150,975 research outputs found
Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World
This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar
16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World".
The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps
and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two
years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying
performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and
feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research
community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud
computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify
cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting
collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps.
The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD
students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior
Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance
engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current
research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research
challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations
GTTC Future of Ground Testing Meta-Analysis of 20 Documents
National research, development, test, and evaluation ground testing capabilities in the United States are at risk. There is a lack of vision and consensus on what is and will be needed, contributing to a significant threat that ground test capabilities may not be able to meet the national security and industrial needs of the future. To support future decisions, the AIAA Ground Testing Technical Committees (GTTC) Future of Ground Test (FoGT) Working Group selected and reviewed 20 seminal documents related to the application and direction of ground testing. Each document was reviewed, with the content main points collected and organized into sections in the form of a gap analysis current state, future state, major challenges/gaps, and recommendations. This paper includes key findings and selected commentary by an editing team
Manufacturing in the 1990s - productivity, flexibility and innovation
The article outlines the evolution of large multinationals as a result of the appearance of new market demands. Companies having to meet specific market demands, are shown to possess certain characteristics, related to the market demands concerned. The analysis shows that innovativeness will, in all probability, be the new market demand in the 1990s, in addition to the already existing ones of efficiency, quality and flexibility. Descriptions of ideal types illustrate the evolution of companies as they move from the Efficient Firm to the Quality Firm on to the Flexible Firm to, finally, the Innovative Firm. The phase model also includes the symptoms of crisis, when moving from one phase to another. Skipping phases appears to be difficult, if not impossible. The same holds true for moving to the next phase, while the organization has not finished with the preceding phase
Coordinating Knowledge Work in Multi-Team Programs: Findings from a Large-Scale Agile Development Program
Software development projects have undergone remarkable changes with the
arrival of agile development methods. While intended for small, self-managing
teams, these methods are increasingly used also for large development programs.
A major challenge in programs is to coordinate the work of many teams, due to
high uncertainty in tasks, a high degree of interdependence between tasks and
because of the large number of people involved. This revelatory case study
focuses on how knowledge work is coordinated in large-scale agile development
programs by providing a rich description of the coordination practices used and
how these practices change over time in a four year development program with 12
development teams. The main findings highlight the role of coordination modes
based on feedback, the use of a number of mechanisms far beyond what is
described in practitioner advice, and finally how coordination practices change
over time. The findings are important to improve the outcome of large
knowledge-based development programs by tailoring coordination practices to
needs and ensuring adjustment over time.Comment: To appear in Project Management Journa
Agile methods for agile universities
We explore a term, Agile, that is being used in various workplace settings, including the management of universities. The term may have several related but slightly different meanings. Agile is often used in the context of facilitating more creative problem-solving and advocating for the adoption, design, tailoring and continual updating of more innovative organizational processes. We consider a particular set of meanings of the term from the world of software development. Agile methods were created to address certain problems with the software development process. Many of those problems have interesting analogues in the context of universities, so a reflection on agile methods may be a useful heuristic for generating ideas for enabling universities to be more creative
Towards a lean model for production management of refurbishment projects, VTT Technology: 94
This is the Stage 3 Report for the ApRemodel project, which aims at improving
processes for multi-occupancy retrofit by generating a lean model for project delivery.
In this respect, a process-driven approach has been adopted to investigate
what can be done to improve the way that retrofits projects are delivered.
An initial literature review, focused on the management of refurbishment works,
revealed that the research on this matter is scarce. There are plenty of studies
related to the broad refurbishment area, however only a small number refer to the
way that those construction projects are delivered.
According to the literature, construction organisations have predominantly used
traditional methods for managing the production of refurbishment projects. The
problem is that those tools and techniques are not often appropriate to cope with
the complex characteristics inherent to construction projects, especially in the
case of refurbishments. Moreover, they have often not been based on a clear
theoretical foundation. As a result, numerous types of waste have been identified
in refurbishment projects such as waiting time, disruptions in performing tasks on
site, rework, among others. This has led to unsatisfactory project performance in
terms of low productivity, project delays, and cost overrun.
The first step towards better production management in refurbishment projects
is recognising the complexity of the sector in order to adopt the correct approach
to cope with this specific scenario. In this respect, lean construction is identified as
an appropriate way to deal with the complexity and uncertainty inherent in refurbishment
projects, given that this management philosophy fully integrates the
conversion, flow, and value views.
This document builds on the findings from the literature review as well as evidence
from case studies. Managerial practices based on lean construction principles
have presented successful results in the management of complex projects.
Case studies available in the literature report the feasibility and usefulness of this
theoretical foundation. Moreover, the evidence from these studies show considerable
potential for improving the management of refurbishment works.
A list of methods, tools, and techniques are identified. This report may be used
by construction refurbishment organisations and housing associations as a starting
point for improving the efficiency in managing production of refurbishment projects.
To this end, partnerships between industry and academia are strongly recommended.
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Although the usefulness of lean principles in complex projects is already
proved, further work is needed to check what practices are best for the respective
refurbishment context, as well as identifying enablers and barriers for practical
adoption. Furthermore, additional studies would be also necessary to better understand
the extent to which the implementation of lean philosophy might influence
performance of refurbishment projects.
This report should be seen as work in progress with much more to learn, as detailed
research work around the sustainable retrofit process in a lean way is further
developed
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Evaluating the resilience and security of boundaryless, evolving socio-technical Systems of Systems
Organizing for Service Innovation: Best-Practice or Configurations?
In this paper we contrast the notions of best-practice and configurations contingent on environmental conditions. The analysis draws upon our study of 38 UK and 70 US service firms which includes an assessment of the organization, processes, tools and systems used, and how these factors influence variation in the development and delivery of new services. The best-practice framework is found to be predictive of performance improvement in samples in both the UK and USA, but the model better fits the USA than UK data. We analyze the UK data to identify alternative configurations. Four system configurations are identified: project-based; mass customization; cellular; and organic-technical. Each has a different combination of organization, processes, tools and systems which offer different performance advantages. The results provide an opportunity for updating the typologies of operations and adapting them to include services, and begin to challenge the notion of any universal 'best practice' management or organization of new product or service development.service industry, performance improvement, best-practice, alternative system configurations
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