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Overwhelmed Software Developers IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Lisa-Marie Michels, Aleksandra Petkova, Marcel Richter, Andreas Farley, Daniel Graziotin, Stefan Wagner
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Transformation to a hybrid workplace: A Case from the Norwegian Public Sector IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Jefferson Seide Molléri, Parastoo Mohagheghi
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Requirements Engineering and Large Language Models: Insights From a Panel IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Markus Borg
As a general-purpose technology, large language models promise to enhance various software engineering tasks. But how will they impact requirements engineering? This column offers a summary of an expert panel discussion from the 2023 International Requirements Engineering Conference in Hanover, Germany.
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Decentralised Governance for Foundation Model based AI Systems: Exploring the Role of Blockchain in Responsible AI IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 Yue Liu, Qinghua Lu, Liming Zhu, Hye-Young Paik
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Fighting for What’s Right: An Interview With Marc Canellas IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Brittany Johnson, Tim Menzies
Ethics is more than just a technical issue. Legal issues matter, too. To explore those legal issues, we talked to Dr. Marc Canellas—a proud public defender, engineer, and public policy advocate. As a public defender he defends people from the excesses of our legal and political systems, using his expertise in technology (he has a Ph.D. in aerospace and cognitive engineering) and policy (he is a former
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M. Scott Ford on Managing Dependency Freshness IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Sam Taggart
In Episode 587 of “Software Engineering Radio,” M. Scott Ford, cofounder, chief code whisperer, chief technology officer of Corgibytes, discusses dependency freshness along with host Sam Taggart. They define dependency freshness, its importance, and the challenges faced by different organizations and elaborate on Freshli, a tool developed by Ford to track and manage dependency freshness. We provide
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Developer Productivity for Humans, Part 8: Creativity in Software Engineering IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Sarah Inman, Sarah D’Angelo, Bogdan Vasilescu
Creativity is an essential part of software engineering. In this column, we describe our approach and insights into how software developers define creativity in their work. Our findings suggest that creativity in software engineering centers on the concepts of clever reuse over pure novelty.
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Testing, Debugging, and Log Analysis With Modern AI Tools IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Miroslaw Staron, Silvia Abrahão, Gregory Gay, Alexander Serebrenik
This edition of the “Practitioners’ Digest” covers recent papers employing generative artificial intelligence in support of testing, debugging, and log analysis that were presented at the 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2023) and the 16th IEEE International Conference on Software, Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST 2023). Feedback or suggestions
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Software Principles IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Christof Ebert, Alan M. Davis
This is the 100th installation of the technology column of IEEE Software magazine. Rather than providing statistics, we will investigate the essence of software technology over all these years—and into the future. Which are the relevant software principles? What principles matter for software practitioners? The article provides the top-10 principles of all times based on a survey. Another top-10 list
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Automating a Massive Open Online Course’s Production IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Diomidis Spinellis
This column details the innovative automation of a massive open online course’s production process, blending software engineering practices with educational content creation. It describes the challenges and solutions in producing a Unix command-line tools course, including scripting for teleprompter-assisted presentations and custom tools for video creation. The automation both enhanced the quality
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The Future of Software Engineering Education and Training in the Age of AI IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Bastian Tenbergen, Stephan Krusche
This special issue highlights the critical role of industry–academia collaboration in ensuring the practical relevance of the curriculum. The overall aim is to prepare software engineering students to be adaptable, ethical, and forward-thinking professionals in an artificial intelligence-influenced technological landscape.
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Generative AI Is Changing How and What We Learn IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Sigrid Eldh
This issue is tackling the Future of Software Engineering Education and Training in the Age of AI. Generative AI tools will change how we learn. A new, more precise language is needed to communicate better with AI tools. Learn prompt engineering!— Sigrid Eldh, EIC IEEE Software.
