Technical Target Setting in QFD for Web Service Systems using an Artificial Neural Network

There are at least two challenges with quality management of service-oriented architecture based web service systems: 1) how to link its technical capabilities with customer\u27s needs explicitly to satisfy customers\u27 functional and nonfunctional requirements; and 2) how to determine targets of web service design attributes. Currently, the first issue is not addressed and the second one is dealt with subjectively. Quality Function Deployment (QFD), a quality management system, has found its success in improving quality of complex products although it has not been used for developing web service systems. In this paper, we analyze requirements for web services and their design attributes, and apply the QFD for developing web service systems by linking quality of service requirements to web service design attributes. A new method for technical target setting in QFD, based on an artificial neural network, is also presented. Compared with the conventional methods for technical target setting in QFD, such as benchmarking and the linear regression method, which fail to incorporate nonlinear relationships between design attributes and quality of service requirements, it sets up technical targets consistent with relationships between quality of web service requirements and design attributes, no matter whether they are linear or nonlinear

Service Engineering Based on Service Oriented Architecture Methodology

Service Engineering (SE) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) originally reside on different plateaus of discipline. SE is defined as a set of activity introducing a new business service, while SOA is a technical approach to redefine an enterprise business processes as a set of IT enabled services. This paper proposes a SOA embedded SE framework as a comprehensive approach in re-defining business service and its IT implementation. After an introduction, a review of existing SE frameworks and SOA methodologies is presented in the paper. Afterward, a complete SE framework is proposed with several results on early case studies. A survey results are then presented to prove the usability and benefit of the proposed framework. The framework is designed and proposed to help practitioners and researchers to conduct service engineering by employing principles and methodology offered by SOA approach

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

A Quality Framework for Software Development (QFSD)

INTRODUCTION. This research delivers a new complete and prescriptive software development framework, known as the Quality Framework for Software Development (QFSD) for immediate use by software development practitioners. Whilst there are a number of existing methodologies available, and many software development standards they fail to address the complete development lifecycle. A review of current literature supports this assertion. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES. The overall aim of the research is to create a new software development framework, applying it to a substantial number of real-world software projects in two different industrial software development environments and thereby demonstrating its effectiveness. METHODS. Based on a review of the available research approaches and strategies, the researcher selected 'pragmatism' as the most suitable for this research. This selection was driven by two contributory factors. The first was that in order to conduct the research the researcher would have active participation in the majority of the research activities. The second was that the deliverables from the research should be immediately useable for the benefit of software practitioners and hence not be regarded as a theoretical framework. The approach was further refined by adopting Action Research and Case Study strategies. The research was divided in to stages each of which was executed within separate companies. The companies were very different in terms of their business areas, culture and views on quality and specifically quality of software deliverables. RESULTS. The research findings provided a strong indication that a holistic software development framework does provide an improvement in software project deliverables quality and repeatability in terms of schedules and quality. In the case of Fisher–Rosemount it enabled them to attain ISO 9000/Ticket accreditation. In addition, by providing all processes and tools in a single web based environment the adoption by software developers, project managers and senior management was very high

Business process modelling in ERP implementation literature review

Business processes are the backbone of any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Business process modelling (BPM) has become essential for modern, process driven enterprises due to the vibrant business environments. As a consequence enterprises are dealing with a substantial rate of organizational and business processes change. Business process modelling enables a common understanding and analysis of the business processes, which is the first step in every ERP implementation methodology (blueprint phase). In order to represent enterprise processes models in an accurate manner, it is paramount to choose a right business process modeling technique and tool. The problem of many ERP projects rated as unsuccessful is directly connected to a lack of use of business process models and notations during the blueprint phase. Also, blueprint implementation phase is crucial in order to fit planned processes in an organization with processes implemented in the solution. However, business analysts and ERP implementation professionals have substantial difficulties to navigate through a large number of theoretical models and representational notations that have been proposed for business process modeling (BPM). As the availability of different business process modeling references is huge, it is time consuming to make review and classification of all modeling techniques. Therefor, in reality majority of ERP implementations blueprint documents have no business process modeling included in generating blueprint documents. Choosing the right model comprise the purpose of the analysis and acquaintance of the available process modelling techniques and tools. The number of references on business modelling is quit large, so it is very hard to make a decision which modeling notation or technique to use. The main purpose of this paper is to make a review of business process modelling literature and describe the key process modelling techniques. The focus will be on all business process modeling that could be used in ERP implementations, specifically during the blueprint phase of the implementation process. Detailed review of BPM (Business process modeling) theoretical models and representational notations, should assist decision makers and ERP integrators in comparatively evaluating and selecting suitable modeling approaches

