Scrum Game: An Agile Software Management Game

For the past few years, in their attempt to avoid the heavyweight bureaucracy of traditional project management methods such as the Waterfall model, companies have started incorporating agile methods (e.g. Extreme Programming, Scrum, Crystal) for their project development. These methods are characterised by their incremental and iterative delivery, their ability to incorporate change at any stage of the project lifecycle, as well as their small and co-located teams. Even though these methods are included in the syllabus of many software engineering modules at university level, many students currently feel more confident with traditional, rather than agile methods. Many employers find that recent graduates are not equipped with the desired skills of a software engineer because, even though they are knowledgeable in the different software engineering practices, they lack practical experience of these methods. The combination of these two factors show that the university’s approach to teaching software management methods is only theoretical and it does not give students the opportunity to apply them to their projects so they can get a better understanding of their use. The project developed the prototype of a computer game that simulates the use of the Scrum method within different projects, named Scrum Game. The game is supplementary material for a lecture course, and its purpose is to guide students through the Scrum lifecycle. Students can thereby get a small glimpse of the different phases of Scrum, the way that the different Scrum roles interact with each other, and the way that Scrum is used to implement real projects. In addition, the Scrum Game has an administrator mode enabling lecturers to view a log of the progress of all their students in the game. They can use this mode to create new projects or to alter existing ones by adding new tasks or problems, thereby adjusting the level of difficulty to the level of their students, or so that it fits their teaching. The web-based system was developed using PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX (jQuery) and Google Charts API. The system was thoroughly tested against the initial requirements and other system tests. The Scrum Game was evaluated by 22 peer colleagues reading for an MSc in Software Engineering at the University of Southampton, to identify whether the system achieved its goal of introducing students to the Scrum methodology and reaching a deeper understanding of its practical use during project implementation. The results of a questionnaire showed that little prior knowledge was assumed during the game, and that 86% of the participants felt that the game helped them learn more about Scrum. When asked, “Do you think that if this game was part of your Project Management module, would you get a better understanding about Scrum?” an impressive 95% (21 out of 22 participants) agreed that the game would be helpful, and rated the system 8 out of 10 on average

TRW - Lunar Descent Engine

As we went through the program, what we determined, and what we all agreed on, was that the thrust coefficient (Cf) of the nozzle, after you get past a certain point, is really an engineering parameter. It s not a fundamental parameter that is going to be highly variable. Once we knew what the contour of the nozzle was, and once we knew what its characteristic was out to 2:1, we could calculate what the 48:1 thrust coefficient was going to be. In every case that we made a test, the calculation was precise. We weren't looking for a problem out at 48:1. Once we crushed the nozzle and said, "Yeah, we can land on the boulder," and once we had the thermal profile of that columbium nozzle, we did not require a lot of effort there. The real characterization was done in throttling over the 10:1 with the injector and controlling the mixture ratio on that - the whole head-end assembly - out to 2:1. I think everybody at NASA and Grumman agreed that flying like you test is great, particularly if you are using an aircraft engine. But, in this case, the thrust coefficient of the nozzle was not an issue. We had the tandem configuration of the service module, the command module, and the LEM sitting out there, and we were to fire the LEM. On Apollo 5, we were firing the LEM to show how it would work. There was a problem. I can t remember where the problem was, but something caused a problem before that engine had finished its burn. It was not in the engine, but there was some other problem, and NASA made a controlled shutdown. Then, they came to us and asked, "Hey, we re up there. We want to finish this test program. Is it okay if we restart that engine again in space with this tandem configuration?" We said, "As long as it has been more than forty minutes since you shut down, our analysis says that you will be okay in terms of the thermal characteristics of the inside of that chamber." They restarted it and pushed that system around in orbit on Apollo 5. It turned out, that when it came to Apollo 13, we went back into the record, and said, "Hey, we have pushed this system around up there on Apollo 5, and we have also restarted this tandem configuration." The requirements on Apollo 13 were to put it back into play. The spacecraft was out of free return to the earth at the time of the accident. It would not have come back. NASA said, "Okay, we ll use the descent engine to put the spacecraft in a free trajectory; it will go around the moon and be on free trajectory back to Earth." Then, as it came around the far side of the moon, the guys found out that they had an oxygen problem. As you remember, things were getting pretty bad in there. They said, "We ve got to get it back as fast as we can. Is it okay if we re-fire the engine? Now, we re in a free trajectory, so we want to put as much delta-v (or change in velocity) in as we can. Can we re-fire right now?" We said, "Yes, the data says it has been this period of time." We could re-fire the engine, run the rest of the duty cycle up as far as we needed while preserving enough fluids to make the final correction as the spacecraft got near Earth, and restart the engine. It was pretty fortuitous that we could give them those answers

