Software Reuse in Agile Development Organizations - A Conceptual Management Tool

The reuse of knowledge is considered a major factor for increasing productivity and quality. In the software industry knowledge is embodied in software assets such as code components, functional designs and test cases. This kind of knowledge reuse is also referred to as software reuse. Although the benefits can be substantial, software reuse has never reached its full potential. Organizations are not aware of the different levels of reuse or do not know how to address reuse issues. This paper proposes a conceptual management tool for supporting software reuse. Furthermore the paper presents the findings of the application of the management tool in an agile development organization

Innovation in a Complex, Uncertain World: Clarifying the Questions, Seeking the Answers

Innovation has at least 40 definitions, many of which can lay claim to being reliable and valid guidelines for organizations to make improvements by doing something new and different. Towards the goal of providing insights to facilitate fruitful pursuit of supply chain, the Third Annual World Class Supply Chain Summit focused on the theme of Innovation in a Complex, Uncertain World. At this invitation-only summit on May 9th, 2018 in Milton, Ontario, executives, scholars, and students discussed a range of innovation topics. The core of those discussions sought clarity on the following: The complexities, uncertainties, and challenges that are prompting the need for innovation in contemporary supply chains Effective ways for tapping into the potential to innovate New ideas from the next generation of researchers and practitioners Questions that demand rigorous research about innovation in supply chains The summit addressed those four issues with two keynote presentations, a panel discussion, and three-minute lightning talk presentations by five students (from the doctoral through to the undergraduate level). In addition to giving voice to the next generation (via the students’ 3-minute presentations), the summit was also designed to uncover perspectives from business disciplines outside of supply chain management (SCM). This was reflected mainly in the inclusion of panelists whose expertise on the subject of innovation was built in the field of entrepreneurship. Incorporating perspectives from the next generation and from beyond the traditional scope of SCM proved useful in generating some insightful conclusions. Among those conclusions, four of the main ones are: Effective usage of supply chain analytics has the potential to yield meaningful returns for transportation services providers The creativity necessary for innovation can be learned so employers should invest in cultivating creativity and its application to challenges of interest, particularly for new and young employees Though seemingly bewildering, the complexity and challenges in modern supply chains represent opportunity for innovation Innovations need not be revolutionary in order to be of real value to an organization firm and its stakeholders This white paper reports on (a) the underlying details of those points (e.g., specific real world examples presented to reinforce those points), (b) some critical unanswered questions that surround those points, and (c) potential research projects to address those questions. These helped to solidify the summit as a valuable contributor to industry-academia deliberations of relevance to the SCM field

How Much is the Whole Really More than the Sum of its Parts? 1 + 1 = 2.5: Superlinear Productivity in Collective Group Actions

In a variety of open source software projects, we document a superlinear growth of production ($R \sim c^\beta$) as a function of the number of active developers $c$, with $\beta \simeq 4/3$ with large dispersions. For a typical project in this class, doubling of the group size multiplies typically the output by a factor $2^\beta=2.5$, explaining the title. This superlinear law is found to hold for group sizes ranging from 5 to a few hundred developers. We propose two classes of mechanisms, {\it interaction-based} and {\it large deviation}, along with a cascade model of productive activity, which unifies them. In this common framework, superlinear productivity requires that the involved social groups function at or close to criticality, in the sense of a subtle balance between order and disorder. We report the first empirical test of the renormalization of the exponent of the distribution of the sizes of first generation events into the renormalized exponent of the distribution of clusters resulting from the cascade of triggering over all generation in a critical branching process in the non-meanfield regime. Finally, we document a size effect in the strength and variability of the superlinear effect, with smaller groups exhibiting widely distributed superlinear exponents, some of them characterizing highly productive teams. In contrast, large groups tend to have a smaller superlinearity and less variability.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure

Knowledge Reuse for Customization: Metamodels in an Open Design Community for 3d Printing

Theories of knowledge reuse posit two distinct processes: reuse for replication and reuse for innovation. We identify another distinct process, reuse for customization. Reuse for customization is a process in which designers manipulate the parameters of metamodels to produce models that fulfill their personal needs. We test hypotheses about reuse for customization in Thingiverse, a community of designers that shares files for three-dimensional printing. 3D metamodels are reused more often than the 3D models they generate. The reuse of metamodels is amplified when the metamodels are created by designers with greater community experience. Metamodels make the community's design knowledge available for reuse for customization-or further extension of the metamodels, a kind of reuse for innovation

Evaluating and promoting open data practices in open access journals

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in attention from the scholarly communications and research community to open access (OA) and open data practices. These are potentially related because journal publication policies and practices both signal disciplinary norms and provide direct incentives for data sharing and citation. However, there is little research evaluating the data policies of OA journals. In this study we analyse the state of data policies for OA journals by employing random sampling of the Directory of Open Access Journals and Open Journal Systems journal directories and applying a coding framework that integrates both previous studies and emerging taxonomies of data sharing and citation. This study, for the first time, reveals both the low prevalence of datasharing policies and practices in OA journals, which differs from the previous studies of commercial journals in specific disciplines

Open science in archaeology

No abstract available

metajelo: A Metadata Package for Journals to Support External Linked Objects

We propose a metadata package that is intended to provide academic journals with a lightweight means of registering, at the time of publication, the existence and disposition of supplementary materials. Information about the supplementary materials is, in most cases, critical for the reproducibility and replicability of scholarly results. In many instances, these materials are curated by a third party, which may or may not follow developing standards for the identification and description of those materials. As such, the vocabulary described here complements existing initiatives that specify vocabularies to describe the supplementary materials or the repositories and archives in which they have been deposited. Where possible, it reuses elements of relevant other vocabularies, facilitating coexistence with them. Furthermore, it provides an “at publication” record of reproducibility characteristics of a particular article that has been selected for publication. The proposed metadata package documents the key characteristics that journals care about in the case of supplementary materials that are held by third parties: existence, accessibility, and permanence. It does so in a robust, time-invariant fashion at the time of publication, when the editorial decisions are made. It also allows for better documentation of less accessible (non-public data), by treating it symmetrically from the point of view of the journal, therefore increasing the transparency of what up until now has been very opaque

Climate Resilient & Equitable Water Systems Capital Scan

Climate change is affecting water supply, water management and the health of communities in U.S. cities. Changes in the timing, frequency and intensity of precipitation are placing stress on the built and natural systems that provide fresh water, manage storm water, and treat wastewater. Droughts are shrinking the water supply; heavy rainfall overburdens storm water systems, causing flooding in homes and neighborhoods. Low-income people and communities of color are often the most vulnerable to climate change, living in low-lying areas and lacking the resources to adapt and cope with challenges associated with these patterns.The cumulative impact of climate change on water resources not only leads to a reduction in water quality and the destruction of homes and property, but it can also be a threat to public health, force relocation of communities and cause economic harm.The vision of Kresge's Environment Program is to help communities build resilience in the face of climate change. We believe that cities are central to action on climate change and equity must be a fundamental part of our work in climate adaptation, climate mitigation and building social cohesion