A framework for transferring software project management approaches into the Thai telecommunications industry

Heute gehört die Telekommunikation noch immer zu den sich am schnellsten entwickelnden und am härtesten umkämpften Märkten sowie zu einer der weltweit am schnellsten wachsenden Technologiegebiete. Diese Dissertation konzentriert sich auf die thailändische Telekommuniktionsindustrie als Studienobjekt. Bei der Betrachtung der gegenwärtigen Situation der Software Entwicklung in diesem Industriezweig, stützen wir uns auf Interviews mit Hauseigenen und externen Software Entwicklungsteams von zwei der größten Breitband Internet Service Anbietern (Internet Service Providers (ISPs)) in Bangkok, Thailand (ISP1 and ISP2), aus den Monaten März und April 2009. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß viele typische Probleme (z.b. das Fehlen einer guten Nutzereinbindung, das Fehlen von Teamarbeit, fehlende Ausbildung, fehlendes Engagement des Managements, fehlende Kompetenz des Projektmanagements, fehlender Wissensaustausch usw.) während des Lebenszyklus des Software Entwicklungsprozesses noch ansteigen. Diese Probleme führen zu deutlich unbefriedigenden Ergebnissen in der Qualität. Diese Situation der Software Entwicklung zeigt, daß es einen Bedarf an effizienten und effektiven Entwicklungsprozessen gibt, sowie Bedarf an unterstützenden Wissenstransfer. Das Ziel dieser Dissertation war es daher, nach praktikablen Lösungen zu suchen, um die Leistung der Software Entwicklung zu verbessern. Mit Schwerpunkt auf Projektmanagement und Software Entwicklungsprozesse sind geschickte Methoden (z.b. adaptive Software Entwicklung, extreme programming und Scrum) in vielen Geschäftsfeldern weit verbreitet, da sie einen effektiven Software Entwicklungsprozess bieten um diese typischen Probleme zu überwinden. Dennoch bieten sie nur begrenzte Unterstützung für das Projektmanagement (z.b. für Outsourcing und Sicherstellung hoher Qualität) welches das Rückgrat effizienter Software Entwicklung darstellt. Darüber hinaus beschäftigen sie sich damit „wie“ aber nicht „welche“ Software Entwicklungsprozesse implementiert werden sollten. Nur das „wie“ kann nicht garantieren, dass Software-Qualität geliefert wird. Zur Überwindung dieser Probleme schlägt diese Dissertation ein System zur Entwicklung und ständigen Verbesserung des Softwareprozesses vor. Dieses System besteht aus zwei Kernkomponenten. Einem Modell zur Ausreifung der Software Entwicklung um das „was“ zu klären, zur Verbesserung mit einem Software Process Assessment-Mechanismus und einem integrierten PMBOK-Scrum Model zur Klärung des „wie“, eine umfassenden Reihe von Projekt-Management und Software-Entwicklungsprozessen zu implementieren. Um die Anwendung dieses Systems zu unterstützen, wird ein Prototyp-Tool eingeführt. Es wurde als web-basierte Anwendung entwickelt unter Ausnutzung von Java und einer MySQL Datenbank. Es ist wichtig, zu überprüfen, ob das Systems und das Tool in realen Software Projekten praktikabel sind. Daher zeigt diese Dissertation die Implementierung und Ergebnisse im Verlauf von zwei Studien der thailändischen Telekommunikations Industrie (der CAT Telecom Public Company Limited und der TOT Public Company Limited) von November 2010 bis Februar 2011. Die Datenerhebung erfolgte durch Vor-Ort-Beobachtungen, Einzelinterviews und Fragebögen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen das generieren positiver Effekte durch (i) Steigerung der Software-Entwicklung in Bezug auf Effizienz (z. B. Erhöhung der Arbeitsproduktivität) und Effektivität (z. B. getane Arbeit, deren Überprüfung und Bewertung, Verringerung der Fehlerquote und Steigerung der Kundenzufriedenheit und Team-Zufriedenheit) und (ii) Förderung einer Kultur von Teamwork, Zusammenarbeit, regelmäßiger informeller Kommunikation und Wissensaustausch. Wenn man sich auf den Prozess des Wissensaustausch konzentriert, besteht ein Software Projekt aus wissensintensiven Aktivitäten deren Implementierung Stakeholder Kenntnisse und Erfahrung erfordert, sowie die Lernfähigkeit und die Fähigkeit Wissen anzuwenden um die Probleme zu lösen, die während der Software Entwicklung entstehen. Wissenstransfer selbst hat seine Komponenten und kann auf verschiedene Weisen betrachtet werden (z. B. Prozess basiert, auf die Vorgeschichte basierend und auf die Komponenten basierend). Zwar wurden viele Wissenstransfer Modelle und Studien im Bereich der Softwareentwicklung vorgeschlagen und stehen zur Verfügung um zu lernen; aber sie haben weder einen Schwerpunkt auf die gemeinsamen Komponenten des Wissenstransfer noch liefern sie eine eindeutige und umfassende Beschreibungen oder Darstellung der Beziehungen zwischen diesen Komponenten in einem Wissenstransfer Prozess. Diejenigen, die dazu Anleiten, wie ein Wissenstransfer zu realisieren ist, sind ebenfalls rar. Daher schlägt diese Dissertation ein System zum Wissenstransfer vor (Probleme, Faktoren, Wissen, Mechanismen, Anwendung von Wissen und Ergebnisse). Sie bietet Orientierungshilfen für die Planung