Micro-Hydropower in Nepal:Analysing the Project Process to Understand Drivers that Strengthen and Weaken Sustainability

Evaluating the sustainable operation of community-owned and community-operated renewable energy projects is complex. The development of a project often depends on the actions of diverse stakeholders, including the government, industry and communities. Throughout the project cycle, these interrelated actions impact the sustainability of the project. In this paper, the typical project cycle of a micro-hydropower plant in Nepal is used to demonstrate that key events throughout the project cycle affect a plant’s ability to operate sustainably. Through a critical analysis of the available literature, policy and project documentation and interviews with manufacturers, drivers that affect the sustainability of plants are found. Examples include weak specification of civil components during tendering, quality control issues during manufacture, poor quality of construction and trained operators leaving their position. Opportunities to minimise both the occurrence and the severity of threats to sustainability are identified. For the micro-hydropower industry in Nepal, recommendations are made for specific actions by the relevant stakeholders at appropriate moments in the project cycle. More broadly, the findings demonstrate that the complex nature of developing community energy projects requires a holistic consideration of the complete project process

Stakeholders selection for interorganizational systems: a systematic approach

Stakeholders identification is a critical task for successful software projects. In general, there are no methodologies that allow performing it in a systematic way. Besides, several facts must be analyzed when the project is carried out in a context formed by multiple organizations. The complexity of these environments makes the task extremely hard. To face these difficulties, stakeholders are defined and analyzed taking into account the characteristics of the interorganizational dimension. Also a methodology is proposed for carrying out their identification that allows systematically specifying all people, groups and organizations whose interests and needs are affected by the information system in all the involved dimensions.The past and the future of information systems: 1976-2006 and beyondRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Business and IT Alignment with SEAM

Aligning business with IT requires understanding goals, strategies and needs. To be able to express them, an enterprise model can be developed. We present some of the traditional techniques used for the development of an enterprise model (value system, BPMN, UML) and compare them with a systemic method (SEAM). This comparison is done by presenting a real project done at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. We also show that the concepts of goals, strategies and needs correspond to interpretations of the stakeholders of the enterprise model

Explainable software systems: from requirements analysis to system evaluation

The growing complexity of software systems and the influence of software-supported decisions in our society sparked the need for software that is transparent, accountable, and trustworthy. Explainability has been identified as a means to achieve these qualities. It is recognized as an emerging non-functional requirement (NFR) that has a significant impact on system quality. Accordingly, software engineers need means to assist them in incorporating this NFR into systems. This requires an early analysis of the benefits and possible design issues that arise from interrelationships between different quality aspects. However, explainability is currently under-researched in the domain of requirements engineering, and there is a lack of artifacts that support the requirements engineering process and system design. In this work, we remedy this deficit by proposing four artifacts: a definition of explainability, a conceptual model, a knowledge catalogue, and a reference model for explainable systems. These artifacts should support software and requirements engineers in understanding the definition of explainability and how it interacts with other quality aspects. Besides that, they may be considered a starting point to provide practical value in the refinement of explainability from high-level requirements to concrete design choices, as well as on the identification of methods and metrics for the evaluation of the implemented requirements

Explainable software systems: from requirements analysis to system evaluation

The growing complexity of software systems and the influence of software-supported decisions in our society sparked the need for software that is transparent, accountable, and trustworthy. Explainability has been identified as a means to achieve these qualities. It is recognized as an emerging non-functional requirement (NFR) that has a significant impact on system quality. Accordingly, software engineers need means to assist them in incorporating this NFR into systems. This requires an early analysis of the benefits and possible design issues that arise from interrelationships between different quality aspects. However, explainability is currently under-researched in the domain of requirements engineering, and there is a lack of artifacts that support the requirements engineering process and system design. In this work, we remedy this deficit by proposing four artifacts: a definition of explainability, a conceptual model, a knowledge catalogue, and a reference model for explainable systems. These artifacts should support software and requirements engineers in understanding the definition of explainability and how it interacts with other quality aspects. Besides that, they may be considered a starting point to provide practical value in the refinement of explainability from high-level requirements to concrete design choices, as well as on the identification of methods and metrics for the evaluation of the implemented requirements

Transforming Postsecondary Education with Service Design: Engaging with Colleges in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

Service Design has emerged as a powerful tool in recent years to improve the experiences of users in both the private and public sector. This paper explores the potential of Service Design to improve the experiences of learners accessing student services in colleges within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). To achieve this, the study engaged several student affairs practitioners to understand the current approaches and challenges in the development and delivery of student services. The study generated system archetypes that aided in identifying patterns and behaviours influencing service development. The findings indicate that there is no standard approach to developing student services, and several systemic obstacles impede student-centred service development. This paper puts forth a series of evidence-based recommendations, inviting the student affairs community to explore Service Design as part of their practice

