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Application update at run-time remains a challenging issue in software engineering. There are many techniques with different evaluation metrics, resulting in different behaviours in the application being updated. In this paper, we provide an extensive review of research work on dynamic software updating. A framework for the evaluation of dynamic updating features is developed, and the articles are categorized and discussed based on the provided framework. Areas of online software maintenance requiring further research are also identified and highlighted. This information is deemed to not only assist practitioners in selecting appropriate dynamic updating techniques for their systems, but... 

The increase in complexity and rate of technological changes in modern software development has led to a demand for systematic methods that raise the abstraction level for system maintenance and regression testing. Model-driven development (MDD) has promised to reduce extra coding efforts in software maintenance activities using traceable change management. The research described in this paper presents a Z-notation-based framework, called delta-based regression testing (DbRT), for formal modeling of regression testing in the context of MDD. The framework proposes to propagate the changes from a software specification to testing artifacts in order to preserve consistency after system... 

This paper introduces a new framework included mathematical model and a new software package interfacing two powerful softwares (MATLAB and GAMS) for obtaining the optimal distributed generation (DG) capacity sizing and sitting investments with capability to simulate large distribution system planning. The proposed optimization model allows minimizing total system planning costs for DG investment, DG operation and maintenance, purchase of power by the distribution companies (DISCOs) from transmission companies (TRANSCOs) and system power losses. The proposed model provides not only the DG size and site but also the new market price as well. Three different cases depending on system... 

Service-Oriented Software Engineering is based on concepts and principles for constructing complex enterprise systems in which services as building block of the system, are distributed in large networks. The main goal of the service-oriented methodologies is to define a process for development and maintenance of service-based systems. Most of the Service-Oriented methodologies are not mature enough compared with traditional software development methodologies such as Object-Oriented or Component-Based. Hence, defining an evaluation framework will be useful for comparing methodologies for identifying their strengths and weaknesses, defining new methodologies or extending existing... 

Due to the enlargement and complexity of software systems and the need for maintenance and update, success of systems depends strongly on their architecture. Software architecture has been a key element in software development process in two past decades. Therefore, choosing the correct architecture is a critical issue in software engineering domain, with respect to the extremely extension of architecturedriven designs. Moreover, software architecture selection is a multi-criteria decision-making problem in which different goals and objectives should be considered. In this paper, a Decision Support System (DSS) has been designed which provides software architects with more precise and... 

Complexity of the software development process is often increased by actuality of crosscutting concerns in software requirements; moreover, Software security as a particular non-functional requirement of software systems is often addressed late in the software development process. Modeling and analyzing of these concerns and especially security in the software architecture facilitate detecting architectural vulnerabilities, decrease costs of the software maintenance, and reduce finding tangled and complex components in the ultimate design. Aspect oriented ADLs have emerged to overcome this problem; however, imposing radical changes to existing architectural modeling methods is not easily... 

Software repositories such as GitHub host a large number of software entities. Developers collaboratively discuss, implement, use, and share these entities. Proper documentation plays an important role in successful software management and maintenance. Users exploit Issue Tracking Systems, a facility of software repositories, to keep track of issue reports, to manage the workload and processes, and finally, to document the highlight of their team’s effort. An issue report is a rich source of collaboratively-curated software knowledge, and can contain a reported problem, a request for new features, or merely a question about the software product. As the number of these issues increases, it...