Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N

A case study of effective practices for the management of global software development projects

Global software development has proliferated in recent years because of rapid globalization, development of telecommunication and information technologies, and maturing of the software development processes. This thesis synthesizes available research on the global software development paradigm into an integrated model. The theoretical study analyzes different aspects of dispersion, their effect on traditional group processes of communication, coordination and control, and the recommendations in the literature for addressing some of these issues. The model developed in the theoretical study was then used to perform a detailed case study of a CMM Level 5 software company that specializes in global software development. A comparison of findings from the literature survey with these insights from a practitioner organization was used to draw inferences about how closely the theoretical model follows the real issues faced by industry, the practices and methodologies actually being used, and some areas of concern that available research does not address adequately. This case study revealed overlaps as well as differences between academic research and practice. Recommendations are made to managers of global software projects and areas of future research are identified

iOS Technologies & Frameworks

Apple’s mobile platform — iOS — currently generates the largest amount of revenue out of all mobile app stores. The majority of iDevices run the latest major iOS version (iOS 10) due to Apple users’ tendency to update their devices. Consequently, iOS developers are pressured into keeping their apps up to date. Advantages to updating apps consist of new features and adapting apps to the platform’s hardware and software evolution. However, this does not always happen. There are apps, some popular (with many users), which either receive slow updates, or not at all. The main consequence of developers not updating to the latest tendencies (i.e. user interface or API changes) is the degradation of their apps’ user experience. This subpar user experience leads to a decrease in the number of installs (and sales) and a search for alternatives that have been updated to support the latest firmware iteration fully. We identified a common pattern amongst ten apps which have subpar reviews on the App Store: excessive battery consumption and lack of user onboarding were just a few of the ssues. Above all, almost all those apps belong to the top 1% of apps (which generate 94% of the App Store’s revenue), so the lack of focus on the user experience is unfortunate considering their massive user bases. We listed the available resources for those wanting to develop or improve iOS apps. Given these requisites, we studied the possibility of developing a mobile app that adopted good engineering practices and, above all, focused on delivering an excellent user experience in a given timeframe of six months. The app’s idea consisted of a wish list management app called Snapwish that allows the user to take photos of objects they want, create wish lists, and share them with family and friends. The app allows for offline usage, with data syncing automatically (in real-time) without user intervention when the app’s Internet connection is present. We tested Snapwish thoroughly to measure the quality of its implementation. Profiling helped assert that core metrics like CPU and memory usage, network data requests and energy consumption were within acceptable values while unit and user interface tests served to validate our code functionally. Furthermore, our team of five beta testers provided valuable feedback and suggestions. Ultimately, the six-month timeframe proved to be insufficient in regards to a release on the App Store, as Snapwish remains in the latter beta stages at the time of writing. This delay is mostly attributed to a lengthy testing process. Thus, we plan on releasing it in the first trimester of 2017.Hoje em dia, a plataforma móvel da Apple — iOS — é a que tem maior revenue em aplicações móveis. A maior parte dos dispositivos móveis iOS corre a versão mais atual (iOS 10), devido à tendência dos seus utilizadores em atualizar o sistema operativo com frequência. Consequentemente, os desenvolvedores da plataforma são pressionados para manterem as suas apps atualizadas. Algumas das vantagens das atualizações consiste em adicionar novas funcionalidades e adaptar as apps à evolução do hardware e do software da plataforma. Contudo, isto nem sempre e verifica. Existem muitas apps, algumas “populares” (com muitas instalações) cuja atualização demora ou não acontece. A principal consequência da não atualização das apps às tendências atuais, quer em termos de interação, quer em termos de mecanismos de proteção de dados, consumo de bateria e outros, é a degradação da experiência de quem as utiliza, consequentemente, a diminuição do número de instalações (e vendas) e a crescente procura de alternativas que tenham estes princípios em conta. Foi identificado um padrão comum em dez aplicações cujas classificações na App Store são medíocres: um consumo exagerado de bateria e falta de user onboarding foram apenas alguns dos problemas. Acima de tudo, quase todas pertencem ao 1% de aplicações que geram 94% das receitas da App Store. A falta de foco na experiência do utilizador é infeliz considerando as enormes bases de utilizadores dessas aplicações. Foram listados os recursos disponíveis para quem pretende desenvolver ou melhorar uma aplicação iOS. Dadas essas premissas, foi estudada a possibilidade de desenvolver uma aplicação móvel que adote boas práticas de engenharia e, acima de tudo, foque na experiência do utilizador, num período de seis meses. A ideia para a aplicação consistiu num gestor de listas de desejos designada Snapwish que permite tirar fotos de objetos que o utilizador deseja, criar listas, e partilhá-las com amigos e familiares. Além disso, a app permite o uso offline e os dados são sincronizados em tempo real sem intervenção do utilizador quando a app dispõe de uma conexão à Internet. A nossa aplicação foi testada extensivamente para medir o nível de qualidade da sua implementação. O profiling ajudou em constatar que métricas fundamentais como o consumo de CPU e memória, pedidos de dados de rede e de consumo de energia (bateria) estavam dentro dos parâmetros aceitáveis. Além disso, uma equipa de cinco beta-testers contribuiu com comentários e sugestões de grande valor. Em última análise, o prazo de seis meses revelou-se insuficiente em relação ao lançamento da app na App Store. O Snapwish permanece numa fase beta avançada (no momento da escrita desta tese). Este atraso é principalmente atribuído a um extenso processo de testes. Assim, pretendemos lançar a aplicação no primeiro trimestre de 2017

