Open data and the academy: an evaluation of CKAN for research data management

This paper offers a full and critical evaluation of the open source CKAN software (http://ckan.org) for use as a Research Data Management (RDM) tool within a university environment. It presents a case study of CKAN's implementation and use at the University of Lincoln, UK, and highlights its strengths and current weaknesses as an institutional Research Data Management tool. The author draws on his prior experience of implementing a mixed media Digital Asset Management system (DAM), Institutional Repository (IR) and institutional Web Content Management System (CMS), to offer an outline proposal for how CKAN can be used effectively for data analysis, storage and publishing in academia. This will be of interest to researchers, data librarians, and developers, who are responsible for the implementation of institutional RDM infrastructure. This paper is presented as part of the dissemination activities of the Jisc-funded Orbital project (http://orbital.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk

Agricultural software : a case study of feed and animal information systems in the New Zealand dairy industry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a Masters of AgriCommerce at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Every farmer utilises agricultural software, either directly or indirectly, as part of feed and animal information systems (IS) used for decision making and compliance on New Zealand (NZ) dairy farms. With continued development and availability of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT), more farmers are using software in their IS. This study investigates: how NZ dairy farmers use agricultural software in their feed and animal IS; the software attributes that influence the use and impact of these software; and, the drivers and inhibitors of software use and impact. A case study research approach was used to investigate these questions. Evidence was collected using semi-structured interviews with six NZ dairy farmers with farms of different scale and ownership structure, and with five commercial agricultural software providers. Results show that feed and animal IS are particularly useful for farmer decision making and compliance at the operational and tactical management levels, but also produce data and information critical for strategic management. The number of software products used and the degree of data and information collation in animal IS compared to feed IS are considerably different. Animal IS were streamlined, with data and information collected and collated together in a limited number of software with only one or two ‘focal’ software as the centrepiece of the IS. In contrast, feed IS were less streamlined, with data and information flowing into a number of different software. Six important software attributes that influence use and impact of software were identified by farmers and providers, with ‘simplicity’ and, ‘integration with software and hardware’, the most highly recognised attributes. The delivery of software with these attributes was achieved by providers in a number of instances, however, other software failed to fully meet farmer needs. Organisational and people drivers/inhibitors had a greater effect on software use and impact than technological drivers/inhibitors indicating that these IS dimensions should be the focus of future improvements

Agile project management in engineering, procurement and construction projects: A case study of ABB Grid Integration Finland

This thesis is commissioned by ABB Grid Integrations Finland. The case organization was interested in finding out if agile project management (APM) and particularly the Scrum framework could improve the management of their projects. The research problem of this study is formulated as follows: could agile project management be used to improve project management in the case organization during the initial phases of its EPC projects?. In addition to providing guidance to the practitioners in the case organization, the study also aims to make a relevant academic contribution. It became apparent early on in the research process that while there were many academic studies on the use of APM in software development projects, the research on APM in non-software development projects is limited. This study helps fill a gap in the academic literature by making a contribution to this emerging research field. The thesis presents theory on agile project management and its use in non-software development projects. Theory on the Scrum framework and its use in an EPC project is also presented. The study is a qualitative case study. Empirical data is gathered through semi-structured theme interviews (fin: teemahaastattelu) and observations in connection to these interviews. The three interviews with Scrum practitioners working with hardware and software projects within ABB provided an extensive material for analysis. During the research process a pilot project started in the case organization. In this project a hybrid method consisting of Scrum, Kanban and traditional project management practices was piloted. The initial experiences from this pilot project also contribute to the findings of the present study. The results from the study indicate that APM could be implemented in the case organization during the initial phases of its EPC projects, and such an implementation could be beneficial and improve project management. Initial evidence from the pilot project indicates that the benefits which the case organization was hoping to gain from using APM could be achieved. It remains unclear however if the case organization has become more agile through the implementation of APM in the pilot project.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

An agile information flow consolidator for delivery of quality software projects: technological perspective from a South African start-up

In today’s knowledge-based economy, modern organisations understand the importance of technology in their quest to be considered global leaders. South African markets like others worldwide are regularly flooded with the latest technology trends which can complicate the acquisition, use, management and maintenance of software. To achieve a competitive edge, companies tend to leverage agile methods with the best possible combination of innovative supporting tools as a key differentiator. Software technology firms are in this light faced with determining how to leverage technology and efficient development processes for them to consistently deliver quality software projects and solutions to their customer base. Previous studies have discussed the importance of software development processes from a project management perspective. African academia has immensely contributed in terms of software development and project management research which has focused on modern frameworks, methodologies as well as project management techniques. While the current research continues with this tradition by presenting the pertinence of modern agile methodologies, it additionally further describes modern agile development processes tailored in a sub-Saharan context. The study also aims novelty by showing how innovative sometimes disruptive technology tools can contribute to producing African software solutions to African problems. To this end, the thesis contains an experimental case study where a web portal is prototyped to assist firms with the management of agile project management and engineering related activities. Literature review, semi-structure interviews as well as direct observations from the industry use case are used as data sources. Underpinned by an Activity Theory analytical framework, the qualitative data is analysed by leveraging content and thematic oriented techniques. This study aims to contribute to software engineering as well as the information systems body of knowledge in general. The research hence ambitions to propose a practical framework to promote the delivery of quality software projects and products. For this thesis, such a framework was designed around an information system which helps organizations better manage agile project management and engineering related activities.Information SciencePh. D. (Information Systems

