Requirements model driven adaption and evolution of Internetware

Today’s software systems need to support complex business operations and processes. The development of the web-based software systems has been pushing up the limits of traditional software engineering methodologies and technologies as they are required to be used and updated almost real-time, so that users can interact and share the same applications over the internet as needed. These applications have to adapt quickly to the diversified and dynamic changing requirements in the physical, technological, economical and social environments. As a consequence, we are expecting a major paradigm shift in software engineering to reflect such changes in computing environment in order to better address the fundamental needs of organisations in this new era. Existing software technologies, such as model driven development, business process engineering, online (re-)configuration, composition and adaptation of managerial functionalities are being repurposed to reduce the time taken for software development by reusing software codes. The ability to dynamically combine contents from numerous web sites and local resources, and the ability to instantly publish services worldwide have opened up entirely new possibilities for software development. In retrospect to the ten years applied research on Internetware, we have witnessed such a paradigm shift, which brings about many changes to the developmental experience of conventional web applications. Several related technologies, such as cloud computing, service computing, cyber-physical systems and social computing, have converged to address this emerging issue with emphasis on different aspects. In this paper, we first outline the requirements that the Internetware software paradigm should meet to excel at web application adaptation; we then propose a requirement model driven method for adaptive and evolutionary applications; and we report our experiences and case studies of applying it to an enterprise information system. Our goal is to provide high-level guidelines to researchers and practitioners to meet the challenges of building adaptive industrial-strength applications with the spectrum of processes, techniques and facilities provided within the Internetware paradigm

Management of IS Outsourcing Relationships – A Dyadic Analysis of Antecedents and Consequences of Dependencies and Power

Many companies today rely heavily on specialized information technology (IT) suppliers for fulfilling their IT demands. However, external provision, i.e., outsourcing, of IT services is a risky endeavor, and expectations are frequently not met. This dissertation addresses the challenge of successfully managing outsourcing relationships between clients and IT suppliers. The dissertation begins by presenting results from a multiple case study that analyzes the organizational design of the management of supplier relations in the IT organizations of five client companies. These results contribute to research in this area and show IT decision makers on the client side efficient ways of organizing the ‘client-supplier interface’. Special attention is paid to the risks associated with outsourcing arrangements that should be addressed as part of successful relationship management. From a client’s perspective, excessive dependence on the IT supplier is viewed as a major outsourcing hazard. However, research from related disciplines suggests not only analyzing a client’s dependence but also incorporating the supplier’s dependence on the client in a dyadic exchange relationship. Differences between the dependency levels of the client and the supplier can lead to a power advantage for one party that can then be used to the detriment of the dependence-disadvantaged party. The dissertation investigates different dependence and power constellations in outsourcing relationships using a case study approach. The investigation results in conceptualizations and measurement instruments for client and supplier dependence in outsourcing relationships. The dissertation ends with a large-scale empirical survey that analyzes the effects of different combinations of dependencies and power use on the contractual partners’ satisfaction with the exchange performance. Taken together, the results advance knowledge about the successful management of outsourcing relationships and, more specifically, they enable clients and IT suppliers to capture and optimize dependence relations

A theory and model for the evolution of software services

Software services are subject to constant change and variation. To control service development, a service developer needs to know why a change was made, what are its implications and whether the change is complete. Typically, service clients do not perceive the upgraded service immediately. As a consequence, service-based applications may fail on the service client side due to changes carried out during a provider service upgrade. In order to manage changes in a meaningful and effective manner service clients must therefore be considered when service changes are introduced at the service provider's side. Otherwise such changes will most certainly result in severe application disruption. Eliminating spurious results and inconsistencies that may occur due to uncontrolled changes is therefore a necessary condition for the ability of services to evolve gracefully, ensure service stability, and handle variability in their behavior. Towards this goal, this work presents a model and a theoretical framework for the compatible evolution of services based on well-founded theories and techniques from a number of disparate fields.

A theory and model for the evolution of software services.