Kinematic State Estimation using Multiple DGPS/MEMS-IMU Sensors

Animals have evolved over billions of years and understanding these complex and intertwined systems have potential to advance the technology in the field of sports science, robotics and more. As such, a gait analysis using Motion Capture (MOCAP) technology is the subject of a number of research and development projects aimed at obtaining quantitative measurements. Existing MOCAP technology has limited the majority of studies to the analysis of the steady-state locomotion in a controlled (indoor) laboratory environment. MOCAP systems such as the optical, non-optical acoustic and non-optical magnetic MOCAP systems require predefined capture volume and controlled environmental conditions whilst the non-optical mechanical MOCAP system impedes the motion of the subject. Although the non-optical inertial MOCAP system allows MOCAP in an outdoor environment, it suffers from measurement noise and drift and lacks global trajectory information. The accuracy of these MOCAP systems are known to decrease during the tracking of the transient locomotion. Quantifying the manoeuvrability of animals in their natural habitat to answer the question “Why are animals so manoeuvrable?” remains a challenge. This research aims to develop an outdoor MOCAP system that will allow tracking of the steady-state as well as the transient locomotion of an animal in its natural habitat outside a controlled laboratory condition. A number of researchers have developed novel MOCAP systems with the same aim of creating an outdoor MOCAP system that is aimed at tracking the motion outside a controlled laboratory (indoor) environment with unlimited capture volume. These novel MOCAP systems are either not validated against the commercial MOCAP systems or do not have comparable sub-millimetre accuracy as the commercial MOCAP systems. The developed DGPS/MEMS-IMU multi-receiver fusion MOCAP system was assessed to have global trajectory accuracy of _0:0394m, relative limb position accuracy of _0:006497m. To conclude the research, several recommendations are made to improve the developed MOCAP system and to prepare for a field-testing with a wild animal from a family of a terrestrial megafauna

