86,226 research outputs found

    Relevance, benefits, and problems of software modelling and model driven techniques—A survey in the Italian industry

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    Context Claimed benefits of software modelling and model driven techniques are improvements in productivity, portability, maintainability and interoperability. However, little effort has been devoted at collecting evidence to evaluate their actual relevance, benefits and usage complications. Goal The main goals of this paper are: (1) assess the diffusion and relevance of software modelling and MD techniques in the Italian industry, (2) understand the expected and achieved benefits, and (3) identify which problems limit/prevent their diffusion. Method We conducted an exploratory personal opinion survey with a sample of 155 Italian software professionals by means of a Web-based questionnaire on-line from February to April 2011. Results Software modelling and MD techniques are very relevant in the Italian industry. The adoption of simple modelling brings common benefits (better design support, documentation improvement, better maintenance, and higher software quality), while MD techniques make it easier to achieve: improved standardization, higher productivity, and platform independence. We identified problems, some hindering adoption (too much effort required and limited usefulness) others preventing it (lack of competencies and supporting tools). Conclusions The relevance represents an important objective motivation for researchers in this area. The relationship between techniques and attainable benefits represents an instrument for practitioners planning the adoption of such techniques. In addition the findings may provide hints for companies and universitie

    Preliminary Results in a Multi-site Empirical Study on Cross-organizational ERP Size and Effort Estimation

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    This paper reports on initial findings in an empirical study carried out with representatives of two ERP vendors, six ERP adopting organizations, four ERP implementation consulting companies, and two ERP research and advisory services firms. Our study’s goal was to gain understanding of the state-of-the practice in size and effort estimation of cross-organizational ERP projects. Based on key size and effort estimation challenges identified in a previously published literature survey, we explored some difficulties, fallacies and pitfalls these organizations face. We focused on collecting empirical evidence from the participating ERP market players to assess specific facts about the state-of-the-art ERP size and effort estimation practices. Our study adopted a qualitative research method based on an asynchronous online focus group

    Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets

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    Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation concept in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between Europe and U.S. have been conducted. Consequently, this void limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. The empirical study reported in this article investigates (a) the influence of competitive environments on the understanding and uses of market orientation in insurance flrms in Europe and U.S. and (b) the effects of market orientation on firms innovativeness. The results not only provide empirical support of the concept of market orientation as defmed in the literature, but also expands it

    What influences the speed of prototyping? An empirical investigation of twenty software startups

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    It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building tangible prototypes and collecting user feedback on them. As prototyping is an inevitable part of learning for early stage software startups, how fast startups can learn depends on how fast they can prototype. Despite of the importance, there is a lack of research about prototyping in software startups. In this study, we aimed at understanding what are factors influencing different types of prototyping activities. We conducted a multiple case study on twenty European software startups. The results are two folds, firstly we propose a prototype-centric learning model in early stage software startups. Secondly, we identify factors occur as barriers but also facilitators for prototyping in early stage software startups. The factors are grouped into (1) artifacts, (2) team competence, (3) collaboration, (4) customer and (5) process dimensions. To speed up a startups progress at the early stage, it is important to incorporate the learning objective into a well-defined collaborative approach of prototypingComment: This is the author's version of the work. Copyright owner's version can be accessed at doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57633-6_2, XP2017, Cologne, German

    Collaborative improvement as an inspiration for supply chain collaboration

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    The battlefield of competition is today moving from the level of\ud individual firms to the one of the extended enterprises, that is, networks of customers and their suppliers. This paper discusses how learning and continuous improvement today take place in processes based on daily collaboration at intercompany level, i.e. Extended Manufacturing Enterprises (EMEs). The purpose of the paper is to present a preliminary theory on Collaborative Improvement (CoI), i.e. continuous improvement at the EME level. Based on a literature review on Supply Networks, and Continuous Improvement and on evidence from two explorative case studies, the paper proposes a model for Collaborative Improvement in EMEs and discusses a research approach based on Action Research and Action Learning to further develop preliminary theory and actionable knowledge on how to foster and sustain CoI in EMEs

