Volume 21 (2017): Issue 1 (May 2017)

Large software development projects with high levels of agility require several IT operations: software configuration management, bug tracking management, making software builds and deployments. Due to high agility in projects, the starting phases are very chaotic and sometimes in a few days customer is willing to get the first release of software. It means that all IT operations should be automated as soon as possible. The study presents a model-driven approach for automation of IT operations through the reuse of the existing source code. In addition, it presents a method for the development of library of reusable source code. The paper contains a brief description of the model-driven approach, library of source code and meta-models developed for a new methodology. The paper ends with the results of the practical experiments and conclusions on how this approach could be improved in the future.

The Internet of Things (IoT), a global Internet-based system of computing devices and machines, is one of the most significant trends in the information technology area. An accepted unified communication approach would be a prerequisite for its mass adoption. Semantic technologies (Semantic Web) have been advocated as enablers of unified communication. However, while there are particular advancements in research on application of Semantic Web in the IoT domain, the dynamic and complex nature of the IoT often requires case specific solutions hard to be applied widely. In the present survey, the semantic technology challenges in the IoT domain are amalgamated to provide background for further studies in the use of semantic technologies in the IoT.

The paper presents results of the comparative analysis of business process modelling tools for supporting automated compliance management in organisations. By compliance in the paper we mean compliance to legislation, regulations of municipalities, external regulatory requirements and also internal organisational policies. The goal of the research is (1) to identify main attributes of business process modelling tools relevant in compliance management, and (2) to use the identified attributes for analysis of the tools to better understand the scope of their capability to support compliance management. The attributes of the tools have been derived from the related research. The analysis of the tools has been performed by installing each tool and evaluating it against a set of the identified attributes. The obtained results are useful in choosing the tools for compliance management in general and for open source solutions to develop new compliance management tools in particular.

Understanding of domain phenomena and their interrelations is necessary for successful software development. The knowledge frame system based on principles of Topological Functioning Modelling (TFM) can be used for this purpose at the Computation Independent level within Model Driven Development. Research on knowledge formats showed that inferring in the closed world paradigm and similarity to the object-oriented paradigm made frames an attractive candidate to the knowledge representation format. Frames can hold information necessary for generation of the TFM. The knowledge system based on the principles of the TFM does not allow inferring ambiguous facts and leads to the more complete discovery of knowledge.

The paper focuses on the real-world usage of IEEE 802.11 wireless network encryption and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) function. A brief history on the development of encryption methods and WPS is given. Wireless scanning of 802.11 networks in a capital city has been performed, and the results of it have been analysed. To ascertain the knowledge about the security of wireless networks of the average user, an online survey has been conducted. To test the security of encryption methods and WPS function, practical attacks against private test wireless networks have been made. The authors conclude that the safest way to set up 802.11 network with a pre-shared key is to use Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) encryption without support for WPS function. Statistics in Riga shows that networks are often configured otherwise and thus vulnerable to attacks. Survey results prove that respondents are not well informed regarding the security of wireless networks.

The general problem of wireless sensor network nodes is the low-power batteries that significantly limit the life expectancy of a network. Nowadays the technical solutions related to energy resource management are being rapidly developed and integrated into the daily lives of people. The energy resource management systems use sensor networks for receiving and processing information during the realia time. The present paper proposes using a coordinator role mobility method for controlling the routing processes for energy balancing in nodes, which provides dynamic network reconfiguration possibilities. The method is designed to operate fully in the background and can be integrated into any exiting working system.

Modern technologies have changed the landscape of teaching and learning in many ways, including introduction of computational support for knowledge assessment. Concept maps (CMs) can be used to externalise student’s internal knowledge structure in a form suitable for computer-aided assessment. Current CM-based knowledge assessment systems do not analyse semantics of CM elements. The paper represents a study designed to find out how big is the portion of a CM that is left unevaluated in default of semantic analysis.

In both Chinese and Dzongkha languages, the greatest challenge is to identify the word boundaries because there are no word delimiters as it is in English and other Western languages. Therefore, preprocessing and word segmentation is the first step in Dzongkha language processing, such as translation, spell-checking, and information retrieval. Research on Chinese word segmentation was conducted long time ago. Therefore, it is relatively mature, but the Dzongkha word segmentation has been less studied by researchers. In the paper, we have investigated this major problem in Dzongkha language processing using a probabilistic approach for selecting valid segments with probability being computed on the basis of the corpus.

The method for analysing transversal plane images from computer tomography scans is considered in the paper. This method allows not only approximating ribs-bounded contour but also evaluating patient rotation around the vertical axis during a scan. In this method, a mathematical model describing the ribs-bounded contour was created and the problem of approximation has been solved by finding the optimal parameters of the mathematical model using least-squares-type objective function. The local search has been per-formed using local descent by quasi-Newton methods. The benefits of analytical derivatives of the function are disclosed in the paper.

In order to develop and deliver a software project successfully, any software development organisation has to follow a well-known and recognised software engineering process for successful delivery and maintenance of the software. However, when the organisation is willing to follow a new software development process, the success rate of adopting a new software engineering process is a question mark. In the paper, we aim at studying and comparing two software engineering processes, which are based on different paradigms or models, and proposing a hybrid methodology, which integrates advantages of both compared methods. They are Microsoft Solutions Framework as a representative for an iterative methodology and SCRUM for agile software development. The comparative analysis will help a software development company to make the transition easier from Microsoft Solutions Framework to SCRUM or vice versa.

Nowadays requirements for training of qualified IT specialists constantly increase. These issues as well as possible solutions are discussed by both teachers and students on many seminars, forums and conferences. The paper studies different methods of students′ knowledge control and computer systems that are used at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology of Riga Technical University and demonstrates results of computer based students’ knowledge control use. Since 2005, two experiments have been held at the Department of Software Engineering in order to evaluate the efficiency of e-course application. The aim of the study is to determine how the use of e-courses for the control of knowledge affects the quality of education during the course studies given that students do not perform all the control activities. The results have shown that the highest examination results are achieved by the students who have completed all the control activities. It proves the influence of use of e-courses for knowledge control on quality of education.