Technological advance affects almost all areas of human life. Rapid digitization, increased mobility, new biotechnologies, and nanotechnology deeply influence, amongst others, industrial production, entertainment, work, military affairs, and individual life. Besides overwhelmingly positive effects on wealth, comfort, innovation, and development, this also raises questions of unintended effects, of tensions with democracy, of the role of citizens, and of its sustainability facing environmental issues. Tools and procedures are needed to cope with this challenging situation. Technology assessment (TA) has been developed more than fifty years ago to enable science, the economy, and society to harvest the potential of new technology to the maximum extent possible and to deal responsibly with possible adverse effects. It was developed more than 50 years ago in the U.S. Congress and has diversified considerably in the meantime. Parliamentary TA in many European states and at the international level, participatory TA at the local and regional levels worldwide, and TA as part of engineering processes are the most relevant fields today. Technology assessment is a growing field of interdisciplinary research and scientific policy advice. This volume (a) gives an overview of motivations of TA, its history and its current practices, (b) develops a fresh theoretical perspective on TA rooted in social theory and philosophy, and (c) draws conclusions from the theoretical perspective for the further development of TA's practices. It provides the first comprehensive view on the growing field of TA at the international level.

Although the precepts of software engineering have been around for decades, the field has failed to keep pace with rapid advancements in computer hardware and software. Modern systems that integrate multiple platforms and architectures, along with the collaborative nature of users who expect an instantaneous global reach via the Internet, require updated software engineering methods. Social Software Engineering: Development and Collaboration with Social Networking examines the field through the spectrum of the social activities that now compose it. Supplying an up-to-date look at this ever-evolving field, it provides comprehensive coverage that includes security, legal, and privacy issues in addition to workflow and people issues. Jessica Keyes, former managing director of R&D for the New York Stock Exchange and noted columnist, correspondent, and author with more than 200 articles published, details the methodology needed to bring mission-critical software projects to successful conclusions. She provides readers with the understanding and tools required to fuse psychology, sociology, mathematics, and the principles of knowledge engineering to develop infrastructures capable of supporting the collaborative applications that today's users require.

With the majority of IT projects being delivered late, over budget, or cancelled altogether, it is clear that traditional project management methodologies do not provide an effective framework for today's IT projects. It is evident that a new Return-on-Investment (ROI) oriented approach is required that focuses on the ROI of a project from its inception. Maximizing Benefits from IT Project Management: From Requirements to Value Delivery provides comprehensive guidelines for determining an accurate ROI before the project has progressed to the point where it's over budget and over-run. It applies an iterative approach to the entire project management life cycle that re-visits the ROI, re-assesses the value delivered, defines the project scope, and allows the project to be planned as successive iterations based on the value delivered. This book details a systematic and simplified approach for effectively and efficiently selecting and evaluating IT projects for your organization. Filled with equations, tables, and figures that facilitate understanding, it explains how to evaluate subsequent success of a project so that it is simpler to manage, more efficient, and yields the ROI estimated at the outset. Using the novel approach outlined in the book, you will be able to deliver value throughout the project life cycle and make sure your projects are delivered on time, on budget, and within the constraints of the resources available.

Are you a programmer who wants to get started quickly in a new language? This book is for you. Are you a novice who wants to learn to program? This book is not for you. Are you a Python programmer who needs encyclopaedic information? This book is not for you. Like any mainstream language, Python has loops, if statements, assignment statements, functions, etc. I'll show you what these look like in Python. I won't waste your time telling you what they're good for. Python has features you may not be familiar with--iterators, list comprehensions, maybe even dictionaries. I'll spend more time on these. I'll cover some of the library functions I found most immediately useful, and tell you where to find more. In short, this book will help you hit the ground running. Next week, you'll be ready to buy that Python encyclopaedia.

The Science of Biometrics: Security Technology for Identity Verification covers the technical aspects of iris and facial recognition, focusing primarily on the mathematical and statistical algorithms that run the verification and identification processes in these two modalities. Each chapter begins with a review of the technologies, examining how they work, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as some of their established market applications. Numerous approaches are examined. Facial recognition is much more of an emerging biometric technology than iris recognition; therefore, there are more algorithms that are currently being developed in that area. After this review, numerous applications of these two modalities are covered as well, some of which have just been commercially deployed while others are under research and development. Chapters 3 and 4 conclude with case studies to provide further application review. This book is directed to security managers, electronic security system designers, consultants, and system integrators, as well as electronic security system manufacturers working in access control and biometrics.