von Wissenstransfer Aktivitäten, und den effektiven Wissenstransfer zwischen den Mitgliedern des Software Entwicklungsteams. Aus Zeitgründen konnte die Benutzerfreundlichkeit und Funktionalität des Wissenstransfer Systems leider nicht in der realen Praxis getestet werden. Allerdings zeigt diese Dissertation die Anwendung des Systems mit unserern vorherigen zwei Fallstudien als Basis. Die Demonstrationsbeschreibung ist in zwei Teile unterteilt. Der erste Teil beschreibt, wie der Autor Wissen auf das Teams der Fallstudie übertragt, daher ist der Fokus auf die eigentliche übertragenen Ergebnisse gerichtet. Der zweite Teil beschreibt, wie die Team-Mitglieder der Fallstudie Wissen innerhalb des Teams übertragen. Daher ist der Fokus darauf gerichtet, wie das System an die reale Software-Entwicklung der Praxis angepasst werden kann. Wenn gleich dieses System noch nicht versprechen kann zur Effektivität des Wissenstransfers in der Software Entwicklung beizutragen, so zeigen die Ergebnisse der Demonstration ein hohes Maß an Kompatibilität mit Scrum-oriented software development. Dies impliziert, dass es eine hohe Wahrscheinlichkeit gibt, dass das System in realen Software Projekten also praktikabel erweist. Da ein effizienter und effektiver Software-Entwicklungsprozesse und ein Wissenstransfer-Prozess für qualitative Software Entwicklung nötigt sind, enthält diese Dissertation das software process maintenance framework und knowledge transfer framwork in einem übergeordneten System, ein System zur Übertragung von Software Projektmanagement in die thailändische Telekommunikationsindustrie. Aufgrund unserer zeitlichen Beschränkungen wie oben erwähnt, zeigt diese Dissertation, wie man das übergeordnete System in Software Projekten anwendet, wieder mit unseren vorherigen zwei Fallstudien als Basis. Die Ergebnisse der Demonstration zeigen eine große Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass das System in realen Software Projekten anwendbar ist. In diesem Stadium verspricht das übergeordnete System eine teilweise Verbesserung der Software-Entwicklungsleistung, als Ergebnis des software process maintenance framework. Wir hoffen in Zukunft mehr Fallstudien durchführen zu können, um mehr Sicherheit beim Nutzen und der Funktionalität des übergeordneten Systems und seiner Komponenten zu gewinnen. Am Ende dieser Dissertation sind theoretische Beiträge, Implikationen für die zukünftige Forschung, Implikationen für die Praxis, die Begrenzungen dieser Studie und Empfehlungen für die künftige Arbeit beschrieben. Weitere Praxistests des hier entwickelten Systems werden von der Autorin nach der Rückkehr nach Thailand durchgeführt, bevor die Arbeit schließlich an Partnern aus der Industrie übergeben wird.This dissertation focuses on the Thai telecommunications industry, which still is one of the fastest-evolving and most competitive markets and also one of the fastest-growing technology areas, as a case study. Looking at the current situation of software development in this industry, we use the findings of interviews with in-house and outsourcing software development teams working for two of the largest broadband Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Bangkok, Thailand (named ISP1 and ISP2) during March and April 2009. The findings reveal that many of the typical problems (e.g., a lack of good user participation, a lack of teamwork, a lack of training support, a lack of management commitment, a lack of project management competence, a lack of knowledge transfer, and so forth) are still arising throughout the software development lifecycle. These problems result in a significant level of unsatisfactory quality results. This software development situation emphasizes that there is a need for more efficient and effective software development processes and a supporting knowledge transfer process. This dissertation consequently aims at providing a methodologically sound approach that leads to a practically feasible solution resulting in improved software development performance. Focusing on project management and software development processes, agile methods (e.g., Adaptive Software Development, eXtreme Programming, and Scrum) are widely used in many business environments, as they provide an effective software development process to tackle many of the typical problems. Nevertheless, they offer limited support for project management (e.g., for outsourcing and high quality assurance) which is the backbone for cost-efficient software development. Furthermore, they generally deal with “how”, but not much with “what” software development processes should be implemented. Concentrating on only “how” cannot guarantee that software quality will be delivered. Therefore, this dissertation proposes a software process maintenance framework which in this context means a framework for software process development and improvement to overcome these shortcomings. The framework consists of two core components: a software development maturity model providing the “what” to improve