    The "fuzzy front end" of product development: An exploratory study

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    The aim of this paper is to describe front-end activities in practice and get first hints for effects of the front end on project outcome and the meaning of contextual factors. The results of an exploratory study of fourteen product development projects are contrary to the wide-spread opinion that the quality of execution of front-end activities in practice is low. Although, due to the small sample size, our findings are limited, there seems to be an indirect impact of the fuzzy front end on project outcome: Front-end activities may reduce deviations during the following development phase. Furthermore, company size and the degree of newness of a project to a firm seem to have an influence on the fuzzy front end. Therefore, for future research, we suggest large-scale studies which examines direct and indirect effects and consider contextual factors, e.g., by evaluating structural equation models. --Fuzzy front end,idea generation,project selection,project planning

    Fuzzification of quantitative data to predict tumour size of colorectal cancer

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    Regression analysis has become more popular among researchers as a standard tool in analyzing data. This paper used fuzzy linear regression model (FLRM) to predict tumour size of colorectal cancer (CRC) data in Malaysia. 180 patients with colorectal cancer received treatment in hospital were recorded by nurses and doctors. Based on the patient records, a triangular fuzzy data will be built toward the size of the tumour. Mean square error (MSE) and root mean square error (RMSE) will be measured as a part of the process for predicting the size of the tumour. The degree of fitting adjusted is set between 0 and 1 in order to find the least error. It was found that the combination of FLRM model with fuzzy data provided a better prediction compared to the FLRM model alone. Hence, this study concluded that the tumour size is directly proportional to several factors such as gender, ethnic, icd 10, TNM staging, diabetes mellitus, Crohn’s disease

    Towards guidelines for building a business case and gathering evidence of software reference architectures in industry

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    Background: Software reference architectures are becoming widely adopted by organizations that need to support the design and maintenance of software applications of a shared domain. For organizations that plan to adopt this architecture-centric approach, it becomes fundamental to know the return on investment and to understand how software reference architectures are designed, maintained, and used. Unfortunately, there is little evidence-based support to help organizations with these challenges. Methods: We have conducted action research in an industry-academia collaboration between the GESSI research group and everis, a multinational IT consulting firm based in Spain. Results: The results from such collaboration are being packaged in order to create guidelines that could be used in similar contexts as the one of everis. The main result of this paper is the construction of empirically-grounded guidelines that support organizations to decide on the adoption of software reference architectures and to gather evidence to improve RA-related practices. Conclusions: The created guidelines could be used by other organizations outside of our industry-academia collaboration. With this goal in mind, we describe the guidelines in detail for their use.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

    How do software architects consider non-functional requirements: an exploratory study

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    © 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material 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 new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Dealing with non-functional requirements (NFRs) has posed a challenge onto software engineers for many years. Over the years, many methods and techniques have been proposed to improve their elicitation, documentation, and validation. Knowing more about the state of the practice on these topics may benefit both practitioners' and researchers' daily work. A few empirical studies have been conducted in the past, but none under the perspective of software architects, in spite of the great influence that NFRs have on daily architects' practices. This paper presents some of the findings of an empirical study based on 13 interviews with software architects. It addresses questions such as: who decides the NFRs, what types of NFRs matter to architects, how are NFRs documented, and how are NFRs validated. The results are contextualized with existing previous work.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

    Is Political Risk Company-Specific? The Market Side of the Yukos Affair

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    The Yukos affair, a high-profile story of the state-led assault on a private Russian company, provides an excellent opportunity for an inquiry into the nature of company-specific political risks in emerging markets. News associated primarily with law enforcement agencies’ actions against company’s managers, not formally related to the company itself, caused significant negative abnormal returns for Yukos. The results are robust and not driven by a few major events, such as the arrests of Yukos’ top managers and shareholders. Stocks of less transparent private Russian companies have been more sensitive to Yukos-related events, especially employee-related charges by law enforcement agencies. The situation was different for less transparent government-owned companies such as the world-largest natural gas producer Gazprom: they appear to be significantly less sensitive to these events. Actions of regulatory agencies have had predominantly industry-wide impact, whereas law-enforcement agencies’ actions affected shares of large private companies, especially those privatized in the notorious loans-for-shares privatization auctions.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40158/3/wp772.pd
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