Preventing Incomplete/Hidden Requirements: Reflections on Survey Data from Austria and Brazil

Many software projects fail due to problems in requirements engineering (RE). The goal of this paper is analyzing a specific and relevant RE problem in detail: incomplete/hidden requirements. We replicated a global family of RE surveys with representatives of software organizations in Austria and Brazil. We used the data to (a) characterize the criticality of the selected RE problem, and to (b) analyze the reported main causes and mitigation actions. Based on the analysis, we discuss how to prevent the problem. The survey includes 14 different organizations in Austria and 74 in Brazil, including small, medium and large sized companies, conducting both, plan-driven and agile development processes. Respondents from both countries cited the incomplete/hidden requirements problem as one of the most critical RE problems. We identified and graphically represented the main causes and documented solution options to address these causes. Further, we compiled a list of reported mitigation actions. From a practical point of view, this paper provides further insights into common causes of incomplete/hidden requirements and on how to prevent this problem.Comment: in Proceedings of the Software Quality Days, 201

National strategies for technology adoption in the industrial sector: Lessons of recent experience in the developing regions

human development, technology

Selective Industrial and Trade Policies in Developing Countries: Theoretical and Empirical Issues

This paper analyses the case for selective industrial and trade policies in Africa, drawing upon the lessons of East Asia. It reviews the theoretical arguments for government intervention in the context of technological learning, and relates this to the new environment of rapid technical change and globalisation of production. It also considers the risks of government failure in mounting selective policies, and concludes that the degree of selectivity has to be much less than in East Asia. The case for selective policies nevertheless remains strong, if Africa is to make any industrial progress.

Global Innovation Policy Index

Ranks fifty-five nations' strategies to boost innovation capacity: policies on trade, scientific research, information and communications technologies, tax, intellectual property, domestic competition, government procurement, and high-skill immigration

Industry 4.0 for SMEs

This open access book explores the concept of Industry 4.0, which presents a considerable challenge for the production and service sectors. While digitization initiatives are usually integrated into the central corporate strategy of larger companies, smaller firms often have problems putting Industry 4.0 paradigms into practice. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) possess neither the human nor financial resources to systematically investigate the potential and risks of introducing Industry 4.0. Addressing this obstacle, the international team of authors focuses on the development of smart manufacturing concepts, logistics solutions and managerial models specifically for SMEs. Aiming to provide methodological frameworks and pilot solutions for SMEs during their digital transformation, this innovative and timely book will be of great use to scholars researching technology management, digitization and small business, as well as practitioners within manufacturing companies

Innovation Policies for Small and Medium Size Enterprises in Asia: An Innovation Systems Perspective

The point of departure for this chapter is that in developing countries SMEs2 are responsible for the largest part of employment and a significant share of added value. And that innovation policy supporting the particularities of SMEs has been widely ignored (occasionally SMEs have even been discriminated). This chapter aims at shedding soe light on the immensely complicated issue of innovation policy for SMEs in developing countries, or more specifically Asian SMEs. The chapter applies the so-called regional innovation systems approach. In this paper, we analyze four clusters of SMEs that have been especially successful in entering the global market; special attention is paid to the so-called soft infrastructure, the industry specific needs for cluster (e.g. interaction) and RIS dynamics/polices (e.g. needs for devolution; industry specific needs for building knowledge creating institutions).The chapter is structured as follows. After introducing stylized facts on SMEs innovative performance attention is turned to the theoretical framework. Taking into account the localized nature of SMEs economic activity, our level of analysis is the regional system of innovation (RIS). We provide a general introduction, contextualize this to Asian situation, and introduce the industry differences (inspired by Pietrobelli and Rabelotti’s typology). Then we turn to the empirical section where special attention is paid to the four cases. Finally, we turn to drawing general conclusions on innovation policies and need for restructuring of Asian innovation systems (the accent is on the former).Innovation Policy; Developing countries; Innovation systems

Requirements for model server enabled collaborating on building information models

The application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has demonstrated enormous potential to deliver consistency in the construction collaboration process. BIM can define an explicit configuration for digitized information exchange, however the technology to collaborate on models has not yet delivered the industry requirements for BIM collaboration. This research project is intended to provide a fresh review of industry requirements for BIM collaboration and will analyse how these requirements can be supported using a model server as a collaboration platform. This paper presents a review of existing collaboration platforms, with a particular focus to evaluate the research and development efforts on model servers as a collaboration platform. This paper also reports on the findings of three focus group sessions with industry practitioners to identify any problems in the available collaboration systems. The focus group findings identify a number of issues in current collaboration environments which help to understand the main domains of user requirements for BIM collaboration. These requirement domains will be further analysed to identify functional and technical specifications for a model server enabled collaboration platform

The status of sustainable design in Thailand

Sustainable design encourages manufacturers to consider social and environmental impacts whilst generating economic benefits (Macdonough & Braungart, 2002). Bhamra & Lofthouse (2007) state that sustainable design can provide business opportunities to organisations though cost reduction and increased marketability. Promoting sustainable design activity has the potential to stimulate the Thai economy by responding to a global trend in sustainability. Despite this, few manufacturers have the capacity to integrate sustainability into their products due to inadequate sustainable design knowledge. Various learning strategies and materials have been developed internationally, however, they cannot be productively incorporated into Thai design education for reasons discussed in this paper. This paper presents the partial findings from PhD research that proposes to develop a more appropriate approach for learning and teaching sustainable design in Thailand. It provides overview of education for sustainability, then outlines the current status of sustainable design in Thailand by dividing into three sectors: government, business, and education. The study commenced with a review of relevant literature and secondary data, which indicated a limited amount of material for the Thai context. Primary data collection was undertaken to address this shortfall through semi-structured interviews with experts participated in sustainable design activities. The findings indicated that Thailand has increased its focus on sustainability over recent years; a range of sustainable design initiatives has been carried out. However, the implementation of sustainable design in Thailand is not widespread because of three main obstacles. Firstly, imbalance between the three pillars of sustainability — most sustainable design activities have given priority to economic issues. Secondly, a lack of solid linkage among the initiatives — most of them have run individually and have not resulted in significant impacts. Thirdly, Thailand is lacking in sustainable design knowledge — most participants involved in these initiatives lack an understanding of this concept

The Development Impact of Information Technology in Trade Facilitation

The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview and context of the country studies on Information Technology (IT) for Trade Facilitation (TF) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).Impact of Information Techonology, Trade Facilitation, SMEs