Technical Communication\u27s Importance to Change

This portfolio explores the shifts in ideas thanks to technical communication. From considering humans in creating design to considering new teaching methods to technical communication and continuing onto changes made in the space program, technical communication remains part of these shifts. The portfolio examines what needs to be adjusted when exploring technical communication\u27s impact and how to improve the viewpoint of it

Integrating Human-centered Design into Product Development Process

Tarve käytettäville tuotteille kasvaa jatkuvasti. Kansainvälistyminen asettaa haasteensa tuotesuunnittelulle. Työkäyttöön tarkoitettujen järjestelmien tehokkuusvaatimukset ovat nousseet. Samalla myös käyttäjäkokemukseen on alettu kiinnittää enemmän huomiota. Tässä työssä kehitettiin tapa sulauttaa käyttäjäkeskeinen kehitysprosessi yrityksen olemassa olevaan tuotekehitysprosessiin. Yrityksessä toteutettiin käytettävyyden kypsyysarviointi, haastatteluja sekä osallistuva havainnointijakso. Näiden menetelmien avulla saatujen tulosten sekä kirjallisuuslähteiden perusteella luotiin uusi tuotekehityksen prosessimalli, jota testattiin pilottiprojektissa. Projektin osallistujat vastasivat kyselyyn ja heitä haastateltiin. Prosessimallia kehitettiin pilottiprojektista saadun palautteen perusteella. Ehdotettu prosessi painottaa alkupään suunnittelua ja käyttäjän osallistuttamista tuotekehitykseen. Prosessimalli jakaa tuotekehitysprojektit kolmeen tasoon niiden käytettävyyskriittisyyden suhteen. Eri tasoilla suunnittelutyötä tehdään erilaisia käytettävyyttä parantavia menetelmiä hyödyntäen. Tässä diplomityössä ehdotettu prosessimalli on otettu käyttöön kohdeyrityksessä. Muutoksen pysyvyyttä tuetaan koulutuksin, tiedotuksin, ja varmistamalla johdon tuki. Prosessin noudattamista valvoo keskeinen käytettävyysryhmä, jonka vastuulla on tuotekehitysprojektien ulkopuolinen käytettävyystyö.The need for usable systems is growing constantly. Internationalization of products and companies brings new demands for usability. Efficiency and productivity are key issues in the business world. At the same time user experience has risen to a more important role. A way to integrate human-centered design into an existing product development process of an organization was developed in this master s thesis. A usability maturity assessment, participant observation and interviews were executed in this thesis. With the results obtained with these methods and the cognizance gained in the literature review, a process model for product development was created. The model was tested in a pilot project and it was developed further based on the feedback gained from a survey and interviews after the pilot project. The process emphasizes the early phase design and involvement of the actual users. The process model divides the product development projects into three categories according to the importance of usability. The usability work methods vary in each category. The process model created in this thesis has been implemented in the target organization. The change is being supported by training and communication. A central usability group is controlling the compliance with the process. All the usability work outside the development projects is part of the responsibility of the central usability group

User Experience A guide to competitive strategy in the Experience Economy

User Experience is a concept that recently has gained a lot of interest in the high-tech consumer products industry. While technology development has converged and is starting to become a commodity and, as markets mature and loyal customers become more important, User Experience has emerged as a way to gain a competitive advantage. By studying literature, cases and articles, as well as interviewing key internal stakeholders, our ambition is to answer the following questions: • What is User Experience? What defines it and which factors should be considered in the high-tech consumer products industry? • Why is it important to embrace User Experience and use it as a differentiator? • How can a company implement a strategy and optimize work to deliver a quality User Experience? The study focuses on User Experience as a business strategy and the general organizational framework to support it. The study further emphasizes that User Experience consists of elements concerning availability, desirability, functionality and usability and is best depicted as a life cycle, described by the different activities performed by the user. The thesis shows that User Experience is a key driver to enable growth through differentiation and gaining new customers, as well as retaining loyal customers. The study also points out that to make necessary changes, it is important to communicate the vision, in order to gain commitment and finally gear action in order to achieve a great User Experience. The general conclusion is that the competencies of technology, design and business must cooperate and be well managed to support the consumer life cycle and deliver optimal User Experience in every step. It is also important to make the necessary trade-offs by focusing on experience instead of technology and on quality and scope instead of time-to-market. The study finally argues that a paradigm shift is needed and the realization of this means completely new ways of doing business

