Electronic Records and Business Process Oriented Management

The paper presents some ideas on how to make use of the methods to describe business processes within the change work (the organizational development) as a part of business process oriented management strategy for different aspects of the management of electronic records. Special attention is paid to the possibilities to co-ordinate the development of the methods for the description of business processes from the general management perspective with the need to develop the records management methodology in two different aspects.The first aspect is the possibility to develop the methods within the records creation area through the interaction with business process oriented management methodology. The belief of the author is that it is not possible to develop the methods for the creation of electronic records, without getting involved in the development of workflow and document management applications. The business process oriented approach to general management gives a lot of opportunities for the records manager, to define the interface between records management functionalities and other connected areas, such as workflow and document management.The other aspect discussed in the paper is the possibility to develop the methods within the records description area. As electronic records can be seen as the self created tools of the business processes within the organization and the scheduling and description of electronic records has to be a scheduling and description of these tools, the starting point for this description could be the description of the business processes made by the organization itself from a general management perspective, if the organization chooses a process oriented management strategy

Behavioral synthesis from VHDL using structured modeling

This dissertation describes work in behavioral synthesis involving the development of a VHDL Synthesis System VSS which accepts a VHDL behavioral input specification and performs technology independent synthesis to generate a circuit netlist of generic components. The VHDL language is used for input and output descriptions. An intermediate representation which incorporates signal typing and component attributes simplifies compilation and facilitates design optimization.A Structured Modeling methodology has been developed to suggest standard VHDL modeling practices for synthesis. Structured modeling provides recommendations for the use of available VHDL description styles so that optimal designs will be synthesized.A design composed of generic components is synthesized from the input description through a process of Graph Compilation, Graph Criticism, and Design Compilation. Experiments were performed to demonstrate the effects of different modeling styles on the quality of the design produced by VSS. Several alternative VHDL models were examined for each benchmark, illustrating the improvements in design quality achieved when Structured Modeling guidelines were followed

A methodology for the development of a sustainability index for construction works in Spain

The present paper tries to describe in a systematic way the process followed to develop a methodology to obtain a Sustainable Index for Construction Works in Spain. Given the complexity of the task at hand, and having into account that this is the first attempt within the Spanish construction sector to create an integrating index, the description of the process becomes indispensable in order to replicate the index in a different context –e.g. another European country-. On the other hand, the development of an index with a triple focus -economic, environmental and social-, transcending the interests of the different activities which coexist inside this sector, and joining efforts towards a common objective fills an existing gap in the Spanish construction sector, as it will be shown. The proposed index aims at establishing, on a permanent basis, a common reference for the assessment of sustainability within this sector, to the improvement of which all parties involved could and should contribute

Soft systems methodology analysis for scoping in environmental impact statement in Israel

The current working paper will focus on Soft System Methodology (SSM) analysis of the process of issuing guidelines for Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) to developers in the Israeli context. The paper’s goal is to make the reader familiar with the terminology and the concepts of SSM, while serving as a case study for practising SSM. The paper starts with a “crash” introduction to SSM, followed by a general description of the process in the centre of the discussion - the Israeli EIS process. After these two introductory sections, the paper turns to the main issue - a SSM analysis of the problem situation - the creation of guidelines for EIS in the Israeli context. This specific case study have been selected due to the author’s familiarity with it (is served as the main research field for his MA thesis). Also the author has the shorthand transcripts from a series workshops that were held as part of an evaluation study that the environmental planning department in the ministry of environment (EPD-MoE) have commissioned on the Israeli EIS system. Unless stated otherwise, the sources for SSM are “Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools” (Avison and Fitzgerald, 1995), “Practical Soft Systems Analysis” (Patching, 1990), on-line lecture notes for the UCL “System Analysis and Design” course (Sasse and Fultun, 1997) and “Soft Systems Methodology: An Alternative Approach to Knowledge Elicitation in Complex and Poorly Defined Systems” (Finegan, 1994)

Faculty Development Program in Dokuz Eylül School of Medicine: In the process of curriculum change from traditional to PBL

