What have we learnt from the challenges of (semi-) automated requirements traceability? A discussion on blockchain applicability.

Over the last 3 decades, researchers have attempted to shed light into the requirements traceability problem by introducing tracing tools, techniques, and methods with the vision of achieving ubiquitous traceability. Despite the technological advances, requirements traceability remains problematic for researchers and practitioners. This study aims to identify and investigate the main challenges in implementing (semi-)automated requirements traceability, as reported in the recent literature. A systematic literature review was carried out based on the guidelines for systematic literature reviews in software engineering, proposed by Kitchenham. We retrieved 4530 studies by searching five major bibliographic databases and selected 70 primary studies. These studies were analysed and classified according to the challenges they present and/or address. Twenty-one challenges were identified and were classified into five categories. Findings reveal that the most frequent challenges are technological challenges, in particular, low accuracy of traceability recovery methods. Findings also suggest that future research efforts should be devoted to the human facet of tracing, to explore traceability practices in organisational settings, and to develop traceability approaches that support agile and DevOps practices. Finally, it is recommended that researchers leverage blockchain technology as a suitable technical solution to ensure the trustworthiness of traceability information in interorganisational software projects.publishedVersio

Enterprise resource planning business case considerations : an analysis of Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises in developing countries

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems because they promise significant benefits. However, the majority of ERP deployments rarely meet user expectations and often do not yield expected benefits. As a result, the failure rate of ERP implementations at SMEs is estimated to be between 40 and 60 percent. This high rate of failure, together with the resultant impact on SMEs and the consequences for national development is a cause for concern. In order to address this concern, this study aims to explore how SMEs develop their business cases, as well as how the benefits, risks and costs of ERP systems are realised in SMEs. Companies need a clear vision and convincing reasons when they adopt ERP systems. The study used the qualitative research method. Cases from South Africa and Zimbabwe were investigated in a cross-sectional study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using elements of thematic data analysis, grounded theory, and a general inductive approach to analysis. The Design Reality Gap Model formed a theoretical base and was used as lens for data collection and analysis

Visual management in design management within a digital environment

Difficulties in managing the construction design process are strongly related to its nature, as a large number of interdependent decisions are involved, which need to be made by many different stakeholders, in an environment that has a high degree of uncertainty. Moreover, there is a growing use of digital tools to support design. Traditional communication approaches used in design management only partially comply with the requirements of digital contexts, and new methods and tools are necessary to address these challenges. Visual Management (VM) has the potential to increase process transparency in the design stage, in order to support collaboration and communication and facilitate the transfer of information. However, the literature on the implementation of VM to support design management is still scarce. Moreover, there is limited understanding of the connection between VM and information and communication technologies (ICT). This investigation aims to propose a set of requirements to support VM applications for design planning and control within digital contexts, which can potentially contribute to improving the effectiveness of VM. This set of requirements were initially identified within the literature, considering different fields of knowledge, and then refined in an empirical study that was developed in collaboration with an infrastructure design and consultancy company in the UK. The secondary objectives are (i) to devise a concept map connecting different VM constructs related to design management systems and (ii) to propose guidelines for the integration of Visual Management in design management within digital environment. The Design Science Research approach was the methodological approach adopted in this investigation, which involved incremental learning cycles for devising the artefact, carried out in three different projects. The main findings include (i) the definition of a set of VM requirements that are applicable to the context investigated in this research study; (ii) an assessment of the relevance of the requirements for different types of visual practices, hierarchical planning levels, and stakeholders that are involved; (iii) the identification of some current limitations and challenges of implementing digital VM in construction design. From a practical perspective, this set of requirements may guide practitioners and academics in devising and assessing digital VM practices.As dificuldades no gerenciamento de projeto são consequência da natureza do processo de projeto, o qual envolve um grande número de decisões interdependentes, que precisam ser tomadas por diversos stakeholders, em um ambiente com um alto grau de incerteza. Além disso, há um crescente uso de ferramentas digitais para apoiar o gerenciamento de projeto. As abordagens de comunicação tradicionais usadas no gerenciamento de projeto atendem apenas parcialmente aos requisitos dos contextos digitais, e novos métodos e ferramentas são necessários para enfrentar esses desafios. A gestão visual (GV) tem o potencial de aumentar a transparência do processo de projeto, permitir melhor colaboração e comunicação e facilitar a transferência de informações. No entanto, a literatura sobre a implementação de GV para apoiar a gestão de projetos ainda é escassa, e também há uma compreensão limitada da conexão entre GV e tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC). O principal objetivo deste trabalho de pesquisa é propor um conjunto de requisitos para apoiar aplicações de GV para planejamento e controle de projetos em contextos digitais, que podem contribuir potencialmente na maior eficácia de GV. Esse conjunto de requisitos foi inicialmente identificado na literatura, considerando diferentes áreas do conhecimento, e posteriormente refinado em um estudo empírico desenvolvido em colaboração com uma empresa de projeto e consultoria de infraestrutura no Reino Unido. Os objetivos secundários são: (i) elaborar um mapa conceitual relacionando diferentes conceitos de GV para sistemas de gestão de projetos, e (ii) propor diretrizes para a adoção de GV em gestão de projeto considerando contextos digitais. Design Science Research foi a abordagem metodológica adotada nesta investigação, através de ciclos de aprendizagem incrementais para a concepção do artefato, os quais foram realizados em três projetos diferentes. As principais contribuições incluem (i) definição de um conjunto de requisitos de GV aplicáveis ao contexto investigado nesta pesquisa; (ii) avaliação da relevância dos requisitos para diferentes tipos de práticas visuais, níveis hierárquicos de planejamento e stakeholders envolvidos; e (iii) identificação de algumas limitações e desafios na implementação da GV digital em projeto de construção. De uma perspectiva prática, esse conjunto de requisitos pode orientar profissionais e acadêmicos na elaboração e avaliação de práticas de GV digital