Implementing Total Quality Management Philosophy through Human Capital Development: An Exploratory Study of Selected Ready-Made Garment Establishments in Bangladesh

The significance of human capital development (HCD) from an organizational perspective is adequately reflected in the extant literature; however, its inherent connection with total quality management (TQM) philosophy is yet to be investigated. Hence, this study intends to explore the role of HCD in implementing TQM philosophy and to develop a comprehensive HCD framework in this respect. The labor-intensive Bangladesh ready-made garment sector is used as the research site since the phenomenon under inquiry is not readily evident in the chosen setting. The interpretivist worldview is espoused in this exploratory research to accomplish the research aim. Correspondingly, an inductive approach followed by a qualitative multiple case study methodology is adopted. Five (5) RMG establishments are purposively selected as case organizations. Thirty (30) in-depth interviews (6 from each case organization) are conducted, using the semi-structured interview technique to generate rich and thick primary data. Reflexive thematic analysis is manually performed to analyze the interview transcripts. Findings imply that HCD engenders three major effects: reduced costs of operations, improved product quality, and on-time shipment. Thereby HCD ensures greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, which is the essence of TQM philosophy. Empirical evidence specifically suggests that HCD can contribute to TQM implementation by empowering employees to reliably participate in problem solving and decision-making, innovatively perform tasks, and effectively accomplish appropriate changes in work processes and procedures. This study contributes to the knowledge by evidencing the fact that an HCD framework integrating both learning and healthcare interventions has an explicitly positive nexus with TQM philosophy.Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the U

A framework for modeling and improving agile requirements engineering.

Context. Companies adopt hybrid development models consisting of an integration of agile methodologies and Human-Centered Design (HCD) with the aim to increase value delivery as well as to reduce time to market. This has an impact on how Requirements Engineering (RE) is carried out in an agile environment. To this end, people apply different kind of agile techniques like artifacts, meetings, methods, and roles. In this context, companies often struggle with improving their value chain in a systematic manner, since guidelines for choosing an appropriate set of agile techniques are missing. Objective. The vision of this PhD thesis is to build a framework for modeling agile RE. Organizations benefit from implementing this framework by increasing their value delivery (organization external) and improving the collaboration (organizational intern). Method. We followed an inductive research approach, where we used the learnings from several studies to create the framework. In the beginning, we carried out a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to analyze the state of the art of agile RE with focus on user and stakeholder involvement. Subsequent, we created the agile RE metamodel, which evolved iteratively along the consecutively studies. Based on the metamodel, we defined an profile that can be used to create domain specific models according to the organizational environment. Moreover, we conducted a Delphi study in order to identify the most important problems industry has to face today in terms of agile RE. The results were used as input for a systematic pattern mining process, which was utilized in order to create agile RE patterns. Results. The framework for modeling agile RE consists of three main components: i) agile RE metamodel, which can be used to analyze the organizational environment in terms of value delivery ii) catalogue of agile RE problems, which allows to detect recurring problems in terms of agile RE iii) catalogue of agile RE patterns, which allows to solve the detected problems. The agile RE metamodel comes with a profile, which can be used to deviate domain specific models. In addition, we created tool support for the framework by means of a web application (agileRE.org), which allows us to share the knowledge and best practices for agile RE. Furthermore, we proved how the framework can be applied in industry by means of case studies in Germany and in Spain. Conclusion. The framework for modeling agile RE empowers companies to improve their organizational environments in terms of value delivery and collaboration. Companies can use the framework for improving their value chain in a systematic manner. In particular, it gives guidance for choosing appropriate agile techniques, which fit to the changing needs of the organizational environment. In addition, we can state that the framework is applicable on an international level.Contexto. Con el objetivo de incrementar la potencialidad de sus desarrollos y de reducir el tiempo de puesta en el mercado, las empresas adoptan modelos de desarrollo híbridos que integran metodologías ágiles y diseño centrado en el usuario (DCU). El tratamiento de los requisitos de software en entornos ágiles es algo que impacta de manera directa en la consecución de estos objetivos. Por ello, los equipos aplican diferentes técnicas de tratamiento de requisitos como los artefactos, reuniones, métodos de trabajos grupales o el tratamiento efectivo de roles. Sin embargo, las empresas a menudo se encuentran con dificultades para elegir las mejores técnicas a aplicar en su contexto y hay una carencia de guías de soporte. Objetivo. La visión de esta tesis doctoral es construir un framework para trabajar de manera efectiva con requisitos ágiles. La idea esencial es que las organizaciones y empresas puedan usar el framework para mejorar tanto su cadena de valor (visión externa) como para mejorar sus procesos de desarrollo (visión interna). Método. Para el desarrollo del trabajo se ha usado una metodología de investigación inductiva, usando diferentes métodos de trabajo. Inicialmente, se ha llevado a cabo un estudio sistemático de la literatura (SLR) que nos permite evaluar el estado del arte en el tratamiento de requisitos ágiles pero centrado en cómo se trabaja con la involucración de los diferentes stakeholders en el proceso. Hemos continuado aplicando la ingeniería guiada por modelos desarrollando un metamodelo para trabajar con los requisitos ágiles y un profile que permite definir un lenguaje específico de dominio para el uso del metamodelo en entornos concretos. Este trabajo se ha enriquecido con la aplicación de un estudio usando Delphi para identificar los problemas más importantes que la industria se encuentra a la hora de trabajar con ingeniería de requisitos en entornos agiles. Finalmente, con los resultados hemos conseguido desarrollar un conjunto de patrones para la creación de requisitos ágiles. Resultados. El framework para modelar requisitos ágiles tiene tres componentes principales: i) Metamodelo para trabajar con requisitos ágiles que servirá para analizar el entorno de la organización. ii) un catálogo de posibles problemas que se encuentran en entornos agiles y iii) un catálogo de patrones de requisitos ágiles que resuelven los problemas detectados. El metamodelo para el trabajo con requisitos ágiles viene acompañado de un lenguaje específico de dominio, basado en un perfil. Y, además, se ha creado una aplicación web (agileRE.org) que ayuda a poner en común el conocimiento. Por último, el framework ha sido aplicado con éxito en entornos empresariales españoles y alemanes. Conclusión. El framework para modelar requisitos ágiles ayuda a las compañías a mejorar sus entornos organizaciones in términos de costes de desarrollo y aspectos colaborativos. Las empresas pueden usar el framework para mejorar su cadena de valor de una manera sistemática. En particular, da una guía para elegir técnicas apropiadas en el tratamiento de requisitos ágiles, pudiendo adaptarse al a realidad del entorno concreto de trabajo

