Exploiting rules and processes for increasing flexibility in service composition

Recent trends in the use of service oriented architecture for designing, developing, managing, and using distributed applications have resulted in an increasing number of independently developed and physically distributed services. These services can be discovered, selected and composed to develop new applications and to meet emerging user requirements. Service composition is generally defined on the basis of business processes in which the underlying composition logic is guided by specifying control and data flows through Web service interfaces. User demands as well as the services themselves may change over time, which leads to replacing or adjusting the composition logic of previously defined processes. Coping with change is still one of the fundamental problems in current process based composition approaches. In this paper, we exploit declarative and imperative design styles to achieve better flexibility in service composition

The Value of Design-led Innovation in Chinese SMEs

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityThis paper focuses on understanding the role and use of design-led innovation in Chinese SMEs. The insights were gained by undertaking a pilot study, based on an applied developmental research approach involving participatory workshops, quantitative and qualitative positioning activities, in depth case studies and an individual pilot project undertaken with SMEs in the Pearl River Delta [PRD] over an 18 month period. It will discuss the findings, highlighting key areas of uncertainty that SMEs experience when attempting to make the transition from OEM to OBM, and how the findings have contributed to the development of a new design-led innovation framework.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Human Resource Management in New Jersey State Government

In 2005, the State of New Jersey Department of Personnel commissioned the Heldrich Center to study the critical human resource management issues confronting New Jersey state government. This report highlights the study's findings including: the human resource management function must be elevated to a position of primacy in state government, the state must reengineer the Department of Personnel into an effective human resource management agency with a broader mission than overseeing transactions and compliance with statutes and regulations, and the state must support its human resource function with adequate staff resources

Bus Rapid Transit: A Handbook for Partners, MTI Report 06-02

In April 2005, the Caltrans Division of Research and Innovation (DRI) asked MTI to assist with the research for and publication of a guidebook for use by Caltrans employees who work with local transit agencies and jurisdictions in planning, designing, and operating Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems that involve state facilities. The guidebook was also to assist to transit operators, local governments, community residents, and other stakeholders dealing with the development of BRT systems. Several areas in the state have experienced such projects ( San Diego , Los Angeles , San Francisco , and Alameda County ) and DRI wished to use that experience to guide future efforts and identify needed changes in statutes, policies, and other state concerns. Caltrans convened a Task Team from the Divisions of Research and Innovation, Mass Transportation, and Operations, together with stakeholders representing many of those involved with the BRT activities around the state. Prior to MTI’s involvement, this group produced a white paper on the topic, a series of questions, and an outline of the guidebook that MTI was to write. The MTI team conducted case studies of the major efforts in California, along with less developed studies of some of the other BRT programs under development or in early implementation phases around the state. The purpose was to clarify those issues that need to be addressed in the guidebook, as well as to compile information that would identify items needing legislative or regulatory action and items that Caltrans will need to address through district directives or other internal measures. A literature scan was used to develop a bibliography for future reference. The MTI team also developed a draft Caltrans director’s policy document, which provides the basis for Caltrans’ actions. This ultimately developed to be a project within a project. MTI submitted a draft document to Caltrans as a final product from the Institute. Task team members and Caltrans staff and leadership provided extensive review of the draft Bus Rapid Transit: A Handbook for Partners. Caltrans adopted a new Director’s Policy and published the document, BRT Caltrans. The MTI “wraparound” report presented below discusses in more detail the process that was followed to produce the draft report. The process was in many ways as much a project as the report itself

The role of use cases in development of a reference framework for interoperability of data exchange in agriculture

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