Управління міжнародним бізнесом: Agility Journey для високотехнологічних компаній

The purpose of the article is the development of recommendations for the business maturity determination and measurement in the implementation of the agile approach for high-tech companies. Methods of analysis of documents, observation, personal and in-depth interviews, case studies have been used in the research. The findings of the research: Business Agility Journey has been suggested for defining the state of the maturity of the company and conducting express diagnostics of agility. Agile Project Management Journey has been developed for the identification of weaknesses by the companies in the path to agility, as well as for the determination of events for the transition from the traditional to the agile approach. Personal Agility Checklist has been designed for testing the soft skills of employees for the presence of the agile mindset. Research limitations include the study of the maturity of companies in the IT industry. Practical implications are based on the use of suggested Agility Journeys in defining the state of maturity and main problems on the transition path. Also, Personal Agility Checklist will help to check the agility of the future employees. The originality of the article is based on the uniqueness of the Agility Journey that has been developed for the first time. Further research on this topic should be focused on the development of an agile mindset as a prerequisite for the provision of agility in the company.Метою статті є розробка рекомендацій щодо визначення та вимірювання зрілості бізнесу при впровадженні еджайл-підходу для високотехнологічних компаній. У дослідженні використовуються методи аналізу документів, спостереження, особистого та глибинного інтерв’ю та кейс-стаді. Розроблено Business Agility Journey для визначення стану зрілості компанії та проведення експрес-діагностики еджайльності. Agile Project Management Journey було розроблено для визначення компаніями своїх слабких сторін, а також заходів для переходу від традиційного до еджайльного підходу. Personal Agility Checklist був створений для перевірки «гнучких навичок» (soft skills) співробітників на наявність гнучкого мислення (agile mindset). Обмеження досліджень включають вивчення зрілості компаній ІТ-галузі. Практична значущість ґрунтується на використанні запропонованих Agility Journeys для визначення стану зрілості та основних проблем на шляху переходу. Також Personal Agility Checklist допоможе перевірити еджайльність майбутніх працівників. Оригінальність статті базується на унікальності Agility Journey, яка була розроблена вперше. Подальші дослідження на цю тему доцільно зосередити на розвитку гнучкого мислення як передумови забезпечення еджайльності в компанії

Agile development for a multi-disciplinary bicycle stability test bench

Agile software development methods are used extensively in the software industry. This paper describes an argument to explain why these methods can be used within a multi-disciplinary project and provides a concrete description on how to implement such a method, using a case-study to support the rationale. The SOFIE (Intelligent Assisted Bicycle) project was created to develop mechatronic appliances to make bicycles more stable, i.e. safer. A bicycle stability test bench is created within this project and is used as the case study for this research. The relative complexity of the test bench development and partner structure within the SOFIE project has many similarities with large-scale complex projects found in industry. Thus it provides a good environment to research the application of Agile software methods to a multi-disciplinary project

The technology base for agile manufacturing

The effective use of information is a critical problem faced by manufacturing organizations that must respond quickly to market changes. As product runs become shorter, rapid and efficient development of product manufacturing facilities becomes crucial to commercial success. Effective information utilization is a key element to successfully meeting these requirements. This paper reviews opportunities for developing technical solutions to information utilization problems within a manufacturing enterprise and outlines a research agenda for solving these problems

On Regulatory and Organizational Constraints in Visualization Design and Evaluation

Problem-based visualization research provides explicit guidance toward identifying and designing for the needs of users, but absent is more concrete guidance toward factors external to a user's needs that also have implications for visualization design and evaluation. This lack of more explicit guidance can leave visualization researchers and practitioners vulnerable to unforeseen constraints beyond the user's needs that can affect the validity of evaluations, or even lead to the premature termination of a project. Here we explore two types of external constraints in depth, regulatory and organizational constraints, and describe how these constraints impact visualization design and evaluation. By borrowing from techniques in software development, project management, and visualization research we recommend strategies for identifying, mitigating, and evaluating these external constraints through a design study methodology. Finally, we present an application of those recommendations in a healthcare case study. We argue that by explicitly incorporating external constraints into visualization design and evaluation, researchers and practitioners can improve the utility and validity of their visualization solution and improve the likelihood of successful collaborations with industries where external constraints are more present.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, presented at BELIV workshop associated with IEEE VIS 201