Industry 4.0 for SMEs

This open access book explores the concept of Industry 4.0, which presents a considerable challenge for the production and service sectors. While digitization initiatives are usually integrated into the central corporate strategy of larger companies, smaller firms often have problems putting Industry 4.0 paradigms into practice. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) possess neither the human nor financial resources to systematically investigate the potential and risks of introducing Industry 4.0. Addressing this obstacle, the international team of authors focuses on the development of smart manufacturing concepts, logistics solutions and managerial models specifically for SMEs. Aiming to provide methodological frameworks and pilot solutions for SMEs during their digital transformation, this innovative and timely book will be of great use to scholars researching technology management, digitization and small business, as well as practitioners within manufacturing companies

Industry 4.0 for SMEs

This open access book explores the concept of Industry 4.0, which presents a considerable challenge for the production and service sectors. While digitization initiatives are usually integrated into the central corporate strategy of larger companies, smaller firms often have problems putting Industry 4.0 paradigms into practice. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) possess neither the human nor financial resources to systematically investigate the potential and risks of introducing Industry 4.0. Addressing this obstacle, the international team of authors focuses on the development of smart manufacturing concepts, logistics solutions and managerial models specifically for SMEs. Aiming to provide methodological frameworks and pilot solutions for SMEs during their digital transformation, this innovative and timely book will be of great use to scholars researching technology management, digitization and small business, as well as practitioners within manufacturing companies

Managerial Leadership Style in the Private Sector in Jordan

This thesis consists of a study of the leadership performance among 114 top managers in 44 companies in Jordan, measured by their views on how organisational decisions should be taken and their actual performance in decision taking. The companies concerned represent organisations operating in both the manufacturing and in the financial sector in the private sector in the Jordanian economy