Guest Editorial: Special Section: Trends in Software Engineering - Software Processes Improvement, Big Data and Security in Information and Communication Technologies

Software Engineering (SE) enables the establishment and use of robust engineering principles, to obtain high-quality software products and services that are economical, reliable, and efficient and meet the needs of the user. Therefore, SE has undoubtedly become an indispensable area for the development of products and services oriented in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) since they have become an engine that moves society in all its sectors. The objective of this section is to publish and overview trends in Software Engineering. This special section is based on the presentations at the 4th International Conference on Software Process Improvement (CIMPS) 2015.Thirteen papers have been selected from the Conference just after notifications of acceptance. Seven papers have been finally accepted for publication in this special section of ComSIS Journal. All selected papers followed the same standard (peer-reviewed by at least three independent reviewers). They have been selected based on their quality from CIMPS 2015 and their relation to the scope of this section.

In the paper entitled “MyPMP: A Plug-in for Implementing the Metamodeling Approach for Project Management in Small-sized Software Enterprises” Ivan Garcia et al., introduce the metamodeling approach in order to help project managers to define a process for managing a software project. The achieved results show an important reduction in project’s effort and time needed to develop a new software product.

Mirna Muñoz et al., in their paper “Actual State of the Coverage of Mexican Software Industry Requested Knowledge Regarding the Project Management Best Practices” present an analysis of the coverage between the Moprosoft norm, standard developed to be used for software industry to ensure quality in Software Engineering practices, and ten academic curricular programs of higher education related to Computer Science and Informatics. This paper gets an overview of the knowledge and skills that Computer Science students acquire at universities, regarding knowledge required in organizations that work under process models.

The paper entitled “Identifying Relevant Product Quality Characteristics in the Context of Very Small Organizations” Gabriel García-Mireles, attain insights into the extent to which the product quality view is addressed in very small organizations. To achieve this, a mapping method was therefore applied in order to identify whether the product quality characteristics described in ISO/IEC 25010 are included in the ISO/IEC 29110 basic profile, a process model targeted towards very small organizations.

In the paper entitled “Process and Project Alignment Methodology: A Case-Study based Analysis” Paula Ventura and Alberto Rodrigues, describe the ProPAM methodology. This methodology gives support to software processes in order to emerge and evolve collaboratively within an organization to avoid that processes that are unrelated to daily practices or that are hardly mapped to project practices, cause misalignments between processes and projects.

Ramiro Gonçalves et al., in their paper “Increasing the Reach of Enterprises through Electronic Commerce: A Focus Group Study Aimed at the Cases of Portugal and Spain” produce a set of strategic recommendations with regards to how to improve e-Commerce adoption levels in Iberian enterprises, essential in times of local hardship and market contraction. These suggestions include creating actions to influence governments to re-evaluate the legislation that regulates e-Commerce, making it more transparent; encouraging venture capitalists, banks and business angels to finance such e-Commerce endeavors.

The paper entitled “AthenaCloud: A Cloud-based Platform for Multi-device Educational Software Generation” Raquel Vásquez-Ramírez et al., present a cloud-based platform for multi-device educational software generation (smartphones, tablets, Web, Android-based TV boxes, and smart TV devices) called AthenaCloud. This platform will provide a software tool to help educators upload their electronic contents – or use existing contents in an open repository – and package them in the desired setup file for one of the supported devices and operating systems.

Finally, in the paper entitled “Simulation Software as a Tool for Supply Chain Analysis and Improvement” Cuauhtémoc Sánchez Ramírez et al., develop a simulation model to improve the performance of an automotive supply chain. Using sensitivity analysis, this paper finds the values that allow the supply chain to improve its order fulfillment indicator.

We thank to the program committee members for their support in selecting papers for this issue and especially the referees of the extended versions of the selected papers for their reviews in order to improve the extended versions.

The CIMPS is a global forum for researchers and practitioners that present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences and concerns in the several perspectives of Software Engineering. One of its main aims is to strengthen the drive towards a holistic symbiosis among academy, society, industry, government and business community promoting the creation of networks by disseminating the results of recent research in order to aligning their needs. CIMPS 2015 built on the successes of CIMPS 2012, CIMPS 2013, CIMPS 2014, which took place on Zacatecas, Zac, and CIMPS 2015, which took place on Mazatlán, Sinaloa, México, from 28th to 30th October 2015.

The CIMPS 2015 had the support of the CIMAT A.C. (Mathematics Research Center/Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas), FIMAZ (Faculty of Informatic/Facultad de Informática Mazatlán, México), AISTI (Iberian Association for Information Systems and Technologies/Associação Ibérica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informação), ROOKBIZ Solutions, México, ReCIBE (Revista electrónica de Computación, Informática, Biomédica y Electrónica) and ROPRIN (Optimization Network of Industrial Processes/Red de Optimización de Procesos Industriales).

We sincerely thank all the reviewers and authors for their contributions to this special section. Special thanks are given to Prof. Mirjana Ivanović, the EiC of ComSIS, for providing us the chance for publishing this special section and valuable comments and support in the whole process.

Guest Editors of Special Section

Jezreel Mejia
Mathematics Research Center, Unit Zacatecas, México

Mirna Muñoz
Mathematics Research Center, Unit Zacatecas, México

Alvaro Rocha
University of Coimbra, Portugal

Giner Alor-Hernández
Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, México