Master of Science in Software Engineering September 2019 WebAssembly for Video Analysis An Explorative Multi-method study Sainath Kaluva and Abdullah Hossain Faculty of Computing, Blekinge Institute of Technology, 371 79 Karlskrona, Sweden This thesis is submitted to the Faculty of Computing at Blekinge Institute of Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Software Engineering. The thesis is equivalent to 20 weeks of full time studies. The authors declare that they are the sole authors of this thesis and that they have not used any sources other than those listed in the bibliography and identified as references. They further declare that they have not submitted this thesis at any other institution to obtain a degree. Contact Information: Author(s): Lakshmi Venkata Sainath Kaluva [email protected] Abdullah Hossain [email protected] Industry advisor: Rikard Tegnander Axis Communications AB University advisor: Javier Gonzalez Huerta Department of Software Engineering Faculty of Computing Internet : www.bth.se Blekinge Institute of Technology Phone : +46 455 38 50 00 SE-371 79 Karlskrona, Sweden Fax : +46 455 38 50 57 ii ABSTRACT Context: WebAssembly(wasm) language has gained popularity across the web-development domain for its niche characterises that differentiate from JavaScript. Several non-web developers are also showing interest in this technology to run their native applications on web platform. However, it is challenging for practitioners to identify whether this technology fits with their needs and processes. There is a lack of research that helps practitioners make this choice. Objective: Our study aims to determine the potential for adopting wasm in industry by analysing the existing knowledge on wasm with the knowledge of development practices in video analysis domain. Method: We conducted case study and SLR using snowballing and interviews. The obtained data is coded using Thematic analysis. A classification schema is modelled after UTAUT for presenting the factors that determine adoptability in the given context. Results: 16 potential factors are found that determine the adoption of wasm in the video analysis. We have also reported the current state of research on wasm and analysed the practitioner’s view points on the wasm. Conclusion: Our study provides the first systematic study on state-of-the-art Wasm literature. It can help the Software Engineering researchers to understand the current state of research on wasm and providing directions to future studies. Our study helps the practitioners in decision-making of adopting wasm. This study serves as a road map for both researchers and practitioners to understand the pre- adoption perspective on WebAssembly. Keywords: WebAssembly, Video analytics, Image processing, Technology Adoption, Case study iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, we thank our university supervisor Prof. Javier Gonzalez Huerta for his immense support, motivation, and mentorship. His perseverance and resilience have guided us towards the completion of our thesis. He is always flexible with his schedules and accompanying our problems whenever required. We reserve deep gratitude for his efforts. We thank our Industry supervisor, Rikard Tegnander for his constant support and being accommodating to all our questions and enquiries. We immensely thank him for all his time and effort towards the thesis work. We thank Steven Vancouille for the initial guidance and research help. We thank Nina Steneram and Erik D Nilsson for their support and integration during our time at Axis. We are grateful to each, and every interview participant for their invaluable insights into the topic. Without their support, we could not imagine the final output. We thank all examiners for their valuable comments that helped in the construction of the thesis. We thank all our lecturers at BTH for contributing to our personal and professional growth. We thank all researchers who worked towards the exploratory research in Software Engineering field, whose work helped us to base our research upon. Special thanks to Prudhvi Kanumuri, Ashish Kunche and Akhilesh Nimmakayala for their support. Finally, we are immensely indebted to our family and friends who have been eternally caring, supportive, and encouraging in our lives. This accomplishment is not even possible without their love. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................................................. IV CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................................... V 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 3 2 RELATED WORK ...................................................................................................................................... 6 3 METHOD ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 3.1 SELECTION OF RESEARCH METHOD ....................................................................................................... 8 3.1.1 Theoretical Stance ........................................................................................................................... 11 3.1.2 Multi-Method Triangulation ........................................................................................................... 11 3.1.3 Process-based Theory vs Variance-based Theory ........................................................................... 11 3.2 SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW DESIGN ......................................................................................... 11 3.2.1 Literature Search ............................................................................................................................ 12 3.2.2 Data Extraction ............................................................................................................................... 15 3.2.3 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 16 3.3 CASE STUDY ........................................................................................................................................ 16 3.3.1 Case Description ............................................................................................................................. 16 3.3.2 Objectives of Interviews .................................................................................................................. 17 3.3.3 Selection of Interview Subjects ........................................................................................................ 17 3.3.4 Interview Specification .................................................................................................................... 17 3.4 DATA ANALYSIS (THEORETICAL MODEL CREATION) .......................................................................... 19 3.4.1 Chain of evidence and Coding strategy........................................................................................... 21 4 METHOD EXECUTION ........................................................................................................................... 23 4.1 SLR METHOD EXECUTION ................................................................................................................... 23 4.1.1 Finalised Start set ........................................................................................................................... 23 4.1.2 Iteration 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 24 4.1.3 Iteration 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 25 4.2 CASE STUDY EXECUTION ..................................................................................................................... 25 4.2.1 Sample size and Demographics ....................................................................................................... 25 4.2.2 Transcription of Data and Coding .................................................................................................. 26 4.3 DATA ANALYSIS EXECUTION ............................................................................................................... 27 4.3.1 Data Statements and Codes ............................................................................................................. 27 4.3.2 Fitting codes into themes ................................................................................................................. 28 5 RESULTS .................................................................................................................................................... 30 5.1 OVERVIEW OF RESULTS ....................................................................................................................... 30 5.2 SUB THEMES (UTAUT MODEL) ..........................................................................................................