The digital impact on the supply chain: The servitization of agri-food industry

For decades, many firms have been deeply transformed due to the creation and integration of digital technologies in different processes or instances, conceptualized as digitalization. In the specific case of manufacturing industry, this trend has been described as Industry 4.0. Simultaneously, manufacturing firms tend to adapt their business model by including more service offerings to gain competitiveness, described theoretically as servitization. Research on those topics has already provided many case studies for the manufacturing industry. Within this industry, the agri-food sector, though, is sidelined. Nowadays, there is no paper dealing with servitization of agri-food and we face a lack of global overview regarding the digital revolution. However, significant implications are affecting agri-food towards being more agile and fast to increase and diversify offerings in order to answer specific customers’ needs. Therefore, the supply chain is deeply changing and faces more complexity. Not only a better economic performance is expected based on capture and advanced analysis of data, but also more sustainability and interconnectivity through corporate social responsibility (CSR) or creating shared value (CSV) to avoid waste and redundant operations. The following thesis aims to provide a theoretical contribution about the impact of digital technologies in the supply chain as imperative enablers of the servitization of agri-food sector. The first section will introduce the subject and the research gap. The second section is dedicated to a state of research of servitization, digitalization and their mutual influences for the manufacturing industry. The third section is a methodology that aims to analyze the main issues to be taken into account. The fourth section is a dynamic description to show that the application of digital tools in the supply chain contribute directly to the servitization of agri-food firms

Private Capacity and Public Failure: Contours of Livestock Innovation Response Capacity in Kenya

Globalization, urbanization and new market demands - together with ever-increasing quality and safety requirements - are putting significantly greater pressures on agrifood stakeholders in the world. The ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities is important not just for producers but also for industries in developing countries. This paper aims to present what "innovation response capacity" entails, especially for natural resourcebased industries in a developing country context. It will also provide an analytical framework that draws elements from agricultural innovation capacity and the innovation systems framework. This is provided through case study research conducted in Kenya by exploring two livestock product companies: Farmer's Choice and Kenchic. The cases show how companies had worked around the problem of weak interaction with the various livestockrelated agencies of the public sector by developing links with international sources of knowledge and technology. This allowed the sector to respond rapidly to different challenges. While the country's historical development explains this pattern of innovation response capacity, public policy appears to be failing in its role of nurturing and contributing to the capacities needed for development in emerging economies, such as that of Kenya.Livestock, agriculture, innovation, innovation response capacity, Kenya

