Requirements Management Tools: A Quantitative Assessment

This report is primarily aimed at people with some background in Requirements Engineering or practitioners wishing to assess tools available for managing requirements. We provide a starting point for this assessment, by presenting a brief survey of existing Requirements Management tools. As a part of the survey, we characterize a set of requirements management tools by outlining their features, capabilities and goals. The characterization offers a foundation to select and possibly customize a requirements engineering tool for a software project. This report consists of three parts. In Part I we define the terms requirements and requirements engineering and briefly point out the main components of the requirements engineering process. In Part II, we survey the characteristics and capabilities of 6 popular requirements management tools, available in the market. We enumerate the salient features of each of theses tools. In Part III, we briefly describe a Synergistic Environment for Requirement Generation. This environment captures additional tools augmenting the requirements generation process. A description of these tools is provided. In the concluding section, we present a discussion defining the ideal set of characteristics that should be embodied in a requirements management tool. This report is adapted from a compendium of assignments that were prepared by the students in a Requirements Engineering class offered in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech

Análise das políticas de partilha de custos no ensino superior etíope

Mestrado em Ensino Superior - Erasmus MundusOne major problem governments of the world and particularly governments of the developing countries have faced is the issue of how to reform the finance of higher education in response to the interconnected pressures of rising higher education enrollment (massification) and the incompatible public budget. The last three or four decades have witnessed major changes in the way both developed and developing countries‘ higher education is financed. Governments and higher education institutions have grappled with the problem of financing massified higher education system while public expenditure for education has failed to keep pace or in some cases declined. Backed by such objectives and economic arguments as higher education rates of return, equity, and efficiency, higher education massification has caused far-reaching, country and institution specific, turbulent reform processes and one of these is the higher education financial reform. Massification has exerted financial pressure on the public revenue and caused the inescapable higher education financial austerity, which is more pronounced and exhibited in the developing countries. The perception and the subsequent introduction of cost sharing, in the form of tuition fee, other fees and user charges where higher education was previously offered for free and the substantial increase in tuition fees in several countries where they did previously exist, is partly the result of the higher education financial pressure. This has been the product of escalating higher education enrollment, less revenue, and the rising of unit cost. Arguably, cost sharing has been adhered and favored for its role in promoting higher education efficiency and equity as well. Four parties are in the frontline in sharing the cost of higher education. These are students, parents, governments and donors. Private investors also share the burden of the growing higher education demand. The tendency of introducing payments for higher education, significant increases in tuition fees, and the change of student aid systems from grants to loans has been the source of controversy and debates, which have become negative dowries for the implementation of the policy of cost sharing, in many countries. Moreover, the effort of cost sharing policy implementation, in many developing countries has been frustrated by many other national and international factors. This study is trying to analyze, benchmarking developing countries and with specific reference to Ethiopia, the concept of cost sharing, the rationales of cost sharing and highlights the major features of cost sharing policy implementations.Um grande problema dos governos dos governos do mundo e particularmente dos países em desenvolvimento têm enfrentado é a questão de como a reforma do financiamento do ensino superior em resposta às pressões crescentes interligada de inscrição do ensino superior (massificação) e do orçamento incompatível público. Os últimos três ou quatro décadas testemunharam grandes mudanças na maneira como a educação tanto nos países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento maior é financiado. Os governos e as instituições de ensino superior têm se confrontado com o problema do financiamento massificada sistema de ensino superior, enquanto a despesa pública para a educação não conseguiu manter o ritmo ou, em alguns casos diminuiu. Apoiado por esses objectivos e argumentos econômicos como as taxas de retorno do ensino superior, equidade e eficiência, a massificação do ensino superior tem provocado profundas, o país ea instituição específica, os processos de reforma turbulento e uma delas é a reforma do ensino superior financeiros. Massificação exerceu pressão financeira sobre a receita pública e causou a austeridade de ensino superior inescapável financeira, que é mais pronunciado e exibido em países em desenvolvimento. A percepção ea subsequente introdução da partilha de custos, na forma de propinas, taxas e outros encargos do usuário onde o ensino superior foi anteriormente oferecido gratuitamente eo aumento substancial das propinas em vários países onde existiam anteriormente, é em parte resultado da maior pressão de educação financeira. Este tem sido o produto de uma escalada de matrícula do ensino superior, menos receitas, bem como a subida do custo unitário. Indiscutivelmente, a partilha dos custos tem sido respeitado e favorecido por seu papel na promoção da eficiência e equidade do ensino superior também. Quatro partidos estão na linha da frente na distribuição dos custos do ensino superior. Estes são os alunos, pais, governos e doadores. Os investidores privados também partilhar os encargos da demanda crescente de educação superior. A tendência de introdução de pagamentos para o ensino superior, um aumento significativo das propinas ea alteração dos regimes de auxílio estudantil de subvenções ao crédito tem sido fonte de controvérsias e debates, que tornaram-se os dotes negativos para a execução da política de partilha dos custos, em muitos países. Além disso, o esforço de implementação da política de partilha de custos, em muitos países em desenvolvimento tem sido frustrados por muitos outros factores nacionais e internacionais. Este estudo é tentar analisar, a análise comparativa dos países em desenvolvimento e com referência específica à Etiópia, o conceito de partilha de custos, as lógicas de partilha de custos e destaca as principais características de implementações de políticas de partilha de custos

