Journal of Systems and Software

01/07/2024

Our LinkedIn presence now has a page for updates on JSS published research. Follow our page on LinkedIn.

01/07/2024

Are you working on testing or analysis for AI-enabled systems? Don't miss the chance to submit your work to our Special Issue!

Automated Testing and Analysis for Dependable AI-enabled Software and Systems
Guest editors:​
Matteo Camilli, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Michael Felderer, German Aerospace Center (DLR) and University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Alessandro Marchetto, University of Trento, Italy
Andrea Stocco, Technical University of Munich (TUM) and fortiss GmbH, Germany

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-systems-and-software/about/call-for-papers?fbclid=IwAR3PgrP2T65w7ZY2GPSJ3RXVAPxRZQWB2XDcNuUPW6d-16sMGI-74M5V9vA -testing-and-analysis-for-dependable-ai-enabled-software-and-systems

We've extended the deadline to August 31, 2024

hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag

Read the latest articles of Journal of Systems and Software at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature

05/06/2024

There is something new happening at JSS. Introducing the “Dear Researchers” column. It’s a new column sharing the perspective of software practitioners with researchers.

We ask practitioners to write articles to researchers pointing out interesting problems and blind spots in research.

“We encourage those working as software engineers, or even those working in industrial research who have engaged in practical projects within the past few years, to share your knowledge. “

More on the editorial at

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016412122400089X?via%3Dihub

05/06/2024

Each year, out of over one thousand submissions, we pick the best paper for JSS. Of all the papers that we have published this year, this one alone had scientists up late, missing sleep, in order to read just one more compelling section of scientific bombshells. This paper in question and winner of the 2023 JSS Paper of the Year award is:

🏆

GitHub Copilot AI pair programmer: Asset or Liability?
Arghavan Moradi Dakhel, Vahid Majdinasab, Amin Nikanjam, Foutse Khomh, Michel C. Desmarais, Zhen Ming (Jack) Jiang

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0164121223001292

In this paper the authors extensively study the usage and potential utility of Copilot AI in assisting in programming tasks. They believe that, currently, Copilot could be an asset for experienced developers but is a potential liability for novice developers. We hope you enjoy this paper and join us in celebrating the authors’ great work.



Do you use Copilot to assist you in programming?

15/04/2024

JSS awarded one paper from 2013 as the Most Influential Paper (MIP) award based on Scholar citations and downloads.

🏆 Agile requirements prioritization in large-scale outsourced system projects: An empirical study
By Maya Daneva, Egbert van der Veen, Chintan Amrit, Smita Ghaisas, Klaas Sikkel, Ramesh Kumar, Nirav Ajmeri, Uday Ramteerthkar, Roel Wieringa



🔗https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0164121212003536

29/03/2024

We are thrilled to announce the JSS reviewers of the year for 2023.

Dario Di Nucci,
Hasan Sozer,
Eman AlOmar,
Fiorella Zampetti,
Tao Zhang,
Amin Nikanjam,
Torvald Mårtensson,
Hao Zhong

Please congratulate these scholars!!

29/03/2024

🥁We are thrilled to announce the editor of the year for 2023 -
Aldeida Aleti 🥳👏

Please congratulate Aldeida on this achievement!!

🔗https://users.monash.edu.au/~aldeidaa/

21/03/2024

Software vulnerability prediction is gaining great attention in cyber security. Today’s discusses the effect of the easy and hard negatives in vulnerability prediction datasets on the performance of vulnerability prediction.

Highlights
The negative sample affects the performance of vulnerability prediction models.

Models trained on hard negatives perform poorly predicting easy negatives.

Models trained on easy negatives perform poorly predicting hard negatives.

Models perform better as easy negatives are increased in the training set.

