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

Designing for learning: e-Learning@greenwich post-conference reflections and abstracts

The e-learning@greenwich/conference 2007, Designing for Learning, was the fifth conference in the series and has developed from its original focus on local institutional issues to a conference that focuses on global themes in e-learning attracting international participation. Our conferences are characterised by being practitioner focused and sector inclusive. Conference evaluations suggest that its intimate and friendly atmosphere, within the grounds of the world heritage site at Greenwich, allows practitioner-delegates to freely mix with delegates of international research repute and have an influence on practice, whether in the classroom or in educational software development. We felt it was now time to produce a series of publications to share the important work being captured and disseminated at the conferences to a wider public in the form of post-conference reflective proceedings

A Challenging Conversation on Integral Futures: Embodied Foresight and Trialogues

Practitioner reflection is vital for knowledge frameworks such as Ken Wilber's Integral perspective. Richard Slaughter, Joseph Voros and others have combined Wilber's perspective and Futures Studies to create Integral Futures as a new stance. This paper develops Embodied Foresight as a new approach about the development of new Integral Futures methodologies (or meta-methodologies) and practitioners, with a heightened sensitivity to ethics and specific, local contexts. Three practitioners conduct a 'trialogue' - a three-way deep dialogue - to discuss issues of theory generation, practitioner development, meta-methodologies, institutional limits, knowledge systems, and archetypal pathologies. Personal experiences within the Futures Studies and Integral communities, and in other initiatory and wisdom traditions are explored

Joint Learning Update

Over the past three years, the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) has become a well-established practitioner-to-practitioner network of countries at the forefront of the global movement toward universal health coverage (UHC) . Now that the JLN has been active for a few years, many involved in the JLN felt that it was an appropriate time to assess what has been achieved to date and develop a roadmap for the future.In December 2012, the Rockefeller Foundation engaged Pact, an independent NGO that specializes in community engagement and networks, to conduct an independent strategic review of the JLN's value proposition, mechanisms for engaging members, and decision-making structures. Pact sampled each stakeholder group in the JLN by administering an online member survey and conducting a series of in-person interviews to gather perspectives from across the community and gain a deeper understanding of how each group contributes to the JLN's goals.One hundred and four JLN members -- a 45 percent response rate -- responded to the member survey and 27 stakeholders participated in semi-structured interviews. The results provided useful information about JLN members and how they are applying knowledge acquired through network activities in their own context

Everywhere and nowhere: Nearshore software development in the context of globalisation

Offshore software outsourcing, a major contributor to globally distributed work (GDW), has been identified as one of the most striking manifestations of contemporary globalisation. In particular, offshoring resonates with influential views that suggest that ICTs have rendered location irrelevant. Some research, however, has questioned this “placeless logic” and suggested that location may be significant to the success of offshoring ventures. In this paper, we draw on evidence from two nearshore software development ventures in the Caribbean to identify a number of locational characteristics relating to the physical, economic and cultural setting, local resources and government policy that may be important in influencing the suitability of offshore outsourcing venues. Some of these are recognised, even by companies pursuing placeless location strategies, while others were unanticipated. The cases also suggest that companies may be able to actively shape certain characteristics to their advantage. Implications for vendors and clients of nearshore information services, and potentially also for companies considering offshore ventures in non-traditional locations, are identified

A Proposal Of OEE Simulation Decision Support Tools For Lean Practitioners

Nowadays, Lean Manufacturing (LM) is a driving method for companies in order to succeed in global competition. Reducing as well as eliminating waste in production line using equipment is the main use of LM innovations. Having an expert in LM is a good way for companies to balance and maintain in order to deliver a good value to the customers. Nevertheless, some aspects are hard for the LM practitioner to evaluate the impact of LM tools at certain desired level after deciding and implementing appropriate LM. Hence, may negatively affect the resources and time consumed as well as cost. The aim of this study is to suggest a simulation framework of LM tools for LM practitioners which are Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) in simulation-based decision support tools (SDST). The architecture of OEE-SDST based on the original framework of OEE concepts by Nakajima (1988). Integrating the average cost by relating OEE efficiency is a one of the new introductions in OEE concepts. The design and development will be built on the Microsoft Visual Basic 2010. The OEE-SDST will operate as graphical user interface(GUI). The usability study of software capability criteria based on ISO/IEC 25010:2011 or ISO/IEC 9126 that consist of understandability, learnability, operability, and attractiveness. Based on the 50 respondents, about 78% are agreed with capabilities of the OEE-SDST. To conclude, OEE-SDST capable of assist the decision making for the LM practitioner

Forecasting of commercial sales with large scale Gaussian Processes

This paper argues that there has not been enough discussion in the field of applications of Gaussian Process for the fast moving consumer goods industry. Yet, this technique can be important as it e.g., can provide automatic feature relevance determination and the posterior mean can unlock insights on the data. Significant challenges are the large size and high dimensionality of commercial data at a point of sale. The study reviews approaches in the Gaussian Processes modeling for large data sets, evaluates their performance on commercial sales and shows value of this type of models as a decision-making tool for management.Comment: 1o pages, 5 figure