Technical Debt Prioritization: State of the Art. A Systematic Literature Review

Background. Software companies need to manage and refactor Technical Debt issues. Therefore, it is necessary to understand if and when refactoring Technical Debt should be prioritized with respect to developing features or fixing bugs. Objective. The goal of this study is to investigate the existing body of knowledge in software engineering to understand what Technical Debt prioritization approaches have been proposed in research and industry. Method. We conducted a Systematic Literature Review among 384 unique papers published until 2018, following a consolidated methodology applied in Software Engineering. We included 38 primary studies. Results. Different approaches have been proposed for Technical Debt prioritization, all having different goals and optimizing on different criteria. The proposed measures capture only a small part of the plethora of factors used to prioritize Technical Debt qualitatively in practice. We report an impact map of such factors. However, there is a lack of empirical and validated set of tools. Conclusion. We observed that technical Debt prioritization research is preliminary and there is no consensus on what are the important factors and how to measure them. Consequently, we cannot consider current research conclusive and in this paper, we outline different directions for necessary future investigations

A hierarchical approach to multi-project planning under uncertainty

We survey several viewpoints on the management of the planning complexity of multi-project organisations under uncertainty. A positioning framework is proposed to distinguish between different types of project-driven organisations, which is meant to aid project management in the choice between the various existing planning approaches. We discuss the current state of the art of hierarchical planning approaches both for traditional manufacturing and for project environments. We introduce a generic hierarchical project planning and control framework that serves to position planning methods for multi-project planning under uncertainty. We discuss multiple techniques for dealing with the uncertainty inherent to the different hierarchical stages in a multi-project organisation. In the last part of this paper we discuss two cases from practice and we relate these practical cases to the positioning framework that is put forward in the paper

International Growth as Integration of R&D Activities. Evidence from Large Multinational Companies

Corporate R&D internationalization has been analyzed predominantly in terms of the geographic diversification of multinational companies' research laboratories, and only to a lesser extent as a process involving the development of resources and capabilities within organizations and as a means of favoring international integration. This paper analyzes the relation between these two dimensions of internationalization, both of which are relevant for study of the multinational growth of R&D activities. Examination of the literature together with in-depth case reports of two large multinational clusters provides evidence in support of the following statements: · R&D internationalization can be seen as a "gradual" process that takes shape through the formation of specific resources and capabilities, which are developed within individual organizations but are designed to achieve integration both with foreign organizational units of the multinational cluster itself and also with other national innovation systems; · Multinational R&D follows a strategy that is characterized by a strong inter-relation between the formation of foreign research activities and the character of the integration process; · Corporate strategies may correspond to highly diverse and at times even contrasting R&D internationalization models, as shown by the emblematic case analyses presented here. The presence of these different models limits the scope of any general interpretation of the determinants and implications of R&D internationalization.-

A hierarchical approach to multi-project planning under uncertainty.

We survey several viewpoints on the management of the planning complexity of multi-project organisations under uncertainty. A positioning framework is proposed to distinguish between different types of project-driven organisations, which is meant to aid project management in the choice between the various existing planning approaches. We discuss the current state of the art of hierarchical planning approaches both for traditional manufacturing and for project environments. We introduce a generic hierarchical project planning and control framework that serves to position planning methods for multi-project planning under uncertainty. We discuss multiple techniques for dealing with the uncertainty inherent to the different hierarchical stages in a multi-project organisation. In the last part of this paper we discuss two cases from practice and we relate these practical cases to the positioning framework that is put forward in the paper.Choice; Complexity; Framework; Hierarchical models; Management; Manufacturing; Methods; Multi-project organisations; Planning; Project management; Project planning; Uncertainty;

Towards advanced Intellectual property management - Events and stages during the development. Evidence from the biotech sector

During recent years the management of Intellectual Property (IP) underwent major changes. IP management systems became increasingly complex nowadays actively handling an integrated mix of intellectual assets rather than just administrating patents or trademarks as single, independently treated assets. Our paper describes and analyses the historic development of IP management in German and Swedish Dedicated Biotechnology Firms (DBFs) with our main focus on the following two issues: (1) Which events trigger the development towards an advanced IP management? (2) Can distinctive stages be identified in the development of IP management systems and if yes, how are they characterised? Our study draws primarily on 12 personal interviews with leading managers from six larger German and Swedish DBFs with rich experience in IP management that were founded between 1984 and 1997. During our study we found that shifts towards an advanced IP management were triggered by single crucial events (e.g. litigation) or an accumulated sum of incremental events, of either internal or external nature. Up to four different stages of IP management were found throughout the development of the case companies, while six criteria were identified that can be applied to characterize an IP management stage. --Intellectual Property Management,Dedicated Biotechnology Firm,Germany,Sweden

How is the innovation process developed in traditional companies by combining the plan-oriented and flexible process models, and in which situations is it utilized?

This paper analyzes how the innovation process is developed in traditional companies by combining the plan-oriented and flexible process models, and in which situations it is utilized. To answer the research question, a multiple case study was selected. This research compared three traditional manufacturing companies within the same industry with in-depth interviews, follow-up interviews, observations, and secondary research. Traditional manufacturing companies today have begun to focus more on innovations, even so, how they organize for innovation differ amongst the companies. Five out of the eight boundary conditions presented by Paluch et al., (2019), proved highly important for the traditional companies researched, but the findings revealed investment and time influence, strategic fit and willingness to change and mindset to be of equal importance for selecting the general Hybrid innovation process. Nevertheless, three separate situations were revealed to affect the development of the combined process in traditional manufacturing companies. These situations were then based on four out of nine conditions initially found through both expected and observed pattern matching during the analysis; investment, consumer preferences, managerial control, and approach to risk. The different combination of the conditions resulted in three situation-based approaches to the Hybrid process model: short-term incremental-, short-term radical- and long-term radical innovations. From a theoretical perspective, this study emphasizes a need for a combined process. When considering large traditional manufacturing companies’ approach to innovation and how the degree of leaning towards the Agile or Stage-Gate method, whilst still being a Hybrid process, highly varies based on the innovational situation related to time and radicality. From a practical perspective, the three combined processes developed through research can serve as a guideline for innovation managers and help simplify the practice for mutual understanding of how to organize the innovation process based on three separate situations

How KLM gets CRM in the Air – CRM Excellence in Practice.

CRM;

A quality management based on the Quality Model life cycle

Managing quality is a hard and expensive task that involves the execution and control of processes and techniques. For a good quality management, it is important to know the current state and the objective to be achieved. It is essential to take into account with a Quality Model that specifies the purposes of managing quality. QuEF (Quality Evaluation Framework) is a framework to manage quality in MDWE (Model-driven Web Engineering). This paper suggests managing quality but pointing out the Quality Model life cycle. The purpose is to converge toward a quality continuous improvement by means of reducing effort and time.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2010-20057-C03-02Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN 2010-12312-EJunta de Andalucía TIC-578