21/03/2024

📢Call for Papers! 🤖✨

Contribute to the Special Issue on **Automated Testing and Analysis for Dependable AI-enabled Software and Systems**

🗓️ Deadline: May 30, 2024

Important dates
Manuscript Submission Deadline: May 30, 2024
Notification to authors (first round): June 30, 2024
Submission of revised papers (second round): July 31, 2024
Completion of the review and revision process (final notification): October 31, 2024

🔗https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-systems-and-software/about/call-for-papers?fbclid=IwAR3PgrP2T65w7ZY2GPSJ3RXVAPxRZQWB2XDcNuUPW6d-16sMGI-74M5V9vA -testing-and-analysis-for-dependable-ai-enabled-software-and-systems

24/12/2023

Happy holidays from JSS

24/10/2023

On the outdatedness of workflows in the GitHub Actions ecosystem

Authors
Alexandre Decan, Tom Mens, Hassan Onsori Delicheh
Software Engineering Lab, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium

, the primary tool for CI/CD workflow automation of repositories, advocates relying on reusable actions. empirically shows that many workflows are outdated, increasing security risks and other dependency issues.

12/10/2023

Should you use on your shop floor? Today's discusses the advantages of using an intelligent virtual assistant and how it enhances efficiency in manufacturing tasks.

Highlights
• Design of a natural language-enabled Virtual Assistant for industrial tasks.

• Fine-tune BERT model on industrial robot dialogue dataset for high inference accuracy.

• Integrates human-to-human conversation strategy to engage shop floor workers.

• Robust performance demonstrated in six diverse real-world industrial scenarios.

–robot interaction systems -server

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121223002133

30/09/2023

Posted • .kalinowski Presenting the paper of my former MS student (added a pic of him in the lab - this is the one who accomplished this amazing piece of work), published at the (qualis A1 in 🇧🇷), as a journal first paper at SBES .cbsoft

Written with Daniel Graziotin (University of Stuttgart) and Jean Natividade (Psychology Department PUC-Rio), the paper provides reflections and useful advice for the community on how to properly use psychometric instruments in software engineering research.

Congrats to and thanks to .cbsoft for this opportunity!

18/08/2023

Today's spotlight is on Daniel Méndez, one of the In Practice Editors at
from Blekinge Institute of Technology

❓What do you do in your academic job?
I have - "by heart" - two affiliations and roles. I am full professor at the Software Engineering Research Lab in Sweden and I am heading the Requirements Engineering research division at fortiss, a research and transfer institute for software-intensive systems and services in Munich, Germany. Both build an inherently symbiotic relationship in terms of applied research with industry partners and related transfer activities. I am currently completing the building stage.

❓What do you enjoy most about your JSS role?
I should probably say the area topic (in-practice research), but it actually is working with Marcos (co-editor for the area), Dave, and Paris. We know each other for some time already but it is this initiative that allows us all to finally collaborate more intensively.

❓What do you do in your free time?
Scuba diving to explore the underwater world. What was originally only a vacation activity, has become a more regular activity since joining SERL Sweden (next to the Baltic Sea). Barely anything beats diving old Viking wrecks in the early morning, followed by coffee with like-minded friends, before going to the campus.

❓What is the one piece of advice you would like to give authors who submit to JSS?
Please read the call for papers. It is surprising how many authors ignore the expectations clearly outlined in the call.

❓What is the academic achievement you are most proud of?
Difficult to say. I should probably say becoming a full professor or having started the Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering initiative where we built a large network of collaborators to conduct studies on practices and problems in RE. What I am most thankful for is definitively being surrounded by so many great minds (PhD students, colleagues, friends - often overlapping). This is a true privilege.

❓What keeps you up at night?
Not much actually. Spanish genes for the win! 💪😴

… continued in comments

04/07/2023

We are often asked what it takes to join the editorial board of
We mostly select new team members among our best reviewers (quantity and timeliness of reviews) as well as our buest guest editors (of special issues). So, we reward those that work the hardest for JSS

03/07/2023

Generic and robust root cause localization for multi-dimensional data in online service systems

🔗 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121223001437

Want to ensure the of online service systems? Check out this paper on localizing root causes given multi-dimensional monitoring metrics. Learn how to diagnose faults rapidly and prevent economic loss.

Highlights
💡Finding root cause clues from multi-dimensional data efficiently.

💡A general property of root-cause attribute combinations.

💡Localizing root causes by combining bottom-up and top-down.

💡Extensive studies based on both simulated and injected faults.

💡Success stories on real-world systems and real-world faults.

22/06/2023

is an under-researched in (SE). Today’s presents our on empathy studies in context.

