Methodological approaches and techniques for designing ontologies in information systems requirements engineering

Programa doutoral em Information Systems and TechnologyThe way we interact with the world around us is changing as new challenges arise, embracing innovative business models, rethinking the organization and processes to maximize results, and evolving change management. Currently, and considering the projects executed, the methodologies used do not fully respond to the companies' needs. On the one hand, organizations are not familiar with the languages used in Information Systems, and on the other hand, they are often unable to validate requirements or business models. These are some of the difficulties encountered that lead us to think about formulating a new approach. Thus, the state of the art presented in this paper includes a study of the models involved in the software development process, where traditional methods and the rivalry of agile methods are present. In addition, a survey is made about Ontologies and what methods exist to conceive, transform, and represent them. Thus, after analyzing some of the various possibilities currently available, we began the process of evolving a method and developing an approach that would allow us to design ontologies. The method we evolved and adapted will allow us to derive terminologies from a specific domain, aggregating them in order to facilitate the construction of a catalog of terminologies. Next, the definition of an approach to designing ontologies will allow the construction of a domain-specific ontology. This approach allows in the first instance to integrate and store the data from different information systems of a given organization. In a second instance, the rules for mapping and building the ontology database are defined. Finally, a technological architecture is also proposed that will allow the mapping of an ontology through the construction of complex networks, allowing mapping and relating terminologies. This doctoral work encompasses numerous Research & Development (R&D) projects belonging to different domains such as Software Industry, Textile Industry, Robotic Industry and Smart Cities. Finally, a critical and descriptive analysis of the work done is performed, and we also point out perspectives for possible future work.A forma como interagimos com o mundo à nossa volta está a mudar à medida que novos desafios surgem, abraçando modelos empresariais inovadores, repensando a organização e os processos para maximizar os resultados, e evoluindo a gestão da mudança. Atualmente, e considerando os projetos executados, as metodologias utilizadas não respondem na totalidade às necessidades das empresas. Por um lado, as organizações não estão familiarizadas com as linguagens utilizadas nos Sistemas de Informação, por outro lado, são muitas vezes incapazes de validar requisitos ou modelos de negócio. Estas são algumas das dificuldades encontradas que nos levam a pensar na formulação de uma nova abordagem. Assim, o estado da arte apresentado neste documento inclui um estudo dos modelos envolvidos no processo de desenvolvimento de software, onde os métodos tradicionais e a rivalidade de métodos ágeis estão presentes. Além disso, é efetuado um levantamento sobre Ontologias e quais os métodos existentes para as conceber, transformar e representar. Assim, e após analisarmos algumas das várias possibilidades atualmente disponíveis, iniciou-se o processo de evolução de um método e desenvolvimento de uma abordagem que nos permitisse conceber ontologias. O método que evoluímos e adaptamos permitirá derivar terminologias de um domínio específico, agregando-as de forma a facilitar a construção de um catálogo de terminologias. Em seguida, a definição de uma abordagem para conceber ontologias permitirá a construção de uma ontologia de um domínio específico. Esta abordagem permite em primeira instância, integrar e armazenar os dados de diferentes sistemas de informação de uma determinada organização. Num segundo momento, são definidas as regras para o mapeamento e construção da base de dados ontológica. Finalmente, é também proposta uma arquitetura tecnológica que permitirá efetuar o mapeamento de uma ontologia através da construção de redes complexas, permitindo mapear e relacionar terminologias. Este trabalho de doutoramento engloba inúmeros projetos de Investigação & Desenvolvimento (I&D) pertencentes a diferentes domínios como por exemplo Indústria de Software, Indústria Têxtil, Indústria Robótica e Smart Cities. Finalmente, é realizada uma análise critica e descritiva do trabalho realizado, sendo que apontamos ainda perspetivas de possíveis trabalhos futuros