Spatial Analysis of Yield Monitor Data: Case Studies of On-farm Trials and Farm Management Decision-making

A 3-year case study was undertaken of how North American farmers use yield monitors for on-farm trials in farm management decision making. Case study methods were used because relatively few farmers quantitatively analyze yield monitor data. At this early research stage, insufficient farm management information about the data was available to ask the right questions in a large-scale survey. In addition to the formal case study of farmers experienced at using yield monitors to collect on-farm trial data, the study evaluated the effect of yield monitor data quality on farm decisions. Two levels of yield data quality included standard output where the default settings of farm-level mapping software were accepted and where filtering of the data was undertaken. Results indicated that yield data quality affects farm management decisions. In addition, farmers receiving a spatial analysis of their on-farm trial data tended to use split-field designs instead of replicated split-planter designs. They were also more confident in their decisions than before participation in the spatial analysis project, and made decisions more quickly. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers

Context: The proper management of people can help software organisations to achieve higher levels of success. However, the limited attention paid to the appropriate use of theories to underpin the research in this area leaves it unclear how to deal with human aspects of software engineers, such as motivation and satisfaction. Objectives: This article aims to expose what drives the motivation and satisfaction of software engineers at work. Methods: A multiple case study was conducted at four software organisations in Brazil. For 11 months, data was collected using semi-structured interviews, diary studies, and document analyses. Results: The Theory of Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers (TMS-SE), presented in this article, combines elements from well established theories with new findings, and translates them into the software engineering context. Conclusion: The TMS-SE advances the understanding of people management in the software engineering field and presents a strong conceptual framework for future investigations in this area

Analisis Kepuasan Pengguna Website Manajemen Informatika dengan Metode EUCS Berbasis CMS

This study reviews Satisfaction Analysis Website users with the methods EUCS Information Management Framework based CMS (Content Management System). Case Studies in the trial is progdi informatics management at AUB Surakarta. The purpose of this study was to determine how much of the expected value and the value of reality obtained (satisfaction) of the student or student to facilities / features of the website management informatics. Estimated value of the results of this analysis will be used as guidelines for courses in evaluating and developing the quality of education in D3-winning Information Management adi Bhirawa STIE Surakarta to become universities that excel in quality of education and teaching. In this case study, the research instrument that will be used is the End User Computing Satisfaction (EUCS) which means the satisfaction of users who use the software. In the method of analysis of satisfaction with EUCS approach, the variables used to measure satisfaction there are 5 dimensions to be studied to measure satisfaction, namely: Content, Format, Accuracy, Ease of Use, Save time. The test instrument used in this study using SEM methods, and data analysis are also using SEM. Data were used to analyze user satisfaction is a student information management that are still active, will pass and that has alumni. The results of the analysis of these variables to calculate how high student satisfaction and student of the website features information management

How Long Can We Build It? Ensuring Usability of a Scientific Code Base

Software and in particular source code became an important component of scientific publications and henceforth is now subject of research data management.  Maintaining source code such that it remains a usable and a valuable scientific contribution is and remains a huge task. Not all code contributions can be actively maintained forever. Eventually, there will be a significant backlog of legacy source-code. In this article we analyse the requirements for applying the concept of long-term reusability to source code. We use simple case study to identify gaps and provide a technical infrastructure based on emulator to support automated builds of historic software in form of source code. &nbsp

Best practices and software for themanagement and sharing of camera trap data for small and large scales studies

Camera traps typically generate large amounts of bycatch data of non-target species that are secondary to the study’s objectives. Bycatch data pooled from multiple studies can answer secondary research questions; however, variation in field and data management techniques creates problems when pooling data from multiple sources. Multi-collaborator projects that use standardized methods to answer broad-scale research questions are rare and limited in geographical scope. Many small, fixed-term independent camera trap studies operate in poorly represented regions, often using field and data management methods tailored to their own objectives. Inconsistent data management practices lead to loss of bycatch data, or an inability to share it easily. As a case study to illustrate common problems that limit use of bycatch data, we discuss our experiences processing bycatch data obtained by multiple research groups during a range-wide assessment of sun bears Helarctos malayanus in Southeast Asia. We found that the most significant barrier to using bycatch data for secondary research was the time required, by the owners of the data and by the secondary researchers (us), to retrieve, interpret and process data into a form suitable for secondary analyses. Furthermore, large quantities of data were lost due to incompleteness and ambiguities in data entry. From our experiences, and from a review of the published literature and online resources, we generated nine recommendations on data management best practices for field site metadata, camera trap deployment metadata, image classification data and derived data products. We cover simple techniques that can be employed without training, special software and Internet access, as well as options for more advanced users, including a review of data management software and platforms. From the range of solutions provided here, researchers can employ those that best suit their needs and capacity. Doing so will enhance the usefulness of their camera trap bycatch data by improving the ease of data sharing, enabling collaborations and expanding the scope of research