Web development productivity improvement through object-oriented application framework

Most of the commercial and industrial web applications are complex, difficult to implement, risky to maintain and requires deep understanding of the requirements for customization. As today's software market is more competitive, productivity has become a major concern in software development industry. The aim of this research is to design and develop an application framework for accelerating web development productivity through object-oriented technology. It allows customization, design reuse and automatic code generation to support productivity improvement as a breakthrough solution for the given problem. This research employed systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the source of complexity and productivity factors. Agile development methodology was used to design the framework and it was validated by empirical data from two commercial projects. Results showed that object-oriented application framework (OOAF) has significant factors that affect productivity and dramatically improve higher productivity over traditional approach. It has fulfilled the current needs by reducing complexities, development efforts and accelerates web development productivity. This research contributes in the area of software engineering, specifically in the field of software productivity improvement and software customization. These will lead to faster development time for software industries

Effects of Employee Rewards Policy on Organization Performance in Public Primary Schools in Rachuonyo North Sub County

Employee’s rewards policy in any organization controls the behavior and pattern of work hence a major driving force towards organizational development. This is because employee rewards dictates the level of motivation essential for the attainment of individual and organizational goals. This study explored these two important variables in an organization. Employee rewards policy in this research was the independent variable with sub variable such as benefits, compensation, incentives and promotion. Organization performance was the dependent variable being measured by indicators such as quality, efficiency, productivity and effectiveness. This study adopted Equity Theory on the basis of its emphasis on rewards and performance which were the key variables. The research adopted descriptive survey research design and was located in Public Primary Schools in Rachuonyo North Sub County. The key respondents included Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, Senior Masters, Teachers and Education Officers with a total sample size of 403 participants. The study used structured questionniare. Test-retest technique was used to achieve Reliability with Cronbach alpha value of 0.776 being attained. A total of 349 questionnaires were returned for analysis of data. This was 87% return rate on the Questionnaires.The study found out that there is a positive correlation (r=.181) between employee benefits and organization performance. Employees compensation accounts for 5.5% of the organization performance (r=.055). Employee Incentives is positively correlated with organization performance by 38.7% while promotion accounts for 34.6% (r=.346). The study further found out that Employee compensation significantly and posistively (p=0.004) affect organization performance. Employee Promotion significantly (p=0.000) affect organization performance. The overal R Square value was 0.256 and Adjusted R is 0.247 demonstrating that employee rewards combined accounts for 26% of the organization performance. The study recommended that Teachers Service Commission should ensure that employee rewards are clearly spelt in the remuneration policy and are effectively implemented so as to enable performing employees do extremely well. Keywords: Employee Rewards, Policy, Organization Performance

The use of incentives to promote Technical Debt management

When developing software, it is vitally important to keep the level of technical debt down since it is well established from several studies that technical debt can, e.g., lower the development productivity, decrease the developers' morale, and compromise the overall quality of the software. However, even if researchers and practitioners working in today's software development industry are quite familiar with the concept of technical debt and its related negative consequences, there has been no empirical research focusing specifically on how software managers actively communicate and manage the need to keep the level of technical debt as low as possible

Effect of Compensation On Employees Performance in Public Health Sector: A Case of Mbulu Town Council.

The study determined the effects of compensation on employees’ performance in the public health sector in Mbulu town council. The study used three objectives namely, to find out how extrinsic rewards have effects on employees’ performance, to determine how intrinsic rewards have effects on employees’ performance and to examine how feelings of equity have effects on employees’ performance. Also the study addressed three research questions, namely: How extrinsic rewards have effects on employees’ performance, how intrinsic rewards have effects on employees’ performance and how feelings of equity have effects on employees’ performance. The study was conceptualized on two main theories namely Equity theory and Herzberg two factors theory, methodology adopted was quantitative. The population comprised 240 public health employees in Mbulu town council. Sample size of 150 participants was chosen using systematic random sampling. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analysis. Finding from the study revealed that there is moderate positive linear relationship between compensation and employees’ performance. The main conclusion drawn from the study addressed that compensation is significant tools to improve employee performance. It was recommended that recommends that the government and other stake holders should revise the current salary scale, also organization should adhere to rules and regulations when dealing with employees’ affairs, on top of that organization were advised to recognize the outstanding performers. In connection to that equity should be considered in distributions of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Keywords: Compensation, Employees Performance, Public Health Sector, Compansatio

Reward and organizational commitment "case study at University of Malaya Centre for continuing education (UMCCed)

Rewards play a crucial role for organizational outcomes and employees’ satisfaction towards organizations. This study investigates the relationship between rewards and organizational commitment. Using a self-administered questionnaire, this study involved 97 employees who work at University of Malaya Centre for Continuing Education (UMCCed). The data was analyzed using Statistic Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17 for descriptive and inferential analysis. The findings of this study showed that they offered both extrinsic (salary, bonus and promotion) and intrinsic (praise, recognition and genuine appreciation) rewards to their employees. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that these two types of rewards are important for organizational commitment. These findings suggest that UMCCed must implement the several rewards which are very important for the staff to stay at UMCCed