The benefits and challenges of integrating ERP and Business Intelligence

Organizations have invested a significant amount of resources in the implementation of Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. In today’s competitive business environment, ERP and BI have become vital strategic tools, which impact directly on the success of any project implementation. The benefit of combining ERP and BI is that BI systems add intelligence into ERP data. The IT performance and decision-making capability inside the organization can be significantly improved by integrating ERP and BI systems. There has been given little attention to the integration of Enterprise Resource Planning and Business Intelligence (BIERP). Even though there have been studies which explain the integration of these systems, the literature is still classified as diversified and fragmented. This study attempts to review and evaluate articles which are related to the integration of BI and ERP. This study aims to examine how does the integration between ERP and BI systems affects businesses performance and what are the benefits and challenges of integrating these systems. The thesis was carried out as an empirical, qualitative case study, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Five interviews were conducted, four different companies and six people were interviewed from relevant departments for this topic. Observations and interviews indicate that the concept of direct integration between ERP and BI is quite outdated. In order to ensure that data is transferred and stored between the two programs effectively, different software has been introduced between ERP and BI today as a result of technological advancements.In the studied companies, the integration of ERP and BI does not always go smoothly, and companies have run into various issues in this area. For instance, maintaining the increased data volume, problems with data accuracy, and technical compatibility are challenges related to ERP BI integration. The empirical data also shows that ERP BI integration has many benefits. For example, it can enhance reporting, decision-making, and process efficiency because of its automation features. For instance, it can provide up-to-date reports on key performance indicators in real-time. Furthermore, because the company's figures now arrive automatically thanks to ERP BI integration, employees of the company now spend less time performing routine tasks, freeing them up to concentrate more on data analysis.Organisaatiot ovat investoineet huomattavan paljon resursseja Business Intelligence (BI) - ja Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) -järjestelmien käyttöönottoon. Nykyisessä kilpailullisessa liiketoimintaympäristössä ERP- ja BI-järjestelmistä on tullut elintärkeitä strategisia välineitä, jotka vaikuttavat suoraan minkä tahansa hankkeen toteutuksen onnistumiseen. ERP- ja BI-järjestelmien yhdistämisen etuna on, että BI-järjestelmät lisäävät ERP-tietoihin älykkyyttä. Organisaation sisäistä tietoteknistä suorituskykyä ja päätöksentekokykyä voidaan parantaa merkittävästi integroimalla ERP- ja BI-järjestelmät. Kirjallisuudessa yritysresurssien suunnitte-lun ja Business Intelligence -järjestelmien integrointiin on kiinnitetty vain vähän huomiota. Vaikka näiden järjestelmien integrointia selittäviä tutkimuksia on tehty, kirjallisuus on edel-leen luokiteltu hajanaiseksi. Tässä tutkimuksessa pyritään tarkastelemaan ja arvioimaan ar-tikkeleita, jotka liittyvät BI:n ja ERP:n integrointiin. Tutkimuksessa pyritään selvittämään, mi-ten ERP- ja BI-järjestelmien integrointi vaikuttaa yritysten suorituskykyyn ja mitkä ovat näi-den järjestelmien integroinnin hyödyt ja haasteet. Tutkielma toteutettiin empiirisenä, laadullisena case-tutkimuksena, ja aineiston keräämiseen käytettiin puolistrukturoituja haastatteluita. Haastatteluja tehtiin viisi, neljää eri yritystä ja kuutta henkilöä haastateltiin tämän aiheen kannalta merkityksellisiltä osastoilta. Havainnot ja haastattelut osoittavat, että käsite ERP:n ja BI:n välisestä suorasta integroinnista on melko vanhentunut. Sen varmistamiseksi, että tiedot siirretään ja tallennetaan tehokkaasti näiden kahden ohjelman välillä, ERP- ja BI-ohjelmien välille on nykyään otettu käyttöön erilaisia oh-jelmistoja teknisen kehityksen ansiosta. Tutkituissa yrityksissä ERP:n ja BI:n integrointi ei aina suju ongelmitta, ja yritykset ovat törmänneet erilaisiin ongelmiin tällä alalla. Esimerkiksi li-sääntyneen tietomäärän ylläpitäminen, tietojen tarkkuuteen liittyvät ongelmat ja tekninen yhteensopivuus ovat ERP BI -integraatioon liittyviä haasteita. Empiiriset havainnot osoittavat myös, että ERP BI -integraatiolla on monia etuja. Se voi esimerkiksi parantaa raportointia, päätöksentekoa ja prosessien tehokkuutta automaatio-ominaisuuksiensa ansiosta. Se voi esimerkiksi tarjota ajantasaisia raportteja keskeisistä suorituskykyindikaattoreista reaaliajas-sa. Koska yrityksen luvut tulevat nyt automaattisesti ERP BI -integraation ansiosta, yrityksen työntekijät käyttävät vähemmän aikaa rutiinitehtävien suorittamiseen, jolloin he voivat kes-kittyä enemmän tietojen analysointiin