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The State of Documentation Practices of Third-party Machine Learning Models and Datasets IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Ernesto Lang Oreamuno, Rohan Faiyaz Khan, Abdul Ali Bangash, Catherine Stinson, Bram Adams
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Gains from improved recruitment of software developers IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Magne Jørgensen
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It Will Never Work in Theory IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Greg Wilson, Jorge Aranda, Michael Hoye, Brittany Johnson
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From research on data-intensive software to innovation in data spaces: a search service for tabular data IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Alberto Berenguer, Olimpia Alcaraz, David Tomás, Jose-Norberto Mazón
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Innovating Industry with Research: eknows and Sysparency IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Verena Geist, Michael Moser, Josef Pichler, Florian Schnitzhofer
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The Fine Balance Between Helping With Your Job And Taking It: AI Code Assistants Come To The Fore IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Cleidson R. B. de Souza, Gema Rodríguez-Pérez, Manaal Basha, Dongwook Yoon, Ivan Beschastnikh
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Software Size Measurement: Bridging Research and Practice IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-01-26 Tuna Hacaloğlu, Hüseyin Ünlü, Ali Yıldız, Onur Demirörs
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Connecting research and practice for software product quality evaluation and certification: a software laboratory's 25-year journey IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-01-22 Javier Verdugo, Jesús Oviedo, Moisés Rodríguez, Mario Piattini
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Polyglot Software Development: Wait, What? IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2024-01-03 Gunter Mussbacher, Benoit Combemale, Jörg Kienzle, Lola Burgueño, Antonio Garcia-Dominguez, Jean-Marc Jézéquel, Gwendal Jouneaux, Djamel-Eddine Khelladi, Sébastien Mosser, Corinne Pulgar, Houari Sahraoui, Maximilian Schiedermeier, Tijs van der Storm
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Teaching Engineering of AI-Intensive Systems IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-25 Atif Mashkoor, Wesley K. G. Assunção, Alexander Egyed
With the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI), a key question is how to adequately prepare the next generation of software engineers to build AI-intensive systems. This article presents our teaching experience for presenting the “Engineering of AI-intensive Systems” course to postgraduate students.
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What an AI-Embracing Software Engineering Curriculum Should Look Like: An Empirical Study IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Natasha Randall, Dennis Wäckerle, Nils Stein, Dennis Goßler, Stefan Bente
It is not possible to reliably prevent the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, nor would that be desirable as AI offers many benefits for students. We recommend that appropriate AI usage be taught within software engineering courses and AI tools integrated into examinations. In order to most effectively support today’s students, software engineering curricula must embrace AI.
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Unit Tests for SQL IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Diomidis Spinellis
RDBUnit is a unit testing framework designed to test relational database queries, created out of a need for unit testing them while working on software analytics tasks. It is available as a Python package on PyPI and open-source software on GitHub. RDBUnit tests consist of three parts: setup, query, and expected result, with the input and output defined as table contents. The framework utilizes a domain-specific
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A 40-Year Impact Perspective: Meet Your New Editor in Chief IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Sigrid Eldh
Forty years since IEEE Software Magazine began, its impact is shown today. We must constantly ask ourselves if we are building the product right and if are we building the right products, as new ways of developing software challenges both research and industry.
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Continuous Integration and Delivery in Open Source Development and Pattern Publishing: Lessons Learned With Tool Setup and Pipeline Evolution IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Olaf Zimmermann, Cesare Pautasso, Stefan Kapferer, Mirko Stocker
Every software project that aims to deliver high quality output needs a continuous integration setup. However, once the build pipeline is working, one cannot rest and take things for granted. Over long periods of time, tools come and go, and even if they remain the same, vendors often tinker with their pricing model. Lacking standardized and portable build configurations, it is critical to minimize
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Navigating the Upcoming European Union AI Act IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Matthias Wagner, Markus Borg, Per Runeson
The upcoming Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act is the European Union’s attempt to regulate high-risk AI systems and foundation models. We give an up-to-date overview of the act’s key requirements, explain how the high-risk classification works, and highlight what matters for its operationalization.
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Developer Productivity for Humans, Part 7: Software Quality IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Collin Green, Ciera Jaspan, Maggie Hodges, Jessica Lin
There are three facets of developer productivity: speed, ease, and quality. In this column, we explore software quality, what has made it so difficult to define and measure, and theorize that there are four types of quality which influence each other.
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Measure and Improve Software Productivity IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Christof Ebert, Aurora Vizcaino, Félix O. García, Julio Suarez Albanchez
Software productivity matters but is not much understood. To boost productivity many silver bullets have been suggested over time and even more technology hypes. Yet, most companies do not even know how to measure productivity. We will show here how software productivity can be measured and improved. No silver bullets, but hands-on practical insights. An industry survey with software developers from
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Observability and Explainability for Software Systems Decision Making IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Yan Liu, Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj, Jiye Li, Qinghua Lu
Observability and explainability are on the pathway to assemble data, tools, methods and architectures to gain insights of complex behaviors and transparency in the context of decision making in software systems.
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Observability Q&A IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Ian Gorton, Liz Fong-Jones, Alf Larsson
The ability to monitor the state of a system and take corrective actions based on insights derived from this monitoring is the essence of observability. Observability is an intrinsic ingredient of modern highly scalable and available software systems. In this article we survey the thoughts of two experts in the area of observability. They provide deep insights into the current state of the art and
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Research Highlights in Evidence-Based Software Engineering IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Silvia Abrahão, Miroslaw Staron, Maria Teresa Baldassarre, Jennifer Horkoff, Birgit Penzenstadler, Paul Ralph, Alexander Serebrenik
This edition of the “Practitioner’s Digest” department focuses on an initiative for reviewing papers reporting empirical research, along with recent papers about empirical studies with implications for software practice.
