Estimating the value of decisions relating to managing and developing software-intensive products and projects

The software industry’s current decision-making relating to product/project management and development is largely done in a value neutral setting, in which cost is the primary driver for every decision taken. However, numerous studies have shown that the primary critical success factor that differentiates successful products/projects from failed ones lie in the value domain. Therefore, to remain competitive, innovative and to grow, companies must change from cost-based decision-making to value-based decision-making where the decisions taken are the best for that company’s overall value creation. Our vision to tackle this problem and to provide a solution for value estimation is to employ a combination of qualitative and machine learning solutions where a probabilistic model encompassing the knowledge from different stakeholders will be used to predict the overall value of a given decision relating to product management and development. This vision drives the goal of a 3-year research project funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes), with the participation of several industry partners.This work is funded under Tekes FiDiPro number 40150/14

Creating the Virtual Library

Workshop presentation paper by Jules Winterton (Associate Director and Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies) providing an understanding of the key issues to be considered in creating and managing collections of electronic resources in libraries and some background to project design, funding and management

Fair value on commons-based intellectual property assets: Lessons of an estimation over Linux kernel.

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials, spreading development burden amongst individuals and companies. This model has resulted in a large and efficient ecosystem and unheralded software innovation, freely available to society. Open source methods are also increasingly being applied in other fields of endeavour, such as biotechnology or cultural production. But under financial reporting framework, general volunteer activity is not reflected on financial statements. As a result, there is not value of volunteer contributions and there is also no single source for cost estimates of how much it has taken to develop an open source technology. This volunteer activity encloses not only individuals but corporations developing and contributing open source products. Standard methodology for reporting open source asset valuation is needed and must include value creation from the perspective of the different stakeholders.FLOSS, commons, accounting standards, financial reporting

Greening information management: final report

As the recent JISC report on ‘the ‘greening’ of ICT in education [1] highlights, the increasing reliance on ICT to underpin the business functions of higher education institutions has a heavy environmental impact, due mainly to the consumption of electricity to run computers and to cool data centres. While work is already under way to investigate how more energy efficient ICT can be introduced, to date there has been much less focus on the potential environmental benefits to be accrued from reducing the demand ‘at source’ through better data and information management. JISC thus commissioned the University of Strathclyde to undertake a study to gather evidence that establishes the efficacy of using information management options as components of Green ICT strategies within UK Higher Education environments, and to highlight existing practices which have the potential for wider replication

Strengthening Construction Management in the Rural Rehab Line of Business

The Five Key ObservationsObservation#1: Rural rehab success emanated from positive thinking and persistent implementationObservation #2: Almost every RHRO would benefit from a substantial increase in the per unit funding available, especially in light of the forthcoming HUD HOME requirement to establish written rehab standards in ten subcategories.Observation #3: A smartphone and tablet with 20 to 40 apps is the rehab specialist's Swiss Army knife. They are our, GPS, calculator, spec writer, office lifeline in case of danger, camera, clock, cost estimator calendar and a hundred other single-purpose but very important uses.Observation #4: NeighborWorks® Rural Initiative could provide a clearinghouse for success techniques targeted to rural rehab. Each month it might focus on a specific aspect of rehab management; inspection checklists in January, green specs in February, feasibility checklist in March, contractor qualification questionnaires in April and so on.Observation #5: Even with most components of in-house contractor success formula in place, per the Statistic Research Institute 53% of construction firms go out of business with in the first 4 years. It remains a very risky model that requires significant; funding, staff experience, administrative support and risk tolerance.Three Rehab Production Models And Their AlternativesThis middle section restates the introduction and methodology and offers a detailed review of the Traditional Rehab Specialist, Construction Management Of Subcontractor and the In-House General Contractor production models .for each model the article provides: definition and staffing pattern, design roles and tasks for each major player, benefits and challenges, alternative models and finally recommendations for successful implementationFocus TopicsDuring our interview process, three ideas surfaced that were best served with a mini discussion of the topic rather than being embedded in the already large middle section.The three topics are; software and technology, management of community relations – marketing and quality control, and budget solution

The real SAP® Business one cost : a case study of ERP adoption in an SME

This paper reports on a UK based service management Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) that invested into SAP® Business One. The action research case study highlights the real cost and difficulties faced in moving to the one single SAP system and the process that was followed in order to identify third-party vendors that can integrate or customise SAP® Business One. This paper highlights the additional costs required to ensure a ‘fit-for-purpose’ solution to close the gap between strategic needs and the existing SAP Business One solution. The gap itself is illustrated by highlighting 10 key functionalities expected by the given service management SME. The actual implementation cost of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was found to be approximately double the initial SAP costs. The real costs involve time for, among other things, process reengineering, strategic decision making, software add-ons, staff-training, project-management and software maintenance

Development of a Standard Set of Indicators and Metrics for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Expert System (ES) Software Development Efforts

The purpose of this research was to identify a standard set of indicators and metrics that can be used by program managers to improve their abilities to direct development efforts involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Expert Systems (ES). This research addresses two objectives. The first objective is to identify an appropriate set of software indicators and metrics to be used by government program offices for the management of development efforts involving software systems for AI and ES. The second objective is to demonstrate how the resources of the National Software Data and Information Repository (NSDIR) can be used in order to minimize the cost of the research endeavor and to demonstrate the value of the NSDIR as an information resource. A literature search identified a set of indicators and metrics that could be used by managers of AI and ES software development efforts. Data concerning Al and ES software development efforts were collected from the NSDIR. Unfortunately, substantiated conclusions regarding the value of the data in regards to AI and ES development efforts were unobtainable. The study did produce a recommended set of indicators and metrics that could serve as a feasible starting point for managers to use in the tailoring process for selecting indicators and metrics for AI and ES software development efforts