Browsing by study line "Ohjelmistot"

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is one of the key components for shortening the software development cycle and enabling DevOps culture in software development teams. While the concept was introduced to the wider audience in the mid-2000s, alongside DevOps, the adoption of Public Cloud and declarative domain-specific IaC -languages has made it an integral part of software development. In this thesis, we describe the IaC as a concept and examine its history, tools, and the state of the current research. We examine Infrastructure Systems and Infrastructure Stacks as concepts for describing IaC, and different patterns for re-usable modules. We then introduce Microsoft Azure as a Public Cloud Provider, its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) -resources, and infrastructure deployment mechanics, focusing on Azure Resource Manager templates and Bicep domain-specific language. As a case example, we go through a real-life project for creating re-usable Azure Bicep modules, examine how its architecture evolved during the project and architectural decisions made in different parts of the project. We introduce Common Azure Resource Module Library as a reference architecture for modular Azure Bicep code, present an architecture based on a façade module pattern and perform an Architectural Trade-off Analysis (ATAM) to find tradeoffs, architecture sensitivity points and risks.

Manual creation of game content is often the most expensive and time-consuming part of game development. Procedural content generation offers an alternative solution, automatically generating game content with the help of algorithms. This can decrease the cost and effort of content creation inaddition to offering other benefits such as increasing the game’s replayability. This thesis investigates the current state of procedural content generation and how it is utilized in game development. A major part the thesis is investigating state-of-art open-source software that can be used for automatic generation of game content. We evaluate the usefulness and practicality of utilizing these tools in game development.

A dynamically evolving nature of software development (SWD) necessitates an emphasis on lifelong learning (LLL) for professionals in this field. In today’s rapidly changing technology domain LLL has transitioned from an exceptional practice to an essential norm, recognized as a fundamental skill within the industry. This thesis investigates a current state, trends, challenges, and best practices of lifelong learning in SWD workplaces. Our research draws on a review of literature spanning the past two decades, complemented by semi-structured interviews conducted with software professionals of diverse experience levels, all employed in the capital region of Finland. Additionally, this thesis contributes to an existing classification of learning methods utilized by software professionals and to a lifelong learning framework grounded in established research. Our findings underscore the importance of fostering a culture of continuous learning in software development workplaces, offering recommendations for employers to consider. Nurturing a learning mindset and personalized, employee-centered approach to learning increases learner autonomy and commitment, seamlessly integrating learning as a natural part of work and career development. Such a workplace culture enhances employee well-being and employer’s innovativeness and competitiveness, establishing lifelong learning as a mutually beneficial solution for both of the parties involved.

Wide range of psychological distress risk factors in older adults have been identified, however there is room for improvement in the comprehension of population-level disparity among risk factors for subgroups. Understanding risk factor variance would help public health professionals recognise the diversity of at-risk populations and arrive at more effective health policy. Older adults have unique risk factor profiles for psychological distress since they experience more frequently neurological disorders, diminished physical capabilities and insomnia along with adverse life events like bereavement and socio-economic changes. In this thesis, an approach combining computational statistics with methods of observational epidemiology were used with Helsinki Health Study cohort of City of Helsinki municipal workers to analyse novel risk factor disparities and evaluate the suitability of model-based recursive partitioning method. The method combines decision trees with generalised linear models to identify subgroups with the most significant disparity among risk factors. The risk factors investigated for psychological distress in older adults included sleep disturbance, history of depression, childhood adversities and lack of social support. Sleep disturbance showed relatively low disparity, while social support and childhood adversities showed more disparity across subgroups. Model-based recursive partitioning offers promising modelling technique for exploratory subgroup analysis with focus on interaction effects and model interpretability.

In this thesis, software industry testing standards were reviewed to help improve NAPCON Display Viewer 5 (DV5) test coverage. DV5 is the graphical user interface part of the NAPCON Operator Training Simulator (OTS) and has a large existing codebase with no existing testing procedures. To help improve build stability a shallow and wide smoke testing approach would be adopted to cover as much core functionality as possible, before more rigorous end-to-end testing could be implemented. The thesis study was conducted using the design science methodology. As part of this thesis, a smoke testing tool was created to test DV5 display and faceplate opening functionality. DV5 simulator configurations can consist of up to several hundreds of displays and display construction requires a lot of manual work. Using the created tool, tests were conducted in several display repositories to determine the functionality of the display sets. With only shallow automated testing, minor errors were found in most of the tested repositories, demonstrating the usefulness of automated testing with large display sets. In addition to the display testing results the display testing execution helped demonstrate some of the DV5 performance issues. Based on these findings, the smoke testing scenarios could prove useful in the future in DV5 performance testing.

Terveysteknologisten ohjelmistojen ja hyvinvoinnin ja terveyden sovellusten määrä on kasvanut viime vuosina. Osa ohjelmistoista luokitellaan lääkinnällisiksi ohjelmistoiksi, joille on asetettu lainsäädännössä rajoituksia ja vaatimuksia. Terveysteknologisen alan tuotteita sitova sääntely vaikuttaa myös lääkinnällisten ohjelmistojen kehitykseen. Yksi terveys- ja hyvinvointialan ohjelmistokehityksen haasteista on ketterien ohjelmistokehitysmenetelmien soveltaminen tehokkaasti. Tutkielman tavoitteena on tutkia, miten terveysteknologisen ohjelmiston ja sen kehittämistyön pystyy yhdistämään ketteriin ohjelmistokehitysmenetelmiin. Tutkimusmenetelmänä on systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus. Kirjallisuusaineisto muodostettiin 30 tutkimuksesta. Tutkielman tuloksina kirjallisuudesta selvitetään lääkinnällisten ohjelmistojen ja ketterän ohjelmistokehityksen yhdistämisessä ilmenneitä haasteita ja erilaisia yhdistämisen tapoja. Lisäksi selvitetään ohjelmistokehittäjiltä vaadittavia taitoja lääkinnällisten ohjelmistojen ketterässä kehityksessä.

