- topic of the paper
The research issue reviewed in this study is effort factors which are vital indicators when determining development effort. Over the years, software size has been the main factors when estimating effort. With the advancement in software development complexity, other factors such as technical factors, personnel factors and development environment factors have become key indicators when estimating software development effort. Therefore, factors captured by an estimation method determine the method’s accuracy and applicability in estimating software development effort.
(b) contribution and problems solved,
(c) proposed solution
Software building for a distributed system is a complicated but necessary process that creates a successful online platform. Every stakeholder or business person must choose a software development method that meets their expectations on matters such as quality, timeframe, and capital. The Waterfall, Iterative and incremental, and Agile (scrum) methods are the most relevant to a home bookstore system. The Waterfall model for a distributed system ensures a steady, sequential flow of the software implementation processes. The model has five stages; the requirements, design, execution, testing, and release stage. The following step can only begin once the previous one is complete, and one cannot go back to the last process after completion. The process is also advantageous to a client, like a competitive firm that had specific instructions on the software’s characteristics. Waterfall models follow simplified steps making it easy to explain.
(d) research methodology
Expert judgment effort estimation methods rely on expert experience and analytical comparison with previous software projects. The project manager, equipped with previous project experience, can estimate effort for a proposed similar software project. To advance on expert judgment, Planning poker and Wideband Delphi methods were introduced to bring on board more experts in the estimation process. Both methods involve a team of participants with each participant required to make an estimate then compare with the rest. Discrepancies in the estimates are discussed and justified until they arrive at a consensus to make the final estimate. Expert judgment methods are preferred when dealing with small projects where project attributes and project environment have not significantly changed concerning previous projects. However, expert judgment methods are prone to biasness and subjectivity. Due to SOA complexity, size and differences in services attributes, expert judgment methods are not appropriate when estimating developing effort for SOA applications.
(e) Paper reliability in solving an important problem and whether the validation was convincing,
(f) the overall work of the paper and aspects within it you found most interesting.
To address issues of software project failures, research has been focused on developing and evaluating software effort estimation methods. Software development effort estimation is the process of predicting the amount of human effort for developing software project from design, coding, implantation and testing of software project. For years, accuracy has been the central aspect to consider when adopting an estimation method for the software project. However, an estimation method can be proved to be more accurate but not applicable in the context of a particular software type, methodology or software development environment. Consequently, traditional effort estimation methods are not suitable and appropriate when estimating SOA projects due to SOA architectural features. Some of the features that make SOA applications to be different from other software include use of service as the application building block, interoperability that allows different languages and platform to build an application, different types of services and services may be distributed over a network.
- topic of the paper
The first research issue guides this study to focus on software effort estimation techniques which are the processes, computation, algorithms or metrics employed by an effort estimation method to arrive at the final estimation. Most techniques take effort factors as input, assign weights to factors based on their influence on effort then use a technique to the estimated effort. Existing effort estimation techniques include parametric, expert judgment, Artificial Neural Network and Fuzzy Logic.
- contribution and problems solved,
With the growing demand for sophisticated and more significant software projects, organizations are shifting to SOA applications which support interoperability and adaptability to support changes in the business environment. SOA is an architectural style for developing applications based on services that are autonomous, highly modular, reusable, coarse-grained, loosely coupled, message-based and distributed software entity that is accessible via an interface over a network. Benefits of SOA can be looked at in software development perspective, business perspective and organizational perspective. With regard software development perspective, benefits of SOA include separation of concerns into services such that system upgrade involves modifying a service rather than an overhaul of the entire system. At the same time, interoperability enables integration of services and applications developed using different programming languages promoting inclusion with legacy systems and other services. In the business perspective, SOA benefit enables aligning of IT solutions to meet business objectives by ensuring services support business processes functions. SOA organizational benefit includes improved collaboration with stakeholders by integrating systems and services in the organization and partners’ organizations.
- proposed solution
As an IT consultant, I would advise a distributed system against diving right into the implementation of the system without exhausting its analysis. The online retail business is highly profitable and easy to operate. However, companies have ventured into online retail and failed due to the lack of knowledge on issues such as competition. A business in the process of implementing a distributed system should, therefore, analyze the potential competitors for the distributed system to determine what technologies they use. Every online retailer needs to be at per or at a higher ground with its rivals, especially upcoming entrepreneurs, to attract many customers. For instance, Amazon’s Kindle uses AWS technology and an in-housing software system that enables it to change its requirements at any time. Therefore, a firm should ensure that the system he selects allows him to make swift changes to his software before implementation.