Integrated lifecycle requirements information management in construction

Effective management of information about client requirements in construction projects lifecycle can contribute to high construction productivity; within budget and schedule, and improve the quality of built facilities and service delivery. Traditionally, requirements management has been focused at the early stages of the construction lifecycle process where elicited client requirements information is used as the basis for design. Management of client requirements does not extend to the later phases. Client requirements often evolve and change dramatically over a facility’s life. Changing client requirements is one of the principal factors that contribute to delays and budget overruns of construction projects. This results in claims, disputes and client dissatisfaction. The problems of current requirements management process also include: lack of integrated and collaborative working with requirements; lack of integrated requirements information flow between the various heterogeneous systems used in the lifecycle processes, and between the multiple stakeholders; inefficient and ineffective coordination of changes within the lifecycle processes; manual checking of dependencies between changing requirements to facilitate assessment of cost and time impact of changes. The aim of the research is to specify a better approach to requirements information management to help construction organisations reduce operational cost and time in product development and service delivery; whilst increasing performance and productivity, and realising high quality of built facilities. In order to achieve the aim and the formulated objectives, firstly, a detailed review of literature on related work was conducted. Secondly, the research designed, developed and conducted three case studies to investigate the state-of-the-art of managing client requirements information. A combination of multiple data collection methods was applied which included observations, interviews, focus group and questionnaires. Following this, the data was analysed and problems were identified; the necessity for a lifecycle approach to managing the requirements information emerged. (Continues...)

Maps of Lessons Learnt in Requirements Engineering

Both researchers and practitioners have emphasized the importance of learning from past experiences and its consequential impact on project time, cost, and quality. However, from the survey we conducted of requirements engineering (RE) practitioners, over 70\% of the respondents stated that they seldom use RE lessons in the RE process, though 85\% of these would use such lessons if readily available. Our observation, however, is that RE lessons are scattered, mainly implicitly, in the literature and practice, which obviously, does not help the situation. We, therefore, present ``maps” of RE lessons which would highlight weak (dark) and strong (bright) areas of RE (and hence RE theories). Such maps would thus be: (a) a driver for research to ``light up” the darker areas of RE and (b) a guide for practice to benefit from the brighter areas. To achieve this goal, we populated the maps with over 200 RE lessons elicited from literature and practice using a systematic literature review and survey. The results show that approximately 80\% of the elicited lessons are implicit and that approximately 70\% of the lessons deal with the elicitation, analysis, and specification RE phases only. The RE Lesson Maps, elicited lessons, and the results from populating the maps provide novel scientific groundings for lessons learnt in RE as this topic has not yet been systematically studied in the field

Evolution of a Lean Smart Maintenance Maturity Model towards the new Age of Industry 4.0

Over the last few years, the complexity of asset and maintenance management of industrial plants and machinery in the producing industry has risen due to higher competition and volatile environments. Smart factories, Internet of Things (IoT) and the underlying digitisation of a significant number of processes are changing the way we have to think and work in terms of asset management. Existing Lean Smart Maintenance (LSM) philosophy, which focuses on the cost-efficient (lean) and the learning organisation (smart) perspectives enables a value-oriented, dynamic, and smart maintenance/asset management. The associated LSM maturity model is the evaluation tool that contains the normative, strategic, and operational aspects of industrial asset management, based on which numerous reorganisation projects have already been carried out in industrial companies. However, due to the ever-increasing development of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), it is necessary to extend the model by selected aspects of digitisation and digitalisation. Based on a structured literature review (SLR) of state of the art I4.0 maturity models, we were able to investigate the essential maturity items for I4.0. To restructure and expand the existing LSM maturity model, the principle of design science research (DSR) was used. The architecture of the LSM maturity model was based on the structure of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). Further development of a Lean Smart Maintenance maturity model thus covers the future requirements of I4.0 and data science. It was possible to enhance existing categories with new artefacts from the I4.0 range to represent the influence of cyber-physical systems (CPS), (big) data and information management, condition monitoring (CM) and more. Furthermore, the originally defined LSM-Model was restructured for a more simplified application in industrial use cases

Towards a framework to enable construction small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to manage sustainability

The careful management of sustainability issues is increasingly being demanded by construction clients and others within the construction supply chain. Certification to sustainability standards is widely recognised as a means of demonstrating performance in this regard, and many pre-qualification questionnaires and tender processes now explicitly require their suppliers to provide evidence of sustainability standard certificates and policies. However, implementation of these standards is a costly and time consuming process, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Smaller firms often lack the fundamental know-how of how to address the requirements of standards and are required to engage the services of consultancies in order to implement them, which further increases the costs associated with their implementation. [Continues.