An alternative approach to managing software security is patch release, which has been widely adopted in practice. In this paper, we examine these two different ways of mitigating customer risk in the software market: liability and patch release. We study the impact of both mechanisms on a monopolistic software vendor's decision on security quality. We find the conditions under which each mechanism is effective in terms of improving security quality and increasing social surplus. The heterogeneous nature of loss is identified to be a key factor for the effectiveness of the liability mechanism. On the other hand, patch release can be effective and welfare‐enhancing regardless of the nature of loss as long as customers incur low patching cost, and/or the vendor incurs low patch development cost. We also examine the impact of customer misperception of the outcome from vulnerable software on the effectiveness of liability.     

Optimal Enhancement and Lifetime of Software Systems: A Control Theoretic Analysis

We develop an optimal control model to maximize the net value provided by a software system over its useful life. The model determines the initial number of features in the system, the level of dynamic enhancement effort, and the lifetime of the system. The various factors affecting these optimal choices are systems characteristics (e.g., complexity, age, quality), user learning, and process maturity. We also consider that there is a time lag between the addition of a feature and the realization of its benefit to users. The basic model is extended to consider the decision of replacing the existing system by a new one.     

纸浆生产过程SU6PC与80C196单片机综合控制系统研究

通过对造纸纸浆生产过程的深入研究,提出了由SU6PC可编程控制器和80C196单片机组成的造纸纸浆生产过程综合控制系统,介绍了以草料造纸的纸浆生产过程自动综合控制方法.简要介绍了系统硬件和软件设计.