Good practice framework for virtual learning environment in higher education

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonMany higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world are investing in the implementation of different Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) to support the teaching and learning process. However, there is a lack of detailed guidelines or a practical framework for the VLE system implementation without which an effective VLE system implementation framework, many of the full potential of VLE system cannot be realised objectives and benefits remain underachieved. A small number of frameworks specific for VLE system implementation are reported in the literature; however, these are not comprehensive in terms of covering the entire end-to-end implementation, do not consider all the key elements of a VLE system implementation and are far from integrated. Moreover, a practice-based framework that considers various organisational, pedagogical, and technological aspects and covers the entire end-to-end implementation, is not available in the current literature, and there is no complete set of guidelines to be used by HEIs to support and manage an effective VLE system implementation. Therefore, further research is needed for investigating various key elements and for identifying aspects of a good-practice framework for the implementation of VLE systems in HEIs. Particularly, an integrated good-practice framework that is comprehensive and integrates elements from existing literature and current practices or case studies would be a significant and useful contribution to this field, which highlights the importance of this study. Hence, research into investigating a good-practice VLE system implementation framework is important, and this thesis builds and presents a good-practice-in-context framework for the implementation and use of VLE systems in HEIs. This is done through identifying and exploring the key elements that build-up such a comprehensive practice-based framework for VLE system implementation through literature and good practices by considering various pedagogical, technical, and organisational aspects. These key elements include stages, processes, critical success factors (CSFs) considered, challenges (CLG) faced, associated risks, stakeholders (SHs) involved, and various tools, technologies, and methods, integrated with the VLE system. The key elements provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental issues and success factors underlying the successful implementation and sustainability of a VLE system. Initially, a conceptual framework was developed encapsulating various key elements of a VLE system implementation framework based on an extensive literature review and an analysis of existing frameworks and models, encapsulating various key elements of a VLE system implementation framework, where the elements were integrated and mapped with each other highlighting and depicting interrelations and interactions among them. The conceptual framework was validated by empirical data from the two case studies (of HEIs, at local and national level) to propose a refined, novel, and practice-based framework for VLE system implementation in HEIs, which also contains mappings to Technology Enhance Learning (TEL) strategy components. Thus, the proposed good-practice-in-context framework can be used as a tool to assist or guide HEIs to implement VLE system successfully. Finally, the proposed framework could lead to a successful VLE system implementation and it could also serve as an effective approach that not only facilitates enhancement in the learning and teaching experience, but also fosters end-user engagement and supports flexibility and customization according to the end-user needs of HEIs

A framework for the design and analysis of socially pervasive games

Pervasive games have the potential to create large social impacts on players and non-players alike. However, this can only happen when the game becomes integrated and accepted within a social community - or in other words, is socially adopted in its target environment. A socially pervasive game must also adapt to allow people to play at their own convenience. In my research I describe Powell’s Pervasive Play Lens (3PL), a framework for the design and analysis of socially pervasive games. 3PL is a powerful model that elaborates the magic circle to illustrate the concentric boundaries of play that surround socially pervasive games, helping designers understand when and how a person and a community might adopt a new pervasive game. This 3PL framework and theory have been applied to develop and refine Snag’em, a human scavenger hunt that has been applied to help students learn professional networking skills in several conferences over three years. I present my findings in a design research narrative that details the complex and rich social environments for Snag’em and the evolution of it’s design over several iterations. This narrative illustrates the application of 3PL and how designers can predict and measure how particular game elements create affordances that increase the acceptance, adoption, and adaptability of socially pervasive games

Modernization of a legacy system:event streaming with Apache Kafka and Spring Boot

