Aligning Software Architectures of Mobile Applications on Business Requirements

The support of mobile workers with mobile IT solutions can create dremendous improvements in mobile business processes of a company. The main charateristic of such a mobile system is the ability to connect via a (mobile) network to a central server, e.g. in order to access customer data. The frequency and the location of the use, data topicality, interaction requirements and many more are central aspects when developing a suitable system architecture. This paper provides a detailed decription of the four main software architectures for mobile systems and their main charateristics. Beyond, typical business requirements are developed, the implications for the system architecture for each of them is shown

Towards an Approach to Identify and Assess the Mobile Eligibility of Business Processes

So far, the discussion about the usage of mobile devices in companies was strongly technology driven. However, current mobiledevices and related mobile networks have reached a high level of maturity. For this reason, technological issues are nolonger obstacles for using mobile devices within companies’ business processes. From our perspective, identifying businessprocess activities, which can be improved by mobile device support, is currently rather important. The degree of suitability ofbusiness processes for mobile device support is called the mobile eligibility of a business process. Aim of this paper is topresent an approach that supports the systematic analysis and assessment of the mobile eligibility of business processes, takinginto account a set of structured, adaptable criteria to deliberate between potential business values added by mobile devicesand the typical mobile device characteristics

Aplicação móvel para percurso turístico

O planeamento de roteiros a múltiplos Pontos de Interesse (PDI) com restrições associadas pode ser algo complexo, existindo diversas variáveis com influência sobre a qualidade dos mesmos. A qualidade de um roteiro depende, objetivamente, de variáveis como a proximidade, tempo, custo financeiro e acessibilidade (no caso de pessoas portadoras de deficiência). Também depende, mais subjetivamente, das preferências pessoais de cada pessoa. A solução a ser apresentada tem como principal objetivo a criação de roteiros que apresentem elevado nível de qualidade, sendo que a qualidade irá depender das variáveis anteriormente descritas. O desenvolvimento do restante documento irá fazer o enquadramento deste problema, dentro de estudos existentes na temática da modelação do comportamento do turista. Estes estudos têm como principal objetivo a identificação de guidelines de design para sistemas que sirvam como guia a roteiros turísticos. A temática de trabalho também irá ser contextualizada dentro de outros problemas de orientação já conhecidos. Outro aspeto a ser descrito será um comparativo entre diversas soluções existentes. Também irá descrita a arquitetura do sistema desenvolvido, que inclui os requisitos funcionais, cenários de qualidade, diversas vistas possíveis para a plataforma e análise das soluções tecnológicas de desenvolvimento existentes. Dado que a plataforma foi desenvolvida em iterações, ir-se-á apresentar o desenvolvimento e funcionalidades por cada iteração produzida. Por fim, irão ser identificados alguns dos testes efetuados sobre a plataforma e resultados associados, sendo descrito algumas conclusões obtidas a partir dos mesmos.Planning a tour to multiple Points of interest (POI) with multiple restrictions can be somehow complex, and there are several variables with influence on the tour quality. Objectively, the quality of a tour depends on variables such as proximity, time, financial cost, accessibility (for disabled people). Subjectively, it also depends on personal preferences. The solution being presented aims to create tours that have high quality level, and the quality will depend on the variables described above. The development of the remaining document will make the framework of this problem, whitin existing studies on the topic of modeling tourist behavior. These studies have as main objective the identification of design guidelines for systems that serve as guide to tourist itineraries. The main topic of this work will be also be contextualized within other already known orientation problems. Another aspect to be described will be a comparison between several existing solutions. It will also describe the developed system architecture, which includes functional requirements, quality scenarios, different views for the platform, analyzing the existing technological development solutions. Since the platform was developed in iterations, the development and features produced by each iteration will be presented. Finally, some conclusions will be presented based on tests performed over the platform and associated results

An architecutre for the effective use of mobile devices in supporting contact learning

The features and capacities of mobile devices offer a wide range of significant opportunities for providing learning content in workplaces and educational institutions. This new approach of teaching, called mobile learning, allows for the delivery of learning content on the move at any time. Mobile learning supports learning by producing learning content to learners in a modern and acceptable way. The number of mobile learning applications has increased rapidly in educational environments. There are, however, limited mobile learning applications that take advantage of mobile devices to support contact learning in the classroom environment. The aim of this research was to design a mobile learning architecture to effectively support contact learning in the classroom. The researcher investigated the historical and theoretical background of mobile learning and reported these findings. This included an overview of existing mobile learning architectures. After identifying their limitations, the researcher designed the Contact Instruction Mobile Learning Architecture (CIMLA) to facilitate the use of mobile devices in the classroom. The researcher developed the LiveLearning prototype based on the proposed architecture as a proof of concept. He conducted a usability evaluation in order to determine the usability of LiveLearning. The results indicated that the LiveLearning prototype is effective in supporting contact learning in the classroom