Bridging the gap between research and agile practice: an evolutionary model

There is wide acceptance in the software engineering field that industry and research can gain significantly from each other and there have been several initiatives to encourage collaboration between the two. However there are some often-quoted challenges in this kind of collaboration. For example, that the timescales of research and practice are incompatible, that research is not seen as relevant for practice, and that research demands a different kind of rigour than practice supports. These are complex challenges that are not always easy to overcome. Since the beginning of 2013 we have been using an approach designed to address some of these challenges and to bridge the gap between research and practice, specifically in the agile software development arena. So far we have collaborated successfully with three partners and have investigated three practitioner-driven challenges with agile. The model of collaboration that we adopted has evolved with the lessons learned in the first two collaborations and been modified for the third. In this paper we introduce the collaboration model, discuss how it addresses the collaboration challenges between research and practice and how it has evolved, and describe the lessons learned from our experience

Overcoming challenges in collaboration between research and practice: the agile research network

There is wide acceptance in the software engineering field that industry and research can gain significantly from each other and there have been several initiatives for encouraging collaboration between the two. However there are some often-quoted challenges in this kind of collaboration. For example, that the timescales of research and practice are incompatible, that research is not seen as relevant for practice, and that research demands a different kind of rigour than practice supports. These are complex challenges that are not always easy to overcome. For the last year we have been using an approach designed to address some of these challenges and to bridge the gap between research and practice, specifically in the agile software development arena. So far we have collaborated successfully with two partners and have investigated two practitioner-driven challenges with agile. In this short paper we will introduce the approach, how it addresses the collaboration challenges between research and practice, and describe the lessons learned from our experience

COMPREHENSIVE INCOME IN EUROPE: VALUATION, PREDICTION AND CONSERVATIVE ISSUES

The IASB comprehensive income project extends the ââ¬Ëfair value’ measurement conceptfrom the balance sheet into the income statement. This article extends prior research, primarilybased on Anglo-Saxon countries, by using a comprehensive data set of 56,700 European firm yearsover sixteen countries. We find that other comprehensive income provides incremental informationto investors ââ¬â due to unrealised available-for-sale securities component ââ¬â and affects analysts’decision to revise price estimates. On the other hand, traditional operating net income dominatesaggregated comprehensive income as a valuation metric and in predicting cash flows. Results arerobust to pooled and country specific regressions, controls for non-linearities, impact of reportingincentives, and the underlying accounting framework (local GAAP, US GAAP, IFRS). We also findthat aggregated comprehensive income switches the conservative attributes of income towards amore timely recognition of good news over bad news, reducing the conservative agency contractingrole. One possible explanation is the mixing of different concepts of operating capital incrementswith unrealised gains and realised historic net income. An agenda item for the IASB is how incomereporting should be disaggregated with a clear delineation on capital increments, conservativeoperating income, and unrealised financial gains. This is especially important in ContinentalEurope which relies to a greater extent on debt capital and has an under-developed corpus ofequity financial analysts.comprehensive income, value relevance, analyst forecast revisions, European IFRS, accountingconservatism

The Impact of Information Technology on Emergency Health Care Outcomes

This paper analyzes the productivity of technology and job design in emergency response systems, or 911 systems.' During the 1990s, many 911 systems adopted Enhanced 911' (E911), where information technology is used to link automatic caller identification to a database of address and location information. A potential benefit to E911 is improved timeliness of the emergency response. We evaluate the returns to E911 in the context of a panel dataset of Pennsylvania counties during 1994-1996, when almost half of the 67 counties experienced a change in technology. We measure productivity using an index of health status of cardiac patients at the time of ambulance arrival, where the index should be improved by timely response. We also consider the direct effect of E911 on several patient outcomes, including mortality within the first hours following the incident and the total hospital charges incurred by the patient. Our main finding is that E911 increases the short-term survival rates for patients with cardiac diagnoses by about 1%, from a level of 96.2%. We also provide evidence that E911 reduces hospital charges. Finally, we analyze the effect of job design, in particular the use of Emergency Medical Dispatching' (EMD), where call-takers gather medical information, provide medical instructions over the telephone, and prioritize the allocation of ambulance and paramedic services. Controlling for EMD adoption does not affect our results about E911, and we find that EMD and E911 do not have significant interactions in determining outcomes (that is, they are neither substitutes nor complements).

The Economic Value of Remote Sensing of Earth Resources from Space: An ERTS Overview and the Value of Continuity of Service. Volume 1: Summary

An overview of the ERTS program is given to determine the magnitude of the benefits that can be reasonably expected to flow from an Earth Resources Survey (ERS) Program, and to assess the benefits foregone in the event of a one or two-year gap in ERS services. An independent evaluation of the benefits attributable to ERS-derived information in key application areas is presented. These include two case studies in agriculture-distribution, production and import/export, and one study in water management. The cost-effectiveness of satellites in an ERS system is studied by means of a land cover case study. The annual benefits achieveable from an ERS system are measured by the in-depth case studies to be in the range of $430 to$746 million. Benefits foregone in the event of a one-year gap in ERS service are estimated to be $147 to$220 million and $274 to$420 million for a two-year gap in ERS service

Frequency of financial reports

Interim reports are summary statements that are usually prepared in semi-annual format in the UK. Until the EU’s Transparency Directive was put into practice in the UK in 2007, there was no legal necessity for companies to provide interim financial reports. (Note 1) Instead such preparation was only a regulatory requirement of the London Stock Exchange. The responsibility on companies listed on the London Stock Exchange to provide these financial reports was first prepared as an suggestion in 1964, to meet the requirements for updates by financial analysts (May, 1971). In 1973, this advice to provide the market with interim information became a requirement for the admission of stocks and securities to be listed on the stock Exchange (Lunt, 1982). This study investigates the preparation of interim reports, and accounting standards for interim reporting. Also, this study discusses the main purpose of interim reports, the methods of preparation and the benefits of reporting frequency

Evidence-Based Decision-Making Within Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Provides an overview of Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and its consideration of both comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in deciding on drug subsidies. Outlines its framework, structure, and impact on policy and practice

Simplification of Health and Social Services Enrollment and Eligibility: Lessons for California From Interviews in Four States

Explores state officials' and advocates' views on issues involved in streamlining enrollment and eligibility processes, including the importance of staff buy-in, community partners' outreach efforts, and technological challenges and lessons learned

User benefits and funding strategies

A three-step, systematic method is described for selecting relevant and highly beneficial payloads for the Interim Upper Stage (IUS) that will be used with the space shuttle until the space tug becomes available. Viable cost-sharing strategies which would maximize the number of IUS payloads and the benefits obtainable under a limited NASA budget were also determined