TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCIES IN ICT STUDY PROGRAMS: AN INTRODUCTION TO CURRENT RESEARCH

The research is carried out within the framework of the doctoral thesis “Methodology and tools for sensor network design”, where transversal competencies and their assessment are related to ICT study programs, such as “Mechatronics” implemented by Rezekne Academy of Technologies and based on Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3) ICT and smart materials, technologies and engineering systems.Today's labour market needs competitive employees who are able to analyze situations with systematic and design thinking. The education system needs to change in line with the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so prospective workers need to have knowledge of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary processes.The aim of this research is to determine the transversal competencies of ICT study programs. The monographic and descriptive method has been applied for studying scientific literature. The research looks at the competencies and skills that are needed for ICT graduates, such as digital, innovative, entrepreneurship, research, communication, critical thinking, human relation, leadership, planning, problem solving

Proposal for a method for business model performance assessment : toward an experimentation tool for business model innovation

The representation of business models has been recently widespread, especially in the pursuit of innovation. However, defining a company’s business model is sometimes limited to discussion and debates. This study observes the need for performance measurement so that business models can be data-driven. To meet this goal, the work proposed as a hypothesis the creation of a method that combines the practices of the Balanced Scorecard with a method of business models representation – the Business Model Canvas. Such a combination was based on study of conceptual adaptation, resulting in an application roadmap. A case study application was performed to check the functionality of the proposition, focusing on startup organizations. It was concluded that based on the performance assessment of the business model it is possible to propose the search for change through experimentation, a path that can lead to business model innovation121617

A Framework for Identifying Sequences of Interactions That Cause Usability Problems in Collaborative Systems

Collaborative systems support shared spaces, where groups of users exchange interactions. In order to ensure the usability of these systems, an intuitive interactions´ organization and that each user has awareness information to know the activity of others are necessary. Usability laboratories allow evaluators to verify these requirements. However, laboratory usability evaluations can be problematic for reproducing mobile and ubiquitous contexts, as they restrict the place and time in which the user interacts with the system. This paper presents a framework for building software support that it collects human?machine interactions in mobile and ubiquitous contexts and outputs an assessment of the system´s usability. This framework is constructed through learning that is based on neural networks, identifying sequences of interactions related to usability problems when users carry out collaborative activities. The paper includes a case study that puts the framework into action during the development process of a smartphone application that supports collaborative sport betting.This research and the APC was funded by the University of Cantabria and the Government of Cantabria through the industrial doctorate grant DI27, given to Santos Bringas. Alicia Nieto-Reyes was supported by a Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades grant MTM2017-86061-C2-2-P

Proposal for a Method for Business Model Performance Assessment: Toward an Experimentation Tool for Business Model Innovation

The representation of business models has been recently widespread, especially in the pursuit of innovation. However, defining a company’s business model is sometimes limited to discussion and debates. This study observes the need for performance measurement so that business models can be data-driven. To meet this goal, the work proposed as a hypothesis the creation of a method that combines the practices of the Balanced Scorecard with a method of business models representation – the Business Model Canvas. Such a combination was based on study of conceptual adaptation, resulting in an application roadmap. A case study application was performed to check the functionality of the proposition, focusing on startup organizations. It was concluded that based on the performance assessment of the business model it is possible to propose the search for change through experimentation, a path that can lead to business model innovation

A Set of Prescribed Activities for Enhancing Requirements Engineering in the Development of Usable E-Government Applications

Over the last years, e-Government applications have become indispensable in every country as they help stakeholders carry out tasks with the administration. However, and despite their growing usage, most of these applications are created through a developercentered approach instead of a user-centered one, using traditional development processes that do not fit well with the diversity of stakeholders and existing legislation that involve e-Government applications today. Besides, usability is an important clue in the development of such solutions, so a user-centered approach, combined with a successful stakeholder and legislation analysis, should be considered overall. This paper is focused on addressing these concerns, and it provides a set of prescribed activities, tasks and products to be carried through a user-centered process in order to design usable web-based e-Government solutions. Specifically, our approach considers requirements engineering activities enhancing usability by analyzing the diversity and interests of the stakeholders involved, as well as the specific legislation as a source of organizational requirements. In addition, a validation is provided through a case study, showing the feasibility of the approach presentedThis work has been partially supported by the funding projects «Flexor» (grant number TIN2014-52129-R) granted by the Spanish Government and «eMadrid» (grant number S2013/ICE-2715) granted by the Madrid Research Council