(d) research methodology
The third research methodology provides insight on how effort estimation methods were validated either theoretically or empirically to determine the estimation methods’ accuracy and applicability. Theoretical validation ensures an estimation method metrics measure what they are supposed to measure. On the other hand, quantitative validation subjects a proposed effort estimation method to an experimental or case study to confirm the theory behind the proposed method. The accuracy of an effort estimation method is determined by computing Magnitude Relative Error (MRE) for each project and Mean Magnitude Relative Error (MMRE). Lastly, the fourth research issue looks at the strengths and limitations of effort estimation methods in relation to SOA effort estimation. Limitation includes a description on failure to capture a key attribute, metric or process constraints and validation of the methods while strength is the ability of a method to estimate more accurately and applicable to estimate SOA development effort.
(e) Paper reliability in solving an important problem and whether the validation was convincing,
(f) the overall work of the paper and aspects within it you found most interesting.
- topic of the paper
This paper presents a systematic review of journals and conferences publications related to SOA and software effort estimation methods. The study is based on existing software effort estimation methods about SOA with emphasis on techniques used to estimate software effort, software features captured in the method, how the method was validated and methods’ limitations in relation SOA.
- contribution and problems solved,
Software development has experienced exponential growth in size and complexity to meet the ever-growing demand for more functionality, agility, and cost-effectiveness. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural style for developing software applications that meet these demands. Consequently, there is a growing need to build SOA applications within the budget and on schedule, which can only be realized through accurate measurement of software size and estimation of software development effort. This paper provides a summary of existing traditional software effort estimation methods and their challenges when estimating effort for SOA application. The article systematically reviews effort estimation methods for SOA concerning effort estimation techniques, effort factors, how estimation methods were validated and their limitations. The study reveals the need by researchers to harmonize and standardize SOA effort estimation factors and utilize Fuzzy logic of Artificial Neural Network techniques to improve SOA effort estimation accuracy.
- proposed solution
Due to uncertainty in software effort estimation, researchers have integrated fuzzy logic in their methods to estimate effort more accurately. They proposed fuzzy effort estimation model based on existing arithmetic methods such as COCOMO II. Their main objective was to develop estimation methods that are more representative of human thinking and perception about effort estimation. Fuzzy estimation methods take crisp values assigned to project attributes then use defined functions to classify the crisp values into fuzzy sets in the form of degree of membership to a particular fuzzy set. The result from the function is further subjected to IF..THEN analysis contained in inference engine to give the output. Through experiments based on datasets, it has been proved that fuzzy logic effort estimation methods yielded more accurate when estimating development effort for legacy systems. However, based on our knowledge, no research to date has proposed fuzzy logic effort estimation method for SOA applications.
(d) research methodology was used,
Two of the most critical fact-finding methods necessary to determine the possible success rate for distributed system are interviewing and research. Interviewing helps have face to face contact or direct communications of distributed system with potential customers or entrepreneurs who are already in the online retail business. Online entrepreneurs can clarify one’s facts about the software system they are about to use. These businesses, being more experienced than an upcoming entrepreneur, are in a better place to make choices on software systems that work (xxx). Interviewing potential customers generates enthusiasm in both the retailer and the customers as both parties would get excited about the new business. Furthermore, getting end-user involvement would help a distributed system gather ideas and opinions that would maximize profit.
Research from areas such as trade journals, magazines, and competitor websites provides one with facts about future business. Extensive research methods help entrepreneurs maximize the weaknesses of potential competitors by ensuring that their online store contains features that are absent in other bookstores. Some potential competitors of a distributed system may face include Kindle, AnyBooks, Kobo, Aldiko, Nook, and Wattpad. High-performance work distributed systems entail work structures, processes, systems and human resource management, both automated and manual that usually helps in managing an organization.
(e) Paper reliability in solving an important problem and whether the validation was convincing,
Due to the challenges faced by existing traditional methods when estimating SOA development effort, researchers introduced effort estimation methods specifically for SOA, which were promising. Researchers also attempted to review the literature on effort estimation methods for SOA applications. However, analysis of existing effort estimation methods still requires more reviews to capture relevant effort factors for SOA, method validation and techniques involved in the estimation process. This article provides a systematic review of effort estimation methods and their suitability when estimating effort for developing SOA projects. The remainder of this article discusses the review strategy, existing traditional effort estimation methods, SOA effort estimation method, discussion and conclusion.
(f) the overall work of the paper and aspects within it you found most interesting.