Högskolan i Skövde

Current techniques for modeling software architecture do not provide sufficient support for modeling architectural design rules. This is a problem in the context of model-driven development in which it is assumed that major design artifacts are represented as formal or semi-formal models. This article addresses this problem by presenting an approach to modeling architectural design rules in UML at the abstraction level of the meaning of the rules. The high abstraction level and the use of UML makes the rules both amenable to automation and easy to understand for both architects and developers, which is crucial to deployment in an organization. To provide a proof-of-concept, a tool was developed that validates a system model against the architectural rules in a separate UML model. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, the architectural design rules of an existing live industrial-strength system were modeled according to the approach.

In this paper we report from a case study on OSS adoption conducted in a large multinational organization in the secondary software sector. Our study contributes to theory and practice of project management for OSS adoption, with important implications for different stakeholder groups and internal method usage. In particular, our results concern the following three issues in relation to a wish to increase the usage of OSS within the organization. Firstly, from a management level perspective, we elaborate on knowledge transfer and suggest a number of recommendations. Secondly, from an operational level perspective, we elaborate on potential benefits from changed work practices. Thirdly, from our analysis of the relationship between the project management model and the maintenance management model, we suggest adaptations to existing work practices by highlighting the importance of considering maintenance costs early in a project.

There is in Europe an increasing recognition of the need for governmental organisations to support and promote the effective curation of electronic data, including public documents, for easy public access and reuse. Such a vision can stand in stark contrast with reality. In this paper we address the question: to what extent are local government documents preserved electronically for discovery and re-use? Our goal is to establish the level to which calls for the greater use of open document standards is being heeded, and to understand the potential consequences of not heeding the advice. We find that availability of electronic copies of documents is very variable, and accessibility is poor. In particular, there is little evidence of policy to maintain electronic copies of documents, and little awareness of open standards and their importance in data curation. This is in stark contrast to state central Government policy. The study highlights a lack of strategy in organisations regarding the effective curation of electronic data.

There is a strong movement in Europe to promote effective e-Government, with directives and proposals at European and national levels. There is in particular recognition of the need for all governmental organisations to support easy public access to electronic copies of public documents, both for discovery and for reuse. In this paper we consider the extent to which local government documents in Sweden are being preserved electronically. We find that the high level vision stands in stark contrast with reality, with availability of electronic copies of documents very variable, and accessibility poor. In particular, we find little evidence of policy at local government level to maintain electronic copies of documents, and little awareness of the importance of open standards in data curation. The study highlights a lack of strategy, leading to significant electronic data loss even after only ten years.

Open Source (OS) is a phenomenon of increasing significance for organizations, offering the prospect of effective alternative business solutions and new business opportunities. A number of surveys have been conducted in various countries with the purpose of understanding the state of practice with respect to OS in companies. In this paper we report on a study of the perceptions of OS and the uptake of OS products and development models in Swedish companies. The study used purposeful sampling of companies that have an expressed intererst in OS, and the survey was conducted using a set of pre-prepared questions. Its goal was to investigate the extent to which OS has influenced business thinking, as seen from the standpoint of stakeholders. We found that uptake is much higher than reported in earlier studies, but as with previous studies, activity is still concentrated in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). There is increased evidence of interest beyond the simple use of OS components at the infrastructure level. Further, a significant proportion of the companies studied are supporting the OS community as well as benefiting from it. Support includes participation in existing projects and the release of new software under OS licenses. 

The health of an Open Source ecosystem is an important decision factor when considering the adoption of Open Source software or when monitoring a seeded Open Source project. In this paper we introduce responsiveness as a qualitative measure of the quality of replies within mailing lists, which can be used for assessing ecosystem health. We consider one specific metric of responsiveness in this paper, and that is the response time of follow-up messages in mailing lists. We also describe a way for characterising the nature of communication in messages with short and long response times. The approach is tested in the context of the Nagios project, and we particularly focus on the responsiveness for contributors acting in their professional roles as core developers. Our contribution is a step towards a deeper understanding of voluntary support provided in mailing lists of OSS projects.

The health of an Open Source ecosystem is an important decision factor when considering the adoption of an Open Source software or when monitoring a seeded Open Source project. In this paper we assess the ecosystem health using approaches involving domain analysis and social network analysis of mailing lists for the Nagios project. We elaborate approaches for how involvement of different roles can be analysed through quantitative analysis, specifically focusing on core developers and professional providers. Our contribution is a step towards a deeper understanding of professional involvement in professional Open Source ecoystems.

Open Source Software (OSS) is software which can be freely used, modified and redistributed, generally produced in a collaborative fashion by global communities of firms and individuals. In this paper we consider OSS ecosystems using an analytical device which we refer to as the OSS Stakeholder triangle. We believe that the OSS Stakeholder triangle constitues a useful means for analysing many aspects of Open Source ecosystems, including interaction between stakeholder roles and the overall health of an ecosystem.

A basic premise of model-driven development (MDD) is to capture all important design information in a set of formal or semiformal models, which are then automatically kept consistent by tools. The concept, however, is still relatively immature and there is little by way of impirically validated guidelines. In this paper, we report on the use of MDD on a significant real-world project over several years. Our research found the MDD approach to be deficient in terms of modeling architectural design rules. Furthermore, the current body of literature does not offer a satisfactory solution as to how architectural design rules should be modeled. As a result developers have to rely on time-consuming and error-prone manual practices to keep a system consistent with its architecture. To realize the full benefits of MDD, it is important to find ways of formalizing architectural design rules, which then allow automatic enforcement of the architecture on the system model. Without this, architectural enforcement will remain a bottleneck in large MDD projects.

There is a strong movement in Europe to promote products that support open, well-documented standards. Directives and proposals at European and national levels have been developed in this area. There is in particular an increasing recognition of the need for governmental organisations to support and promote standard document formats. This vision can stand in stark contrast with the reality of those document formats which can currently be accepted and produced by those organisations. In this paper we address the question: to what extent can and do Swedish governmental organisations respond appropriately when presented with a document in a format that conforms to an open standard? We find that a small minority of organisations can actually do so, whereas all are willing and able to accept documents in a proprietary format. The study also highlights a lack of transparency in organisations regarding formats which should be accepted and used for communication with the general public.