To be effective, data-intensive systems require extensive ongoing customisation to reflect changing user requirements, organisational policies, and the structure and interpretation of the data they hold. Manual customisation is expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone. In large complex systems, the value of the data can be such that exhaustive testing is necessary before any new feature can be added to the existing design. In most cases, the precise details of requirements, policies and data will change during the lifetime of the system, forcing a choice between expensive modification and continued operation with an inefficient design. Engineering Agile Big-Data Systems outlines an approach to dealing with these problems in software and data engineering, describing a methodology for aligning these processes throughout product lifecycles. It discusses tools which can be used to achieve these goals, and, in a number of case studies, shows how the tools and methodology have been used to improve a variety of academic and business systems.

It's axiomatic to state that people fear what they do not understand, and this is especially true when it comes to technology. However, despite their prevalence, computers remain shrouded in mystery, and many users feel apprehensive when interacting with them. Smartphones have only exacerbated the issue. Indeed, most users of these devices leverage only a small fraction of the power they hold in their hands. How Things Work: The Computer Science Edition is a roadmap for readers who want to overcome their technophobia and harness the full power of everyday technology. Beginning with the basics, the book demystifies the mysterious world of computer science, explains its fundamental concepts in simple terms, and answers the questions many users feel too intimidated to ask. By the end of the book, readers will understand how computers and smart devices function and, more important, how they can make these devices work for them. To complete the picture, the book also introduces readers to the darker side of modern technology: security and privacy concerns, identity theft, and threats from the Dark Web.

This book is perhaps the first attempt to give full treatment to the topic of Software Design. It will facilitate the academia as well as the industry. This book covers all the topics of software design including the ancillary ones.

- This book covers the production of dissertations in an area where students are much more comfortable writing code than writing academically. - With practical examples of bachelor dissertations and practical research methods utilised in the field of computer science and computer games such as survey methodologies, experimental methodologies, case studies, analysis techniques and reporting techniques, this book will break down the sometimes complicated-seeming nature of the dissertation. - Written to be concise yet comprehensive and with easily accessible language and examples, this book will take the mystery out of undergraduate dissertations in this field.

The text provides a comprehensive overview of the design aspects of the internet of things devices and covers the fundamentals of big data and data science. It explores various scenarios such as what are the middleware and frameworks available and how to build a stable, standards-based, and Secure internet of things device. It discusses important concepts including embedded programming techniques, machine-to-machine architecture, and the internet of things for smart city applications. It will serve as an ideal design book for professionals, senior undergraduate, and graduate students in the fields including electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, and computer engineering. The book- Covers applications and architecture needed to deliver solutions to end customers and readers. Discusses practical aspects of implementing the internet of things in diverse areas including manufacturing, and software development. Highlights big data concepts and embedded programming techniques. Presents technologies including machine to machine, integrated sensors, and radio-frequency identification. Introduces global system for mobile communication and precise details of standards based on internet of things architecture models. The book focuses on practical design aspects such as how to finalize a processor integrated circuit, which operating system to use, etc. in a single volume. It will serve as an ideal text for professionals, senior undergraduate, and graduate students in diverse engineering domains including electrical, electronics and communication, computer.

This book describes the state-of-the-art of software ecosystems. It constitutes a fundamental step towards an empirically based, nuanced understanding of the implications for management, governance, and control of software ecosystems. This is the first book of its kind dedicated to this emerging field and offers guidelines on how to analyze software ecosystems; methods for managing and growing; methods on transitioning from a closed software organization to an open one; and instruments for dealing with open source, licensing issues, product management and app stores. It is unique in bringing together industry experiences, academic views and tackling challenges such as the definition of fundamental concepts of software ecosystems, describing those forces that influence its development and lifecycles, and the provision of methods for the governance of software ecosystems. This book is an essential starting point for software industry researchers, product managers, and entrepreneurs. Contributors: T. Aaltonen, T.A. Alspaugh, C. Alves, M. Anvaari, H.U. Asuncion, O. Barbosa, S. Biffl, S. Brinkkemper, M.A. Cusumano, E. den Hartigh, D. Dhungana, R.P. dos Santos, A. Finkelstein, M. Goeminne, I. Groher, I. Hammouda, S. Jansen, A. Jimenez Salas, J. Kabbedijk, M. Kauppinen, T. Kilamo, Y.-R. Li, L. Luinenburg, T. Mens, T. Mikkonen, K.M. Popp, W. Scacchi, E. Schludermann, J. Souer, M. Tol, J. van Angeren, G. van Capelleveen, M. Viljainen, W. Visscher, C. Werner

