Managing Product Line Asset Bases

Product lines are predicated on collecting assets common to the desired product portfolio, commonly known as the asset base. For many product lines, the size of asset base has become large enough to create a variety of difficulties. The techniques for managing large product line asset bases are unaddressed in the literature. This research presents new techniques that take advantage of asset base characteristics, unavailable in more general collections, to both reduce the number of assets and to organize the asset base that go beyond what is possible with other software collections. The result is an asset base that is more efficient to use. Research related to improving the organization of the asset base was performed by taking the component assets of a research SPL and arranging them based on three different organizational criteria - according to the structure of the architecture, important abstractions (Key Domain Abstractions), and product features. The three resulting organizations were then studied using four evaluation criteria - natural division of assets into groups (assets fit into the groups provided by the organization), easy to map assets to organization criteria (mapping between the selection of a particular product variant and the assets needed to produce it), reasonably sized groups, and similarly sized groups. The effectiveness of the different organizations was then compared and recommendations concerning asset base organization provided. The literature indicates that large product lines are likely to contain multiple assets that provide the same functionality, but that differ in the program context that they support. The presence of the duplicative assets creates a number of problems including organization difficulties. In a SPL these differences in program context are the result of requirements expressed at the product`s variation points. The limited differences in program context make it practical to attempt to provide a modular solution which permits the desired variation to be assembled as needed. The research explored a number of different implementation mechanisms to provide these modular variation points. The result is a recommendation on how to implement SPL variation points provided in the form of a pattern language

Open educational resources : conversations in cyberspace

172 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.Libro ElectrónicoEducation systems today face two major challenges: expanding the reach of education and improving its quality. Traditional solutions will not suffice, especially in the context of today's knowledge-intensive societies. The Open Educational Resources movement offers one solution for extending the reach of education and expanding learning opportunities. The goal of the movement is to equalize access to knowledge worldwide through openly and freely available online high-quality content. Over the course of two years, the international community came together in a series of online discussion forums to discuss the concept of Open Educational Resources and its potential. This publication makes the background papers and reports from those discussions available in print.--Publisher's description.A first forum : presenting the open educational resources (OER) movement. Open educational resources : an introductory note / Sally Johnstone -- Providing OER and related issues : an introductory note / Anne Margulies, ... [et al.] -- Using OER and related issues : in introductory note / Mohammed-Nabil Sabry, ... [et al.] -- Discussion highlights / Paul Albright -- Ongoing discussion. A research agenda for OER : discussion highlights / Kim Tucker and Peter Bateman -- A 'do-it-yourself' resource for OER : discussion highlights / Boris Vukovic -- Free and open source software (FOSS) and OER -- A second forum : discussing the OECD study of OER. Mapping procedures and users / Jan Hylén -- Why individuals and institutions share and use OER / Jan Hylén -- Discussion highlights / Alexa Joyce -- Priorities for action. Open educational resources : the way forward / Susan D'Antoni

An Effective Knowledge Management Environment Based on Knowledge Grid in Business Organizations

Ongoing transition of most of business enterprises to knowledge-based ones is a watershed event in the evolution of the global knowledge economies. This transition marks a paradigmatic shift from energy- based economies with traditional factors of production to information-based economies based upon knowledge assets. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is to develop a theoretical and pragmatic architecture of knowledge management system based on Knowledge Grid for better implementing knowledge management (KM) in business organizations to facilitate their vision of sustainable growth and development. This paper objectively analyzes the environmental problems that most of those enterprises, especially those knowledge-based ones have to face up in such a distributed, increasingly changing environment. Also the critical situations of knowledge management in those business organizations are outlined. Then a new theory about knowledge management, namely, knowledge systems engineering in introduced, which paves the way for better understanding knowledge management and lays the groundwork for constructing a more valid architecture of knowledge management system. And a new architecture of knowledge management system based on knowledge grid is proposed to solve those problems mentioned above, which may provide not only a friendly user interface for end-users to easily access and manage many kinds of Web resources but also a platform for those business organizations to successfully implementing knowledge management

A Platform-based Design Approach for Flexible Software Components

We develop a design method that promotes flexible component design based on a common component platform with various plug-ins. The approach increases the flexibility and expandability of software components, which improves their reuse opportunities. We argue that such a flexible component design can expand reuse from relatively small infrastructure items, such as user interfaces, printing functionality, and data access modules, to the core of the application domain. Reusing such domain-specific items helps realize the true value of component-based software development. Following a design science research approach, we evaluated the component design method by assessing its correctness and its application to different scenarios. We also recruited a panel of experts to assess it

Masters in Serious Games Curriculum Framework

Thin, A. G., Lim, T., Louchart, S., De Gloria, A., Mayer, I., Kickmeier-Rust, M., Klamma, R., VeltKamp, R., Arnab, S., Bellotti, F., Boyle, L., Prada, R., Westera, W., Nadolski, R., & Abbas Petersen, S. (2013). Masters in Serious Games Curriculum Framework. Deliverable 5.3 of the Games and Learning Alliance Network of Excellence. Available at http://www.seriousgamessociety.org/download/SGMastersFwk.pdf.This report outlines a European Masters of Science programme on serious gaming.This report is a deliverable of the GALA project, which is sponsored by the the FP7 Programme of the European Commissio