Abstract
Empathy is widely used in many disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, psychology, health care. Ability to empathise with software end-users seems to be a vital skill software developers should possess. This is because engineering successful software systems involves not only interacting effectively with users but also understanding their true needs. Empathy has the potential to address this situation. Empathy is a predominant human aspect that can be used to comprehend decisions, feelings, emotions and actions of users. However, to date empathy has been under-researched in software engineering (SE) context. In this position paper, we present our exploration of key empathy models from different disciplines and our analysis of their adequacy for application in SE. While there is no evidence for empathy models that are readily applicable to SE, we believe these models can be adapted and applied in SE context with the aim of assisting software engineers to increase their empathy for diverse end-user needs. We present a preliminary taxonomy of empathy by carefully considering the most popular empathy models from different disciplines. We encourage future research on empathy in SE as we believe it is an important human aspect that can significantly influence the relationship between developers and end-users.

16/06/2023

IT Managers' Perspective On Technical Debt - a 3 min summary given by Marion Wiese and Klara Borowa

https://youtu.be/pfWL9axorF4

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016412122300095X

To determine the IT managers’ perspective, we obtained and analyzed data from 16 semi-structured interviews and a three-person focus group discussion.

We found that all IT managers understood the TD concept. They consider TDM to be an essential topic, though nearly none of them had set up a TDM process so far. We identified three major concerns the IT managers had regarding TDM: communicating about TD, establishing a TDM process, and dealing with vintage systems, i.e., old legacy systems We developed a model specifying causes and consequences visible to business stakeholders, causal chains, and vicious cycles.

Our research identifies new research gaps and demonstrates to practitioners that investing in a TDM process may be beneficial. It provides the V4CTD model of Visibility, Cycles & Chains of Causes & Consequences of TD, extending the TD conceptual model and facilitating communication on TD with business stakeholders.

30/05/2023

Regression testing involves complex decision-making. Today's presents to support testers in decision-making before and after regression testing.

Abstract:

Context:
Practitioners working in large-scale software development face many challenges in regression testing activities. One of the reasons is the lack of a structured regression testing process. In this regard, checklists can help practitioners keep track of essential regression testing activities and add structure to the regression testing process to a certain extent.

Objective:
This study aims to introduce regression testing checklists so test managers/teams can use them: (1) to assess whether test teams/members are ready to begin regression testing, and (2) to keep track of essential regression testing activities while planning and executing regression tests.

Method:
We used interviews, workshops, and questionnaires to design, evolve, and evaluate regression testing checklists. In total, 25 practitioners from 12 companies participated in creating the checklist. Twenty-three of them participated in checklists evolution and evaluation.

Results:
We identified activities practitioners consider significant while planning, performing, and analyzing regression testing. We designed regression testing checklists based on these activities to help practitioners make informed decisions during regression testing. With the help of practitioners, we evolved these checklists into two iterations. Finally, the practitioners provided feedback on the proposed checklists. All respondents think the proposed checklists are useful and customizable for their environments, and 80% think checklists cover aspects essential for regression testing.

30/05/2023

Dataflow Diagrams are useful to analyse applications' architectural . Today's presents an approach to extract DFDs from code automatically which contain extensive annotations about security (and other) properties.

Abstract
Dataflow diagrams (DFDs) are a valuable asset for securing applications, as they are the starting point for many security assessment techniques. Their creation, however, is often done manually, which is time-consuming and introduces problems concerning their correctness. Furthermore, as applications are continuously extended and modified in CI/CD pipelines, the DFDs need to be kept in sync, which is also challenging. In this paper, we present a novel, tool-supported technique to automatically extract DFDs from the implementation code of microservices. The technique parses source code and configuration files in search for keywords that are used as evidence for the model extraction. Our approach uses a novel technique that iteratively detects new keywords, thereby sn*******ng through an application’s codebase. Coupled with other detection techniques, it produces a fully-fledged DFD enriched with security-relevant annotations. The extracted DFDs further provide full traceability between model items and code snippets. We evaluate our approach and the accompanying prototype for applications written in Java on a manually curated dataset of 17 open-source applications. In our testing set of applications, we observe an overall precision of 93% and recall of 85%. The dataset created for the evaluation is openly released to the research community, as additional contribution of this work.

15/04/2023

Open Science aims to make scientific research more accessible, transparent, and collaborative, and it is becoming increasingly important in today's rapidly evolving research landscape.