Von Requirements zu Privacy Explanations: Ein nutzerzentrierter Ansatz für Usable Privacy

Im Zeitalter der fortschreitenden Digitalisierung, in dem die Technologie zunehmend in unsere Gesellschaft eindringt, rücken sogenannte human values wie Ethik, Fairness, Privatsphäre und Vertrauen weiter in den Mittelpunkt. Digitale Informationssysteme dringen immer stärker in private und berufliche Bereiche vor und bieten den Nutzern Unterstützung, schnell und einfach mit anderen Menschen in Kontakt zu treten, bei der Informationsbeschaffung und helfen bei der Erledigung täglicher Aufgaben. Im Gegenzug geben die Nutzer bereitwillig große Mengen an persönlichen Daten an diese Systeme weiter. Diese Datenerfassung bedeutet jedoch, dass die Privatsphäre der Nutzer zunehmend gefährdet ist. Daher ist die Aufklärung der Nutzer über die gesammelten Informationen und ihre anschließende Verarbeitung der Schlüssel, die Privatsphäre der Nutzer zu schützen. Der Gesetzgeber hat Datenschutzerklärungen als Mittel zur Kommunikation von Datenpraktiken eingeführt. Leider erweisen sich diese Dokumente für die Endnutzer als praktisch nutzlos, da sie umfangreich, vage formuliert und mit Fachausdrücken gespickt sind, die oft ein tieferes Fachwissen erfordern. Das Ergebnis ist ein Mangel an nutzerorientierten Lösungen zur transparenten und verständlichen Vermittlung von Datenpraktiken. Um diese Lücke zu schließen, wird in dieser Arbeit das Konzept der Erklärbarkeit als entscheidender Qualitätsaspekt zur Verbesserung der Kommunikation zwischen Systemen und Nutzern in Bezug auf Datenpraktiken in einer klaren, verständlichen und nachvollziehbaren Weise untersucht. Zu diesem Zweck wird ein Ansatz vorgeschlagen, der aus drei Theorien besteht, die durch sieben Artefakte gestützt werden, die die Rolle der Erklärbarkeit im Kontext der Privatsphäre skizzieren und Leitlinien für die Kommunikation von Datenschutzinformationen aufstellen. Diese Theorien und Artefakte sollen Software-Experten unterstützen, (a) privatsphärerelevante Aspekte zu identifizieren, (b) diese kontextrelevant und verständlich an den Nutzer zu kommunizieren, um (c) datenschutzfreundliche Systeme zu designen. Um die Wirksamkeit des vorgeschlagenen Ansatzes zu validieren, wurden Evaluierungen durchgeführt, darunter Literaturrecherchen, Workshops und Nutzerstudien. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Eignung der entwickelten Theorien und Artefakte und bieten eine vielversprechende Grundlage für die Entwicklung datenschutzfreundlicher, fairer und transparenter Systeme.In the era of ongoing digitalization, where technology increasingly infiltrates our society, fun-damental human values such as ethics, fairness, privacy, and trust have taken center stage. Digital systems have seamlessly penetrated both personal and professional spheres, offering users swift connectivity, information access, and assistance in their daily routines. In exchange, users willingly share copious amounts of personal data with these systems. However, this data collection means that that users’ privacy sphere is increasingly at stake. Therefore, educating users about the information being collected and its subsequent processing is key to protect users’ privacy sphere. Legislation has established privacy policies as a means of communicating data practices. Unfortunately, these documents often prove fruitless for end users due to their extensive, va-gue, and jargon-laden nature, replete with legal terminology that often requires a deeper level of specialized knowledge. The result is a lack of user-centric solutions to communicate privacy information transparently and understandably. To bridge this gap, this thesis explores the concept of explainability as a crucial quality aspect for improving communication between systems and users concerning data practices, in a clear, understandable, and comprehensible manner. To this end, this thesis proposes an approach consisting of three theories supported by seven artifacts that outline the role of explainability in the context of privacy and provide guidelines for communicating privacy information. These theories and artifacts are intended to help software professionals (a) to identify privacy-relevant aspects, (b) to communicate them to users in a contextually relevant and understandable way, and (c) to design privacy-aware systems. To validate the efÏcacy of the proposed approach, evaluations were conducted, including literature reviews, workshops, and user studies. The results endorse the suitability of the de-veloped theories and artifacts, offering a promising foundation for developing privacy-aware, fair, and transparent systems