Adoption of SCRUM for Software Development Projects: An Exploratory Case Study from the ICT Industry

Agile process models are aimed to improve the track record of software development projects – but in literature and in daily project work there is a broad debate of the usage of agile project management methods. Despite initial positive results in practice, the conditions, possibilities and effects of agile process models are discussed controversial. In this paper, the adoption of agile project management models has been investigated in terms of an exploratory case study for a business intelligence development project in the ICT industry. In this case study the adoption of SCRUM as agile project management method was analyzed and evaluated. The results and experience gained from the method adoption are discussed. General and SCRUM-specific implementation proposals for the practical application were derived. These recommendations serve as a support in the introduction of agile process models in other similar projects situations

An Unstructured CFD Mini-Application for the Performance Prediction of a Production CFD Code

Maintaining the performance of large scientific codes is a difficult task. To aid in this task, a number of mini-applications have been developed that are more tractable to analyze than large-scale production codes while retaining the performance characteristics of them. These “mini-apps” also enable faster hardware evaluation and, for sensitive commercial codes, allow evaluation of code and system changes outside of access approval processes. In this paper, we develop MG-CFD, a mini-application that represents a geometric multigrid, unstructured computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, designed to exhibit similar performance characteristics without sharing commercially sensitive code. We detail our experiences of developing this application using guidelines detailed in existing research and contributing further to these. Our application is validated against the inviscid flux routine of HYDRA, a CFD code developed by Rolls-Royce plc for turbomachinery design. This paper (1) documents the development of MG-CFD, (2) introduces an associated performance model with which it is possible to assess the performance of HYDRA on new HPC architectures, and (3) demonstrates that it is possible to use MG-CFD and the performance models to predict the performance of HYDRA with a mean error of 9.2% for strong-scaling studies

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage

Real-time flight delay analysis and prediction based on the Internet of Things Data

This item is only available electronically.Flight delay is a significant problem resulting in the wasting of billions of dollars each year. Although this problem has been investigated in previous studies, all these previous studies rely on the historical records of flights provided by other agencies. Our work utilizes the emerging Internet of things (IoT) paradigm. It is now possible to collect and analyze sensors data in real-time. Our goal is to improve our understanding of the roots and signs of flight delays in order to be able to classify a given flight based on the features from flights and other data sources. We extend the existing works by adding new data sources and considering new factors in the analysis of flight delay. Through the use of real-time data, our goal is to establish a novel service to predict delays in real-time. In this project, we made a novel approach to collect the real time data from distributed sensors to study the flight delay. We create regression models to classify flights whether these flights are on-time or delayed as well as predicting how many minutes the delay would be. There are three main steps we conduct: first, we build a crawler to crawl the data from the pre-specified IoT data sources. Second, we implement an integration algorithm to integrate the data of all data sources using temporal and spatial criteria. Third, we conduct the analysis on the data with the aim to build a prediction model that could classify the flights and predict the delay time. This conducted analytical study provides three cases studies: Australia, China, and Europe. In addition, this project shows high correlation among the collected data. In addition, it shows that the prediction models in all case studies achieves very high accuracy. Comparing our models to others in previous studies, our model brings new factors that have impact on the flight delay as well as accomplish higher precision and recall.Thesis (MCompSc) -- University of Adelaide, School of Computer Science, 201

Análise de fatores críticos à implantação de parques científicos: um estudo de caso

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento, Florianópolis, 2015.O objetivo deste estudo é identificar fatores críticos à implantação de Parques Científicos e Tecnológicos (PCTs). Mesmo havendo um número crescente de PCTs em implantação no Brasil e no exterior, ainda existe lacuna na literatura sobre esse processo. Entende-se que, para que a implantação seja bem-sucedida, é necessário conhecer e gerenciar os fatores críticos envolvidos. Assim, com o intuito de identificar os fatores críticos de sucesso para a implantação de parques científicos, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática de literatura na base de dados Scopus, dos estudos relacionados ao tema publicados entre os anos de 2009 e 2015. Em paralelo, foi realizado um estudo de caso por meio de análise documental, que garantiu fidelidade de dados e ofereceu condições de inventariar as atividades e projetos desenvolvidos pelo PCT estudado. Também possibilitou mapear as ações planejadas em conjunto com as esferas pública e privada e, por fim, a análise do faturamento do Parque em implantação. Os resultados do estudo de caso demonstraram que a falta de um modelo conceitual e de diretrizes estabelecidas fragiliza o desenvolvimento de projetos e atividades oferecidas pelo parque, refletindo-se no seu papel estratégico. Na pesquisa de campo com os gestores do parque, foi possível identificar o entendimento desses atores quanto aos fatores críticos de sucesso. Os dados obtidos foram analisados por meio da triangulação entre métodos de pesquisa, em que a pesquisadora verificou os dados de maneira a proporcionar a sua compreensão para utilizá-los como subsídios na proposição de um modelo de framework conceitual para implantação de Parque Científico e Tecnológico.Abstract : The objective of this study is to identify factors critical to the implementation of Science and Technology Parks (PCTs). Even with a growing number of PCTs under implementation in Brazil and abroad, there is still shortage of studies on this process. It is understood that in order for the implementation to be successful, it is necessary to know and manage the critical factors involved. Thus, with the objective to identify critical success factors for implementing science parks, the study carried out a systematic review of literature on the Scopus database, the studies related to the subject published between 2009 and 2015. In parallel, a case study was conducted through document analysis, which ensured data fidelity and conditions offered to inventory the activities and projects developed by the PCT studied. It was possible to map the actions planned in conjunction with the public and private sector, and finally, the financial analysis of the Park under implementation. The case study results showed that the lack of a conceptual framework and established guidelines weakens the development of projects and activities offered by the park, reflected in its strategic role. In the field research with the managers of the park, it was possible to identify the understanding of these actors as the critical success factors. Data were analyzed using triangulation between research methods, in which the researcher found the data so as to provide their understanding, to use them as subsidies in proposing a conceptual framework model for Scientific and Technological Park deployment

Marketing for Sustainable Tourism

The aim of the Special Issue is to discuss the main current topics concerning marketing for sustainable tourism with reference to territories (i.e., tourism destinations, protected areas, parks and/or natural sites, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, rural regions/areas, etc.) and tourism enterprises and/or organisations (i.e., destination management organisations, hospitality enterprises, restaurant enterprises, cableway companies, travel agencies, etc.). In destinations where natural resources are pull factors for tourism development, the relationships among local actors (public, private, and local community), as well as marketing choices, are essential to develop sustainable tourism products. To this end, the Special Issue encourages papers that analyse marketing strategies adopted by tourism destinations and/or tourism enterprises to avoid overtourism, to manage mass sustainable tourism (as defined by Weaver, 2000), and to encourage and promote sustainable tourism in marginal areas or in territories suffering lack of integration in the tourism offer. Special attention will be given to contributions on the best practices to manage territories and/or enterprises adopting sustainable marketing strategies