Evaluating the Impact of Critical Factors in Agile Continuous Delivery Process: A System Dynamics Approach

Continuous Delivery is aimed at the frequent delivery of good quality software in a speedy, reliable and efficient fashion – with strong emphasis on automation and team collaboration. However, even with this new paradigm, repeatability of project outcome is still not guaranteed: project performance varies due to the various interacting and inter-related factors in the Continuous Delivery 'system'. This paper presents results from the investigation of various factors, in particular agile practices, on the quality of the developed software in the Continuous Delivery process. Results show that customer involvement and the cognitive ability of the QA have the most significant individual effects on the quality of software in continuous delivery

Testing in the incremental design and development of complex products

Testing is an important aspect of design and development which consumes significant time and resource in many companies. However, it has received less research attention than many other activities in product development, and especially, very few publications report empirical studies of engineering testing. Such studies are needed to establish the importance of testing and inform the development of pragmatic support methods. This paper combines insights from literature study with findings from three empirical studies of testing. The case studies concern incrementally developed complex products in the automotive domain. A description of testing practice as observed in these studies is provided, confirming that testing activities are used for multiple purposes depending on the context, and are intertwined with design from start to finish of the development process, not done after it as many models depict. Descriptive process models are developed to indicate some of the key insights, and opportunities for further research are suggested

Evolution of Ada technology in the flight dynamics area: Design phase analysis

The software engineering issues related to the use of the Ada programming language during the design phase of an Ada project are analyzed. Discussion shows how an evolving understanding of these issues is reflected in the design processes of three generations of Ada projects

Model-based approaches to support process improvement in complex product development

The performance of product development processes is important to the commercial success of new products. The improvement of these processes is thus a strategic imperative for many engineering companies — the aero-engine is one example of a complex product for which market pressures necessitate ever-shorter development times. This thesis argues that process modelling and simulation can support the improvement of complex product development processes. A literature review identified that design process modelling is a well-established research area encompassing a diverse range of approaches. However, most existing tools and methods are not widely applied in industry. An extended case study was therefore conducted to explore the pragmatic utility of process modelling and simulation. It is argued that iteration is a key driver of design process behaviour which cannot be fully reflected in a mechanistic model. Understanding iteration can help select an appropriate representation for a given process domain and modelling objective. A model-based approach to improve the management of iterative design processes was developed. This approach shows that design process simulation models can support practice despite their limited fidelity. The modelling and simulation framework resulting from this work was enhanced for application to a wider range of process improvement activities. A robust and extensible software platform was also developed. The framework and software tool have made significant contribution to research projects investigating process redesign, process robustness and process optimisation. These projects are discussed to validate the framework and tool and to highlight their applicability beyond the original approach. The research results were disseminated in academia and industry — 72 copies of the software were distributed following requests in the first three months of its release

Integration issues in the development of a modelling and simulation tool for low volume high-complexity electronics manufacture

In order to design and implement the information systems and modules that could comprise an “industrial strong” knowledge-based tool, links to shop floor systems containing real-time production data and PCA customer information (e.g. bill of materials (BOM), CAD drawings) are required. Details of the issues of implementing the tool in an industrial organisation and the integration of various data sources (e.g. “in-house” developed systems, enterprise resource planning systems, ad-hoc developed databases, machine data and CAD data) are presented in this paper. The application of the CLOVES system in an industrial setup highlights the difficulties in integrating information from design as CAD data and shows how these setbacks could be overcome if the electronics industry were to adopt a common CAD assembly information exchange platform. Hence, this paper concludes that existing automation tool manufacturers should focus exclusively on developing generic connections by adopting industry standards that can facilitate the deployment of “plug and play” tools. This standardisation could in turn help software developers, to provide the electronics industry with more integrated systems that communicate better among loosely coupled information systems and avoid depending on extensive time consuming manual data input

Combining business process and failure modelling to increase yield in electronics manufacturing

The prediction and capturing of defects in low-volume assembly of electronics is a technical challenge that is a prerequisite for design for manufacturing (DfM) and business process improvement (BPI) to increase first-time yields and reduce production costs. Failures at the component-level (component defects) and system-level (such as defects in design and manufacturing) have not been incorporated in combined prediction models. BPI efforts should have predictive capability while supporting flexible production and changes in business models. This research was aimed at the integration of enterprise modelling (EM) and failure models (FM) to support business decision making by predicting system-level defects. An enhanced business modelling approach which provides a set of accessible failure models at a given business process level is presented in this article. This model-driven approach allows the evaluation of product and process performance and hence feedback to design and manufacturing activities hence improving first-time yield and product quality. A case in low-volume, high-complexity electronics assembly industry shows how the approach leverages standard modelling techniques and facilitates the understanding of the causes of poor manufacturing performance using a set of surface mount technology (SMT) process failure models. A prototype application tool was developed and tested in a collaborator site to evaluate the integration of business process models with the execution entities, such as software tools, business database, and simulation engines. The proposed concept was tested for the defect data collection and prediction in the described case study

Modelling and simulation of paradigms for printed circuit board assembly to support the UK's competency in high reliability electronics

The fundamental requirement of the research reported within this thesis is the provision of physical models to enable model based simulation of mainstream printed circuit assembly (PCA) process discrete events for use within to-be-developed (or under development) software tools which codify cause & effects knowledge for use in product and process design optimisation. To support a national competitive advantage in high reliability electronics UK based producers of aircraft electronic subsystems require advanced simulation tools which offer model based guidance. In turn, maximization of manufacturability and minimization of uncontrolled rework must therefore enhance inservice sustainability for ‘power-by-the-hour’ commercial aircraft operation business models. [Continues.

Project dynamics: An analysis of the purpose and value of system dynamics applied to information technology project management

Project failure in the Information Technology (IT) sector is well documented in the literature; project managers miss their target budgets and schedules more than twice as often as they meet them. Traditional project management methodologies initially developed for the large-scale engineering projects of the 1950’s, while still relevant and useful, are reductionist in nature and are therefore missing a systems approach that concentrates on knowledge creation before, during and after a project. The research presented herein will demonstrate the role of system dynamics in augmenting a project’s control processes, as well as the skill set used by the project manager. Research from a wide variety of projects within the information technology sector will be synthesized, some using system dynamics methodologies, and will serve as the basis to comparatively analyze the value added using this novel project management approach. The project dynamics and lessons learned within will illustrate the complex interactions and feedback structures inherent in all projects, as well as seek to educate project managers on their cause-effect relationships. Furthermore, the research will illustrate problematic project dynamics, using various conceptual models, and suggest the need to integrate system dynamics methodologies for project management into traditional project management processes and bodies of knowledge instead of solely relying on them as a post-mortem tool for project analysis

A Method for Improving Overlapping of Testing and Design

Testing is a critical activity in product development. The academic literature provides limited insight about overlapping between upstream testing and downstream design tasks, especially in considering the qualitative differences between activities that are overlapped. In general, the existing literature treats two overlapped sequential activities as similar, and suggests optimal overlapping policies, techniques, and time–cost assessment. However, this case study-based research identifies that the overlapping of upstream testing with downstream design activities has different characteristics than the overlapping of two design activities. This paper first analyzes the characteristics that affect the overlapping of upstream testing and downstream design activities, and then proposes a method to reduce the time of rework in cases where the upstream testing is overlapped with subsequent redesign phases