Abstract. In this thesis, we will design, implement, and evaluate a brand new replacement, the Watcher, for a legacy system built over two decades ago. The Watcher is able to track changes in our PDM system, and notify users of the changes by email or as a push notifcation using SSE. Functional requirements for the new system come from the legacy system including the possibility to create subscriptions with a wide range of options to flter out redundant data traffc. The Watcher will also be able to carry out all operations than the predecessor with increased performance and effciency. The main focus is on scalability, maintainability, and fault tolerance. The reason for building a new system is mainly the cost of maintainability and further development of the legacy system as well as features removed due to obsolete technologies. In the literature review, we go through the theory of the technologies related to the project. We create a REST API with Spring Boot for interactions between users and the system, implement powerful event streaming and processing environment using Apache Kafka, and build a message service responsible for providing information via scheduled emails or SSE. In the end, we will use Docker to containerize all the services. In the project design, we present functional as well as technical requirements that we use later on to evaluate the project’s success. We also compare the legacy system to the new one using metrics such as speed and ease of the installation process. In the end, we discuss the project’s future including steps before going to production such as automatic testing, and further development for years to come such as orchestration.Legacy-palvelun uudistaminen : reaaliaikajärjestelmä Apache Kafkaa ja Spring Bootia hyödyntäen. Tiivistelmä. Tässä työssä suunnittelemme, toteutamme ja arvioimme uuden järjestelmän, joka tulee korvaamaan yli kaksi vuosikymmentä sitten luodun legacy-järjestelmän. Tämä uusi järjestelmä, "the Watcher", kykenee seuraamaan muutoksia meidän PDM järjestelmässämme, ja ilmoittamaan muutoksista käyttäjille sähköpostilla, sekä push-ilmoituksilla. Hyödynnämme tässä työssä toiminnallisia vaatimuksia, jotka ovat määritelty jo vanhalle järjestelmälle. Esimerkiksi tilausten luominen käyttäen useita suodattimia vähentäen samalla tarpeetonta dataliikennettä. "The Watcher"kykenee suoriutumaan kaikista tehtävistä joista vanha järjestelmäkin, sekä lisäominaisuutena se tarjoaa paremman suorituskyvyn, sekä tehokkuuden. Pääpainona järjestelmässä on skaalautuvuus, ylläpidettävyys ja vikasietoisuus. Kirjallisuuskatsauksessa käymme läpi projektiin liittyvien teknologioiden teorian. Toteutamme Spring Boot ohjelmointikehyksen avulla REST-rajapinnan, jonka välityksellä käyttäjät voivat kommunikoida järjestelmän kanssa. Rakennamme myös tehokkaan ympäristön datan käsittelyyn ja reaaliaikaiseen viestintään käyttäen Apache Kafkaa. Viimeiseksi luomme viestipalvelun, joka vastaa käyttäjien informoimisesta hyödyntäen SSE:ksi kutsuttua teknologiaa, sekä lähettämällä sähköpostiviestejä käyttäjien toivomana ajankohtana. Lopuksi vielä sijoitamme kaikki palvelut kontteihin Dockerin avulla. Projektin suunnitteluosiossa esittelemme niin toiminnalliset, kuin teknisetkin vaatimukset, joiden avulla arvioimme myöhemmin projektin onnistumista. Vertaamme myös vanhaa ja uutta järjestelmää käyttäen metriikoita kuten nopeus ja asennusprosessin yksinkertaisuus. Lopussa keskustelemme projektin tulevaisuudesta sisältäen vaiheet jotka tulisi suorittaa ennen kuin järjestelmä voidaan ottaa tuotantokäyttöön kuten automaattinen testaus, sekä toiminnallisuuksien kehitys tulevina vuosina

Peer production of Open Hardware: Unfinished artifacts and architectures in the hackerspaces

The dissertation adopts the theoretical framework of peer production to investigate the phenomena of open collaboration in hacker clubs through two case studies of small scale electronic artefacts. A critique of current theories of peer production is developed from a Science and Technology Studies point of view, arguing for the primacy of social constructivism over technological determinist narratives about the role of ICTs in late capitalism in general and hacker culture in particular. Properties of disruptive novelty and spontaneous emergence routinely attributed to ICTs – and by extension to the peer production practices of hackers – are approached sceptically with a historically informed ethnographic method that concentrates on continuities and contexts.La tesis adopta el marco teórico de la producción entre iguales para investigar los fenómenos de colaboración abierta en los clubs de hackers, a través de dos estudios de caso sobre artefactos electrónicos de pequeña escala. Se desarrolla una crítica de las teorías actuales sobre la producción entre iguales desde el punto de vista de los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología, defendiendo la primacía de la visión constructivista social por encima de las narrativas deterministas tecnológicas en el papel de las TIC en el capitalismo tardío, en general, y en la cultura hacker en particular. Nociones como la novedad perturbadora y la aparición espontánea, atribuidas habitualmente a las TIC y, por extensión, a las prácticas de producción entre iguales de los hackers, se tratan con escepticismo mediante un método etnográfico históricamente informado, que se concentra en las continuidades y contextos.La tesi adopta el marc teòric de la producció entre iguals per investigar els fenòmens de col·laboració oberta als clubs de hackers, a través de dos estudis de cas sobre artefactes electrònics de petita escala. S’hi desenvolupa una crítica de les teories actuals sobre la producció entre iguals des del punt de vista dels Estudis de Ciència i Tecnologia, defensant la primacia de la visió constructivista social per sobre de les narratives deterministes tecnològiques en el paper de les TIC en el capitalisme tardà, en general, i en la cultura hacker en particular. Nocions com la novetat pertorbadora i l’aparició espontània, atribuïdes habitualment a les TIC i, per extensió, a les pràctiques de producció entre iguals dels hackers, es tracten amb escepticisme mitjançant un mètode etnogràfic històricament informat, que es concentra en les continuïtats i els contextos.Societat de la informació i el coneixemen