Technical Debt: An empirical investigation of its harmfulness and on management strategies in industry

Background: In order to survive in today\u27s fast-growing and ever fast-changing business environment, software companies need to continuously deliver customer value, both from a short- and long-term perspective. However, the consequences of potential long-term and far-reaching negative effects of shortcuts and quick fixes made during the software development lifecycle, described as Technical Debt (TD), can impede the software development process.Objective: The overarching goal of this Ph.D. thesis is twofold. The first goal is to empirically study and understand in what way and to what extent, TD influences today’s software development work, specifically with the intention to provide more quantitative insight into the field. Second, to understand which different initiatives can reduce the negative effects of TD and also which factors are important to consider when implementing such initiatives.Method: To achieve the objectives, a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies are used, including interviews, surveys, a systematic literature review, a longitudinal study, analysis of documents, correlation analysis, and statistical tests. In seven of the eleven studies included in this Ph.D. thesis, a combination of multiple research methods are used to achieve high validity.Results: We present results showing that software suffering from TD will cause various negative effects on both the software and the developing process. These negative effects are illustrated from a technical, financial, and a developer’s working situational perspective. These studies also identify several initiatives that can be undertaken in order to reduce the negative effects of TD.Conclusion: The results show that software developers report that they waste 23% of their working time due to experiencing TD and that TD required them to perform additional time-consuming work activities. This study also shows that, compared to all types of TD, architectural TD has the greatest negative impact on daily software development work and that TD has negative effects on several different software quality attributes. Further, the results show that TD reduces developer morale. Moreover, the findings show that intentionally introducing TD in startup companies can allow the startups to cut development time, enabling faster feedback and increased revenue, preserve resources, and decrease risk and thereby contribute to beneficial\ua0effects. This study also identifies several initiatives that can be undertaken in order to reduce the negative effects of TD, such as the introduction of a tracking process where the TD items are introduced in an official backlog. The finding also indicates that there is an unfulfilled potential regarding how managers can influence the manner in which software practitioners address TD

A framework for design assurance in developing embedded systems

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Electrical and Computer EngineeringStephen A. DyerSteven WarrenEmbedded systems control nearly every device we encounter. Examples abound: appliances, scientific instruments, building environmental controls, avionics, communications, smart phones, and transportation subsystems. These embedded systems can fail in various ways: performance, safety, and meeting market needs. Design errors often cause failures in performance or safety. Market failures, particularly delayed schedule release or running over budget, arise from poor processes. Rigorous methods can significantly reduce the probability of failure. Industry has produced and widely published “best practices” that promote rigorous design and development of embedded systems. Unfortunately, 20 to 35% of development teams do not use them, which leads to operational failures or missed schedules and budgets. This dissertation increases the potential for success in designing and developing embedded systems through the following: 1. It identifies, through literature review, the reasons and factors that cause teams to avoid best practices, which in turn contribute to development failures. 2. It provides a framework, as a psychologically unbiased mediator, to help teams institute best practices. The framework is both straightforward to implement and use and simple to learn. 3. It examines the feasibility of both crowdsourcing and the Delphi method to aid, through anonymous comments on proposed projects, unbiased mediation and estimation within the framework. In two separate case studies, both approaches resulted in underestimation of both required time and required effort. The wide variance in the surveys’ results from crowdsourcing indicated that approach to not be particularly useful. On the other hand, convergence of estimates and forecasts in both projects resulted when employing the Delphi method. Both approaches required six or more weeks to obtain final results. 4. It develops a recommendation model, as a plug-in module to the framework, for the build-versus-buy decision in design of subsystems. It takes a description of a project, compares designing a custom unit with integrating a commercial unit into the final product, and generates a recommendation for the build-versus-buy decision. A study of 18 separate case studies examines the sensitivity of 14 parameters in making the build-versus-buy decision when developing embedded systems. Findings are as follows: team expertise and available resources are most important; partitioning tasks and reducing interdependence are next in importance; the quality and support of commercial units are less important; and finally, premiums and product lifecycles have the least effect on the cost of development. A recommendation model incorporates the results of the sensitivity study and successfully runs on 16 separate case studies. It shows the feasibility and features of a tool that can recommend a build-or-buy decision. 5. It develops a first-order estimation model as another plug-in module to the framework. It aids in planning the development of embedded systems. It takes a description of a project and estimates required time, required effort, and challenges associated with the project. It is simple to implement and easy to use; it can be a spreadsheet, a Matlab model or a webpage; each provides an output like the model for the build-versus-buy decision