467,887 research outputs found
A Vision of DevOps Requirements Change Management Standardization
DevOps (development and operations) aims to shorten the software development
process and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. To get the
potential gains of DevOps, the software development industry considering global
software development (GSD) environment to hire skilled human resources and
round-the-clock working hours. However, due to the lack of frequent
communication and coordination in GSD, the planning and managing of the
requirements change process becomes a challenging task. As in DevOps,
requirements are not only shaped by development feedback but also by the
operations team. This means requirements affect development, development
affects operations and operations affect requirements. However, DevOps in GSD
still faces many challenges in terms of requirement management. The purpose of
this research project is to develop a DevOps requirement change management and
implementation maturity model (DevOps-RCMIMM) that could assist the GSD
organizations in modifying and improving their requirement management process
in the DevOps process. The development of DevOps-RCMIMM will be based on the
existing DevOps and RCM literature, industrial empirical study, and
understanding of factors that could impact the implementation of the DevOps
requirement change management process in the domain of GSD. This vision study
presents the initial results of a systematic literature review that will
contribute to the development of maturity levels of the proposed DevOps-RCMIMM
Identifying immersive environmentsâ most relevant research topics: an instrument to query researchers and practitioners
This paper provides an instrument for ascertaining researchersâ perspectives on the relative relevance of technological challenges facing immersive environments in view of their adoption in learning contexts, along three dimensions: access, content production, and deployment. It described its theoretical grounding and expert-review process, from a set of previously-identified challenges and expert feedback cycles. The paper details the motivation, setup, and methods employed, as well as the issues detected in the cycles and how they were addressed while developing the instrument. As a research instrument, it aims to be employed across diverse communities of research and practice, helping direct research efforts and hence contribute to wider use of immersive environments in learning, and possibly contribute towards the development of news
and more adequate systems.The work presented herein has been partially funded under the European H2020 program H2020-ICT-2015, BEACONING project, grant agreement nr. 687676.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Global Innovations in Measurement and Evaluation
We researched the latest developments in theory and practice in measurement and evaluation. And we found that new thinking, techniques, and technology are influencing and improving practice. This report highlights 8 developments that we think have the greatest potential to improve evaluation and programme design, and the careful collection and use of data. In it, we seek to inform and inspireâto celebrate what is possible, and encourage wider application of these ideas
The impact of using pair programming on system evolution a simulation-based study
In this paper we investigate the impact of pair--programming on the long term evolution of software systems. We use system dynamics to build simulation models which predict the trend in system growth with and without pair programming. Initial results suggest that the extra effort needed for two people to code together may generate sufficient benefit to justify pair programming.Peer reviewe
Emerging Opportunities: Monitoring and Evaluation in a Tech-Enabled World
Various trends are impacting on the field of monitoring and evaluation in the area of international development. Resources have become ever more scarce while expectations for what development assistance should achieve are growing. The search for more efficient systems to measure impact is on. Country governments are also working to improve their own capacities for evaluation, and demand is rising from national and community-based organizations for meaningful participation in the evaluation process as well as for greater voice and more accountability from both aid and development agencies and government.These factors, in addition to greater competition for limited resources in the area of international development, are pushing donors, program participants and evaluators themselves to seek more rigorous â and at the same time flexible â systems to monitor and evaluate development and humanitarian interventions.However, many current approaches to M&E are unable to address the changing structure of development assistance and the increasingly complex environment in which it operates. Operational challenges (for example, limited time, insufficient resources and poor data quality) as well as methodological challenges that impact on the quality and timeliness of evaluation exercises have yet to be fully overcome
ProPIG - Farm specific strategies to reduce environmental impact by improving health, welfare and nutrition of organic pigs - Final project report
ProPIG consists of 9 partners in 8 countries (AT, CH, CZ, DE, DK, FR, IT, UK) with the aim to assess and improve animal welfare and environmental impact of organic pig farming:
⢠Three husbandry systems: indoor with outside run (IN) / partly outdoor (POUT) / outdoor (OUT) were defined and compared.
⢠Standard Operating Procedures (âSOPsâ) were created for Feed- and Soil Sampling and the process of assessment and feedback (âHealth and welfare planningâ).
⢠Animal welfare assessment protocols were developed based on WelfareQualityŽ and CorePIG. Together with questions regarding environmental impact, nutrition and economy
these were integrated into an
⢠Automated Recording and Feedback Software Tool (âPigSurferâ= PIG SURveillance, FEedback and Reporting), a software tool enabling on-farm data collection and immediate
feedback (including presentation of data as benchmarking) using a tablet computer.
⢠Farm visits: After repeated observer training, three visits were carried out, in AT (16 farms), DE (16), DK (11) CH (9), CZ (1), FR (4), IT (9) and UK (8). During the first visit the farmer was interviewed, animals assessed, medicine and productivity records collected and feed and soil samples taken. Results were discussed with each farmer and farm specific goals and measures were agreed during the second visit. Using âPigSurferâ during the final visit, it was possible to assess animal health, welfare, nutrition and feed the results back immediately to farmers as âfarm plansâ including benchmarking across all 74 pig farms.
As a result two practical tools for further use by farmers and advisors were created:
⢠A âCatalogue of improvement strategiesâ (COIS) for animal welfare challenges was developed based on expert opinion as well as farmers strategies. This was transferred into a
âHandbook for Farmersâ, a hard cover ring-binder, allowing practical application on farm.
⢠Furthermore a âDecision support tool for environmental impactâ (âEDSTâ) was created in the form of an interactive spreadsheet, which identifies areas of possible improvement
regarding environmental impact through a structured questionnaire, suggests measures which might be beneficial and provides information on where to find more detailed resources. Generally based on the parameters assessed, it was shown, that a high level of animal health and welfare was found in most farms, with a few parameters which should be improved across all systems (e.g. vulva deformation from previous injury in sows). When comparing the three
husbandry systems, OUT weaners and fatteners had better health regarding respiratory problems and diarrhoea and OUT sows less MMA and lameness, with POUT having some advantages as well over IN (e.g. lameness of sows). Regarding productivity, losses of piglets did not differ across systems; mortality of IN fattening pigs was lower than in POUT and their feed conversion rate was better.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of global warming potential (GWP) was influenced mainly by feeding of fattening pigs and variation within a husbandry system was higher than between systems, indicating that good values can be achieved in all systems. Regarding acidification potential (AP) POUT were better than IN and regarding eutrophication potential (EP) POUT were better than OUT. Three clusters were identified on the basis of environmental impact, a âhigh, âmediumâ and âlowerâ with similar numbers of each husbandry system in all three of them. The three systems did not differ regarding N balances. After clustering, N import from feed purchase was identified as main influencing factor. IN were significantly lower than POUT/OUT regarding P balances. No significant relationship between health, welfare and environmental impacts was found
when comparing the LCA clusters with an âanimal health and welfare scoreâ (â%GOODâ), individual animal based parameters or correlations between AP/EP/GWP and the â%GOOD.
Farm specific strategies were evaluated by farmersâ opinion and assessing within-farm improvement in measured criteria over 12 months. The median number of aims per farm was 2
(1 to 4), with fertility, nutrition, health and lesions most commonly addressed. In total 74.8 % of measures were partly/completely implemented and 81.6 % of goals were partly/completely achieved
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