An integrated approach to formulate a value-based software process tailoring framework

Software process tailoring is an approach to customise the existing software development process or model that able to meet the software project’s needs. Software development project is unique and identical from one and another whereby the practices and decision should not be equally treated. Software process tailoring requires knowledge and intuition to make decision such as factors involved in the software project, selection of the suitable software process elements and tailoring operations. Software process tailoring practices focusing more on project characteristics factors and employs ad hoc approach in making the decision. In the absent of value-based factors and systematic method in software process tailoring, subjectivity is embedded in decision making process and the software development project suffers from satisfying the stakeholder. This study presents an integrated approach to formulate a Value-Based Software Process Tailoring Framework (VBSPTF) to overcome this problem. The framework is a combination of value-based factors, MoSCoW rules, Quality Functional Deployment (QFD), Activity-Based Costing (ABC), Priority Map, Value Index and Value Graph. This study perhaps can contribute to the software process tailoring practitioners to be exposed with a systematic method to conduct software process tailoring as well as improving the practices and reducing subjectivity in decision making

Risk management in water supply

It has been acknowledge that the decision-making process involved in water supply project appraisals have not been free of risks. In order to optimise project investments and resources in the context of objectives and targets, all financial, managerial and technical resources need to be systematically controlled through risk management procedures. It is essential to identify the most significant risks and apply the most effective mitigation measures. The CASPAR (Computer Aided Simulation for Project Appraisal and Review) Risk Management software package is applied to a case study project to evaluate the role that risk management can play in improving the commercial viability of water supply projects over extended project horizons (typically 25 years). Key risks are identified and the financial implications of risk mitigation measures for such risks are evaluated

Additional Costs And Risks In Software Acquisition Projects

Organizations usually contract their software projects to avoid the risks associated with developing the software internally and to control their costs. However, a study of two-dozen contracted project indicates that such organizations face unique risks and hidden costs that are particular to software aquisitions.  This paper describes research done to estimate the effort expended by organizations in overseeing and participating in contracted software projects and the implications for predicting costs and identifying risks of such projects. It presents a framework for collecting and measuring costs incurred before, during and after the contract award. For many of the organizations that participated in the survey, realizing the actual costs and  risks of a project was an eye opener – hidden costs and risks  are significant and they are typically not managed.  The research results emphasize  the need for institutionalizing processes for the collection of data about contracting costs within an organization so that databases of metrics about completed projects can be built and later used to forecast costs for future projects to improve decision-making processes. The research results also emphasize the need to acknowledge the risks involved so  they can be mitigated to improve the relationship with the contracor and the chances for project success. The authors are engaged in research directed toward assisting such organizations in identifying the risks and costs and improving the acquisition process. &nbsp

Improving consistency in AHP decision-making processes

Decision making in engineering is becoming increasingly complex due to the large number of alternatives and multiple conflicting goals. Powerful decision-support expert systems powered by suitable software are increasingly necessary. In this paper, the multiple attribute decision method known as analytical hierarchy process (AHP), which uses pairwise comparisons with numerical judgments, is considered. Since judgments may lack a minimum level of consistency, mechanisms to improve consistency are necessary. A method to achieve consistency through optimisation is described in this paper. This method has the major advantage of depending on just n decision variables – the number of compared elements – and so is less computationally expensive than other optimisation methods, and can be easily implemented in virtually any existing computer environment. The proposed approach is exemplified by considering a simplified version of one of the most important problems faced by water supply managers, namely, the minimisation of water loss. 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.This work has been performed under the support of project IDAWAS, DPI2009-11591 of the Direccionn General de Investigacion del Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia (Spain) and ACOMP/2011/188 of the Conselleria de Educacion de la Generalitat Valenciana. The first author was supported by Spanish project MTM2010-18539. The third author is also indebted to the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for the sabbatical leave granted during the first semester of 2011. The use of English in this paper was revised by John Rawlins.Benítez López, J.; Delgado Galván, XV.; Izquierdo Sebastián, J.; Pérez García, R. (2012). Improving consistency in AHP decision-making processes. Applied Mathematics and Computation. 219(5):2432-2441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2012.08.079S24322441219

A Systematic Review of Prerequisites for Constructability Implementation in Infrastructure Projects

