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While Virtual Reality (VR) has been applied to various domains to provide new visualization and interaction capabilities, enabling programmers to utilize VR for their software development and maintenance tasks has been insufficiently explored. In this paper, we present the Hyper-Display Environment (HyDE) in the form of a mixed-reality (HyDE-MR) or virtual reality (HyDE-VR) variant respectively, which provides simultaneous multiple operating system window visualization with integrated keyboard/mouse viewing and interaction using MR or in pure VR via a virtual keyboard. This paper applies HyDE in a software development case study as an alternative to typical non-VR Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), supporting software engineering tasks with multiple live screens in VR as an augmented virtuality. The MR solution concept enables programmers to benefit from VR visualization and virtually unlimited information displays while supporting their more natural keyboard interaction for basic code-centric tasks. Thus, developers can leverage VR paradigms and capabilities while directly interacting with their favorite tools to develop and maintain program code. A prototype implementation is described, with a case study demonstrating its feasibility and an initial empirical study showing its potential.
VR-EDStream+EDA
(2023)
With increasing digitalization, the importance of data and events, which comprise its most fundamental level, cannot be overemphasized. All types of organizations, including enterprises, business, government, manufacturing, and the supporting IT, are dependent on these fundamental building blocks. Thus, evidence-based comprehension and analysis of the underlying data and events, their stream processing, and correlation with enterprise events and activities becomes vital for an increasing set of (grassroot or citizen) stakeholders. Thus, further investigation of accessible alternatives to visually support analysis of data and events is needed. This paper contributes VR-EDStream+EDA, a solution for immersively visualizing and interacting with data and event streams or pipelines and generically visualizing Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) in Virtual Reality (VR). Our realization shows its feasibility, and a case-based evaluation provides insights into its capabilities.
The increasing demand for software functionality necessitates an increasing amount of program source code that is retained and managed in version control systems, such as Git. As the number, size, and complexity of Git repositories increases, so does the number of collaborating developers, maintainers, and other stakeholders over a repository’s lifetime. In particular, visual limitations of Git tooling hampers repository comprehension, analysis, and collaboration across one or multiple repositories with a larger stakeholder spectrum. This paper contributes VR-Git, a Virtual Reality (VR) solution concept for visualizing and interacting with Git repositories in VR. Our prototype realization shows its feasibility, and our evaluation results based on a case study show its support for repository comprehension, analysis, and collaboration via branch, commit, and multi-repository scenarios.
VR-GitCity
(2023)
The increasing demand for software functionality necessitates an increasing amount of program source code that is retained and managed in version control systems, such as Git. As the number, size, and complexity of Git repositories increases, so does the number of collaborating developers, maintainers, and other stakeholders over a repository’s lifetime. In particular, visual limitations of command line or two- dimensional graphical Git tooling can hamper repository comprehension, analysis, and collaboration across one or multiple repositories when a larger stakeholder spectrum is involved. This is especially true for depicting repository evolution over time. This paper contributes VR-GitCity, a Virtual Reality (VR) solution concept for visualizing and interacting with Git repositories in VR. The evolution of the code base is depicted via a 3D treemap utilizing a city metaphor, while the commit history is visualized as vertical planes. Our prototype realization shows its feasibility, and our evaluation results based on a case study show its depiction, comprehension, analysis, and collaboration capabilities for evolution, branch, commit, and multi-repository analysis scenarios.
Repeatable processes are fundamental for describing how enterprises and organizations operate, for production, for Industry 4.0, etc. As digitalization and automation progresses across all organizations and industries, including enterprises, business, government, manufacturing, and IT, evidence-based comprehension and analysis of the processes involved, including their variations, anomalies, and performance, becomes vital for an increasing set of stakeholders. Process Mining (PM) relies on logs or processes (as such evidence-based) to provide process-centric analysis data, yet insights are not necessarily visually accessible for a larger set of stakeholders (who may not be process or data analysts). Towards addressing certain challenges described in the Process Mining Manifesto, this paper contributes VR-ProcessMine, a solution for visualizing and interacting with PM results in Virtual Reality (VR). Our realization shows its feasibility, and a case-based evaluation provides insights into its capabilities.
VR-SysML+Traceability
(2023)
As systems grow in complexity, the interdisciplinary nature of systems engineering makes the visualization and comprehension of the underlying system models challenging for the various stakeholders. This, in turn, can affect validation and realization correctness. Furthermore, stakeholder collaboration is often hindered due to the lack of a common medium to access and convey these models, which are often partitioned across multiple 2D diagrams. This paper contributes VR-SysML, a solution concept for visualizing and interacting with Systems Modeling Language (SysML) models in Virtual Reality (VR). Our prototype realization shows its feasibility, and our evaluation results based on a case study shows its support for the various SysML diagram types in VR, cross-diagram element recognition via our Backplane Followers concept, and depicting further related (SysML and non-SysML) models side-by-side in VR.
As systems grow in complexity, the interdisciplinary nature of systems engineering makes the visualization and comprehension of the underlying system models challenging for the various stakeholders. This, in turn, can affect validation and realization correctness. Furthermore, stakeholder collaboration is often hindered due to the lack of a common medium to access and convey these models, which are often partitioned across multiple 2D diagrams. This paper contributes VR-SysML, a solution concept for visualizing and interacting with SysML models in Virtual Reality (VR). Our prototype realization shows its feasibility, and our evaluation results based on a case study shows its support for the various SysML diagram types in VR, cross-diagram element recognition via our backplane followers concept, and depicting further related (SysML and non-SysML) models side-by-side in VR.
With the increasing pressure to deliver additional software functionality, software engineers and developers are often confronted with the dilemma of sufficient software testing. One aspect to avoid is test redundancy, and measuring test (or code or statement) coverage can help focus test development on those areas that are not yet sufficiently tested. As software projects grow, it can be difficult to visualize both the software product and the software testing area and their dependencies. This paper contributes VR-TestCoverage, a Virtual Reality (VR) solution concept for visualizing and interacting with test coverage, test results, and test dependency data in VR. Our VR implementation shows its feasibility. The evaluation results based on a case study show its support for three testing-related scenarios.
VR-V&V
(2023)
To build quality into a software (SW) system necessitates supporting quality-related lifecycle activities during the software development. In software engineering, software Verification and Validation (V&V) processes constitute an inherent part of Software Quality Assurance (SQA) processes. A subset of the V&V activities involved are: 1) bidirectional traceability analysis of requirements to design model elements, and 2) software testing. Yet the complex nature of large SW systems and the dependencies involved in both design models and testing present a challenge to current V&V tools and methods regarding support for trace analysis. One of software’s essential challenges remains its invisibility, which also affects V&V activities. This paper contributes VR-V&V, a Virtual Reality (VR) solution concept towards supporting immersive V&V activities. By visualizing requirements, models, and testing artifacts with dependencies and trace relations immersively, they are intuitively accessible to a larger stakeholder audience such as SQA personnel while supporting digital cognition. Our prototype realization shows the feasibility of supporting immersive bidirectional traceability as well as immersive software test coverage and analysis. The evaluation results are based on a case study demonstrating its capabilities, in particular traceability support was performed with ReqIF, ArchiMate models, test results, test coverage, and test source to test target dependencies.