Software services are subject to constant change and variation. To control service development, a service developer needs to know why a change was made, what are its implications and whether the change is complete. Typically, service clients do not perceive the upgraded service immediately. As a consequence, service-based applications may fail on the service client side due to changes carried out during a provider service upgrade. In order to manage changes in a meaningful and effective manner service clients must therefore be considered when service changes are introduced at the service provider's side. Otherwise such changes will most certainly result in severe application disruption. Eliminating spurious results and inconsistencies that may occur due to uncontrolled changes is therefore a necessary condition for the ability of services to evolve gracefully, ensure service stability, and handle variability in their behavior. Towards this goal, this work presents a model and a theoretical framework for the compatible evolution of services based on well-founded theories and techniques from a number of disparate fields.

Formal aspects of component software

This is the pre-proceedings of 6th International Workshop on Formal Aspects of Component Software (FACS'09)

The Methodological Roles of Tolerance and Conventionalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics: Reconsidering Carnap\u27s Logic of Science

This dissertation makes two primary contributions. The first three chapters develop an interpretation of Carnap\u27s Meta-Philosophical Program which places stress upon his methodological analysis of the sciences over and above the Principle of Tolerance. Most importantly, I suggest, is that Carnap sees philosophy as contiguous with science—as a part of the scientific enterprise—so utilizing the very same methods and subject to the same limitations. I argue that the methodological reforms he suggests for philosophy amount to philosophy as the explication of the concepts of science (including mathematics) through the construction and use of suitably robust meta-logical languages. My primary interpretive claim is that Carnap\u27s understanding of logic and mathematics as a set of formal auxiliaries is premised upon this prior analysis of the character of logico-mathematical knowledge, his understanding of its role in the language of science, and the methods used by practicing mathematicians. Thus the Principle of Tolerance, and so Carnap\u27s logical pluralism, is licensed and justified by these methodological insights. This interpretation of Carnap\u27s program contrasts with the popular Deflationary reading as proposed in Goldfarb & Ricketts (1992). The leading idea they attribute to Carnap is a Logocentrism: That philosophical assertions are always made relative to some particular language(s), and that our choice of syntactical rules for a language are constitutive of its inferential structure and methods of possible justification. Consequently Tolerance is considered the foundation of Carnap\u27s entire program. My third chapter argues that this reading makes Carnap\u27s program philosophically inert, and I present significant evidence that such a reading is misguided. The final chapter attempts to extend the methodological ideals of Carnap\u27s program to the analysis of the ongoing debate between category- and set-theoretic foundations for mathematics. Recent criticism of category theory as a foundation charges that it is neither autonomous from set theory, nor offers a suitable ontological grounding for mathematics. I argue that an analysis of concepts can be foundationally informative without requiring the construction of those concepts from first principles, and that ontological worries can be seen as methodologically unfruitful

Thriving in Times of Technological Change:how tasks, skills and meaning shape careers in the 21st century labour market

Technology changes the world around us. It is impossible to imagine an office without computers, healthcare without medical technology and factories without robots. This has heavily affected the organization of work. As our workplaces change, so do the tasks we execute at work - and the skills we need to do them. This bears consequences for our careers: people who can use technology to improve their productivity thrive on technological progress, but that is not the case for workers that execute tasks that computers are relatively good at. The chapters in this dissertation concern the well-being of workers in a labour market that can be characterized by continuous technological change. The first chapter concerns the changing demand for routine-intensive tasks and the consequences that has for the careers of Dutch employees. The second chapter involves the changing demand for skills. This is especially relevant for the middle-skilled segment of the labour market, that has come under pressure in the past decades due to technological change. What should currently be taught to middle-educated students in school in order to ensure a good start on the labour market? Whereas the first two chapters focus on the contents of our work (tasks and skills), the last chapter deals with the question whether workers think of their work as useful and fulfilling. The chapter shows that meaningful work is an important topic to study, also for economists - and possibly even more so in the future, when technology is able to replace more tasks