Software System Understanding via Architectural Views Extraction According to Multiple Viewpoints

International audienceChanges and evolution of software systems constantly gener- ate new challenges for the recovery of software systems architectures. A system's architecture, together with its elements and the way they inter- act, constitute valuable assets for understanding the system. We believe that offering multiple architectural views of a given system, using domain and pattern knowledge enhance understanding of the software system as a whole. To correlate different sources of information and existing soft- ware system, different viewpoints are considered. Viewpoints enable one to model such information and guide the extraction algorithms to ex- tract multiple architectural views. We propose a recursive framework, an approach that expresses different kinds of information as viewpoints to guide the extraction process. These multiple viewpoints models al- low considering architectural, conceptual, and structural aspects of the system

Architectural value for urban tourism placemaking to rejuvenate the cityscape in Johor Bahru

This study aims to investigate the social significance of urban placemaking in shaping the architectural values of the cityscapes for sustainable tourism. The Johor Bahru City Centre was developed with explicit intention to have public open spaces that can encourage tourism activities in the urban area. Cultural and natural resources are essential to make the tourism industry grow successfully. Historical and archaeological sites also become a part of tourist attraction such as museums, state landmarks, parks, sculptures, monuments and others. In this respect, the architectural values of the city are the tangible assets that the city has, while the cultural and natural values are the intangible assets that can be captured from places that shape tourist perception. Placemaking supports the concept of generating places that improve the relationship between users and space, by increasing the sense of place. This is where the values of architecture must be preserved in order to maintain the identity of the region. Based on an extensive review of the literature and empirical works, this research examines Johor Bahru by extracting its similarities and differences with cities in Singapore and Australia, to derive at a better understanding of the significance of the architectural value and urban tourism placemaking in rejuvenating the city values attached to physical spaces. The benchmarking study analyses the values of architecture and discusses the advantages resulting from various architectural characters in tourism. These relationships are essential to understanding the role of architectural value for urban tourism placemaking in rejuvenating the city. This study found that there is a complex nature of the generations of architectural elements through placemaking

A configurational approach to the dynamics of firm level knowledge

Whilst there has been exponential growth in the work on the nature of organisational knowledge, relatively little progress has been made in terms of understanding the way in which knowledge specifically impacts on the firm. The aim of this paper is to further this understanding by developing a series of configurations representing some of the potential ways that knowledge is composed in organisations, with those components being tacit, explicit, architectural, component, individual and collective knowledge

The complexities of managing historic buildings with BIM

Purpose The adoption of building information modelling (BIM) in managing built heritage is an exciting prospect, but one that presents complexities additional to those of modern buildings. If challenges can be identified and overcome, the adoption of historic BIM (HBIM) could offer efficiencies in how heritage buildings are managed. Design/methodology/approach Using Durham Cathedral as a case study, we present the workflows applied to create an asset information model to improve the way this unique UNESCO World Heritage Site is managed, and in doing so, set out the challenges and complexities in achieving an HBIM solution. Findings This study identifies the need for a better understanding of the distinct needs and context for managing historic assets, and the need for heritage information requirements (HIR) that reflect this. Originality/value This study presents first-hand findings based on a unique application of BIM at Durham Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The study provides a better understanding of the challenges and drivers of HBIM adoption across the heritage sector and underlines the need for information requirements that are unique to historical buildings/assets to deliver a coherent and relevant HBIM approach

Cultural heritage and sustainable development targets : a possible harmonisation? Insights from the European Perspective

The Agenda 2030 includes a set of targets that need to be achieved by 2030. Although none of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focuses exclusively on cultural heritage, the resulting Agenda includes explicit reference to heritage in SDG 11.4 and indirect reference to other Goals. Achievement of international targets shall happen at local and national level, and therefore, it is crucial to understand how interventions on local heritage are monitored nationally, therefore feeding into the sustainable development framework. This paper is focused on gauging the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals with reference to cultural heritage, by interrogating the current way of classifying it (and consequently monitoring). In fact, there is no common dataset associated with monitoring SDGs, and the field of heritage is extremely complex and diversified. The purpose for the paper is to understand if the taxonomy used by different national databases allows consistency in the classification and valuing of the different assets categories. The European case study has been chosen as field of investigation, in order to pilot a methodology that can be expanded in further research. A cross‐comparison of a selected sample of publicly accessible national cultural heritage databases has been conducted. As a result, this study confirms the existence of general harmonisation of data towards the achievement of the SDGs with a broad agreement of the conceptualisation of cultural heritage with international frameworks, thus confirming that consistency exists in the classification and valuing of the different assets categories. However, diverse challenges of achieving a consistent and coherent approach to integrating culture in sustainability remains problematic. The findings allow concluding that it could be possible to mainstream across different databases those indicators, which could lead to depicting the overall level of attainment of the Agenda 2030 targets on heritage. However, more research is needed in developing a robust correlation between national datasets and international targets

Towards a Layered Architectural View for Security Analysis in SCADA Systems

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems support and control the operation of many critical infrastructures that our society depend on, such as power grids. Since SCADA systems become a target for cyber attacks and the potential impact of a successful attack could lead to disastrous consequences in the physical world, ensuring the security of these systems is of vital importance. A fundamental prerequisite to securing a SCADA system is a clear understanding and a consistent view of its architecture. However, because of the complexity and scale of SCADA systems, this is challenging to acquire. In this paper, we propose a layered architectural view for SCADA systems, which aims at building a common ground among stakeholders and supporting the implementation of security analysis. In order to manage the complexity and scale, we define four interrelated architectural layers, and uses the concept of viewpoints to focus on a subset of the system. We indicate the applicability of our approach in the context of SCADA system security analysis.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Human Resources Strategy: The Era of Our Ways

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some of the main features and trends in human resources (HR) strategy. Inasmuch as people are among the most important resources available to firms, one could argue that HR strategy should be central to any debate about how firms achieve competitive advantage. But this “people are our most important asset” argument is actually fairly hollow in light of the evidence. Far too many articles on HR start with this premise, but the reality is that organizations have historically not rested their fortunes on human resources. The HR function remains among the least influential in most organizations, and competitive strategies have not typically been based on the skills, capabilities, and behaviors of employees. In fact, as Snell, Youndt and Wright (1996:62) noted, in the past executives have typically tried to “take human resources out of the strategy equation--i.e., by substituting capital for labor where possible, and by designing hierarchical organizations that separate those who think from those who actually do the work.