This is the last in a four book series comprising a critical review of the Unified Process that includes a survey of the alternate software processes and the synthesis of a more robust process. The transition and production phases are the final phases of the Unified Process that provide for the deployment, operation and support of the system among the user groups. This volume includes a masters' collection of best practices that include practical advice for successfully launching the software, applying personal processes, developing and enhancing organizational software processes, achieving reuse, conducting project assessments, saving a troubled project, testing the system, avoiding a maintenance nightmare, and operating and supporting the software.

Get more out of your legacy systems: more performance, functionality, reliability, and manageability

Is your code easy to change? Can you get nearly instantaneous feedback when you do change it? Do you understand it? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you have legacy code, and it is draining time and money away from your development efforts.

In this book, Michael Feathers offers start-to-finish strategies for working more effectively with large, untested legacy code bases. This book draws on material Michael created for his renowned Object Mentor seminars: techniques Michael has used in mentoring to help hundreds of developers, technical managers, and testers bring their legacy systems under control.

The topics covered include Understanding the mechanics of software change: adding features, fixing bugs, improving design, optimizing performance Getting legacy code into a test harness Writing tests that protect you against introducing new problems Techniques that can be used with any language or platform--with examples in Java, C++, C, and C# Accurately identifying where code changes need to be made Coping with legacy systems that aren't object-oriented Handling applications that don't seem to have any structure

This book also includes a catalog of twenty-four dependency-breaking techniques that help you work with program elements in isolation and make safer changes.
(c) Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

This book deals with computer performance by addressing basic preconditions. Besides general considerations about performance, several new approaches are presented. One of them targets memory structures by introducing the possibility of overlapping non-interfering (virtual) address spaces. This approach is based on a newly developed jump transformation between different symbol spaces. Another approach deals with efficiency and accuracy in scientific calculations. Finally the concept of a Neural Relational Data Base Management System is introduced and the performance potential of quantum computers assessed.

Defines concepts and processes of software and software development, such as agile processes, requirements engineering, and software architecture, design, construction Uncovers and answers various misconceptions about the software development process and presents an up-to-date reflection on the state of practice in the industry Details how non-software engineers can better communicate their needs to software engineers and more effectively participate in design and testing to ultimately lower software development and maintenance costs Helps answer the question: How can I better leverage embedded software in my design? Adds new chapters on software architecture, software engineering and systems, and software engineering and disruptive technologies, as well as information on cybersecurity Features new appendices that describe a sample automation system, covering software requirements, architecture, and design

An emerging topic in software engineering and data mining, specification mining tackles software maintenance and reliability issues that cost economies billions of dollars each year. The first unified reference on the subject, Mining Software Specifications: Methodologies and Applications describes recent approaches for mining specifications of software systems. Experts in the field illustrate how to apply state-of-the-art data mining and machine learning techniques to address software engineering concerns. In the first set of chapters, the book introduces a number of studies on mining finite state machines that employ techniques, such as grammar inference, partial order mining, source code model checking, abstract interpretation, and more. The remaining chapters present research on mining temporal rules/patterns, covering techniques that include path-aware static program analyses, lightweight rule/pattern mining, statistical analysis, and other interesting approaches. Throughout the book, the authors discuss how to employ dynamic analysis, static analysis, and combinations of both to mine software specifications. According to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2002, software bugs have cost the US economy 59.5 billion dollars a year. This volume shows how specification mining can help find bugs and improve program understanding, thereby reducing unnecessary financial losses. The book encourages the industry adoption of specification mining techniques and the assimilation of these techniques in standard integrated development environments (IDEs).