with a software process assessment mechanism and an integrated PMBOK-Scrum model providing the “how” to implement with a comprehensive set of project management and software development processes. To support the application of the framework, a prototype tool is then introduced. It was created as a Web-based application, using the Java programming language and a MySQL database. It is important to perform a feasibility check on whether the framework and the tool are practical in real-life software projects. Hence, this dissertation demonstrates their implementation and results through two case studies in the Thai telecommunications industry (i.e., CAT Telecom Public Company Limited and TOT Public Company Limited) from November 2010 to February 2011. The data collection was carried out through on-site observations, individual interviews, and questionnaires. The findings indicate the generation of positive effects by (i) increasing software development performance in terms of efficiency (e.g., increasing work completeness and work productivity) and effectiveness (e.g., reducing defects and increasing customer and team satisfaction); and (ii) cultivating teamwork, collaboration, informal and frequent communications, and a knowledge sharing culture. Focusing on a knowledge transfer process, a software project consists of knowledge-intensive activities and its implementation requires stakeholders’ expertise and experience, transferability, and the absorptive capacity to learn and apply knowledge to solve problems occurring during software development. The knowledge transfer itself has its components and can be viewed in different ways (e.g., process base, antecedent base, and component base). Although many knowledge transfer models and studies in software development have been proposed, and are available to learn from; they neither put an emphasis on a knowledge transfer’s common components, nor do they clearly provide comprehensive descriptions or relationships between those components in a knowledge transfer process. The ones offering guidance on how to drive knowledge transfer into action are also scarce. Consequently, this dissertation proposes a knowledge transfer framework. It aims at covering common components (i.e., problems, antecedents, knowledge, mechanisms, knowledge application, and outcomes); providing guidance for planning knowledge transfer activities; and contributing to an effective knowledge transfer amongst software development team members. Unfortunately, owing to time limitations of this study, the usability and practicality of the knowledge transfer framework could not be tested in real-life practice. However, this dissertation demonstrates the application of the framework, using our two prior case studies as a base. The demonstration descriptions are categorized into two parts. The first part describes how the author transferred knowledge to the case study teams; therefore, its focus is on the actual transfer results. The second part describes how the case study team members can transfer knowledge within their teams; hence, its focus is on how the framework can be applied in real-life software development practice. Although the framework cannot yet promise to contribute to knowledge transfer effectiveness in software development, the results of the demonstration show a high degree of compatibility with Scrum-oriented software development. Moreover, the framework was designed and constructed based on the positive results of the case studies in Chapter 5. This implies that there is a great likelihood that the framework is practical in real-life software projects. As efficient and effective software development processes and a knowledge transfer process are required for quality software development, this dissertation incorporates the software process maintenance framework and the knowledge transfer framework into an umbrella framework. This is a framework for transferring novel software project management concepts into the Thai telecommunications industry. Owing to our time limitations as aforementioned, this dissertation demonstrates how to apply the umbrella framework in software projects; using our prior two case studies as a base again. The results of the demonstration show a great probability that the framework is practical in real-life software projects. At this stage, the umbrella framework partly promises an improvement of software development performance, as a result of the software process maintenance framework. In the future, we hope to carry out more case studies in order to raise more confidence in the usability and practicality of the umbrella framework. At the end of this dissertation, theoretical contributions, implications for future research design, implications for practice, limitations of this study, and recommendations for future work are described. Additional practical tests of the developed frameworks will be carried out by the author after returning to Thailand, before finally handing them over to industry partners

