180,833 research outputs found
Characterisation of collaborative decision making processes
This paper deals with the collaborative decision making induced or facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on decisional systems. After presenting the problematic, we analyse the collaborative decision making and define the concepts related to the conditions and forms of collaborative work. Then, we explain the mechanisms of collaborative decision making with the specifications and general conditions of collaboration using the modelling formalism of the GRAI method. Each specification associated to the reorganisation of the decisional system caused by the collaboration is set to the notion of decision-making centre. Finally, we apply this approach to the e-maintenance field, strongly penetrated by the ICTs, where collaborations are usual. We show that the identified specifications allow improving the definition and the management of collaboration in e-maintenance
Defect prediction with bad smells in code
Background: Defect prediction in software can be highly beneficial for
development projects, when prediction is highly effective and defect-prone
areas are predicted correctly. One of the key elements to gain effective
software defect prediction is proper selection of metrics used for dataset
preparation. Objective: The purpose of this research is to verify, whether code
smells metrics, collected using Microsoft CodeAnalysis tool, added to basic
metric set, can improve defect prediction in industrial software development
project. Results: We verified, if dataset extension by the code smells sourced
metrics, change the effectiveness of the defect prediction by comparing
prediction results for datasets with and without code smells-oriented metrics.
In a result, we observed only small improvement of effectiveness of defect
prediction when dataset extended with bad smells metrics was used: average
accuracy value increased by 0.0091 and stayed within the margin of error.
However, when only use of code smells based metrics were used for prediction
(without basic set of metrics), such process resulted with surprisingly high
accuracy (0.8249) and F-measure (0.8286) results. We also elaborated data
anomalies and problems we observed when two different metric sources were used
to prepare one, consistent set of data. Conclusion: Extending the dataset by
the code smells sourced metric does not significantly improve the prediction
effectiveness. Achieved result did not compensate effort needed to collect
additional metrics. However, we observed that defect prediction based on the
code smells only is still highly effective and can be used especially where
other metrics hardly be used.Comment: Chapter 10 in Software Engineering: Improving Practice through
Research (B. Hnatkowska and M. \'Smia{\l}ek, eds.), pp. 163-176, 201
Protocols for Integrity Constraint Checking in Federated Databases
A federated database is comprised of multiple interconnected database systems that primarily operate independently but cooperate to a certain extent. Global integrity constraints can be very useful in federated databases, but the lack of global queries, global transaction mechanisms, and global concurrency control renders traditional constraint management techniques inapplicable. This paper presents a threefold contribution to integrity constraint checking in federated databases: (1) The problem of constraint checking in a federated database environment is clearly formulated. (2) A family of protocols for constraint checking is presented. (3) The differences across protocols in the family are analyzed with respect to system requirements, properties guaranteed by the protocols, and processing and communication costs. Thus, our work yields a suite of options from which a protocol can be chosen to suit the system capabilities and integrity requirements of a particular federated database environment
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A modular hybrid simulation framework for complex manufacturing system design
For complex manufacturing systems, the current hybrid Agent-Based Modelling and Discrete Event Simulation (ABMâDES) frameworks are limited to component and system levels of representation and present a degree of static complexity to study optimal resource planning. To address these limitations, a modular hybrid simulation framework for complex manufacturing system design is presented. A manufacturing system with highly regulated and manual handling processes, composed of multiple repeating modules, is considered. In this framework, the concept of modular hybrid ABMâDES technique is introduced to demonstrate a novel simulation method using a dynamic system of parallel multi-agent discrete events. In this context, to create a modular model, the stochastic finite dynamical system is extended to allow the description of discrete event states inside the agent for manufacturing repeating modules (meso level). Moreover, dynamic complexity regarding uncertain processing time and resources is considered. This framework guides the user step-by-step through the system design and modular hybrid model. A real case study in the cell and gene therapy industry is conducted to test the validity of the framework. The simulation results are compared against the data from the studied case; excellent agreement with 1.038% error margin is found in terms of the company performance. The optimal resource planning and the uncertainty of the processing time for manufacturing phases (exo level), in the presence of dynamic complexity is calculated
Knowledge Representation Concepts for Automated SLA Management
Outsourcing of complex IT infrastructure to IT service providers has
increased substantially during the past years. IT service providers must be
able to fulfil their service-quality commitments based upon predefined Service
Level Agreements (SLAs) with the service customer. They need to manage, execute
and maintain thousands of SLAs for different customers and different types of
services, which needs new levels of flexibility and automation not available
with the current technology. The complexity of contractual logic in SLAs
requires new forms of knowledge representation to automatically draw inferences
and execute contractual agreements. A logic-based approach provides several
advantages including automated rule chaining allowing for compact knowledge
representation as well as flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing business
requirements. We suggest adequate logical formalisms for representation and
enforcement of SLA rules and describe a proof-of-concept implementation. The
article describes selected formalisms of the ContractLog KR and their adequacy
for automated SLA management and presents results of experiments to demonstrate
flexibility and scalability of the approach.Comment: Paschke, A. and Bichler, M.: Knowledge Representation Concepts for
Automated SLA Management, Int. Journal of Decision Support Systems (DSS),
submitted 19th March 200
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Economic development as design: Insight and guidance through the PSI framework
Economic development is aimed at improving the lives of people in the developing world, and needs to be carried out with design at its heart, but this has often not been the case. This paper first reviews dominant approaches to economic development including the use of subsidies or the creation of markets and demand and the testing of initiatives using randomized control trials. It then introduces âdevelopment engineeringâ as a representative engineering design approach to engineering and technology in development before presenting the view that successful development needs to involve continual learning through innovation in context. The PSI (problem social institutional) framework is presented as a basis for guiding such development as a design activity, and its application is illustrated using examples from India of the unsuccessful introduction of new cooking stoves and then both successful and unsuccessful approaches to rural electrification. A 2-level approach to PSI is taken, in which the lower level represents daily operation of communities and the 2nd level represents the development project including addressing misalignments between the different PSI spaces and levels
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