Since the introduction of von Neumann architecture in the 1940s, which stipulated the critical division between hardware and software, engineers and programmers alike have been striving to build bigger, faster and cheaper software applications. This end goal of creating the most elegant program utilizing the least resources while performing the most work has seen a plethora of developments over the last several decades. Every innovation from the early programming languages of COBOL and FORTRAN to the more recent move toward the agile programming method has informed the creation of software applications designed to meet increasing demands and to answer a greater number of needs in the most efficient way possible.
Now, with an entire generation of computer users who have come to expect the integration of software applications in their everyday lives, there is a call for greater research and development and more efficient programming in an ever widening spectrum of disciplines from business, government, and education to everyday use and recreation. To keep up with the demand for newer and better software, practitioners and researchers must thrive within a fluid environment. They need be cognizant of constant advances that must be considered and responded to in order to ensure the success of developing software applications.
Due to the ever changing landscape of software applications, it is a constant challenge for researchers and experts in the development of software applications to absorb the volume of innovations which will inform and quickly outdate current software applications. Information Science Reference is pleased to offer a six-volume reference collection on this rapidly growing discipline, in order to empower students, researchers, academicians, and practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of the most critical areas within this field of study. This collection provides the most comprehensive, in-depth, and recent coverage of all issues related to the development of cutting-edge software applications, as well as a single reference source on all conceptual, methodological, technical and managerial issues, and the opportunities, future challenges and emerging trends related to the development of software applications,
Entitled “Software Applications: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications,” this collection is organized in eight distinct sections, providing the most wide-ranging coverage of topics such as: 1) Fundamental Concepts and Theories; 2) Development and Design Methodologies; 3) Tools and Technologies; 4) Utilization and Application; 5) Organizational and Social Implications; 6) Managerial Impact; 7) Critical Issues; and 8) Emerging Trends. The following provides a summary of what is covered in each section of this multi-volume reference collection:
Section 1, Fundamental Concepts and Theories, offers an extensive view of the foundational theories and concepts which inform the development of software applications. This section begins with the chapter “A Historical Analysis of the Emergence of Free Cooperative Software Production,” by Nicolas Jullien which describes the vacillation of open source programming from its popularity in the 1950s to its near disappearance in the 1980s up through its most recent boom in popularity. Other chapters in the section such as, “Software Modernization of Legacy Systems for Web Services Interoperability” by Chia-Chu Chiang and “Intelligent Analysis of Software Maintenance Data” by Marek Reformat, Petr Musilek and Efe Igbide, deal with the critical issue of analysis and adaptation for the maintenance of software applications. “Malicious software” by Thomas M. Chen and Gregg W. Tally discusses the problematic topic of malware. In this chapter, Chen and Tally present malware as one of the most costly and widespread types of virtual attacks on organizations. This section also contains chapters such as David Lo and Siau-Cheng Khoo’s “Mining Software Specifications” which discusses the emerging area of data mining, focusing on drawing out software specifications based on the behavior of a software application.
In Section 2, Development and Design Methodologies , the creative stages of software application design are explored through developmental strategies and design methodologies. This section opens with “Ontology Based Object-Oriented Domain Modeling: Representing Behavior” by Jeorg Evermann and Yair Wand. Evermann and Wand describe the usefulness of the object-oriented software modeling language to the early conceptual stage of application domain analysis for which no specific language is accepted. More application specific chapters, such as “Building an LMS with Ubiquitous Software” by Michael Rees and Charles Herring, can be found later in the section. In their chapter, Rees and Herring present their experience during the development and trial run of an off-the-shelf learning management system that utilized Microsoft Office Systems at its core. Other chapters like “Administration of Wireless Software Components” by F. Barier and F. Romeo present a method for the design of manageable and self-manageable parts specific to wireless and mobile environments. In addition, this section contains selections like “Bug Fixing Practices within Free/Libre Open Source Software Development Teams” by Kevin Crowston and Barbara Scozzi which examines the success of debugging in open source software despite the fact that it is primarily developed by distributed teams.