DEVELOPMENT OF A QUALITY MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT TOOL TO EVALUATE SOFTWARE USING SOFTWARE QUALITY MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES

Organizations are constantly in search of competitive advantages in today’s complex global marketplace through improvement of quality, better affordability, and quicker delivery of products and services. This is significantly true for software as a product and service. With other things being equal, the quality of software will impact consumers, organizations, and nations. The quality and efficiency of the process utilized to create and deploy software can result in cost and schedule overruns, cancelled projects, loss of revenue, loss of market share, and loss of consumer confidence. Hence, it behooves us to constantly explore quality management strategies to deliver high quality software quickly at an affordable price. This research identifies software quality management best practices derived from scholarly literature using bibliometric techniques in conjunction with literature review, synthesizes these best practices into an assessment tool for industrial practitioners, refines the assessment tool based on academic expert review, further refines the assessment tool based on a pilot test with industry experts, and undertakes industry expert validation. Key elements of this software quality assessment tool include issues dealing with people, organizational environment, process, and technology best practices. Additionally, weights were assigned to issues of people, organizational environment, process, and technology best practices based on their relative importance, to calculate an overall weighted score for organizations to evaluate where they stand with respect to their peers in pursuing the business of producing quality software. This research study indicates that people best practices carry 40% of overall weight, organizational best v practices carry 30% of overall weight, process best practices carry 15% of overall weight, and technology best practices carry 15% of overall weight. The assessment tool that is developed will be valuable to organizations that seek to take advantage of rapid innovations in pursuing higher software quality. These organizations can use the assessment tool for implementing best practices based on the latest cutting edge management strategies that can lead to improved software quality and other competitive advantages in the global marketplace. This research contributed to the current academic literature in software quality by presenting a quality assessment tool based on software quality management best practices, contributed to the body of knowledge on software quality management, and expanded the knowledgebase on quality management practices. This research also contributed to current professional practice by incorporating software quality management best practices into a quality management assessment tool to evaluate software

The Digitization of Court Processes in African Regional and Subregional Judicial Institutions

Despite information technology (IT) officers’ multiple efforts to develop reliable and efficient electronic justice (e-justice) systems, digitizing court processes still presents several quality challenges associated with IT infrastructure and literacy issues. Grounded in the principles of total quality management, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to identify strategies and best practices IT officers in African regional economic communities (REC) use for digitizing regional and subregional court processes to improve African e-justice systems. The participants included four IT officers working as assistant computer system analysts (ACSA), computer system analysts (CSA), and heads of IT (HIT) in regional and subregional courts of justice with digitized court processes and located in Eastern Africa. Semistructured interviews were conducted with one ACSA, one CSA, and 2 HITs; in addition, 34 organizational documents were gathered from three case organizations and analyzed. Six main themes emerged from the thematic data analysis: involve and collaborate with all the stakeholders, formulate system requirements based on end users’ needs, design the system based on a validated blueprint, create and implement a training plan, use ICT policies and procedures to achieve quality, and use an IT service helpdesk to achieve end users’ satisfaction. A key recommendation is for IT officers to use end users’ perception and satisfaction as quality indicators in identifying strategies for digitizing regional and subregional court processes to improve African e-justice systems. The implications for positive social change include the potential to improve court employees\u27 job performance, facilitate access to judicial services in African RECs, and reduce case processing delays for African REC citizens

