Software Engineering for IoT-Driven Data Analytics Applications

TL;DR

This paper presents a systematic framework for evaluating and improving software engineering processes in IoT-driven data analytics applications, demonstrated through a healthcare case study.

Contribution

It develops an evaluation framework and applies it to analyze SE processes for IoT-DA, addressing a gap in systematic engineering approaches for these applications.

Findings

Identified key challenges in IoT-DA software engineering

Provided a set of best practices for IoT-DA development

Demonstrated the framework on a healthcare IoT-DA case study

Abstract

Internet of Things Driven Data Analytics (IoT-DA) has the potential to excel data-driven operationalisation of smart environments. However, limited research exists on how IoT-DA applications are designed, implemented, operationalised, and evolved in the context of software and system engineering life-cycle. This article empirically derives a framework that could be used to systematically investigate the role of software engineering (SE) processes and their underlying practices to engineer IoT-DA applications. First, using existing frameworks and taxonomies, we develop an evaluation framework to evaluate software processes, methods, and other artefacts of SE for IoT-DA. Secondly, we perform a systematic mapping study to qualitatively select 16 processes (from academic research and industrial solutions) of SE for IoT-DA. Thirdly, we apply our developed evaluation framework based on 17 distinct criterion (a.k.a. process activities) for fine-grained investigation of each of the 16 SE processes. Fourthly, we apply our proposed framework on a case study to demonstrate development of an IoT-DA healthcare application. Finally, we highlight key challenges, recommended practices, and the lessons learnt based on framework's support for process-centric software engineering of IoT-DA. The results of this research can facilitate researchers and practitioners to engineer emerging and next-generation of IoT-DA software applications.