Implementing software process improvement (SPI) models or standards can be challenging for a small organization due to their limited resources compared to larger companies. The ISO/IEC 29110 series of systems and engineering standards were designed especially for very small entities (VSEs), i.e. for organizations having up to 25 employees. Company X is a small Finnish software company following a Scrum workflow. At Company X, challenges have been identified in the software testing process. Because of the company’s size, ISO/IEC 29110 out of different SPI standards was identified as a potential fit for improving this process. While the ISO/IEC 29110 standard can be applied to any software life cycle method, including agile, there is no formal guide on how to implement the standard in an agile environment. The aims of this thesis are two-fold: first, to investigate how Scrum corresponds with the standard, and second, to use the standard to identify weak points in Company X’s current software testing process and to identify action points to address them. The mappings between Scrum and the standard were investigated by carrying out a systematic literature review (SLR). A self-assessment and a software testing deployment package provided with the standard were used to assess the current testing process and to identify shortcomings in it. The shortcomings were analyzed and action points feasible in Company X’s context were suggested. The improved process containing the suggested action points was then re-assessed. The SLR yielded only a handful of papers, indicating that the topic of implementing ISO/IEC 29110 into an agile lifecycle in practice is relatively unexplored. The three papers together provided mappings for all three aspects of the standard vs. their counterparts in Scrum: activities, roles, and work products. The baseline assessment of Company X’s current process yielded a score of achieved ‘Partially’ (46,5 %). A set of seven shortcomings were identified in the assessment process and nine action points were suggested to address them. Assessing the improved process improved the score to implemented ‘Fully’ (97 %).

Verkkosivuston saavutettavuudella tarkoitetaan kaikenlaisten käyttäjien huomioonottamista digitaalisissa palveluissa. Saavutettavuus on herättänyt entistä enemmän keskustelua ja siihen kiinnitetään yhä paremmin huomiota verkkosivustojen kehittämisessä. Saavutettavuus edistää yhdenvertaisuutta ja siitä on nykyään säädetty laissa. Tämän maisterintutkielman tavoitteena on lisätä tietoutta saavutettavuudesta ja sen arviointimenetelmistä. Automaattisten arviointityökalujen tarjonnan ollessa hyvin laajaa on tärkeää löytää omaan käyttötarkoitukseen sopivat menetelmät. Tässä tutkielmassa selvitettiin, millaisia eroja työkaluista löytyy omien kokeilujen ja kirjallisuuden perusteella, ja miten työkalujen tulokset eroavat saavutettavuuden asiantuntijan arviosta. Tutkielmassa perehdyttiin kolmen ilmaistyökalun arvioon ja teetettiin yksi asiantuntijan saavutettavuusarvio. Arviot suoritettiin Sanakirja.fi-sivustolle. Tulosten perusteella luotiin kehitystiimille ehdotelma sopivista menetelmistä tukemaan sivuston saavutettavuuden arviointia. Osaksi palvelun kehitysprosessia suositellaan kahta automaattityökalua toisiaan täydentämään ja listaa tarvittavista manuaalisista tarkistuksista.

ICT-sektorin edellyttämän sähköenergiantuotannon aiheuttamat kasvihuonepäästöt ovat kasvaneet lentoliikenteen kasvihuonepäästöjen suuruisiksi. Tähän on kuitenkin mahdollista vaikuttaa tekemällä energiankulutustietoisia valintoja ohjelmistokehityksessä, josta tänä päivänä osa kohdistuu verkkoselaimissa suoritettavien verkkosovellusten kehitykseen, jossa apuna käytetään erilaisia verkkosovelluskehyksiä. Tässä tutkielmassa vertaillaan käytetyimpien JavaScript-verkkosovelluskehysten: React, Angular ja Vue, energiankulutusta uuteen Blazor WebAssembly -verkkosovelluskehykseen, joka perustuu WebAssemblyyn, jonka JavaScriptiä pienemmästä energiankulutuksesta ja paremmasta suorituskyvystä on jo tutkimusnäyttöä. Tutkielmassa toteutetaan valituilla verkkosovelluskehyksillä vertailukelpoiset testiverkkosovellukset, joiden suoritusaikaista energiankulutusta, tehonkäyttöä ja suoritusaikaa mitataan Intel Power Gadget -mittausohjelmistolla. Mittaustulosten perusteella todetaan, että Blazor WebAssembly ei ole energiankulutukseltaan JavaScript-verkkosovelluskehyksiä pienempi, vaan sijoittuu tarkasteltujen JavaScript-verkkosovelluskehysten väliin. Tutkielma rajoittui tarkastelemaan verkkosovelluskehysten toiminnoista tilanhallintaa ja muutosten havaitsemista. Intel Power Gadget -mittausohjelmisto osoittautui helppokäyttöiseksi, tarkaksi ja automatisoitavaksi mittaustavaksi, jota voidaan suositella käytettäväksi tämän tutkielman kokemusten perusteella vastaavissa mittauksissa. Lisäksi kestävän ohjelmistokehityksen näkökulmasta tutkielman tuloksista voidaan oppia, että verkkosovelluskehyksen valinnalla voidaan vaikuttaa verkkosovelluksen suoritusaikaiseen energiankulutukseen verkkosovelluskehyksen vastuualueella jopa 43%:a, mutta sen vaikutusta koko verkkosovelluksen suoritusaikaiseen energiankulutukseen ei tutkielman tulosten perusteella voida arvioida.