Previous researches have pointed out that simulation games can be an effective tool for enhancing the students' motivation to learn and understand complex subjects. Although the decision to use a simulation game is made mainly by the instructor, the students' perceptions are also important in order to support its usage. The increasing interest in educational simulation games motivates us to investigate relevant factors that influence the adoption of simulation games in Software Engineering courses. Based on a theoretical adoption model and on the evaluation of a specific simulation game, we identified crucial aspects beyond the ones usually considered, such as incorporating more industrial settings phenomena and pedagogical elements. These aspects are not always considered in Software Engineering simulation games, as we identified after an evaluation. Therefore, we concluded that this class of simulation games does not address suitably the adoption attributes that we found relevant.

Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE) applies search-based optimization techniques in order to solve complex Software Engineering problems. In the recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of SBSE applications in areas such as Software Test, Requirements Engineering, and Project Planning. Our focus is on the analysis of the literature in Project Planning, specifically the researches conducted in software project scheduling and resource allocation. SBSE project scheduling and resource allocation solutions basically use optimization algorithms. Considering the results of a previous Systematic Literature Review, in this work, we analyze the issues of adopting these optimization algorithms in what is considered typical settings found in software development organizations. We found few evidence signaling that the expectations of software development organizations are being attended.

The increasing interest in Software Engineering simulation games leads to the problem of how to assess these games in order to measure their real benefits. Until the current days, few attempts were proposed in order to support practitioners evaluating simulation games. This paper introduces UGALCO, a five-dimension framework for simulation games evaluation. Besides a detailed assessment of player's learning, usability, motivation, and user experience, we also included a communicability evaluation from the Human Computer Interaction field. Since our framework is not prescriptive, there are no restrictions regarding its attributes, evaluation perspectives or techniques. Instead, we present how a set of tools and attributes can be used together, bringing more effective results for assessing the game as a whole. We applied this framework for the evaluation of a specific simulation game. Results indicate that this framework can be used to gain better and more understanding of simulation games aspects.

Simulation games are gaining increased interest among academic researchers and practitioners where conventional teaching approaches are not adequate. In the Software Engineering field, simulation games are commonly used for enhancing the learning and understanding of complex themes such as software processes. This complexity is represented by intrinsic software development characteristics such as multiple feedback loops and cause-effect delays. One fundamental aspect for the development of a simulation game is the definition of its simulation model. A simulation model contains some dynamic features and phenomena of the system it represents. It typically involves a set of assumptions concerning the system operation and it is used to translate the underlying system model, with given inputs, producing its behavior pattern. In this work, we describe an approach to create an educational simulation model derived from academic and industrial experiences. We focus on the systematic activities executed during its development. The created model was applied in a Software Process Improvement simulation game, named SPIAL (Software Process Improvement Animated Learning Environment). A set of important issues were identified. Our work can help developers during the creation of simulation games for educational purposes.

In Software Engineering courses, students are introduced to important theories and concepts. However, these courses lack a practical opportunity for students to experience them more effectively. Even with the team-based project approach it is not possible to train students in all the real situations of a software development organization, due to the very nature of software applications and the large variety of organizational cultures. Simulation games are an appropriate complementary approach to the traditional educational techniques. Students' preparation can be improved by allowing them to practice, through a simulator, activities that are infeasible to practice during a Software Engineering course, due to restrictions of time and resources. Unfortunately, the creation of a simulation game is not a straightforward activity; it involves many different skills and addresses different viewpoints. In this work, we discuss the issues and challenges associated with the creation process of a Software Engineering simulation game. We adopted an incremental and iterative approach, where each step involves different knowledge, allowing us to point out a set of important aspects that should be taken into account during the development. These aspects can guide new developers and instructors in the design and selection of educational simulation games.

Simulation games can help teaching and learning in several areas of Software Engineering. One important research issue is providing support for simulation games development, making the results of their adoption successful in Software Engineering courses. In this work, we identify a set of requirements focusing on some of the Constructivist learning theories. These requirements were used to evaluate Software Engineering simulation games. Based on these requirements, we created FASENG, a framework for development of Software Engineering simulation games. FASENG has three main components: simulation model, simulator, and simulation engine. Since there is a clear structural and conceptual separation among them, they can be reused in other development environments. In order to check the framework flexibility, we developed two distinct Software Engineering simulation games. The two main results of this research are a better understanding of Software Engineering simulation games requirements and the development of FASENG.

Simulation games supporting students' education and training are being described in an increasing number of works. Simulations are accepted as a complementary mode for the traditional teaching methods by stimulating and motivating learning through providing a realistic environment for the students to practice. They can engage students in a more enjoyable simulated experience of the real world. This article explores the use of simulation games in Software Engineering education. We focus on simulation games that were developed to bridge the gap between the theoretical learning and real life practice of software development. Following a review of the literature, we present a discussion of the simulation games, showing their main characteristics and differences regarding their design. Our findings identify some dimensions that provide an integrated view of simulation games in the Software Engineering field. Our main contributions are the criteria and results of our discussion. These criteria are based on the interaction aspects of simulation games which can assist instructors during game selection and provide some insights for Software Engineering simulation games developers.

The huge number and the textual nature of Web documents have created the need for search engines. In this kind of system the user's queries are answered based on a static view of the whole or part of the Web. However, the Web is a dynamic system and its documents are inserted, changed and removed frequently, thus creating an inconsistency between the state of the Web and the static view of the documents of the search engine. We describe the dynamic aspects of the HTML documents of the Brazilian Web, namely the rate of insertion, change and removal of its documents, from the point of view of search engines. We also describe the tools we used to support this study. Whenever possible, we compare measures of the Brazilian Web with related measures of the World Wide Web. We show how the study of these aspects can be used in search engines to improve the quality of its services, in particular, aspects related to robots or spiders.

Object-oriented databases are being increasingly used to model non-standard applications that emphasize modularity, composition, and rapid prototyping. A semantic locking protocol is presented for transaction management for such object-oriented databases. In particular, the protocol incorporates the semantics of complex objects, nested executions and dynamic conflicts resulting from referentially shared objects.