Success in infrastructure projects requires success in all phases of the project, including design, construction, and operation. One of the necessary actions for developing countries to construct their economic infrastructures, is implementing infrastructure plans. This industry should focus more on the construction process and utilizing creative tools and new concepts for construction development. The reason of it is because of delivering the project with certain quality, in time and with the given budget. Contractors should have new strategies for construction to optimize project completion, and constructability. Accordingly, constructability improvements have become the concern of construction industry practitioners. Considering constructability issues in the early stages of the project enhances identifying design limitations that prevent capabilities of contractors to take part in planning and improving project performance. The purpose of this study is identifying the prerequisites of constructability to resolve the current problems of projects, including inappropriate plans without implementability, poor decision making in design, and lack of sufficient implementation experience in the design engineering team. This study provides a list of prerequisites for constructability implementation in infrastructure projects. Accordingly, it identifies the prerequisites, using Systematic Literature Review (SLR) technique. The NVivo software is used to facilitate the qualitative analyses

DEVELOPING AGENT TOOLS AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR E-COMMERCE

Despite the explosive growth ofelectronic commerce and the rapid increasing number of customer who use interactive multimedia, such as the World Wide Web for purchase information search andonline shopping, very little is known about how customers make purchase decision in such settings. Thus, in the rush to open their website, e-commerce sites too often fail to support consumer decision making and search, resulting in a loss of sales and the loss of loyal customers. To overcome this weakness in the traditional ecommerce website, this project reviews the open problems that e-commerce website poses to the framework and to existing search engine technology for online shopping. Besides that, this research also involves design of the methodology for the development in supporting decision support making systems. Generally, the development of this ecommerce site showed that, the traditional e-commerce applications do need to be improving by integrating anappropriate decision making system byusing an Intelligent Agent to aid the customers in their purchase decision-making process. Scope of study will focus into Business-to-Customer (B2C) models. In depth research will be conducted: survey, interviews, self-assessment, and online researches and from other written materials. The result can be determine when the developed e-commerce site used extensively onthe Web, that perform tasks such as retrieving and delivering information and automating repetitive tasks bythedeveloping Intelligent Agent software or services. It also used as tools to track Webbehaviorwhich they can even "watch" as user's surfing site and recordhow often they visit certain sites. Later, they can be used to automatically download the favorite sites, let them know whentheir favorite site has been updated, and even tailor specific pages to suit their tastes

ISIM - INFRASTRUCTURES & STRUCTURES INFORMATION MODELING: A NEW CONCEPT OF BIM FOR INFRASTRUCTURES

The application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in infrastructure and structural projects, known as Integrated Structural and Infrastructure Modeling (ISIM), has gained attention in recent years due to its potential to revolutionize the construction industry. By providing a digital representation of the built environment, BIM allows for improved collaboration and communication between project stakeholders, leading to enhanced project outcomes. The ISIM approach is centered on the creation of a digital twin, a three-dimensional model of the infrastructure or structure, which serves as a virtual replica of the physical asset. This digital twin provides a platform for analysis, decision-making, and management throughout the project lifecycle, from design and construction to operation and maintenance. One of the key benefits of the ISIM approach is the ability to optimize the construction process, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. The digital twin allows for the identification of potential issues in the design phase, enabling them to be addressed before construction begins. The model can also be used to simulate different scenarios, providing insights into the most effective construction methods, sequencing, and scheduling. Additionally, the use of ISIM can facilitate collaboration and communication among project stakeholders, including architects, engineers, contractors, and owners. The digital twin provides a shared platform for all stakeholders to access and contribute to, allowing for real-time feedback and decision-making. This increased collaboration can lead to reduced errors, improved quality, and enhanced project outcomes. In this paper the authors propose the example of the Meier bridge in Alessandria starting from the 2D drawings to create the 3D model and link it to the external context using Autodesk Infraworks software. A virtual reality implementation has been considered as useful tool to improve the maintenance management

