Business objects: the next step in component technology?

Component technology seems to be a promising approach towards more efficient software development by enabling application construction through “plug and play”. However, the middleware supporting this approach is still complicated to use and distracts the attention of the component developer from the application domain to technical implementation issues. Business objects are intended to hide the complexities of middleware approaches and provide an easy to use environment for application developers. We conceptualize business object approaches by presenting a common model and survey some major players in the marketplace. We conclude by identifying implications of business objects on information systems engineering.

Proximal business intelligence on the semantic web

This is the post-print version of this article. The official version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 Springer.Ubiquitous information systems (UBIS) extend current Information System thinking to explicitly differentiate technology between devices and software components with relation to people and process. Adapting business data and management information to support specific user actions in context is an ongoing topic of research. Approaches typically focus on providing mechanisms to improve specific information access and transcoding but not on how the information can be accessed in a mobile, dynamic and ad-hoc manner. Although web ontology has been used to facilitate the loading of data warehouses, less research has been carried out on ontology based mobile reporting. This paper explores how business data can be modeled and accessed using the web ontology language and then re-used to provide the invisibility of pervasive access; uncovering more effective architectural models for adaptive information system strategies of this type. This exploratory work is guided in part by a vision of business intelligence that is highly distributed, mobile and fluid, adapting to sensory understanding of the underlying environment in which it operates. A proof-of concept mobile and ambient data access architecture is developed in order to further test the viability of such an approach. The paper concludes with an ontology engineering framework for systems of this type – named UBIS-ONTO

Manufacturing information interactions in data model driven design

This paper presents a novel view of a software environment that has the potential to provide manufacturing information support to product design in line with the aims of concurrent engineering. The arguments developed should have significant consequences for future computer aided engineering (CAE) systems development and support the continuing globalization in business development. The approach taken has at the centre of its philosophy the need to provide designers with high-quality information on which to base their decisions. The concept of an information supported product design environment is not new, but a range of issues related to information interactions has yet to be resolved. This paper explores the use of information models to support functional and manufacturing interactions in design as well as the issues that are raised in attempting to support multiple views in design for manufacture. The design of injection moulded products is used as the focus against which the ideas in the paper are explored

IDEF5 Ontology Description Capture Method: Concept Paper

The results of research towards an ontology capture method referred to as IDEF5 are presented. Viewed simply as the study of what exists in a domain, ontology is an activity that can be understood to be at work across the full range of human inquiry prompted by the persistent effort to understand the world in which it has found itself - and which it has helped to shape. In the contest of information management, ontology is the task of extracting the structure of a given engineering, manufacturing, business, or logistical domain and storing it in an usable representational medium. A key to effective integration is a system ontology that can be accessed and modified across domains and which captures common features of the overall system relevant to the goals of the disparate domains. If the focus is on information integration, then the strongest motivation for ontology comes from the need to support data sharing and function interoperability. In the correct architecture, an enterprise ontology base would allow th e construction of an integrated environment in which legacy systems appear to be open architecture integrated resources. If the focus is on system/software development, then support for the rapid acquisition of reliable systems is perhaps the strongest motivation for ontology. Finally, ontological analysis was demonstrated to be an effective first step in the construction of robust knowledge based systems