Uso de design thinking na elicitação de requisitos em projeto ágil de software

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade UnB Gama, 2018.No âmbito das metodologias ágeis de desenvolvimento de software, atividades e práticas de elicitação de requisitos adotadas pelas organizações vem trazendo desafios já existentes em metodologias tradicionais de desenvolvimento de software, assim como novos. Com o objetivo de solucionar tais desafios, as organizações vêm buscando alternativas que possam auxiliar na execução dessa fase. O Design Thinking, por exemplo, vem sendo utilizado pelas organizações como uma técnica de elicitação de requisitos por fazer uso do procedimento da imersão que, por consequência, aproxima o cliente da equipe do projeto de software e possibilita a criação de projetos de maior qualidade. Com o uso de triangulação de dados, esse trabalho traz uma revisão sistemática sobre desafios encontrados na elicitação de requisitos de software em metodologias ágeis e o uso de Design Thinking a partir de suas técnicas que serviu de insumo para a realização de um estudo de caso em um projeto de uma organização, elaborando uma abordagem de avaliação que foi aplicada ao decorrer do estudo com o intuito de verificar se, a partir do uso de Design Thinking e suas técnicas, haveria indícios de contribuição para auxiliar a comunidade de desenvolvimento de software quanto aos desafios identificados. Dos treze desafios encontrados, oito apresentaram forte indício de contribuição, três apresentaram indícios parciais de contribuição e dois não se pôde concluir a respeito. Esses cinco últimos desafios foram afetados, principalmente, por peculiaridades do projeto e/ou negligência da equipe de projeto. Portanto recomenda-se que seja feito outros estudos para revalidar o resultado obtido, assim como a abordagem de avaliação proposta.In the scope of agile methodologies of software development, requirements elicitation activities and practices adopted by organizations has brought challenges already existing in traditional methodologies of software development, as well as new ones. With the objective of solving these challenges, organizations are looking for alternatives that can help in the execution of this phase. Design Thinking, for example, has been used by organizations as a requirements elicitation technique by making use of the immersion procedure which, as a consequence, brings the client closer to the software project team and enables the creation of projects of higher quality. With the use of data triangulation, this work brings a systematic review on the challenges encountered in eliciting software requirements in agile methodologies and the use of Design Thinking for their techniques. It was used input as for a case study in an organization project, elaborating an evaluation approach that was applied during the course pf the study in order to verify if, using Design Thinking and its techniques, there would be indications of contribution to help the software development community regarding the identified challenges. Of the thirteen challenges encountered, eight presented strong evidence of contribution, three presented partial evidence of contribution and two could not be concluded about it. These last five challenges were affected primarily by design peculiarities and / or project team neglect. Therefore, recommended that further studies be carried out to validate the result obtained, as well as the proposed evaluation approach

A web-based platform for reliable market linkage between poultry farmers and potential buyers in Tanzania

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s in Information and Communication Science and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyIn Tanzania the advancement of technology has brought about affordable smartphones to most of livestock farmers. However, despite this potential, livestock farmers have limited utilization and access to livestock information to improve their business. Poultry farming is a widely practiced agricultural activity with a high potential for poverty reduction, climate change mitigation, enhancing food security and improving socio-economic transformation in pro-poor households and communities in Tanzania. The sector supports the livelihoods of 3.7 million households in Tanzania. But farmers in the sector are challenged on reliable market linkage information systems to interface with buyers for their products. Both poultry farmers and buyers rely on informal market information. Poultry farmers are equally challenged on limited exposure to technology. Study was carried out in Tanga region to poultry farmers and buyers. The findings form this study shows that key market information required by poultry farmers and buyers are price, buyer or farmer location, Poultry kilograms, amount of poultry needed by buyers, amount of poultry products needed by buyers, types of poultry needed by buyers and kind of poultry products needed by buyers. To overcome poultry market information gap, this study aims to develop a web-based platform for poultry market linkage with more focus on its usability and user experience (UX) design, and to assessment its usability and user experience. Eye tracking method combined with retrospective think aloud method together with facial expression was used to test user experience of the developed web-based platform while to assess its usability think aloud protocol together with pre and post assessment methods was used. The developed web based platform is simple and not overloaded, it provide all the required market information. The platform supports buying and selling as well as order management. Furthermore, farmers can perform auctions on the platform, the payment method is cash on delivery. The application is also available in Swahili

長期的視座に基づく製品サービスシステム設計方法論

近年,製造業では,単に製品を販売するのではなく,製品とサービスを高度に統合して提供することにより,これまで以上の高い価値を創出する製品サービスシステム(PSS: Product-Service System)が注目を集めている.PSSの実現においては,製品やサービスを対価と交換することで生まれる「交換価値」よりも,受給者が製品やサービス,あるいはそのアウトプットを使用するコンテキストの中で知覚する「文脈価値」を高めることが重視される.ここで,コンテキストは静的ではなく,動的に変化することから,その影響を受けて受給者が知覚する価値もまた変化する.PSSの好事例には,このようなコンテキストの変化に対応し,適切な価値を創出できるようにPSSの構造を変化させてきた事例が見受けられる.一方で,このような事例におけるPSSの構造変化は,必ずしも計画的に実行されたものではなく,高い価値を持続的に実現できるか否かは「偶然」や「経験と勘」に過度に依存している.このことは,PSSの構造変化を事前に設計するための体系的なアプローチが存在しないことに起因する.高い価値を持続的かつ計画的に実現するためには,長期的視座のもとPSSの構造変化を設計するための方法論が求められる.本研究は,上記課題を解決し「長期的な視座のもと高い価値を持続的に実現するPSSの構造変化を設計するための方法論を構築する」ことを目的とするものである.これを達成するために,本論文では,以下の3点について,具体的な提案を行う.(1)コンテキストを中心としてPSSの構造変化に関わる概念や概念問の関係を形式化するモデル (2)PSSの構造変化を設計対象として表現・可視化するための設計対象モデリング手法 (3)高い価値を持続的に実現するためのPSSの構造変化を設計するプロセス 本論文では,以上により構築した方法論を用いた設計の実行例を2つ示す.そして,その結果や過程を評価し,本方法論の有効性や課題を明らかにする.首都大学東京, 2016-03-25, 博士（工学）首都大学東