23,060 research outputs found
Analysing Process Models Quantitatively
Over the years, there has been much interest in modelling processes. Processes include those associated with the development of software and those business processes that make use of software systems. Recent research in Systems Engineering for Business Process Change highlights the importance of modelling business processes in order to evolve and maintain the legacy systems that support those processes. Business processes are typically described with static (diagrammatic) models. This paper illustrates how quantitative techniques can facilitate analysis of such models. This is illustrated with reference to the process modelling notation Role Activity Diagrams (RADs). An example process, taken from an investigation of the bidding process of a large telecommunications systems supplier, is used to show how a quantitative approach can be used to highlight features in RADs that are useful to the process modeller. We show how simple measures reveal high levels of role coupling and discrepancies between different perspectives. Since the models are non-trivial — there are 101 roles and almost 300 activities — we argue that quantitative analysis can be a useful adjunct for the modeller
Research accomplished at the Knowledge Based Systems Lab: IDEF3, version 1.0
An overview is presented of the foundations and content of the evolving IDEF3 process flow and object state description capture method. This method is currently in beta test. Ongoing efforts in the formulation of formal semantics models for descriptions captured in the outlined form and in the actual application of this method can be expected to cause an evolution in the method language. A language is described for the representation of process and object state centered system description. IDEF3 is a scenario driven process flow modeling methodology created specifically for these types of descriptive activities
The Wave Function of Vasiliev's Universe - A Few Slices Thereof
We study the partition function of the free Sp(N) conformal field theory
recently conjectured to be dual to asymptotically de Sitter higher-spin gravity
in four-dimensions. We compute the partition function of this CFT on a round
sphere as a function of a finite mass deformation, on a squashed sphere as a
function of the squashing parameter, and on an S2xS1 geometry as a function of
the relative size of S2 and S1. We find that the partition function is
divergent at large negative mass in the first case, and for small in the
third case. It is globally peaked at zero squashing in the second case. Through
the duality this partition function contains information about the wave
function of the universe. We show that the divergence at small S1 occurs also
in Einstein gravity if certain complex solutions are included, but the
divergence in the mass parameter is new. We suggest an interpretation for this
divergence as indicating an instability of de Sitter space in higher spin
gravity, consistent with general arguments that de Sitter space cannot be
stable in quantum gravity.Comment: 30 pages plus appendices, 6 figure
<i>Trace++</i>: A Traceability Approach for Agile Software Engineering
Agile methodologies have been introduced as an alternative to traditional software engineering methodologies. However, despite the advantages of using agile methodologies, the transition between traditional and agile methodologies is not an easy task. There are several problems associated with the use of agile methodologies. Examples of these problems are related to (i) lack of metrics to measure the amount of rework that occurs per sprint, (ii) interruption of a project after several iterations, (iii) changes in the requirements, (iv) lack of documentation, and (v) lack of management control. In this paper we present Trace++, a traceability technique that extends traditional traceability relationships with extra information in order to support the transition between traditional and agile software development. The use of Trace++ has been evaluated in two real projects of different software development companies to measure the benefits of using Trace++ to support agile software development
Generalization of the BLM procedure and its scales in any order of pQCD
The Brodsky--Lepage--Mackenzie procedure is sequentially and unambiguously
extended to any fixed order of perturbative QCD beyond the so called
``large--\beta_0 approximation''. As a result of this procedure, the obtained
perturbation series looks like a continued-fraction representation. A
subsequent generalization of this procedure is developed, in order to optimize
the convergence of the final series, along the lines of the Fastest Convergence
Prescription. This generalized BLM procedure is applied to the Adler D function
and also to R_{e^+e^-} in QCD at NLO. A further extension of the sequential
BLM is presented which makes use of additional parameters to optimize the
convergence of the power-series at any fixed order of expansion.Comment: 24 pages, JHEP3, 4 figures are enclosed as eps-file, final version to
be published in JHE
From Design to Production Control Through the Integration of Engineering Data Management and Workflow Management Systems
At a time when many companies are under pressure to reduce "times-to-market"
the management of product information from the early stages of design through
assembly to manufacture and production has become increasingly important.
Similarly in the construction of high energy physics devices the collection of
(often evolving) engineering data is central to the subsequent physics
analysis. Traditionally in industry design engineers have employed Engineering
Data Management Systems (also called Product Data Management Systems) to
coordinate and control access to documented versions of product designs.
However, these systems provide control only at the collaborative design level
and are seldom used beyond design. Workflow management systems, on the other
hand, are employed in industry to coordinate and support the more complex and
repeatable work processes of the production environment. Commercial workflow
products cannot support the highly dynamic activities found both in the design
stages of product development and in rapidly evolving workflow definitions. The
integration of Product Data Management with Workflow Management can provide
support for product development from initial CAD/CAM collaborative design
through to the support and optimisation of production workflow activities. This
paper investigates this integration and proposes a philosophy for the support
of product data throughout the full development and production lifecycle and
demonstrates its usefulness in the construction of CMS detectors.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure
Experimental probes of emergent symmetries in the quantum Hall system
Experiments studying renormalization group flows in the quantum Hall system
provide significant evidence for the existence of an emergent holomorphic
modular symmetry . We briefly review this evidence and show that,
for the lowest temperatures, the experimental determination of the position of
the quantum critical points agrees to the parts \emph{per mille} level with the
prediction from . We present evidence that experiments giving
results that deviate substantially from the symmetry predictions are not cold
enough to be in the quantum critical domain. We show how the modular symmetry
extended by a non-holomorphic particle-hole duality leads to an extensive web
of dualities related to those in plateau-insulator transitions, and we derive a
formula relating dual pairs of magnetic field strengths across any
transition. The experimental data obtained for the transition studied so far is
in excellent agreement with the duality relations following from this emergent
symmetry, and rule out the duality rule derived from the ``law of corresponding
states". Comparing these generalized duality predictions with future
experiments on other transitions should provide stringent tests of modular
duality deep in the non-linear domain far from the quantum critical points.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
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