52,663 research outputs found
Software Engineers' Information Seeking Behavior in Change Impact Analysis - An Interview Study
Software engineers working in large projects must navigate complex
information landscapes. Change Impact Analysis (CIA) is a task that relies on
engineers' successful information seeking in databases storing, e.g., source
code, requirements, design descriptions, and test case specifications. Several
previous approaches to support information seeking are task-specific, thus
understanding engineers' seeking behavior in specific tasks is fundamental. We
present an industrial case study on how engineers seek information in CIA, with
a particular focus on traceability and development artifacts that are not
source code. We show that engineers have different information seeking
behavior, and that some do not consider traceability particularly useful when
conducting CIA. Furthermore, we observe a tendency for engineers to prefer less
rigid types of support rather than formal approaches, i.e., engineers value
support that allows flexibility in how to practically conduct CIA. Finally, due
to diverse information seeking behavior, we argue that future CIA support
should embrace individual preferences to identify change impact by empowering
several seeking alternatives, including searching, browsing, and tracing.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 25th International
Conference on Program Comprehensio
Building Summit Basecamp: Year 1
This case study shares what's been learned in the first year of Summit Basecamp, an ambitious effort to support public schools across the United States in implementing personalized learning. While recognizing that Summit Basecamp is one approach to personalized learning, we believe the lessons from the 2015-16 school year can inform the work of others in the field.Summit Basecamp is now called the Summit Learning Program. This publication is the fourth case study that FSG has written with Summit Public Schools
Visualizing test diversity to support test optimisation
Diversity has been used as an effective criteria to optimise test suites for
cost-effective testing. Particularly, diversity-based (alternatively referred
to as similarity-based) techniques have the benefit of being generic and
applicable across different Systems Under Test (SUT), and have been used to
automatically select or prioritise large sets of test cases. However, it is a
challenge to feedback diversity information to developers and testers since
results are typically many-dimensional. Furthermore, the generality of
diversity-based approaches makes it harder to choose when and where to apply
them. In this paper we address these challenges by investigating: i) what are
the trade-off in using different sources of diversity (e.g., diversity of test
requirements or test scripts) to optimise large test suites, and ii) how
visualisation of test diversity data can assist testers for test optimisation
and improvement. We perform a case study on three industrial projects and
present quantitative results on the fault detection capabilities and redundancy
levels of different sets of test cases. Our key result is that test similarity
maps, based on pair-wise diversity calculations, helped industrial
practitioners identify issues with their test repositories and decide on
actions to improve. We conclude that the visualisation of diversity information
can assist testers in their maintenance and optimisation activities
Impact of the Sierra Health Foundation's Clinic Capacity Building Program: Final Evaluation Report
Sierra Health Foundation (Sierra Health) launched the Clinic Capacity Building Program in 2013 as part of the Sacramento Region Health Care Partnership. The goal of the Clinic Capacity Building Program was to respond to the anticipated growth in demand (i.e., number of patients) created by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act by strengthening community health centers' administrative and operational capacity. The program aimed to improve clinic leadership, care quality and financial sustainability, thereby increasing the number of high performing Federally Qualified Health Centers in the region.In July 2014, Sierra Health contracted with the Center for Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE) to evaluate the effectiveness of its Clinic Capacity Building Program. The goal of the evaluation was to assess the effectiveness of the Clinic Capacity Building program and contribution of the program to changes in capacity among the five grantees. This is the Executive Summary of the final evaluation report, which was submitted to Sierra Health in December 2015
Information systems evaluation: Navigating through the problem domain
Information systems (IS) make it possible to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness, which can provide
competitive advantage. There is, however, a great deal of difficulty reported in the normative literature when it comes to the
evaluation of investments in IS, with companies often finding themselves unable to assess the full implications of their IS
infrastructure. Although many of the savings resulting from IS are considered suitable for inclusion within traditional
accountancy frameworks, it is the intangible and non-financial benefits, together with indirect project costs that complicate the
justification process. In exploring this phenomenon, the paper reviews the normative literature in the area of IS evaluation, and
then proposes a set of conjectures. These were tested within a case study to analyze the investment justification process of a
manufacturing IS investment. The idiosyncrasies of the case study and problems experienced during its attempts to evaluate,
implement, and realize the holistic implications of the IS investment are presented and critically analyzed. The paper
concludes by identifying lessons learnt and thus, proposes a number of empirical findings for consideration by decisionmakers
during the investment evaluation process
Developing quality heathcare software using quality function deployment: A case study based on Sultan Qaboos University Hospital
Development of software is one of the most expensive projects undertaken in practice. Traditionally, the rate of failure in software development projects is higher compared to other kinds of projects. This is partly due to the failure in determining software users’ requirements. By using Quality Function Deployment (QFD), this research focuses on identification and prioritization of users’ requirements in the context of developing quality health-care software system for Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) in Oman. A total of 95 staff working at eight departments of SQUH were contacted and they were requested to provide their requirements in using hospital information systems. Analytic Hierarchy Process has been integrated with QFD for prioritizing those user requirements. Then, in consultation with a number of software engineers, a list consisting of 30 technical requirements was generated. These requirements are divided into seven categories and all of them are purported to satisfy the user needs. At the end of QFD exercise, continuous mirror backup from backup category, multi-level access from the security and confidentiality category, linkage to databases from application category emerge as technical requirements having higher weights. These technical requirements should receive considerable attention when designing the health-care software system for SQUH.Software quality; Quality function deployment; Healthcare software; Analytic Hierarchy Process
Alaska Army National Guard Construction Planning Process Improvement
A Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE
in
Project ManagementThe Alaska Army National Guard (AKARNG) is a jointly funded agency run under a cooperative
agreement between the federal and state governments. Recognized as a state agency, the AKARNG
reports to the governor for domestic response and trains for federal missions. With this relationship, the
AKARNG receives funds from the National Guard Bureau (NGB) and the Alaska State Legislature for
the execution of construction projects. Under the cooperative agreement, the AKARNG follows state
procedures and uses the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT/PF) to
manage projects. The AKARNG Construction and Facilities Maintenance Officer (CFMO) ensures
federal oversight of all AKARNG facilities. This project looks at the relationship between the AKARNG
CFMO and ADOT/PF as they collaborate and plan construction projects for the AKARNG. The primary
deliverables for this project are a current state swim lane chart (SLC) with written description and an
improved state SLC with a written description. The goal of this project is to offer the AKARNG a
roadmap for process improvement. The current and improved SLCs were produced by conducting
research and engaging with stakeholders through interviews and questionnaires. Stakeholders were
engaged throughout and offered quality oversight of the deliverables. The improved state SLC
incorporated regulatory compliance and previously omitted policy requirements. When necessary, the
improved state SLC included the addition or subtraction of steps to add value to the process. This project
delivered the AKARNG a scalable depiction of their construction planning process and recommendations
for improvement.Title Page / Table of Contents / List of Exhibits / List of Appendices / Project Management / Project Execution / Project Outcomes / Future Research and Project Conclusions / Appendice
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