En studie kring välfärdsindikatorer i mjölkproduktionen

In this final thesis a study about welfare indicators in the Swedish milk production has been carried out. The system Swedish Animal Welfare Monitoring Scheme developed by the Swedish Dairy Association has been used as a base and the EU project WELFARE QUALITY® has also been used as a source of information. Focus groups have been used as a qualitative investigating method. This included four focus groups, two with farm auditors from the two different dairies and two with dairy farmers. This method was chosen because in this way one can study how a conversation about a given subject takes form in a respectable way. You can also gain knowledge about people's experience and understand the underlying reasons behind the opinions. A literature study about welfare indicators in milk production, a study about the IP SIGILL certification system, and the trade organization Swedish Dairy Association have been carried out as a background and base to the qualitative studies. In the study the same four questions were discussed in each of the four focus groups: - How can you say that calves, young stock and cows have had good welfare? What are the most important things? - What will happen in the future? Which will be the biggest problems in milk production concerning animal welfare? - Is there anything in the stable, in the handling or management routines that you can control to secure a good animal welfare? If there is, what would that be? Could you instead/also look at the animals and/or complement with figures from for example "kokontrollen" (production data). In that case, what would that be?; what can be replaced/complemented and with what? - What do you think of Svensk Sigill's rules for certification when it comes to securing animals welfare on the farms? - Are they too strict? - Good as they are? - Too low requirements? - Should they be replaced? - And if so, with what? The results from this study indicate that there is room for stricter rules to improve the Swedish milk production regarding animal welfare. The welfare indicators that were discussed more closely; hoof and leg health, cleanness and mortality among calves and young stock are accepted both by farmers and farm auditors as areas that can be improved to reach a good or improved animal welfare. During the discussions some welfare indicators were stressed as important to be able to evaluate if the animals have a good welfare. Calm and confident cows was one of these indicators but the farmers do not trust the farm auditors to evaluate this in a correct way. The decision to use focus groups as a qualitative method in this study seemes to have been a good choice. In some cases earlier suspicions were verified and in other cases new problems and experiences were brought to the surface. Sigill Kvalitetssystem AB will be able to use this study when developing their certifying system IP SIGILL regarding animal welfare even in a longer time perspective

The Armed Forces Covenant in action?: Part 4: Education of service personnel fifth report of session 2013-14 report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

Enabling power: Education Act 1996, s. 537A (4) (5) (6). Issued: 29.05.2013. Made: 20.05.2013. Laid: 29.05.2013. Coming into force: 28.06.2013. Effect: S.I. 2009/1563 amended. Territorial extent and classification: E. General

The Role of the Manufacturer in Air Transportation Planning

The role of the aircraft manufacturer in the airline industry is considered. The process is illustrated by using a fictitious airline as an example--that is, a case study approach with Mid-Coast Airways serving as the example. Both in slide form and with supporting papers, a brief history of the airline, a description of its route structure and a forecast based on econometric analysis are presented. Once the forecast rationale is explained, information outlines the requirements for additional aircraft and the application of new aircraft across the system using alternative fleet plan options. The fleet plan is translated into financial summaries which indicate the relative merit of alternative aircraft types or operating plans

Business Value Is not only Dollars - Results from Case Study Research on Agile Software Projects

Business value is a key concept in agile software development. This paper presents results of a case study on how business value and its creation is perceived in the context of agile projects. Our overall conclusion is that the project participants almost never use an explicit and structured approach to guide the value creation throughout the project. Still, the application of agile methods in the studied cases leads to satisfied clients. An interesting result of the study represents the fact that the agile process of many projects differs significantly from what is described in the agile practitioners’ books as best practices. The key implication for research and practice is that we have an incentive to pursue the study of value creation in agile projects and to complement it by providing guidelines for better client’s involvement, as well as by developing structured methods that will enhance the value-creation in a project

The Impact of English Language Proficiency and Workplace Readiness on the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary International Students (Full Report)

This project examines the influence of English language proficiency (ELP) on workplace readiness and employment outcomes for international students and graduates who seek to work in Australia. The study adopts a mixed method approach involving a detailed review of relevant literature, semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups, and quantitative analyses of three statistical data sets — Australian 2006 Census data, Australian Education International (AEI) data from January 2002 to June 2008, and the former Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (October 2005 and October 2006). The qualitative data from the interviews enabled the authors to analyse the topic of investigation from several different perspectives including those of: international students and graduates; local (permanent resident or citizen) students and graduates; representatives of tertiary institutions and VET providers; recent offshore graduate job seekers with overseas qualifications; and Australian employers and regulatory bodies in five professional and three trade fields. The findings show that international students employment outcomes are not as good as their Australian domestic counterparts and that they face greater challenges in finding full-time employment after graduation. While ELP is a key factor influencing their employment outcomes — particularly if graduates have low levels of ELP — the findings from this study show that ELP is not the only or principal issue. Employers\u27 first priority is to engage graduates with strong profession-specific skills and then to consider their ‘well-roundedness’. The ‘well-roundedness’ includes graduates’ personal characteristics and attributes, the diversity of their experiences and skills, as well as their ‘cultural fit’ into the workplace. There is potential to respond to this expectation through policies and practices that support integrated approaches for enhancing ELP and workplace readiness within educational institutions, as well as increasing international students’ awareness of the value of the experiences and skills they can develop outside of their studies

Market Structure and Energy Efficiency: The Case of New Commercial Buildings

This is a report on why commercial office buildings aren’t more energy efficient. Several decades of energy efficiency programs have resulted in some gains, but overall increases in the energy efficiency of buildings have fallen far short of the 30 to 50 percent improvement that many efficiency advocates believe is possible. The purpose of this study is to consider the “why” question by empirically examining the dynamics of new commercial building markets. To do so, the authors used multiple research techniques, including qualitative field observation and interview methods that allow for a more in-depth understanding of complicated market processes. Their research focused primarily on new office buildings and centered in four regional markets: Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. The authors identify key dynamics of commercial office building markets, describe how change and innovation occurs in commercial development, discuss the implications for energy efficiency, and suggest next steps