Urban Governance and Finance in India

Over 330 million people live in Indias cities; 35 cities have a population of over a million and three (Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata) of the 10 largest metropolises in the world are in India. Indias cities are large, economically important, and growing. However, neither urban infrastructure nor the level of urban public services is adequate for current needs, let alone to meet growing demands. Dealing with this problem is a formidable challenge. Not only must adequate finance for the provision of services be found but it is critical to ensure that the money spent results in desired outputs and outcomes. To do so, local governance structures also need to be reformed and strengthened. This paper attempts to point the way towards some possible solutions by analysing urban governance and finance in India in the context of lessons drawn from fiscal federalism theory and experiences of governance institutions and financing systems both in India and around the world. No one system of urban governance is likely to work equally well for all urban local bodies. However, the paper identifies some key reforms required to realise both the constitutional intent to encourage citizen participation in urban governance and the economic and politically desirable goal of ensuring greater accountability of urban governments. For example, the paper draws attention to existing ambiguities in the assignment system and underlines the need to undertake activity mapping to ensure clarity as well as to make independent agencies significantly accountable to elected governments in urban areas. The paper also discusses a variety of ways of augmenting the resources of the municipal bodies in the country including essential reforms in the property tax system and adequate exploitation of user charges and fees for various services delivered as well as ways of strengthening and improving Central and State transfers to urban local governments. With respect to financing urban infrastructure, development charges should be used more effectively. More should also be done to utilise public lands more effectively. In addition, to a considerable extent capital expenditure requirements will have to be financed through borrowing so further development of the municipal bond market is important, as is more and more effective use of public private partnerships in some areas.India, urban public finance, urban governance, intergovernmental fiscal relations, property tax, Metropolitan areas, infrastructure finance

Urban governance and finance in India.

Over 330 million people live in India's cities; 35 cities have a population of over a million and three (Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata) of the 10 largest metropolises in the world are in India. India's cities are large, economically important, and growing. However, neither urban infrastructure nor the level of urban public services is adequate for current needs, let alone to meet growing demands. Dealing with this problem is a formidable challenge. Not only must adequate finance for the provision of services be found but it is critical to ensure that the money spent results in desired outputs and outcomes. To do so, local governance structures also need to be reformed and strengthened. This paper attempts to point the way towards some possible solutions by analysing urban governance and finance in India in the context of lessons drawn from fiscal federalism theory and experiences of governance institutions and financing systems both in India and around the world. No one system of urban governance is likely to work equally well for all urban local bodies. However, the paper identifies some key reforms required to realise both the constitutional intent to encourage citizen participation in urban governance and the economic and politically desirable goal of ensuring greater accountability of urban governments. For example, the paper draws attention to existing ambiguities in the assignment system and underlines the need to undertake activity mapping to ensure clarity as well as to make independent agencies significantly accountable to elected governments in urban areas. The paper also discusses a variety of ways of augmenting the resources of the municipal bodies in the country including essential reforms in the property tax system and adequate exploitation of user charges and fees for various services delivered as well as ways of strengthening and improving Central and State transfers to urban local governments. With respect to financing urban infrastructure, development charges should be used more effectively. More should also be done to utilise public lands more effectively. In addition, to a considerable extent capital expenditure requirements will have to be financed through borrowing so further development of the municipal bond market is important, as is more and more effective use of public private partnerships in some areas.India, Urban public finance, Urban governance, Intergovernmental fiscal relations, Property tax, Metropolitan areas, Infrastructure finance

Rationale management in project planning and control

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1994, and Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-148).by Zakia Rahmouna Zerhouni.M.S

Robotics and automation in the city: a research agenda

Globally cities are becoming experimental sites for new forms of robotic and automation technologies applied across a wide variety of sectors in multiple areas of economic and social life. As these innovations leave the laboratory and factory, this paper analyses how robotics and automation systems are being layered upon existing urban digital networks, extending the capabilities and capacities of human agency and infrastructure networks, and reshaping the city and citizen’s everyday experiences. To date, most work in this field has been speculative and isolated in nature. We set out a research agenda that goes beyond analysis of discrete applications and effects, to investigate how robotics and automation connect across urban domains and the implications for: differential urban geographies, the selective enhancement of individuals and collective management of infrastructures, the socio-spatial sorting of cities and the potential for responsible urban innovation