Human-Machine Collaboration in Healthcare Innovation

Almost every individual has visited a healthcare institute, whether for an annual checkup, surgery, or a nursing home. Ensuring healthcare institutes are using human-machine collaboration systems correctly can improve daily operations. A maturity assessment and an implementation plan have been developed to help healthcare institutes monitor the human-machine collaboration systems. A maturity model, the Smart Maturity Model for Health Care (SMMHC), is a tool designed for maturity assessment. A four-step implementation plan was also created in this research. The implementation plan views the maturity of the institute and develops a strategy on how to improve it. The research utilized Integrated Definition (IDEF), Zachman Framework, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) analysis, surveys, and Systematic Design to design the SMMHC. Use cases and case studies were utilized to create the implementation plan. One use case and two case studies were conducted to validate and verify the SMMHC and the four-step implementation plan. The use case illustrated a hypothetical situation using the SMMHC and helped develop the implementation plan. The two case studies show how hospitals can utilize the SMMHC and the implementation plan. The first case study completed at Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) Detroit campus shows that the hospital is only operating at the third maturity level. The second case study shows that Erie Shores Hospital (ESH) only works at the first maturity level. Implementation strategies were given to the two hospitals in the case study on how to improve. This research shows how healthcare institutes can utilize these tools to improve operations and become more efficient with human-machine collaboration systems

Investigating the relationship between software process improvement, situational change, and business success in software SMEs

While we have learned a great deal from Software Process Improvement (SPI) research to date, no earlier study has been designed from the outset to examine the relationship between SPI and business success in software development small- to- medium- sized companies (software SMEs). Since business processes are generally acknowledged as having an important role to play in supporting business success, it follows that the software development process (a large and complex component of the overall business process) has an important contribution to make in supporting business success in software development companies. However, to date we have very little evidence regarding the role of SPI in supporting business success, especially for software SMEs. The need for SPI is dependent on the extent of situational change in a software development setting, and therefore any examination of the relationship between SPI and business success would be deficient if it did not also examine the extent of situational change. Therefore, this thesis describes a novel approach to examining SPI, situational change and business success in software development companies. Furthermore, having discharged this new approach to 15 software SMEs, this thesis makes the important new discovery that the amount of SPI implemented in a software SME is positively associated with the extent of business success – especially when the degree of situational change is taken into account. This thesis describes the first published study to examine the relationship between SPI, situational change and business success in software SMEs. The findings suggest that there are business benefits to implementing SPI in software SMEs, with the degree of situational change being an important factor informing SPI initiatives. Furthermore, this research has yielded valuable new insights into the nature of SPI, situational change and business success in software SMEs

Modeling & Simulation Education for the Acquisition and T&E Workforce: FY07 Deliverable Package

This report was prepared for CAPT Mike Lilienthal, PhD, CPE, and funded by ASN (RDA) CHENG and the Modeling and Simulation Coordination Office (MSCO).This technical report presents the deliverables for calendar year 2007 for the "Educating the Modeling and Simulation Workforce" project performed for the DoD Modeling and Simulation Steering Committee. It includes the results for spirals one and two. Spiral one is an analysis of the educational needs of the program manager, systems engineer, and test and evaluation workforces against a set of educational skill requirements developed by the project team. This is referred to as the 'learning matrix'. Spiral two is a set of module and course matrices, along with delivery options, that meets the educational needs indentified in spiral one. This is referred to as the 'learning architecture'. Supporting materials, such as case studies and a handbook, are included. These documents serve as the design framework for spirals three and four, to be completed in CY2008, and which involve the actual production and testing of the courses in the learning architecture and their longitudinal assessment. This report includes the creative work of a seven university consortium and a group of M&S stake-holders, together comprising over 60 personnel.ASN (RDA) CHENG and the Modeling and Simulation Coordination Office (MSCO).This report was prepared for CAPT Mike Lilienthal, PhD, CPE, and funded by ASN (RDA) CHENG and the Modeling and Simulation Coordination Office (MSCO)