An Empirical Study on Decision making for Quality Requirements

[Context] Quality requirements are important for product success yet often handled poorly. The problems with scope decision lead to delayed handling and an unbalanced scope. [Objective] This study characterizes the scope decision process to understand influencing factors and properties affecting the scope decision of quality requirements. [Method] We studied one company's scope decision process over a period of five years. We analyzed the decisions artifacts and interviewed experienced engineers involved in the scope decision process. [Results] Features addressing quality aspects explicitly are a minor part (4.41%) of all features handled. The phase of the product line seems to influence the prevalence and acceptance rate of quality features. Lastly, relying on external stakeholders and upfront analysis seems to lead to long lead-times and an insufficient quality requirements scope. [Conclusions] There is a need to make quality mode explicit in the scope decision process. We propose a scope decision process at a strategic level and a tactical level. The former to address long-term planning and the latter to cater for a speedy process. Furthermore, we believe it is key to balance the stakeholder input with feedback from usage and market in a more direct way than through a long plan-driven process

Bringing the OpenMI to LIFE Progress Report No. 4 - 31st March 2008 – 30th September 2008

The Water Framework Directive demands an integrated approach to water management. This requires the ability to predict how catchment processes will behave and interact in response to the activities of water managers and others. In most contexts, it is not feasible to build a single predictive model that adequately represents all the processes; therefore a means of linking models of individual processes is required. This is met by the FP5 HarmonIT project’s Open Modelling Interface and Environment (the OpenMI). The purpose of this project is to transform the OpenMI from a research output to a sustainable operational Standard. It will build the capacity to use the OpenMI and will demonstrate it under operational conditions. It will also develop, test and demonstrate the future support organisation for the OpenMI. Finally, information about the OpenMI will be disseminated to users

Decision support systems for large dam planning and operation in Africa

Decision support systems/ Dams/ Planning/ Operations/ Social impact/ Environmental effects

Management plan documentation standard and Data Item Descriptions (DID). Volume of the information system life-cycle and documentation standards, volume 2

This is the second of five volumes of the Information System Life-Cycle and Documentation Standards. This volume provides a well-organized, easily used standard for management plans used in acquiring, assuring, and developing information systems and software, hardware, and operational procedures components, and related processes

Towards continuous software release planning

@2017 Personal use of these materials is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating news collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksContinuous software engineering is a new trend that is gaining increasing attention of the research community in the last years. The main idea behind this trend is to tighten the connection between the software engineering lifecycle activities (e.g., development, planning, integration, testing, etc.). While the connection between development and integration (i.e., continuous integration) has been subject of research and is applied in industrial settings, the connection between other activities is still in a very early stage. We are contributing to this research topic by proposing our ideas towards connecting the software development and software release planning activities (i.e., continuous software release planning). In this paper we present our initial findings on this topic, how we envision to address the continuous software release planning, and a research agenda to fulfil our objectives.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Process Models and Distribution of Work in Offshoring Application Software Development

Common process models for the development of application software (AS) are examined as to how well they are suited for offshoring projects. The need for communication and interaction among onsite and offshore project stakeholders is identified as a critical success factor. Process models used by organizations providing offshoring services are discussed, and a generalized offshoring life cycle model is developed. A specific focus is set on the distribution of work between the organization that outsources AS development and the offshore organization that carries out the major share of the development work. Problems and challenges that have to be faced, making offshoring a difficult task, are discussed. --

The Role of Transportation in Campus Emergency Planning, MTI Report 08-06

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina created the greatest natural disaster in American history. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sustained significant damage, including 31 colleges and universities. Other institutions of higher education, most notably Louisiana State University (LSU), became resources to the disaster area. This is just one of the many examples of disaster impacts on institutions of higher education. The Federal Department of Homeland Security, under Homeland Security Presidential Directive–5, requires all public agencies that want to receive federal preparedness assistance to comply with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which includes the creation of an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Universities, which may be victims or resources during disasters, must write NIMS–compliant emergency plans. While most university emergency plans address public safety and logistics management, few adequately address the transportation aspects of disaster response and recovery. This MTI report describes the value of integrating transportation infrastructure into the campus emergency plan, including planning for helicopter operations. It offers a list of materials that can be used to educate and inform campus leadership on campus emergency impacts, including books about the Katrina response by LSU and Tulane Hospital, contained in the report´s bibliography. It provides a complete set of Emergency Operations Plan checklists and organization charts updated to acknowledge lessons learned from Katrina, 9/11 and other wide–scale emergencies. Campus emergency planners can quickly update their existing emergency management documents by integrating selected annexes and elements, or create new NIMS–compliant plans by adapting the complete set of annexes to their university´s structures

Theater Battle Management Core System Systems Engineering Case Study

The Theater Battle Management Core System (TBMCS) is an integrated air command and control (C2) system that performs standardized, secure, automated air battle planning and execution management for Air Force, multi-service, and allied commanders in theaters of operation worldwide. TBMCS provides the means to plan, direct, and control all theater air operations and to coordinate with land, maritime, and special operations elements. It is deployed at C2 nodes at national, force and wing/unit-level elements. TBMCS operates in support of planners and decision makers at, and below, the level of Joint Force Air Component Commander. The system is modular and scalable for air, land, or sea transport and the deployed configurations can be tailored to meet a particular contingency