Domain architecture a design framework for system development and integration

The ever growing complexity of software systems has revealed many short-comings in existing software engineering practices and has raised interest in architecture-driven software development. A system\u27s architecture provides a model of the system that suppresses implementation detail, allowing the architects to concentrate on the analysis and decisions that are most critical to structuring the system to satisfy its requirements. Recently, interests of researchers and practi-tioners have shifted from individual system architectures to architectures for classes of software systems which provide more general, reusable solutions to the issues of overall system organization, interoperability, and allocation of services to system components. These generic architectures, such as product line architectures and domain architectures, promote reuse and interoperability, and create a basis for cost effective construction of high-quality systems. Our focus in this dissertation is on domain architectures as a means of development and integration of large-scale, domain-specific business software systems. Business imperatives, including flexibility, productivity, quality, and ability to adapt to changes, have fostered demands for flexible, coherent and enterprise--wide integrated business systems. The components of such systems, developed separately or purchased off the shelf, need to cohesively form an overall compu-tational environment for the business. The inevitable complexity of such integrated solutions and the highly-demanding process of their construction, management, and evolution support require new software engineering methodologies and tools. Domain architectures, prescribing the organization of software systems in a business domain, hold a promise to serve as a foundation on which such integrated business systems can be effectively constructed. To meet the above expectations, software architectures must be properly defined, represented, and applied, which requires suitable methodologies as well as process and tool support. Despite research efforts, however, state-of-the-art methods and tools for architecture-based system development do not yet meet the practical needs of system developers. The primary focus of this dissertation is on developing methods and tools to support domain architecture engineering and on leveraging architectures to achieve improved system development and integration in presence of increased complexity. In particular, the thesis explores issues related to the following three aspects of software technology: system complexity and software architectures as tools to alleviate complexity; domain architectures as frameworks for construction of large scale, flexible, enterprise-wide software systems; and architectural models and representation techniques as a basis for good” design. The thesis presents an archi-tectural taxonomy to help categorize and better understand architectural efforts. Furthermore, it clarifies the purpose of domain architectures and characterizes them in detail. To support the definition and application of domain architectures we have developed a method for domain architecture engineering and representation: GARM-ASPECT. GARM, the Generic Architecture Reference Model, underlying the method, is a system of modeling abstractions, relations and recommendations for building representations of reference software architectures. The model\u27s focus on reference and domain architectures determines its main distinguishing features: multiple views of architectural elements, a separate rule system to express constraints on architecture element types, and annotations such as “libraries” of patterns and “logs” of guidelines. ASPECT is an architecture description language based on GARM. It provides a normalized vocabulary for representing the skeleton of an architecture, its structural view, and establishes a framework for capturing archi-tectural constraints. It also allows extensions of the structural view with auxiliary information, such as behavior or quality specifications. In this respect, ASPECT provides facilities for establishing relationships among different specifications and gluing them together within an overall architectural description. This design allows flexibility and adaptability of the methodology to the specifics of a domain or a family of systems. ASPECT supports the representation of reference architectures as well as individual system architectures. The practical applicability of this method has been tested through a case study in an industrial setting. The approach to architecture engineering and representation, presented in this dissertation, is pragmatic and oriented towards software practitioners. GARM-ASPECT, as well as the taxonomy of architectures are of use to architects, system planners and system engineers. Beyond these practical contributions, this thesis also creates a more solid basis for expbring the applicability of architectural abstractions, the practicality of representation approaches, and the changes required to the devel-opment process in order to achieve the benefits from an architecture-driven software technology

Outcome evaluation of research for development work conducted in Ghana and Sri Lanka under the Resource, Recovery and Reuse (RRR) subprogram of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).

This is the main report of an external evaluation of the Resource Recovery and Reuse Flagship of the Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE) CGIAR Research Program. WLE commissioned the study. The Evaluators interviewed researchers and partners in two countries, Ghana and Sri Lanka, and in Ghana visited two sites. They also interviewed key international partners and analyzed a wide range of documents, reports and publications. The evaluation was focused on understanding how and in what ways the research and other activities carried out by IWMI and supported by WLE contributed to the outcomes. In essence, the purpose was to understand the specific impact pathways from research to outputs and outcomes

A collaborative framework for browser games development

This dissertation describes a conceptual model and prototype for a collaborative framework for browser games development using open source and open content. There is an extensive literature review exploring several areas like game development, modding, open source software development, open content and creative commons. The most relevant ideas about game development and collaboration are then used in defining the conceptual model of the framework with the objective of facilitating community creation and collaboration. Finally the implementation of prototype is explained in detail and the practical difficulties in implementing the conceptual model are addressed. This research shows that a collaboration framework for creating open source and open content browser games is possible and paves way for future studies about the community creation in this type of collaborative systems.Esta dissertação descreve um modelo conceptual e um protótipo de um sistema colaborativo para o desenvolvimento de jogos no browser utilizando código aberto e conteúdos abertos. É feita uma revisão extensiva da literatura em várias áreas como desenvolvimento de jogos, modding, desenvolvimento de software open source, conteúdos abertos e Creative Commons. As ideias mais importantes acerca do desenvolvimento de jogos, conteúdos e colaboração são usadas para definir um modelo conceptual do sistema com o objectivo de facilitar a colaboração e criação de uma comunidade forte. Finalmente a implementação de um protótipo do sistema é explicada em detalhe e são referidas as principais dificuldades práticas na implementação do modelo conceptual. Esta pesquisa mostra que é possível criar um sistema colaborativo para a criação de jogos como código e conteúdos abertos e abre caminho para futuros estudos sobre a criação de comunidades neste tipo de sistemas colaborativos

Survey of Educational Modelling Languages (EMLs)

CEN/ISSS WS/LT Learning Technologies WorkshopThe reports compares several approaches to educational modelling. The work has been performed under the umbrella of the CEN/ISSS, the European workshop for learning technologies. (http://dspace.ou.nl/bitstream/1820/227/2/eml-report-cen-isss.pdf