At JSS, we encourage authors to make their Open Science materials available at the time of submission and after acceptance of their manuscript. We also encourage authors to explicitly reference Open Science materials in their manuscript, including data, code, and other resources, to increase the transparency and reproducibility of their research. If authors agree to participate in the JSS Open Science initiative, their Open Science materials are reviewed by the JSS Open Science Board after acceptance of their manuscript.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-systems-and-software/special-issue/10XMGH48FFT

14/04/2023

Every year we look at both stats and the interaction we have had with our editors in order to pick the very best one. For the year 2022, editor of the year award goes to Heiko Koziolek. We are very lucky to have you in our team and we appreciate your hard work more than you can imagine.

16/03/2023

Selected from over 1000 submissions, only 3 made the cut for best paper awards in 2022!!!

to all the authors!!

👏👏👏

🏆Changes in perceived productivity of software engineers during COVID-19 pandemic: The voice of evidence,
Darja Smite, Anastasiia Tkalich, Nils Brede Moe, Efi Papatheocharous, Eriks Klotins, Marte Pettersen Buvik,
Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 186, 2022, 111197, ISSN 0164-1212,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2021.111197.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121221002715)

-19 -from-home

🏆Taxonomy of security weaknesses in Java and Kotlin Android apps
Alejandro Mazuera-Rozo, Camilo Escobar-Velásquez, Juan Espitia-Acero, David Vega-Guzmán, Catia Trubiani, Mario Linares-Vásquez, Gabriele Bavota,
Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 187, 2022, 111233, ISSN 0164-1212,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2022.111233.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121222000103)



🏆On misbehaviour and fault tolerance in machine learning systems
Lalli Myllyaho, Mikko Raatikainen, Tomi Männistö, Jukka K. Nurminen, Tommi Mikkonen,
Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 183, 2022, 111096, ISSN 0164-1212,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2021.111096.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016412122100193X)

06/03/2023

A key part of software evolution and maintenance often results in complex challenges between software artifacts. Applications of NLP throughout this process are presented in a systematic mapping study.

03/03/2023

JSS awarded three papers from 2012 the Most Influential Paper (MIP) award based on Google Scholar citations and number of downloads.


📢“Leagile” software development: An experience report analysis of the application of lean approaches in agile software development
By Xiaofeng Wang, Kieran Conboy, Oisin Cawley
Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 85, Issue 6,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.01.061

📢 Coordination in co-located agile software development projects
By Diane E. Strode, Sid L. Huff, Beverley Hope, Sebastian Link
Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 85, Issue 6,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.02.017

📢 Identifying thresholds for object-oriented software metrics
Kecia A.M. Ferreira, Mariza A.S. Bigonha, Roberto S. Bigonha, Luiz F.O. Mendes, Heitor C. Almeida
Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 85, Issue 2,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2011.05.044

02/03/2023

📣Best Reviewer Awards in 2022 are out.‼️

The editors in chief .c.shepherd and Paris are proud to announce best reviewer awards!! These individuals were best in balancing timeliness, quality, and quantity. We appreciate and value your work. You are the engine that keeps JSS running smoothly!

Congratulations 🎊 🏆 🙌

🏆Mohammad Masudur Rahman, University of Saskatchewan Canada

🏆Dario Di Nucci, Universita degli Studi di Salerno Italy

🏆Fiorella Zampetti, University of Sannio Italy

🏆Eman Al Omar, Stevens Institute of Technology United States

🏆Raula Kula, Japan

🏆Simone Scalabrino, University of Molise: Universita degli Studi del Molise Italy

🏆Jacopo Soldani, Università di Pisa Italy

🏆Apostolos Ampatzoglou, University of Macedonia Greece

🏆Yulei Sui, Australia

🏆Chaiyong Ragkhitwetsagul, Mahidol University Thailand

🏆Timofey Bryksin, JetBrains Research Cyprus

🏆Alessio Ferrari, Italy

🏆Gemma Catolino, Tilburg University Netherlands

28/02/2023

Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) in its various forms finds more and more its way into complex distributed systems. For instance, it is used locally, as part of a sensor system, on the edge for low-latency high-performance inference, or in the cloud, e.g. for data mining. Modern complex systems, such as connected vehicles, are often part of an Internet of Things (IoT). This poses additional architectural challenges. To manage complexity, architectures are described with architecture frameworks, which are composed of a number of architectural views connected through correspondence rules. Despite some attempts, the definition of a mathematical foundation for architecture frameworks that are suitable for the development of distributed AI systems still requires investigation and study.