Introduction: In Dokuz Eylül School of Medicine (DESM) a faculty development program is being carried out by the "Trainers' Training Committee". DESM made a fundamental change in its curriculum from traditional to Problem-based Learning (PBL) in 1997. This was the first implementation of a PBL curriculum in Turkey. Faculty development activities were initiated in the same year. This paper describes the faculty development activities with a special emphasis on PBL courses. Program description: Between 1997-2000 27 four-day long PBL courses were held for 343 participants. The curriculum consisted of PBL philosophy, PBL steps, role of the tutor and students in PBL process, effective case design, assessment principles and group dynamics. PBL simulations enabled the participants to play the roles of both tutors and students. Process evaluation: At the end of the program most of the participants stated that length of the program, content, training methods and the course organization was appropriate. The majority of the participants (89.5%) found the program very useful. PBL steps, PBL practices and PBL philosophy were found as the most useful sessions. Discussion: These courses gave medical staff the opportunity to develop their understanding of PBL methodology and theory. PBL courses and continuous educational activities such as weekly tutor meetings are being held and new courses on advanced tutoring skills are being planned for the near future in DESM

Software engineering and Ada in design

Modern software engineering promises significant reductions in software costs and improvements in software quality. The Ada language is the focus for these software methodology and tool improvements. The IBM FSD approach, including the software engineering practices that guide the systematic design and development of software products and the management of the software process are examined. The revised Ada design language adaptation is revealed. This four level design methodology is detailed including the purpose of each level, the management strategy that integrates the software design activity with the program milestones, and the technical strategy that maps the Ada constructs to each level of design. A complete description of each design level is provided along with specific design language recording guidelines for each level. Finally, some testimony is offered on education, tools, architecture, and metrics resulting from project use of the four level Ada design language adaptation

AUTOSAR methodology and tools applied on two OEM use-cases

International audienceThis paper presents an implementation of the AUTOSAR methodology based on two use- cases, each of them are derived from an OEM need, as follows:1) Set up of a collaborative exchange process between OEM and suppliers for the development of AUTOSAR applications.2) Integration of AUTOSAR software components in a conventional EE architectureThe role and contribution of authoring and configuration tools used in the AUTOSAR methodology will be presented and illustrated for both use cases; in particular, the paper will highlight the added value of these tools according to the process by showing their strengths and weaknesses. Mechanisms which have been used to connect proper links and to improve consistency between the various description files which are generated at each step of the AUTOSAR methodology, but also between these description files themselves and the vehicle data; the paper will describe the intrinsic merits of the technology which has been used to develop the tool suite, based on the upcoming Eclipse Framework

The Starlight Ballroom: A Documentary Drama From conception to production

This thesis documents the stages of development undertaken to produce The Starlight Ballroom- A documentary drama. A play devised by drawing on documentary theatre practice and methodology. Drawing on the literature of this genre, the thesis presents a historical perspective of the development of documentary theatre practice, from its origins in the work of Piscator through to the work of modern practitioners. This provides the context from which I have drawn my ideology and methodology. Definitions of documentary theatre are presented and issues regarding the authenticity and integrity of various forms of documentary theatre are discussed. I also present a rationale for the creation of The Starlight Ballroom with reference to theoretical and practitioner influence. The first methodology section details the scriptwriting process; providing a dramaturgical analysis of the play; and presenting a rationale supporting the choice of the particular playtext. The second methodology section details the production process from script to performance. This presents a description of the development of the rehearsal script during rehearsals and the development of the style and structure of the play. The conclusion analyses the extent to which my intentions in creating The Starlight Ballroom- A documentary drama were met, and reviews areas in which further development could be applied

Categorizing Mobile Health Project Evaluation Techniques

Mobile health has received some serious attention in research and development community. Although very promising, the evaluation of mobile health is one major challenge without much guidance on what evaluation techniques are appropriate and when in numerous scenarios. To address this challenge, we create a taxonomy of evaluation techniques from a sample of 64 mobile health (mHealth) projects. The research problem and scope is first defined through a literature review on the fields of mobile health and project evaluation. This is followed by a description of the methodology of taxonomy development and a description of the categorization process of the observed evaluation techniques from the sample. Following creation of an initial taxonomy, we present the findings from the categorization process and discuss their implications on both the mHealth and project evaluation fields