How product owner teams scale agile methods to large distributed enterprises

Software development teams in large scale offshore enterprise development programmes are often under intense pressure to deliver high quality software within challenging time contraints. Project failures can attract adverse publicity and damage corporate reputations. Agile methods have been advocated to reduce project risks, improving both productivity and product quality. This article uses practitioner descriptions of agile method tailoring to explore large scale offshore enterprise development programmes with a focus on product owner role tailoring, where the product owner identifies and prioritises customer requirements. In globalised projects, the product owner must reconcile competing business interests, whilst generating and then prioritising large numbers of requirements for numerous development teams. The study comprises eight international companies, based in London, Bangalore and Delhi. Interviews with 46 practitioners were conducted between February 2010 and May 2012. Grounded theory was used to identify that product owners form into teams. The main contribution of this research is to describe the nine product owner team functions identified: groom, prioritiser, release master, technical architect, governor, communicator, traveller, intermediary and risk assessor. These product owner functions arbitrate between conflicting customer requirements, approve release schedules, disseminate architectural design decisions, provide technical governance and propogate information across teams. The functions identified in this research are mapped to a scrum of scrums process,and a taxonomy of the functions shows how focusing on either decision-making or information dissemination in each helps to tailor agile methods to large scale offshore enterprise development programmes

Interconnection between Scales for Friendly and Affordable Sustainable Urban Districts Retrofitting

The EU FP7 project FASUDIR (Friendly and Affordable Sustainable Urban Districts Retrofitting) supports the mobilization of the building retrofitting market towards 2020-2050 EU-targets through an Integrated Decision Support Tool (IDST), a software based on a new methodology that will help decision makers identify the best energy retrofitting strategy to increase the sustainability of the whole district. Improving the sustainability of urban environments is a interscalar problem, addressed through a multiscalar and multidirectional approach. A comprehensive urban scale strategy considers the working scale, but the measures at building scale have to be coherent with the global objectives at district and city scale. The FASUDIR IDST and methodology interconnect and visualize information across scales, ensuring comprehensive diagnoses and proper implementation of strategies. Due to the complexity of urban sustainability, interscalarity and multiscalarity, first it has been necessary to identify the possible scales of analysis, to capture various themes and to highlight the horizontal and vertical interconnections between different components. Multiscalarity and Interscalarity affect the three phases of the sustainable retrofitting cycle: diagnosis, decision making and management. The identification of the impact of district solutions on buildings (and vice versa) and their compatibility across scales has been addressed through interconnected building and district Key Performance Iindicators (KPIs). The intervention phases at building level generate new information about specific buildings, enabling more accurate decision making at district level. The methodology articulates the structure of the new information and the feedback generated during the process. To allow information interconnection a strategic information management is key. A multiscale information model based on CityGML, a standard data model issued by the OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), will be the baseline structure for all the district-scale information (geometric and semantic) that is necessary for decision making and management, organized into a single interoperable data model that will integrate information from different fields and at different levels of detail.European Commission's FP

Feasibility and impact of an evidence-based electronic decision support system for diabetes care in family medicine: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

Background: In Belgium, the construction of the national electronic point-of-care information service, EBMPracticeNet, was initiated in 2011 to optimize quality of care by promoting evidence-based decision-making. The collaboration of the government, healthcare providers, Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) partners, and vendors of Electronic Health Records (EHR) is unique to this project. All Belgian healthcare professionals get free access to an up-to-date database of validated Belgian and nearly 1,000 international guidelines, incorporated in a portal that also provides EBM information from sources other than guidelines, including computerized clinical decision support that is integrated in the EHRs. The EBMeDS system is the electronic evidence-based decision support system of EBMPracticeNet. The EBMeDS system covers all clinical areas of diseases and could play a crucial role in response to the emerging challenge posed by chronic conditions. Diabetes was chosen as the analysis topic of interest. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of EBMeDS use in improving diabetes care. This objective will be enhanced by a formal process evaluation to provide crucial information on the feasibility of using the system in daily Belgian family medicine. Methods: The study is a cluster-randomized trial with before/after measurements conducted in Belgian family medicine. Physicians' practices will be randomly assigned to the intervention or control group in a 1: 1 ratio, to receive either the EBMeDS reminders or to follow the usual care process. Randomization will be performed by a statistical consultant with an electronic random list generator, anonymously for the researchers. The follow-up period of the study will be 12 months with interim analysis points at 3, 6 and 9 months. Primary outcome is the one-year pre- to post-implementation change in HbA1c. Patients will not be informed about the intervention. Data analysts will be kept blinded to the allocation. Discussion: The knowledge obtained in this study will be useful for further integration in other Belgian software packages. Users' perceptions and process evaluation will provide information for improving the feasibility of the system