生物医学开源软件项目中的质量保证实践调查。

A survey of quality assurance practices in biomedical open source software projects.

作者信息

Koru Günes, El Emam Khaled, Neisa Angelica, Umarji Medha

机构信息

Department of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.

出版信息

J Med Internet Res. 2007 May 7;9(2):e8. doi: 10.2196/jmir.9.2.e8.

DOI:10.2196/jmir.9.2.e8

PMID:17513286

原文链接:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1874720/

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Open source (OS) software is continuously gaining recognition and use in the biomedical domain, for example, in health informatics and bioinformatics.

OBJECTIVES

Given the mission critical nature of applications in this domain and their potential impact on patient safety, it is important to understand to what degree and how effectively biomedical OS developers perform standard quality assurance (QA) activities such as peer reviews and testing. This would allow the users of biomedical OS software to better understand the quality risks, if any, and the developers to identify process improvement opportunities to produce higher quality software.

METHODS

A survey of developers working on biomedical OS projects was conducted to examine the QA activities that are performed. We took a descriptive approach to summarize the implementation of QA activities and then examined some of the factors that may be related to the implementation of such practices.

RESULTS

Our descriptive results show that 63% (95% CI, 54-72) of projects did not include peer reviews in their development process, while 82% (95% CI, 75-89) did include testing. Approximately 74% (95% CI, 67-81) of developers did not have a background in computing, 80% (95% CI, 74-87) were paid for their contributions to the project, and 52% (95% CI, 43-60) had PhDs. A multivariate logistic regression model to predict the implementation of peer reviews was not significant (likelihood ratio test = 16.86, 9 df, P = .051) and neither was a model to predict the implementation of testing (likelihood ratio test = 3.34, 9 df, P = .95).

CONCLUSIONS

Less attention is paid to peer review than testing. However, the former is a complementary, and necessary, QA practice rather than an alternative. Therefore, one can argue that there are quality risks, at least at this point in time, in transitioning biomedical OS software into any critical settings that may have operational, financial, or safety implications. Developers of biomedical OS applications should invest more effort in implementing systemic peer review practices throughout the development and maintenance processes.

摘要

背景

开源（OS）软件在生物医学领域的认可度和使用量不断提高，例如在健康信息学和生物信息学中。

目的

鉴于该领域应用程序的任务关键性质及其对患者安全的潜在影响，了解生物医学开源软件开发人员在何种程度上以及如何有效地执行诸如同行评审和测试等标准质量保证（QA）活动非常重要。这将使生物医学开源软件的用户能够更好地理解质量风险（如果有的话），并使开发人员能够识别流程改进机会以生产更高质量的软件。

方法

对从事生物医学开源项目的开发人员进行了一项调查，以检查所执行的QA活动。我们采用描述性方法来总结QA活动的实施情况，然后研究一些可能与这些实践的实施相关的因素。

结果

我们的描述性结果表明，63%（95%置信区间，54 - 72）的项目在其开发过程中未包括同行评审，而82%（95%置信区间，75 - 89）的项目包括测试。大约74%（95%置信区间，67 - 81）的开发人员没有计算机背景，80%（95%置信区间，74 - 87）因对项目的贡献而获得报酬，52%（95%置信区间，43 - 60）拥有博士学位。预测同行评审实施情况的多变量逻辑回归模型不显著（似然比检验 = 16.86，9自由度，P = 0.051），预测测试实施情况的模型也不显著（似然比检验 = 3.34，9自由度，P = 0.95）。