Section 3, Tools and Technologies, begins with Kerstin Fink and Christian Plodder’s chapter “Knowledge Management Toolkit for SMEs” which presents four knowledge processes designed to help small and medium enterprises take advantage of their intellectual capital. Additional tools for free software projects are presented in “Tools for the Study of the Usual Data Sources found in Libre Software Projects” by Gregorio Robles, Jesús M. González-Barahona, Daniel Izquierdo-Cortazar and Israel Herraiz. Several chapters, such as “A Software Tool for Reading DICOM Directory Files” by Ricardo Villegas, Guillermo Montilla and Hyxia Villegas and “LOGIC-Minimiser: A Software Tool to Enhance Teaching and Learning Minimization of Boolean Expressions” by Nurul I. Sarkar and Khaleel I. Petrus discuss individual tools with specific uses in mind. This overview of various tools and technologies for software applications comes to a close with “A Pliant-Based Software Tool for Courseware Development” by Marcus Vinicius dos Santos, Isaac Woungang and Moses Nyongwa. In this chapter, the authors discuss the use of the Pliant software framework for web-based courseware development.
Section 4, Utilization and Application, describes the implementation of technologies, methodologies, and theories related to software applications. This section contains chapters such as “Online Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Software Training Through the Behavioral Modeling Approach: A Longitudinal Field Experiment” by Charlie C. Chen and R. S. Shaw which compares and contrasts the implementation of a particular modeling approach in three different learning environments. Roger Austin and John Anderson’s chapter “Building Bridges Online: Issues of Pedagogy and Learning Outcomes in Intercultural Education Through Citizenship” discusses the utilization of social software to promote intercultural learning in a well managed online school-based atmosphere. Kathryn Moyle tackles a different education based topic. In her chapter “Selecting Open Source Software for Use in Schools,” she addresses the potential for using open-source software in schools and identifies criteria which schools can use when considering different open source options. “Patchwork Prototyping with Open Source Software” by M. Cameron Jones, Ingbert R. Floyd and Michael B. Twidale, considers a another open source topic. Their chapter proposes the utilization of a prototype which has been patched together from existing open source resources to provide real life feedback for software application development. Lawrence R. LaForge’s chapter, entitled “Teaching Operations Management with Enterprise Software” rounds out the section describing the use of enterprise software to provide operations management students with an understanding of how operations management decisions affect various aspects of a manufacturing enterprise.
Section 5, Organizational and Social Implications, delves into the vital conversation surrounding the issues that arise from developments in software design. “The Impact of Ideology on the Organizational Adoption of Open Source Software” by Kris Ven and Jan Verelst begins the discussion of how ideology can factor into the pragmatic decisions of open source software adoption. In their article “Volunteers in Large Libre Software Projects: A Quantitative Analysis Over Time,” Martin Michlmayr, Gregorio Robles, and Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona investigate the effectiveness of drawing participants to open source software. Jennifer Papin-Ramcharan and Frank Soodeen offer their perspective on the use of open source software in developing countries in “Open Source Software: A Developing Country View.” Other important social issues are also presented in “Empower Gender Diversity with Agile Software Development” by Orit Hazzan and Yael Dubinsky, “Facilitating E-Learning with Social Software: Attitudes and Usage from the Student’s Point of View,” by Reinhard Bernsteiner, Herwig Ostermann, and Roland Staudinger, and “Planning and Managing the Human Factors for the Adoption and Diffusion of Object-Oriented Software Development Processes,” by Magdy K. Serour.
This section illuminating the interaction of human beings and software is completed by “Mental Contents in Interacting with a Multiobjective Optimization Program” by Pertti Saariluoma, Katja Kaario, Kaisa Miettinen, and Marko M. Mäkelä, which uses a specific psychological theory to analyze interaction with professional software.
Section 6, Managerial Impact, presents contemporary coverage of the managerial applications and implications in the field of software. “Combining Tailoring and Evolutionary Software Development for Rapidly Changing Business Systems” by Jeanette Eriksson and Yvonne Dittrich begins this section with the analysis of a case study performed to evaluate the usability of software for business systems. The principles of management in software development projects and optimization tools for managerial decision making, especially in the environment of small IT companies, are thoroughly discussed in “Computer-Aided Management of Software Development in Small Companies,” by Lukáš Pichl and Takuya Yamano. Also included in this section is the chapter “A Survey of Competency Management Software Information Systems in the Framework of Human Resources Management,” by Alfonso Urquiza, which shows the Competency Management Software evolution from a previous fragmented market situation to a much more integrated scenario in which best of breed single-function oriented product preferences are now swiftly moving to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) type of architecture. The many tools available to managers are also explored through selections such as “Channel Optimization for On Field Sales Force by Integration of Business Software on Mobile Platforms” by Rishi Kalra and Amit Nanchahal, “Revenue Models in the Open Source Software Business” by Risto Rajala, Jussi Nissilä and Mika Westerlund, and “Knowledge Management and organizational Performance in the egyptian software Firms,” by Ahmed Seleim and Omar Khalil. The chapters in this section provide a comprehensive survey of the many intersections between software and management.
