Abstract
To ensure interoperability and the correct behavior of heterogeneous distributed systems in key scenarios, it is important to conduct automated integration tests, based on distributed test components (called local testers) that are deployed close to the system components to simulate inputs from the environment and monitor the interactions with the environment and other system components. We say that a distributed test scenario is locally controllable and locally observable if test inputs can be decided locally and conformance errors can be detected locally by the local testers, without the need for exchanging coordination messages between the test components during test execution (which may reduce the responsiveness and fault detection capability of the test harness). DCO Analyzer is the first tool that checks if distributed test scenarios specified by means of UML sequence diagrams exhibit those properties, and automatically determines a minimum number of coordination messages to enforce them. The demo video for DCO Analyzer can be found at https://youtu.be/LVIusK36_bs.

Abstract
Over the past decades, software engineering has reached a level of maturity which entails great challenges in its education. Universities must prepare students to real-life challenges by offering courses to aid students in developing several vital skills which go beyond hard skills (e.g., communication skills and self-management). At the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, a pioneering course, dubbed Project Management Laboratory, offers the proper environment for students to develop such skills by inviting industry to be closely involved in the education of the students. This course integrates practice and theory in a setting close to what the students will face when they move into industry. This paper reports on the experience, results, and benefits of this innovative course.

Abstract

Abstract
Cloud computing has been playing a significant role in the provisioning of services over the Internet since its birth. However, developers still face several challenges limiting its full potential. The difficulties are mostly due to the large, ever-growing, and ever-changing catalog of services offered by cloud providers. As a consequence, developers must deal with different cloud services in their systems; each managed almost individually and continually growing in complexity. This heterogeneity may limit the view developers have over their system architectures and make the task of managing these resources more complex. This work explores the use of liveness as a way to shorten the feedback loop between developers and their systems in an interactive and immersive way, as they develop and integrate cloud-based systems. The designed approach allows real-time visualization of cloud infrastructures using a visual city metaphor. To assert the viability of this approach, the authors conceived a proof-of-concept and carried on experiments with developers to assess its feasibility.

Abstract
Successful software systems tend to grow considerably, ending up suffering from essential complexity, and very hard to understand as a whole. Software visualization techniques have been explored as one approach to ease software understanding. This work presents a novel approach and environment for software development that explores the use of liveness and virtual reality (VR) as a way to shorten the feedback loop between developers and their software systems in an interactive and immersive way. As a proof-of-concept, the authors developed a prototype that uses a visual city metaphor and allows developers to visit and dive into the system, in a live way. To assess the usability and viability of the approach, the authors carried on experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach, and how to best support a live approach for software development.

Abstract