In this paper, we propose to extend the state of the art on architecture framework by providing a mathematical model for system architectures, which is scalable and supports co-evolution of different aspects for example of an AI system. Based on Design Science Research, this study starts by identifying the challenges with architectural frameworks in a use case of distributed AI systems. Then, we derive from the identified challenges four rules, and we formulate them by exploiting concepts from category theory. We show how compositional thinking can provide rules for the creation and management of architectural frameworks for complex systems, for example distributed systems with AI. The aim of the paper is not to provide viewpoints or architecture models specific to AI systems, but instead to provide guidelines based on a mathematical formulation on how a consistent framework can be built up with existing, or newly created, viewpoints. To put in practice and test the approach, the identified and formulated rules are applied to derive an architectural framework for the EU Horizon 2020 project “Very efficient deep learning in the IoT” (VEDLIoT) in the form of a case study.

🔗 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121222002801

15/02/2023

Due to requests, we extended the deadline for the Special Issue on **Managing Variability in Complex Software-Intensive Systems** -> Feb. 28, 2023

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-systems-and-software/about/call-for-papers

14/12/2022

New special issue ‼️‼️

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-systems-and-software/about/call-for-papers

Special Issue on Managing Variability in Complex Software- Intensive Systems

Editors in Chief

• Paris Avgeriou, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands

• David Shepherd, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America

Special Issues Editors
• Laurence Duchien, University of Lille Faculty of Science and Technology, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France

• Raffaela Mirandola, Polytechnic of Milan, Milano, Italy

Guest editors
• Wesley K. G. Assunção, PhD
Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Jane Cleland-Huang, PhD
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA

Special issue information:

Theme:

Software broadly influences the design, construction, deployment, and evolution of complex systems such as automobiles, avionics, cyber physical systems, smart cities, and robotics. To support the engineering of such complex software-Intensive systems, reuse is essential for reducing costs and time to market, increasing productivity, and improving software quality. However, to leverage software reuse when engineering software-Intensive systems, practitioners must deal with variability, in order to extend, change, customize, and configure products or artifacts for use in particular contexts. Managing variability in the engineering of complex software-intensive systems is therefore very challenging and spans across the entire life cycle, from requirements elicitation to runtime operation and maintenance.

This special issue focuses on novel approaches, methods, techniques, and empirical studies for systematically managing variability in all stages of engineering software-intensive systems.

01/12/2022

Applying Inter-Rater Reliability and Agreement in collaborative Grounded Theory studies in software engineering

Highlights
Qualitative research on empirical SE that uses Grounded Theory (GT) is increasing.

Collaborative GT enables Inter-Rater Reliability (IRR) and Agreement (IRA).

We define a process to systematically apply IRR/IRA in GT studies, when appropriate.

This ensures consensus, improving the trustworthiness, rigor, and transparency.

And promoting the communicability, reflexivity, and replicability of the research.

Abstract
Context:
The qualitative research on empirical software engineering that uses Grounded Theory is increasing (GT). The trustworthiness, rigor, and transparency of GT qualitative data analysis can benefit, among others, when multiple analysts juxtapose diverse perspectives and collaborate to develop a common code frame based on a consensual and consistent interpretation. Inter-Rater Reliability (IRR) and/or Inter-Rater Agreement (IRA) are commonly used techniques to measure consensus, and thus develop a shared interpretation. However, minimal guidance is available about how and when to measure IRR/IRA during the iterative process of GT, so researchers have been using ad hoc methods for years.

Methods:
Meta-science guided us to analyze the issues and challenges of collaborative GT and formalize a process to measure IRR/IRA in GT.

Results:
This process guides researchers to incrementally generate a theory while ensuring consensus on the constructs that support it, improving trustworthiness, rigor, and transparency, and promoting the communicability, reflexivity, and replicability of the research.

Conclusion:
The application of this process to a GT study seems to support its feasibility. In the absence of further confirmation, this would represent the first step in a de facto standard to be applied to those GT studies that may benefit from IRR/IRA techniques.

-RaterReliability -RaterAgreement