Section 7, Critical Issues, surveys some of the most important considerations that impact software development and are in turn influenced by software. “Aesthetics in Software Engineering” by Bruce MacLennan is one of the chapters that provides insight into an important concern that is often overlooked in favor of purely technical discussions. “Gender and Software Engineering” by Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger also provides unique perspective on a topic that is increasingly vital. Dave Yeats offers his research on the subtle philosophical differences represented in two open source software movements in “Morality and Pragmatism in Free Software and Open Source.” The more technical issues are also discussed in selections such as “A Graphical User Interface (GUI) Testing Methodology,” by Zafar Singhera, Ellis Horowitz and Abad Shah, “A Metamorphic Testing Approach for Online Testing of Service-Oriented Software Applications,” by W. K. Chan, S. C. Cheung and Karl R. P. H. Leung, and “A Formal Verification and Validation Approach for Real-Time Databases,” by Pedro Fernandes Ribeiro Neto, Maria Li´gia Barbosa Perkusich, Hyggo Oliveira de Almeida and Angelo Perkusich, which raise issues surrounding testing. The issues raised in this section are, in many ways, the crux of software engineering today, giving the reader a full understanding of the research surrounding the most pressing questions found in this discipline.
The concluding section of this authoritative reference tool, Emerging Trends, highlights research potential within the field of software while exploring uncharted areas of study for the advancement of the discipline. Selections such as “Agile Software Processes for the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory Environment” by Nathan Denny, Igor Crk and Ravi Sheshu describe the future potential for continuous programming through strategic use of the distributed agile development method with partners throughout the globe. “Bridging the Gap between Agile and Free Software Approaches: The Impact of Sprinting” by J. Paul Adams and Andrea Capiluppi presents an analysis of the effect of sprinting—commonly used in the agile programming method—on the free software approach to programming. Eddy Boot, Jon Nelson and Daneila De Faveri present an argument for the future use of the 3-D model to help improve communication between instructional designers and other stakeholders who do not share similar design languages. In addition to these topics, this section highlights future trends related to social software in chapters such as “Social Software and Language Acquisition” by Sarah Guth and Corrado Petrucco and “Social Software Trends in Business” by Peter Burkhardt. The trends highlighted in this section present a broad range of topics for future research and implementation leading the continued advancement of software application development.
Although the primary organization of the contents in this multi-volume collection is based on its eight sections, offering a progression of coverage of the important concepts, methodologies, technologies, applications, social issues, and emerging trends, the reader can also identify specific contents by utilizing the extensive indexing system listed at the end of each volume. Furthermore to ensure that the scholar, researcher and educator have access to the entire contents of this multi-volume set as well as additional coverage that could not be included in the print version of this publication, the publisher will provide unlimited multi-user electronic access to the online aggregated database of this collection for the life of edition, free of charge when a library purchases a print copy. This aggregated database provides far more contents than what can be included in the print version in addition to continual updates. This unlimited access, coupled with the continuous updates to the database ensures that the most current research is accessible to knowledge seekers.
Advances in software applications have been both immense and pervasive in the last several decades as the discipline has continued to grow and thrive with each new development. From the early days, through the “software crisis” of the late 60s and early 70s and on to the present day, software applications have become increasingly vital to the everyday user. As software applications become a ubiquitous part of everyday life, the demand for larger, faster, and more cost effective software applications continues to grow. This ever increasing demand will lead to greater improvements in this burgeoning discipline. Access to the most up-to-date research findings and firm knowledge of established techniques and lessons learned from other researchers or practicing software developers will facilitate the discovery and invention of more effective methodologies. This will allow for a greater range of applications and the creation of better software to serve a greater number of users.
The diverse and comprehensive coverage of software applications in this six-volume authoritative publication will contribute to a better understanding of all topics, research, and discoveries in this developing, significant field of study. Furthermore, the contributions included in this multi-volume collection series will be instrumental in the expansion of the body of knowledge in this enormous field, resulting in a greater understanding of the fundamentals while fueling the research initiatives in emerging fields. We at Information Science Reference, along with the editor of this collection and the publisher, hope that this multi-volume collection will become instrumental in the expansion of the discipline and will promote the continued growth of all aspects of software applications.