Uma proposta de guia de referência para provedores de software como um serviço

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Automação e SistemasAs aplicações web vêm sendo desenvolvidas utilizando modelos abertos como SOA (Service Oriented Arquitecture) facilitando o projeto, desenvolvimento e a integração com outros sistemas. Um modelo de negócio deste contexto é o SaaS (Software como um Serviço), que é uma forma de disponibilização de software sob demanda, através da Internet, pago por uso. O mercado SaaS vem crescendo continuamente e tem atraído fornecedores de diferentes segmentos do mercado global de TI, bem como um conjunto diverso de clientes. A utilização de SaaS traz grandes desafios organizacionais, culturais e tecnológicos, necessitando de soluções que compreendam toda essa visão de SaaS. Um problema que existe hoje é a falta de informações sobre a qualidade dos serviços oferecidos pelos seus provedores, dificultando a sua contratação. Uma solução é avaliar o processo de desenvolvimento de software do provedor, visando obter informações sobre a qualidade do serviço que oferecem, aumentando a confiabilidade em sua contratação. Para isso, é necessário um modelo que possa ser utilizado como base para essas avaliações. Poderia ser exigido das empresas a utilização de modelos de referência para melhoria de processo de software ou normas já conhecidas. Porém, esses modelos são genéricos e baseados em sistemas tradicionais, sendo deficientes para a aplicação nesse novo ambiente de disponibilização de software (SaaS). Desta forma, este trabalho apresenta uma proposta de desenvolvimento de um Guia de Referência para avaliação dos provedores de serviço no modelo SaaS. Para o desenvolvimento dessa proposta, foram elicitados os requisitos de qualidade a serem verificados dos provedores. Após uma síntese e análise dos requisitos, eles foram mapeados considerando as normas e modelos de referência já existentes, e com isso, desenvolvida uma proposta de Guia de Referência para avaliação do processo de desenvolvimento de software de provedores de SaaS

From strategy to operations and vice-versa: a bridge that needs an Island

The Information Systems support particularly for Tactical Management is not an explicit or distinct term. There are many concepts and artifacts that are providing contemporary foundations for Information systems in the companies, both in theory and in practice. We tried to analyze different approaches, in order to determine their support specifically for tactical management. Out of this attempt, the realization is that these seemingly overarching bridges from Operations to Strategy and vice-versa appear to be overshooting an important island - the tactical management level, particularly in recognizing its distinct characteristics to be served with adjusted concepts and solutions. We see tactical management as the managerial function that implements strategies, by deploying and utilizing specific resources from the operational level in order to gain that specific competitive advantage prescribed in the strategy. The diversity of approaches and tools is provided for the strategic and overwhelmingly for operational management issues. This theoretical research is analyzing the specifics of the Sense-and-Respond Framework on a tactical level towards perfecting the sensing part of it (in terms of sustaining "low latency" (instead of operational "no latency") and striving for tactical need for "right-time" (instead of the current and hot operational "real-time") information), and how it is being closed in theory and practice on a strategic, tactical and operational level with 'endings'. Also, the tactical management characteristic of working in unpredicted environment and needing high adaptability, requires involvement of concepts and approaches that provide adaptability such as, in our opinion, the Sense-and-Respond managerial concept and the SIDA loop. To some extent, tactical management is being assimilated either by strategy or by operations, as this research confirms. Hopefully, we will result with increased perceptiveness that tactical management needs special theoretical and practical focus and output propositions. The specific sensing and interpreting, deciding and acting, in the role of a tactical manager is neither only automatic, data-capturing process nor a person-independent or company-independent one. If, and after this viewpoint is shared, much more efforts will be streamlined in the tactical management "how" to do "what" is expected, on theoretical and on practical level

A conceptual framework for capability sourcing modeling

Companies need to acquire the right capabilities from the right source, and the right shore, at the right cost to improve their competitive position. Capability sourcing is an organizing process to gain access to best-in-class capabilities for all activities in a firm's value chain to ensure long-term competitive advantage. Capability sourcing modeling is a technique that helps investigating sourcing alternative solutions to facilitate strategic sourcing decision making. Our position is applying conceptual models as intermediate artifacts which are schematic descriptions of sourcing alternatives based on organization's capabilities. The contribution of this paper is introducing a conceptual framework in the form of five views (to organize all perspectives) and a conceptualisation (to formulate a language) for capability sourcing modelling