Emphasizing the connection between mathematical objects and their practical C++ implementation, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to both the theory behind the objects and the C and C++ programming. Object-oriented implementation of three-dimensional meshes facilitates understanding of their mathematical nature. Requiring no prerequisites, the text covers discrete mathematics, data structures, and computational physics, including high-order discretization of nonlinear equations. Exercises and solutions make the book suitable for classroom use and a supporting website supplies downloadable code.

Classical FORTRAN: Programming for Engineering and Scientific Applications, Second Edition teaches how to write programs in the Classical dialect of FORTRAN, the original and still most widely recognized language for numerical computing. This edition retains the conversational style of the original, along with its simple, carefully chosen subset language and its focus on floating-point calculations. New to the Second Edition Additional case study on file I/O More about CPU timing on Pentium processors More about the g77 compiler and Linux With numerous updates and revisions throughout, this second edition continues to use case studies and examples to introduce the language elements and design skills needed to write graceful, correct, and efficient programs for real engineering and scientific applications. After reading this book, students will know what statements to use and where as well as why to avoid the others, helping them become expert FORTRAN programmers.

Part of a new four-volume series presenting best practices using UP to develop object-oriented, component-based software, this book examines the second UP phase--elaboration--focusing on defining, validating, and baselining the architecture for a system. Illustrations throughout.

Today's high-speed and rapidly changing development environments demand equally high-speed security practices. Still, achieving security remains a human endeavor, a core part of designing, generating and verifying software. Dr. James Ransome and Brook S.E. Schoenfield have built upon their previous works to explain that security starts with people; ultimately, humans generate software security. People collectively act through a particular and distinct set of methodologies, processes, and technologies that the authors have brought together into a newly designed, holistic, generic software development lifecycle facilitating software security at Agile, DevOps speed. -Eric. S. Yuan, Founder and CEO, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. It is essential that we embrace a mantra that ensures security is baked in throughout any development process. Ransome and Schoenfield leverage their abundance of experience and knowledge to clearly define why and how we need to build this new model around an understanding that the human element is the ultimate key to success. -Jennifer Sunshine Steffens, CEO of IOActive Both practical and strategic, Building in Security at Agile Speed is an invaluable resource for change leaders committed to building secure software solutions in a world characterized by increasing threats and uncertainty. Ransome and Schoenfield brilliantly demonstrate why creating robust software is a result of not only technical, but deeply human elements of agile ways of working. -Jorgen Hesselberg, author of Unlocking Agility and Cofounder of Comparative Agility The proliferation of open source components and distributed software services makes the principles detailed in Building in Security at Agile Speed more relevant than ever. Incorporating the principles and detailed guidance in this book into your SDLC is a must for all software developers and IT organizations. -George K Tsantes, CEO of Cyberphos, former partner at Accenture and Principal at EY Detailing the people, processes, and technical aspects of software security, Building in Security at Agile Speed emphasizes that the people element remains critical because software is developed, managed, and exploited by humans. This book presents a step-by-step process for software security that uses today's technology, operational, business, and development methods with a focus on best practice, proven activities, processes, tools, and metrics for any size or type of organization and development practice.

Guides professionals and students through the rapidly growing field of machine learning with hands-on examples in the popular R programming language Machine learning--a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which enables computers to improve their results and learn new approaches without explicit instructions--allows organizations to reveal patterns in their data and incorporate predictive analytics into their decision-making process. Practical Machine Learning in R provides a hands-on approach to solving business problems with intelligent, self-learning computer algorithms. Bestselling author and data analytics experts Fred Nwanganga and Mike Chapple explain what machine learning is, demonstrate its organizational benefits, and provide hands-on examples created in the R programming language. A perfect guide for professional self-taught learners or students in an introductory machine learning course, this reader-friendly book illustrates the numerous real-world business uses of machine learning approaches. Clear and detailed chapters cover data wrangling, R programming with the popular RStudio tool, classification and regression techniques, performance evaluation, and more. Explores data management techniques, including data collection, exploration and dimensionality reduction Covers unsupervised learning, where readers identify and summarize patterns using approaches such as apriori, eclat and clustering Describes the principles behind the Nearest Neighbor, Decision Tree and Naive Bayes classification techniques Explains how to evaluate and choose the right model, as well as how to improve model performance using ensemble methods such as Random Forest and XGBoost Practical Machine Learning in R is a must-have guide for business analysts, data scientists, and other professionals interested in leveraging the power of AI to solve business problems, as well as students and independent learners seeking to enter the field.