Thailand’s Digital Economy Transformation: Rectifying the Middle-Income Trap by Leveraging Digital Capabilities in the Agriculture Industry

The Thai government has been attempting to move the country out of the middle-income trap through digital economy strategies. Among these strategies, digital innovation is the most central. Leveraging digital capabilities in the agriculture industry, a sector that a large number of low-income farmers work in, conveys digital innovations to farmers. Digital innovation is expected to increase farmer incomes and ultimately help the country step out of the middle-income trap. This dissertation aimed to 1) identify the major challenges of digital economy transformation, 2) develop a model that explains digital agriculture innovations, 3) apply the model to real use cases of digital transformation, and 4) identify a set of lessons learned from the entire research model that can guide policymakers to leverage digital capabilities to advance the agriculture industry. The dissertation identified how digital capabilities might improve farmer welfare by using multiple case studies. Three cases were studied individually and then synthesized into a data model. The participants covered five groups of stakeholders: developers, government officers, mid-tier employees, user farmers, and non-user farmers. The findings provide a data model explaining the practices of digital agriculture innovations. Moreover, the results guide policymakers to invest in and implement digital strategies to advance the agriculture industry and help lift the middle-class economy. Digital policies, strategies, and investment programs can be implemented in the agriculture sector and applied to other industries such as automobile, healthcare, and tourism

Proceedings of the Spring Servitization Conference (SSC 2013):servitization in the multi-organisation enterprise

The increased data complexity and task interdependency associated with servitization represent significant barriers to its adoption. The outline of a business game is presented which demonstrates the increasing complexity of the management problem when moving through Base, Intermediate and Advanced levels of servitization. Linked data is proposed as an agile set of technologies, based on well established standards, for data exchange both in the game and more generally in supply chains

EDU-COM 2004 International conference: new challenges for sustainability and growth in higher education

EDU-COM 2004, an international conference held in Khon Kaen, Thailand from the 24th to the 26th November, 2004 took the theme: New Challenges for Sustainability and Growth in Higher Education. EDU-COM 2004 was sponsored and organised by Edith Cowan University, Khon Kaen University and Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University/ The Conference was structured to address five sub-themes pertinent to the challenges facing higher education worldwide: • Collaboration between campus and community in Higher Education • Collaboration targeting multi-cultural and cross-cultural issues in Higher Education • Collaboration through new teaching and learning technologies in Higher Education • Collaboration for quality: valuing and evaluating performance in Higher Education • Collaboration for effective governance in Higher Education Contributors were invited to address on or more of these sub-themes. All papers published in these proceedings reflect the drive for richer learning experiences, improved learning environments and recognition of the importance of the local community as technology enables us to think globally. Predictably perhaps, e-education brought the most substantial response, a clear indication of the perceived potential for new technologies to influence teaching, learning and administration in higher education. The papers also highlight some of the challenges and emerging expectations for higher education in a world that is increasingly characterised by international alliances, partnerships and tensions – a search for sustainability and equity in a period of rapid social and technological change. The Proceedings are in 3 sections. Section 1 – Keynote Speakers; Section 2 – Academic Peer Reviewed Papers: Section 3 - “Work in Progress”. EDU-COM 2004 was attended by delegates from Australia, Botswana, Cambodia, China, Denmark, England, Hong Kong, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Lao, Myanamar, Singapore, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam

