Implicaciones sobre el uso de guaduales como agroecosistema en la conservación de los monos aulladores en La Tebaida: El principal problema para las

In addition to the project management tools discussed in the previous sections and the CASE tools that will be briefly discussed in future chapters, there are software tools and technologies that help the software development process that are beginning to be put into common use. Since the rate of technology advancement and movement into the market- place is so rapid, we will be content with a brief overview of some important examples.

The most prominent force in changing the requirements process is, of course, the Internet and its resulting standards, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), various word processors, PostScript and Portable Display Format (PDF) files, jpeg (Joint Photographic Expert Group), and mpeg (Motion Picture Expert Group). Standard file formats, graphical browsers, and powerful search tools allow relatively easy access to information.

Think of the advantages of project coordination over the previous methods. Project documents filled multiple loose-leaf binders, which made some offices impossible to work in because of the sheer size and quantity of the paper documents. There were sets of docu- ments for each release of a software system, often making it impossible to store all of them. If a key member of a team was moved elsewhere within the software development organi- zation, many essential documents were lost. The situation was even worse if a key person left the organization.

One of the most explosive growth areas is in what are commonly called “intranets,” which are systems of computers that are networked together using Internet standards but are effectively cut off from the entire Internet. In this approach, the restricted portions of the Internet can communicate with one another using Internet standards but with relative confidence that their work stored on this intranet is secure from unwanted outside access to sensitive materials. Thus, organizations are able to conduct their business with little worry about the security of commercial application tools. However, ensuring complete isolation of company intranets from unprotected external networks is hard to enforce in reality.

One compromise I have run across is a two-level security process. A company allowed me access to a portal for initial access to specialized, confidential information, and then another process was required to obtain details of a specific set of projects using a secure depository called a workforce collaboration group. You may be familiar with a similar, but

not identical, process of authorization in the way that a bank might require a user of its online banking system to use a site key (which typically contains a graphical image for the user to examine to make sure that he or she has not gone erroneously to a spoofed website) before entering his or her password to obtain access to a bank account.

I should note that many intranets prohibit the use of wireless connections to their secure areas. This is because of the relatively greater security inherent in well-managed hard- wired connections and the tendency of many people, even computer professionals, to use insecure wireless networks, such as those in hotels and coffee shops. The tendency of many companies and organizations to allow, or even encourage, a “bring your own device” has additional security risks. Setting up a virtual private network (VPN) provides a strong level of security but requires a degree of effort and coordination on both ends of the com- munication, together with cooperation of network managers and, therefore, is not always done. Using encrypted email can also help.

When I lecture on identity theft, I mention the movie Ocean’s Eleven, because I person- ally know eleven people whose email accounts have been hacked when they were using “free” Wi-Fi accounts in hotels or coffee shops. Free Wi-Fi is not free if you have to pay for it later in terms of reinstalling all the applications and data on your computer. The Wi-Fi really is not free if using it means that critical confidential data belonging to either you or your organization has been compromised.

As indicated earlier, it has now become commonplace to have requirements documents and project schedules placed on an organization’s internal network, in cloud storage, and occasionally on the open Internet itself. Several persons can work on portions of the same document at the same time, sharing it with all others who need access. The inspections of the requirements and design should be based on written documents and the inspections should be conducted as usual, without regard to the documents being available on the Internet.

Of course, there are some problems associated with the use of electronic files. These problems can be reduced, if not eliminated entirely, by using the following guidelines:

• Determine the standard format to be used for storage of graphical files. • Make sure that the format is compatible with the browser to be used.

• Determine a mechanism for providing feedback about deficiencies in online docu ments.

• In particular, determine if both paper and electronic versions of documents will be required.

• Make sure that the online documents are subject to configuration management and revision control. This can be done by having different directories for each iteration of requirements and design documents.

• Standard text-based configuration management tools should be used for both source code and textual requirements documents.

• Provide easy feedback by means of the mailto facility of HTML. This makes com- munication much easier.

• Use reviews and inspections as they would be used in a software project that was developed without the use of the Internet.

• Use email to coordinate meetings and to notify members of the project team that documents have been changed.

• Determine if chat rooms will be employed for project management.

• Use wikis for concurrent access to documents by multiple users if appropriate. (We briefly discuss wikis in Section 2.9.)

As with many things in software engineering, it is difficult to quantify the effect of cer- tain technologies or techniques. However, preliminary indications are that the improve- ments in efficiency are enormous. In any event, an organization that is not using networks to assist in project management is generally perceived as being technologically obsolete.

As an indication of the perceived efficiency of Internet and intranet publishing, many new software development projects at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center post all requirements documents, designs, minutes of project meetings, project schedules, and major action items on the Internet for easy access by project personnel. This reduces the clutter in many offices, where entire shelves of bookcases were used previously for storage of large loose-leaf notebooks that contained project documentation. In addition, few docu- ments are lost. Mandl (1998) describe some of the positive effects of using the Internet to reduce the number of project meetings.