Domain architecture a design framework for system development and integration

The ever growing complexity of software systems has revealed many short-comings in existing software engineering practices and has raised interest in architecture-driven software development. A system\u27s architecture provides a model of the system that suppresses implementation detail, allowing the architects to concentrate on the analysis and decisions that are most critical to structuring the system to satisfy its requirements. Recently, interests of researchers and practi-tioners have shifted from individual system architectures to architectures for classes of software systems which provide more general, reusable solutions to the issues of overall system organization, interoperability, and allocation of services to system components. These generic architectures, such as product line architectures and domain architectures, promote reuse and interoperability, and create a basis for cost effective construction of high-quality systems. Our focus in this dissertation is on domain architectures as a means of development and integration of large-scale, domain-specific business software systems. Business imperatives, including flexibility, productivity, quality, and ability to adapt to changes, have fostered demands for flexible, coherent and enterprise--wide integrated business systems. The components of such systems, developed separately or purchased off the shelf, need to cohesively form an overall compu-tational environment for the business. The inevitable complexity of such integrated solutions and the highly-demanding process of their construction, management, and evolution support require new software engineering methodologies and tools. Domain architectures, prescribing the organization of software systems in a business domain, hold a promise to serve as a foundation on which such integrated business systems can be effectively constructed. To meet the above expectations, software architectures must be properly defined, represented, and applied, which requires suitable methodologies as well as process and tool support. Despite research efforts, however, state-of-the-art methods and tools for architecture-based system development do not yet meet the practical needs of system developers. The primary focus of this dissertation is on developing methods and tools to support domain architecture engineering and on leveraging architectures to achieve improved system development and integration in presence of increased complexity. In particular, the thesis explores issues related to the following three aspects of software technology: system complexity and software architectures as tools to alleviate complexity; domain architectures as frameworks for construction of large scale, flexible, enterprise-wide software systems; and architectural models and representation techniques as a basis for good” design. The thesis presents an archi-tectural taxonomy to help categorize and better understand architectural efforts. Furthermore, it clarifies the purpose of domain architectures and characterizes them in detail. To support the definition and application of domain architectures we have developed a method for domain architecture engineering and representation: GARM-ASPECT. GARM, the Generic Architecture Reference Model, underlying the method, is a system of modeling abstractions, relations and recommendations for building representations of reference software architectures. The model\u27s focus on reference and domain architectures determines its main distinguishing features: multiple views of architectural elements, a separate rule system to express constraints on architecture element types, and annotations such as “libraries” of patterns and “logs” of guidelines. ASPECT is an architecture description language based on GARM. It provides a normalized vocabulary for representing the skeleton of an architecture, its structural view, and establishes a framework for capturing archi-tectural constraints. It also allows extensions of the structural view with auxiliary information, such as behavior or quality specifications. In this respect, ASPECT provides facilities for establishing relationships among different specifications and gluing them together within an overall architectural description. This design allows flexibility and adaptability of the methodology to the specifics of a domain or a family of systems. ASPECT supports the representation of reference architectures as well as individual system architectures. The practical applicability of this method has been tested through a case study in an industrial setting. The approach to architecture engineering and representation, presented in this dissertation, is pragmatic and oriented towards software practitioners. GARM-ASPECT, as well as the taxonomy of architectures are of use to architects, system planners and system engineers. Beyond these practical contributions, this thesis also creates a more solid basis for expbring the applicability of architectural abstractions, the practicality of representation approaches, and the changes required to the devel-opment process in order to achieve the benefits from an architecture-driven software technology

Impact of Servant Leadership on Project Success Through Mediating Role of Team Motivation and Effectiveness:A Case of Software Industry

Project management in today’s intensely competitive environment has compelled organizations to adopt project management approach for better business results. Therefore, current research study aims to investigate the impact of servant leadership on project success with the mediating role of team motivation and team effectiveness in the software industry. A field survey was conducted, using a questionnaire as a survey tool. Data were collected from 219 respondents who have been working as team members of software development projects. The statistical results were obtained using the SPSS Process macro. The results show project managers need to exhibit a servant leadership style due to its strong influence on project success, albeit through team motivation and effectiveness. The findings from this study contribute to the field of leadership and project management along with the field of information systems and software engineering.</p

Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Software Engineering

International audienceArtificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have been successfully applied in many areas of software engineering. The complexity of software systems has limited the application of AI techniques in many real world applications. This talk provides an insight into applications of AI techniques in software engineering and how innovative application of AI can assist in achieving ever competitive and firm schedules for software development projects as well as Information Technology (IT) management. The pros and cons of using AI techniques are investigated and specifically the application of AI in IT management, software application development and software security is considered. Organisations that build software applications do so in an environment characterised by limited resources, increased pressure to reduce cost and development schedules. Organisations demand to build software applications adequately and quickly. One approach to achieve this is to use automated software development tools from the very initial stage of software design up to the software testing and installation. Considering software testing as an example, automated software systems can assist in most software testing phases. On the hand data security, availability, privacy and integrity are very important issues in the success of a business operation. Data security and privacy policies in business are governed by business requirements and government regulations. AI can also assist in software security, privacy and reliability. Implementing data security using data encryption solutions remain at the forefront for data security. Many solutions to data encryption at this level are expensive, disruptive and resource intensive. AI can be used for data classification in organizations. It can assist in identifying and encrypting only the relevant data thereby saving time and processing power. Without data classification organizations using encryption process would simply encrypt everything and consequently impact users more than necessary. Data classification is essential and can assist organizations with their data security, privacy and accessibility needs. This talk explores the use of AI techniques (such as fuzzy logic) for data classification and suggests a method that can determine requirements for classification of organizations' data for security and privacy based on organizational needs and government policies. Finally the application of FCM in IT management is discussed

Specialized case tools for the development of information-calculating applications

© SGEM2017. All Rights Reserved. This report presents an approach to building specialized computer-aided software engineering(CASE) tools for the development of information-calculating applications including computer aided accounting, business correspondence, statistics etc. These tools form an integrated development environment allowing the computer aided development of different applications in this field. The concept of the integrated development environment is defined as aset of tools and techniques allowing the design and development of software applications. This concept, previously used in procedural programming, has more recently proved to be a very important attribute for object-oriented programming. Integrated development environments traditionally include tools for the design and implementation of software systems, different libraries of classes, programming tools and program generators. Theintegrated environment which we consider in our report consists of a formulainterpreter, a screen form generator and a specialized library of classes. The distinguishing features of information-calculating applicationsare the processing of a set of tables and the making calculations which can be conveniently represented by thetools of relational database systems. The implementation of software productwas carried out using the Visual FoxPro database system and has been practically tested in a series of commercial applications concerning computer aided accountancy and business correspondence

A new paradigm for virtual knowledge sharing in product development based on emergent social software platforms

The UK Government considers its Aerospace Industry a remarkable success story, enjoying a global market share of 17% in 2015. The capture, management and sharing of employee knowledge is seen as vital if the industry is to remain highly innovative and retain its pre-eminent position internationally. Aerospace manufacturers, such as BAE Systems, often have to re-engineer business processes routinely to ensure their survival. Knowledge sharing in the industry is seen as challenging due to the dispersed nature of its operations and multi-tier supply chains. This article, through a 5-year participant-observation study at the World’s second largest aerospace and defence organisation, BAE Systems, proposes a new paradigm for virtual knowledge sharing in dispersed aerospace product development based on emergent social software platforms such as Enterprise 2.0 technologies. The developed framework and methodologies are applied to the bespoke BAE Systems’ engineering lifecycle process to validate its effectiveness with results indicating that Enterprise 2.0 technologies offer a more openly innovative environment in which employees may share and interact with knowledge more effectively and easily across geographical and functional boundaries, compared with conventional engineering information systems

The Influence of Knowledge Management on Business Value in IT Projects: A Theoretical Model

This paper develops a theoretical model to explain the relationships between knowledge management and business value in IT-enabled business projects. It draws upon a wide range of literatures including project management, management information systems, software engineering, organization and management theory, organizational behaviour and strategy. The overall model comprises two sub-models. The first shows how the alignment of three project-based knowledges directly influences business value. The second shows how four knowledge-based concepts, knowledge management, knowledge stock, enabling environment, and knowledge practices, combine to create the project-based knowledges. Together these two sub-models provide an overall model of the causal system through which knowledge management influences business value. This research makes contributions to the research into IT Projects by (1) integrating fragmented literatures which connect knowledge management and project success; and (2) proposing for discussion a predictive model in which knowledge management influences business value. It has the potential when further developed to clarify what project managers can do to manage knowledge in a systematic way