Unit Integration Testing (UIT) had been a challenge because there was no tool that could help in XHR programming and unit integration validations in an efficient way until Cypress arrived. Cypress started releasing versions in 2015 and became popular in 2018 with version 2.0.0. This book explores Cypress scripts that help implement 'shift left testing', which is a dream come true for many software testers. Shift left occurs in the majority of testing projects, but could not be implemented fully because tools were unavailable and knowledge was lacking about the possibilities of testing early in the life cycle. Shift left is a key testing strategy to help testing teams focus less on defect identifications and more on developing practices to prevent defects. Cypress scripts can help front-end developers and quality engineers to work together to find defects soon after web components are built. These components can be tested immediately after they are built with Cypress Test Driven Development (TDD) scripts. Thus, defects can be fixed straight away during the development stage. Testing teams do not have to worry about finding these same defects in a later development stage because Cypress tests keep verifying components in the later stages. Defect fixing has become much cheaper with Cypress than when other tools are used. The book also covers Behaviour Driven Development (BDD)-based Gherkin scripts and the Cypress Cucumber preprocessor, which can improve test scenario coverage. Automated Software Testing with Cypress is written to fulfil the BDD and TDD needs of testing teams. Two distinct open source repositories are provided in Github to help start running Cypress tests in no time!

Many professionals and students in engineering, science, business, and other application fields need to develop Windows-based and web-enabled information systems to store and use data for decision support, without help from professional programmers. However, few books are available to train professionals and students who are not professional programmers to develop these information systems. Developing Windows-Based and Web-Enabled Information Systems fills this gap, providing a self-contained, easy-to-understand, and well-illustrated text that explores current concepts, methods, and software tools for developing Windows-based and web-enabled information systems. Written in an easily accessible style, the book details current concepts, methods, and software tools for Windows-based and web-enabled information systems that store and use data. It is self-contained with easy-to-understand small examples to walk through concepts and implementation details along with large-scale case studies. The book describes data modeling methods including entity-relationship modeling, relational modeling and normalization, and object-oriented data modeling, to develop data models of a database. The author covers how to use software tools in the Microsoft application development environment, including Microsoft Access, MySQL, SQL, Visual Studio, Visual Basic, VBA, HTML, and XML, to implement databases and develop Windows-based and web-enabled applications with the database, graphical user interface, and program components. The book takes you through the entire process of developing a computer and network application for an information system, highlighting concepts and operation details. In each chapter, small data examples are used to manually walk through concepts and operational details. These features and more give you the conceptual understanding and practical skill required, even if you don't have a computer science background, to develop Windows-based or web-enabled applications for your specialized information system.

Improve your understanding of Scrum through the proven experience and collected wisdom of experts around the world. Based on real-life experiences, the 97 essays in this unique book provide a wealth of knowledge and expertise from established practitioners who have dealt with specific problems and challenges with Scrum. You'll find out more about the rules and roles of this framework, as well as tactics, strategies, specific patterns to use with Scrum, and stories from the trenches. You'll also gain insights on how to apply, tune, and tweak Scrum for your work. This guide is an ideal resource for people new to Scrum and those who want to assess and improve their understanding of this framework. Learn tips and tricks from some of the world's leading experts on Scrum Understand how leading practitioners deal with real-life problems Explore essays that address product ownership, collaboration, mastership, and the impact of Scrum on an organization Apply the solutions in this book to your own problems with Scrum

Large-Scale Simulation: Models, Algorithms, and Applications gives you firsthand insight on the latest advances in large-scale simulation techniques. Most of the research results are drawn from the authors' papers in top-tier, peer-reviewed, scientific conference proceedings and journals. The first part of the book presents the fundamentals of large-scale simulation, including high-level architecture and runtime infrastructure. The second part covers middleware and software architecture for large-scale simulations, such as decoupled federate architecture, fault tolerant mechanisms, grid-enabled simulation, and federation communities. In the third part, the authors explore mechanisms-such as simulation cloning methods and algorithms-that support quick evaluation of alternative scenarios. The final part describes how distributed computing technologies and many-core architecture are used to study social phenomena. Reflecting the latest research in the field, this book guides you in using and further researching advanced models and algorithms for large-scale distributed simulation. These simulation tools will help you gain insight into large-scale systems across many disciplines.