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Automation Doesn’t Work the Way We Think It Does IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Laura Maguire
For resilience in complex and large-scale software systems, we need to go beyond observability and explainability and consider joint cognition between human–machine teams.
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Ethics: Why Software Engineers Can’t Afford to Look Away IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Brittany Johnson, Tim Menzies
Some people shy away from discussing ethics, believing it's not in the domain of software engineering. We want to steer the conversation in the opposite direction, and this column explains that such ethics-based discussions are crucial to our profession.
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Dave Cross on GitHub Actions IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Gavin Henry
In Episode 567 of "Software Engineering Radio," Dave Cross, owner of Magnum Solutions and author of GitHub Actions Essentials, speaks with Software Engineering Radio host Gavin Henry about GitHub actions. Topics covered include what developers can do with GitHub actions, continuous integration/continuous deployment, events that drive GitHub fine-grained action events, Action Marketplace, contexts,
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Commands as AI Conversations IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Diomidis Spinellis
Developers and data scientists often struggle to write command-line inputs, even though graphical interfaces or tools like ChatGPT can assist. The solution? “ai-cli,” an open-source system inspired by GitHub Copilot that converts natural language prompts into executable commands for various Linux command-line tools. By tapping into OpenAI’s API, which allows interaction through JSON HTTP requests,
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Luca Galante on Platform Engineering IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Jeff Doolittle
Presents a panel discussion on the topic of Patterns and Antipatterns for Enterprise Software Success.
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Looking Back, Looking Forward: Reflections of an Editor in Chief IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Ipek Ozkaya
As I conclude my tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Software Magazine, this final editorial provides an opportunity to contemplate the evolving challenges and successes across the terms of my predecessors as well as my own reflections. By delving into the past, including my own tenure, I aim to offer insights into the future.
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What’s Missing in Requirements Engineering for Responsible AI? IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Didar Zowghi, Muneera Bano
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has catalyzed a multifaceted discourse in the software engineering (SE) community. The crux of this dialogue is to pinpoint the distinct attributes of AI systems that necessitate tailored SE methodologies. While classical SE techniques have proved effective across a spectrum of systems, there’s an emerging consensus: AI introduces distinct challenges
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Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Christof Ebert, Maximilian Beck
Cybersecurity attacks are on a steep increase across industry domains.1,2 With ubiquitous connectivity and increasingly standard software stacks, basically all software is accessible and vulnerable. Yet, cybersecurity is not systematically deployed because necessary processes are demanding and need continuous attention paired with technology competences. Many software suppliers do not pay adequate
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Software Engineering Education and Training: Industry Demands, Curriculum Deficits, and Pedagogy Direction IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Bastian Tenbergen, Stephan Krusche, Robert Hanna, Muneera Bano
The demands placed on software engineers have increased dramatically since Mary Shaw asked1 for universities to educate computer scientists in different roles pertaining to software engineering 23 years ago. Since her roadmap paper in 2000, software systems have increased in complexity, size, and criticality as well. The aim of this special issue was to solicit, review, and publish original high-quality
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Focusing on Developers in the Era of AI and ML IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Silvia Abrahão, Miroslaw Staron, Alexander Serebrenik, Birgit Penzenstadler, Rafael Prikladnicki, Henry Muccini
This edition of the “Practitioners’ Digest” covers recent articles and/or papers on novel approaches and tools to support developers and communities in the era of artificial intelligence from the Technical Track and the Software Engineering in Practice Track of the 45th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023). Feedback or suggestions are welcome. In addition, if you try
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Cognitive Skills in Software Engineering: Operating Complex, Adaptive Systems at Speed and Scale IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Laura Maguire
Technical coding and troubleshooting skills are recognized as being critical skills for software developers, but these are insufficient for successfully managing reliability in continuous deployment environments. Broader cognitive skills such as anomaly detection, continuous model updating, cognitive flexibility, and learning from incidents enable software engineers to cope with complexity, the challenges
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Unfairness Is Everywhere, so What to Do? An Interview With Jeanna Matthews IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Brittany Johnson, Tim Menzies
Usually, when we talk to other software engineers about fairness and discrimination, it quickly becomes a conversation about measurement (e.g., how to check if different populations within society are getting different false-positive rates from that software). But if you talk to Dr. Jeanna Mathews from Clarkson University, the conversation is very different. She focuses on risk as a function of the
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Thinking Fast and Slow in Software Engineering IEEE Softw. (IF 3.3) Pub Date : 2023-12-01 Giancarlo Guizzardi, Oscar Pastor, Veda C. Storey
Humans use two cognitive strategies: data-driven and theory-driven, resembling Kahneman's Systems 1 and 2. While both are crucial, the highest forms of knowledge involve theory-based symbolic representations. Software engineering's recent data-centric trend cannot systematically produce ethical software, which requires connecting data with semantics and purpose.