Experiences in involving analysts in visualisation design

Involving analysts in visualisation design has obvious benefits, but the knowledge-gap between domain experts ("analysts") and visualisation designers ("designers") often makes the degree of their involvement fall short of that aspired. By promoting a culture of mutual learning, understanding and contribution between both analysts and designers from the outset, participants can be raised to a level at which all can usefully contribute to both requirement definition and design. We describe the process we use to do this for tightly-scoped and short design exercises -- with meetings/workshops, iterative bursts of design/prototyping over relatively short periods of time, and workplace-based evaluation -- illustrating this with examples of our own experience from recent work with bird ecologists

Organizational Change Perspectives on Software Process Improvement

Many software organizations have engaged in Software Process Improvement (SPI) and experienced the challenges related to managing such complex organizational change efforts. As a result, there is an increasing body of research investigating change management in SPI. To provide an overview of what we know and don’t know about SPI as organizational change, this paper addresses the following question: What are the dominant perspectives on SPI as organizational change in the literature and how is this knowledge presented and published? All journals on the AIS ranking list were screened to identify relevant articles and Gareth Morgan’s organizational metaphors (1996) were used to analyze this literature considering the following dimensions of each article: organizational perspective (metaphor), knowledge orientation (normative versus descriptive), theoretical emphasis (high versus low), main audience (practitioner versus academic), geographical origin (Scandinavia, the Americas, Europe, or the Asia-Pacific), and publication level (high versus low ranked journal). The review demonstrates that the literature on SPI as organizational change is firmly grounded in both theory and practice, and Scandinavia and the Americas are the main contributors to this research. The distribution of articles across Morgan’s metaphors is uneven and reveals knowledge gaps that present new avenues for research. The current literature offers important insights into organizational change in SPI from machine, organism, and brain perspectives. Practitioners may use these articles as a guide to SPI insights relevant to their improvement initiatives. In contrast, the impact of culture, dominance, psychic prison, flux and transformation, and politics in SPI have only received scant attention. We argue that these perspectives offer important insights into the challenges involved in managing change in SPI. Researchers are therefore advised to engage in new SPI research based on one or more of these perspectives. Overall, the paper provides a roadmap to help identify insights and specific articles related to SPI as organizational change.Software Process Improvement; Organizational Change; Organizational Metaphors; Images of Organization; Literature Review

Модель обучения устному профессионально ориентированному англоязычному общению с использованием деловой игры

У викладанні англійської мови професійного спрямування в університеті необхідно шукати способи підвищення внутрішньої мотивації студентів - розуміння ними важливості вивчення іноземної мови. У статті розглядається модель викладання англійської мови з використанням ділової гри, розроблена для майбутніх фахівців у галузі інформаційних технологій та інформаційної безпеки. Модель заснована на проблемному підході і міждисциплінарній інтеграції дисциплін різних циклів підготовки. Ділова гра була реалізована у викладанні англійської мови для спеціальних цілей студентам третього курсу фізико-технічного інституту, Національного технічного університету України «Київський політехнічний інститут». У статті описані етапи ділової гри і її структура. Також обгрунтовано час, відведений для ділової гри.While teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) at the university, it is important to find the ways to increase students’ intrinsic motivation, so that they understood why it is important for them to learn the foreign language and how they might use their communication skills at work. A model of teaching English using business game developed for students whose speciality is connected with information technologies (IT) and information security is analysed in the article. The model is based on task-based learning and interdisciplinary connections of different cycle disciplines: “English for specific purposes” and “Information security quality assurance technologies”, thus providing situations that might occur in students’ professional life. The business game, which includes simulation of eight business meetings adapted from Agile software development methodologies and project management framework Scrum, was implemented in teaching English for specific purposes to third year students of the institute of physics and technology, National technical university of Ukraine “Kyiv polytechnic institute”. The article outlines the stages of the business game (preparation, business game itself and feedback) and its framework. Procedure of calculating time allotted to the business game is described and justified.В преподавании английского языка для специальных целей в университете необходимо искать способы повышения внутренней мотивации студентов – понимания ими важности изучения иностранного языка. В статье рассматривается модель преподавания английского языка с использованием деловой игры, разработанная для будущих специалистов в области информационных технологий (ИТ) и информационной безопасности. Модель основана на проблемном подходе и междисциплинарной интеграции дисциплин разных циклов подготовки. Деловая игра была реализована в преподавании английского языка для специальных целей студентам третьего курса физико-технического института, Национального технического университета Украины «Киевский политехнический институт». В статье описаны этапы деловой игры и ее структура. Также обосновано время, отведенное для деловой игры