24th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases

In the last three decades information modelling and knowledge bases have become essentially important subjects not only in academic communities related to information systems and computer science but also in the business area where information technology is applied. The series of European – Japanese Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC) originally started as a co-operation initiative between Japan and Finland in 1982. The practical operations were then organised by professor Ohsuga in Japan and professors Hannu Kangassalo and Hannu Jaakkola in Finland (Nordic countries). Geographical scope has expanded to cover Europe and also other countries. Workshop characteristic - discussion, enough time for presentations and limited number of participants (50) / papers (30) - is typical for the conference. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: 1. Conceptual modelling: Modelling and specification languages; Domain-specific conceptual modelling; Concepts, concept theories and ontologies; Conceptual modelling of large and heterogeneous systems; Conceptual modelling of spatial, temporal and biological data; Methods for developing, validating and communicating conceptual models. 2. Knowledge and information modelling and discovery: Knowledge discovery, knowledge representation and knowledge management; Advanced data mining and analysis methods; Conceptions of knowledge and information; Modelling information requirements; Intelligent information systems; Information recognition and information modelling. 3. Linguistic modelling: Models of HCI; Information delivery to users; Intelligent informal querying; Linguistic foundation of information and knowledge; Fuzzy linguistic models; Philosophical and linguistic foundations of conceptual models. 4. Cross-cultural communication and social computing: Cross-cultural support systems; Integration, evolution and migration of systems; Collaborative societies; Multicultural web-based software systems; Intercultural collaboration and support systems; Social computing, behavioral modeling and prediction. 5. Environmental modelling and engineering: Environmental information systems (architecture); Spatial, temporal and observational information systems; Large-scale environmental systems; Collaborative knowledge base systems; Agent concepts and conceptualisation; Hazard prediction, prevention and steering systems. 6. Multimedia data modelling and systems: Modelling multimedia information and knowledge; Contentbased multimedia data management; Content-based multimedia retrieval; Privacy and context enhancing technologies; Semantics and pragmatics of multimedia data; Metadata for multimedia information systems. Overall we received 56 submissions. After careful evaluation, 16 papers have been selected as long paper, 17 papers as short papers, 5 papers as position papers, and 3 papers for presentation of perspective challenges. We thank all colleagues for their support of this issue of the EJC conference, especially the program committee, the organising committee, and the programme coordination team. The long and the short papers presented in the conference are revised after the conference and published in the Series of “Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence” by IOS Press (Amsterdam). The books “Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases” are edited by the Editing Committee of the conference. We believe that the conference will be productive and fruitful in the advance of research and application of information modelling and knowledge bases. Bernhard Thalheim Hannu Jaakkola Yasushi Kiyok

Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission

International Student Projects and Sustainable Development Goals: A Perfect Match

Engineering Education is currently going through a transformation, driven by the need for educating better engineers and more engineers, and largely build on elements such as problem orientation, interdisciplinarity, internationalization, digitalization and sustainability. In 2020, the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership EPIC (Improving Employability Through Internationalization and Collaboration) has combined all these elements, and demonstrated how international and interdisciplinary student projects, focusing on solving real-world problems related to sustainability, can be carried out in a setting where students mainly work together online. A total of 56 students from 7 EU and 2 international universities, with backgrounds ranging from Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering to Textile Technologies and Business Informatics were working on 9 different projects throughout the spring of 2020. The paper presents the experiences from the setup and discusses some general recommendations for setting up this type of projects. The paper goes through the stages of defining and carrying out the projects: Defining the overall framework, identifying problems/project proposals in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, identifying the students and assigning students to projects, preparing students and supervisors, organising the physical kick-off seminar, and supporting the online collaboration. We also discuss evaluation and hand-over of the solutions, to ensure the projects have a lasting impact. We conclude that the sustainable development goals provide a highly motivating framework for interdisciplinary, international student projects based on problem-based learning. We also note that a careful design and execution of the all the preparatory stages are crucial in order for the projects to succeed, and discuss specific recommendations for these.</p