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The International Organization for Standardization recently published ISO/IEC 5055:2021 for measuring the reliability, security, performance efficiency, and maintainability of software systems by detecting and counting severe violations of good architectural and coding practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article characterizes technical debt across 700 business applications, comprising 357 MLOC. These applications were analyzed against more than 1,200 rules of good architectural and coding practice. The authors present a formula with adjustable parameters for estimating the principal of technical debt from structural quality data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Uma Sudhakar Rao, Srikanth Kestur, and Chinmay Pradhan on the use of stochastic optimization modeling (SOM) in the project management process, and another by David Card, Kevin Domzalski, and Glyn Davies on how embedded statistical methods can reduce delivered defect rates over time.

Three software complexity measures (Halstead's E, McCabe's υ(G), and the length as measured by number of statements) were compared to programmer performance on two software maintenance tasks. In an experiment on understanding, length and υ(G) correlated with the percent of statements correctly recalled. In an experiment on modification, most significant correlations were obtained with metrics computed on modified rather than unmodified code. All three metrics correlated with both the accuracy of the modification and the time to completion. Relationships in both experiments occurred primarily in unstructured rather than structured code, and in code with no comments. The metrics were also most predictive of performance for less experienced programmers. Thus, these metrics appear to assess psychological complexity primarily where programming practices do not provide assistance in understanding the code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the process standards which computer software organizations use in quality practices for software development, while highlighting organizational culture. What organizations will gain when using a process standard for developing a professional software engineering culture; Importance of professional culture; How to develop a professional culture; Suggestions for evaluating a process standard.

Focuses on the debates in the 1995 annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Denver, Colorado. Information on the Macintosh interface guidelines that were the subject of the debate; Opinions on the role of computers in human lives; Speakers at the conference.

Recommends several solutions to information retrieval problems of the World Wide Web. Details on the problems; Main methods for finding information on large collections; Information on the Boolean scheme.

Focuses on the use of interactive help systems on the interface of computer applications. Preferrence of computer users to ask a real person for help; Description of online help technologies in hypermedia; Effect of using intelligent interactive help systems on interface development.

Provides information on a study which discussed the transition of user interfaces which is believed to support intermediate users. Description of the Great Law of Usability; Components of the triphasic interphase architecture; How to understand the requirements of the transition interface; Key issues in the design of transition interfaces.

Deals with the 1993 InterCHI, a computer science conference held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Topics discussed; Highlights of the event.

Deals with computer software Capability Maturity Model (CMM) 1.1 developed by the Software Engineering Institute. Functions of CMM; Improvements made to the computer software; Difference between mature and immature software organizations. INSET: SUMMARY OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CMM VERSION 1.0 AND 1.1.

Opposes the vision of computers as intelligent machines. Benefits offered by predictable and controllable interfaces; Reasons for opposing the choice of the word intelligent as a label for technology; Evidence of the misguided directions brought by intelligent machines; Principles of information-visualization methods.

Focuses on Japan's research laboratories and projects aimed at optimizing user interfaces. Friend 21; Advanced Telecommunications Research Laboratory; Human Interface Laboratory; Electrotechnical Laboratory.

Comments on an article that examined the Software Capability Evaluation (SCE) program of the Software Engineering Institute. How the method is applied; Purpose of the SCE; Evaluation method of the institute.

The article presents insights on the role of experimental and exploratory studies in software engineering. The author puts forward challenges why software development is not yet ready for tightly monitored experiments. He says software engineering results cannot be explained by mathematics and computer science and uncontrollable factors dominate results despite tightly controlled conditions.

The authors proves that the assumptions underlying control charts, the primary tool used in Statistical Process Control (SPC), are heavily violated in software data that their value in understanding and managing variation is diminished. According to the authors, the interpretation of control charts depends on the assumption that a process operates within a single common-cause system. They believe that the public would be better served by emphasizing the predictability of process outcomes over process stability.

Reports on the corporate-wide implementation of software process improvement programs. Challenges of process integration; Benefits of successful process improvement programs; Standards used in evaluating software organizations.

Discusses the challenges of accelerated developments for software developers. Use of eXtreme Programming and adaptive software development processes; Functions of the Capability Maturity Model in software development. INSET: Terry responds.

Presents information on a software usability engineering project at SunSoft Incorporated. Background on the usability technique called card sorting; Raw data from the study; Results of testing for some of the initial icons.

Presents tips on choosing good metaphors for icon designs. Reasons for the failure of computer icons to represent a concept; Meaning of interface metaphors.

Reports on the status of the European Community's directive on ergonomics that affects user-interface design. Information on ergonomics; Significance of ergonomic standards in Europe; Impact of the ISO 9241 on software development. INSET: ISO 9241 AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT.

Presents information on interface engineering. Misconceptions about interface development; Definition of the interface process architecture; Need to map the process architecture to the product development process. INSET: PROCESS ARCHITECTURE: CAPTURING DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES.

Discusses the People Capability Maturity Model (People CMM) for improving the capability of software development organizations. Levels representing organizational evolutionary stages; Key process area organizing and connecting process practices.

Presents tips for software companies to spark creative thinking and new ideas among staff. Importance of customer data in product innovation; Invention of the spreadsheet by Dan Brickman; Organizational behavior which prevents creativity in the workplace.

Software metric refer only to its more limited definition as a measure derived from the requirements, specification, design, code or documentation of a computer program. These metrics are computed for the purpose of predicting some outcome of the software development process which is believed to be affected by the software characteristics being measured. Problems in statistical analysis have ranged from an inadequate number of data points for detecting a significant effect, to begging the existence of an effect by employing an arbitrarily low significant level.

Provides information on designing user interfaces for organizational systems. Challenges in designing multiuser systems; Examples; Issues on access and exposure.

Considers the point of view of end users in improving software development process. Discussion on external maturity; Explanation on internal maturity; Benefits to organizations.

Deals with the challenges brought by the use of interface technology in computer industries. Role of the niche in the organizational chart for the development of interface technology; Ways in which the absence of a senior corporate sponsor can affect the development of competitive innovation.

Discusses problems in measuring software engineering phenomena. Importance of measurement in science and engineering; Issues that should be addressed to improve the discipline of software measurement; Criticisms on software metrics for failing to predict variations in performance.

Compares several usability evaluation techniques for a graphical user interface. Description of the techniques; Methods of data gathering; Association between the outcome of a heuristic evaluation and the number of evaluators.