This research investigates how individual emotional and rational components of software testing service evaluations impact behavioral intentions associated with the software testing service, and how specific, theory-driven service characteristics (complexity, proximity, and output specificity) impact the emotional and rational components of the software testing service evaluation. A controlled experiment is used, and the results indicate that (1) both emotional and rational components of software testing service evaluation have significant impacts on behavioral intentions associated with the software testing service, (2) the specificity of testing service output impacts both the emotional and rational evaluations of the software testing service, (3) the complexity of the testing service task only influences the emotional component, and (4) the proximity between the testing service provider and recipient has no significant impact on the emotional evaluation of the service.

Software testing is becoming more critical to ensure that software functions properly. As the time, effort, and funds invested in software testing activities have been increased significantly, these resources still cannot meet the increasing demand of software testing. Managers must allocate testing resources to the test cases effectively in uncovering important defects. This study builds a value function that can quantify the relative value of a test case and thus play a significant role in prioritizing test cases, addressing the resource constraint issues in software testing and serving as a foundation of AI for software testing. The authors conducted a Monte Carlo simulation to exhibit application of the final value function.

Java is arguably today’s most popular and widely used object-oriented programming language. Learning Java is a daunting task for students, and teaching it is a challenging undertaking for instructors. To assess students’ object-oriented programming skills with Java, we developed the “Department-Employee” project. In this article, we review the history of object-oriented programming, provide an overview of object-oriented programming with Java, and present a summary of existing Java projects and their limitations. We also provide the project specifications as well as the course background, grading rubric, and score reports. Survey data are presented on students’ backgrounds, as well as students’ perceptions regarding the project. Results from the instructor score reports, correlation of the project score and the final course score, and student perceptions show that the “Department-Employee” project is effective in assessing students’ object-oriented programming skills with Java.

In this article, we demonstrate a novel use of case research to generate an empirical function through qualitative generalization. This innovative technique applies interpretive case analysis to the problem of defining and generalizing an empirical cost function for test cases through qualitative interaction with an industry cohort of subject matter experts involved in software testing at leading technology companies. While the technique is fully generalizable, this article demonstrates this technique with an example taken from the important field of software testing. The huge amount of software development conducted in today's world makes taking its cost into account imperative. While software testing is a critical aspect of the software development process, little attention has been paid to the cost of testing code, and specifically to the cost of test cases, in comparison to the cost of developing code. Our research fills the gap by providing a function for estimating the cost of test cases.

Task-related conflict and person-related conflict in software testing are inevitable and can impact the effectiveness and efficiency of the software development process. The dimensionality of conflict in software testing is reasonably well understood, although in past research both types of conflict have frequently been modeled as reflective constructs that can obstruct the effectiveness of their use as organizational assessment and training tools. One contribution of this study is an empirical model of conflict sources in software engineering; such sources of conflict threaten to derail efficient software development outcomes in firms. A second contribution of this research is the development of a formative measurement model for purposes of development of assessing task conflict and person conflict in software teams. These validated measures can be utilized as training and development instruments for on-the-job remediation of development team conflict. As is indicated in the organizational behavior and software engineering literature, deploying valid measures of workplace stressors such as conflict can lead to the managerial application of effective strategies and tactics to improve workplace morale and satisfaction, to the great benefit of productivity and retention.

Strong working relations between software developers and testers are critical to the efficient and effective development of high-quality software. Smooth collaboration must occur as testers find problems and developers fix problems in the software. Prior studies based on anecdotal data have suggested that developers and testers have different personalities, approaches to work, etc., and these differences may have negative impacts on software project outcomes such as software quality and job satisfaction. This study examines the results of a nationwide survey undertaken to empirically examine and to improve our understanding of the pertinent areas where developers and testers differ. Results support that significant differences exist in perceptions between developers and testers. We conclude that these differences must be considered in order to improve software development efficiency and effectiveness.

This study incorporates insights from services marketing and information systems (IS) usage research, and proposes a service value perspective of continued use of Mobile Technology Mediated Services (MTMS). Our study illustrates that customers strongly recognize the value of MTMS in building utilitarian and hedonic benefits, which influences their intentions to continue using the service. Our study shows that, when assessing value of MTMS, customers are less concerned with effort-based cost for the service use. Instead, the effort-based cost is recognized as a negative predictor of utilitarian and hedonic benefits of MTMS usage. Accounting for the dual role of MTMS patrons as a service customer and a user of IT artifacts, our study contributes to IS theory by incorporating the value perspective into IS usage literature in the service context. The findings provide practical guidelines for MTMS managers to develop value-based strategies for business survival and marketing extension.

The primary role of testers is to verify and validate the software produced by developers to ensure its quality. Testing is designed to catch problems in the software and report them for correction, so it is a conflict-laden, confrontational, and judgmental process. This “audit” role of testing is inherently adversarial, ensuring the development of components of interpersonal conflict judgments between developers and testers. Prior research indicates that such conflict is likely to be negatively associated with software quality and job satisfaction, producing negative judgments about the artifact production process and about the job itself. This study addresses the question: How do judgments of conflict between developers and testers impact the software development process? The authors develop and empirically test a research model which proposes that the conflict judgment targets of both the tasks and the persons who perform them will have direct impact on both software quality and job satisfaction judgments. Results of testing this model indicate that interpersonal judgments arising from conflict, as well as judgments made by testers and developers about the conflict targets of tasks and persons negatively influence subsequent software quality and job satisfaction judgments. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

It is extremely time-consuming to restart a long-running simulation from the beginning when a failure occurs. Checkpointing is a viable solution that enables simulations to be resumed from the point of failure. We study three models to determine the optimal checkpoint interval between contiguous checkpoints so that the total execution time is minimized and we demonstrate that optimal checkpointing can facilitate self-optimizing. This study greatly advances our knowledge of and practice in optimizing long-running scientific simulations.

Data management (DM) has existed in conjunction with software development and the management of the full set of information technology (IT)-related components. However, it has been more than two decades since research into DM as it is practiced has been published. In this paper, the authors compare aspects of DM across a quarter-century timeline, obtaining data using comparable sets of subject matter experts. Using this information to observe the profession’s evolution, the authors have updated the understanding of DM as it is practiced, giving additional insight into DM, including its current responsibilities, reporting structures, and perceptions of success, among other factors. The analysis indicates that successfully investing in DM presents current, real challenges to IT and organizations. Although DM is evolving away from purely operational responsibilities toward higher-level responsibilities, perceptions of success have fallen. This paper details the quarter-century comparison of DM practices, analyzes them, and draws conclusions.

A three-tier wireless local loop (WLL) extends the single-tier or two-tier WLL, and it is capable of accommodating more subscribers. This paper presents and analyzes channel allocation algorithms for a three-tier WLL. These algorithms include no repacking (NR), always repacking (AR), Repacking on Demand - Random (RoDR), Repacking on Demand - Least Load (RoDL), and Repacking on Demand - Subscriber Terminal (RoDST), depending on how repacking candidates are handled. Blocking probability and handoff probability are compared among all these channel assignment algorithms by simulations. It is shown that given the same set of simulation parameters, NR has the highest blocking probability, AR has the lowest blocking probability, and RoD has a blocking probability that falls in between. Compared with NR, both AR and RoD reduce the block probability at cost of a high handoff probability. Among RoDR, RoDL, and RoDST, RoDST has the lowest blocking probability but the highest handoff probability.