Project Success in Agile Development Projects

The paper explains and clarifies the differences between Waterfall and Agile development methodologies, establishes what criteria could be taken into account to properly define project success within the scope of software development projects, and finally tries to clarify if project success is the reason why many organizations are moving to Agile methodologies from other ones such as Waterfall. In the form of a literature review, it analyses several, publications, investigations and case studies that point out the motives why companies moved to Agile, as well as the results they observed afterward. It also analyses overall statistics of project outcomes after companies evolved from traditional methodologies such as Waterfall to Agile development approaches

Assessing the impact of political economy factors on rules of origin under NAFTA

Rules of origin are legitimate policy instruments to prevent trade deflection in a preferential trade agreement short of a customs union. Trade deflection takes place when a product imported into the preferential trade agreement through the member with the lowest external tariff is transhipped to a higher-tariff member, while yielding a benefit for the re-exporter. Yet, when captured by special interest groups, rules of origin can restrict trade beyond what is needed to prevent trade deflection. By how much do political economy factors account for the stringency of rules of origin? This study quantifies the impact of both determinants - those considered"justifiable"because they prevent trade deflection and those deemed to arise from"political economy"forces - on the restrictiveness of rules of origin under the North American Free Trade Agreement, approximated by a restrictiveness index. The main finding is that political economy forces, especially from the United States, raised significantly the restrictiveness of the rules of origin. Indeed, in industries where political-economy forces were strong prior to the North American Free Trade Agreement, as when the U.S. Most Favored Nation tariff was high or the revealed comparative advantage of Mexico (the United States) was strong (weak), more stringent rules of origin were introduced. Thus, stricter rules of origin are associated with higher production costs reducing the potential benefits of enhanced market access that is initially pursued by this type of agreement.Free Trade,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy,Trade Law,Debt Markets

Export performance and trade facilitation reform : hard and soft infrastructure

The authors estimate the impact of aggregate indicators of"soft"and"hard"infrastructure on the export performance of developing countries. They build four new indicators for 101 countries over the period 2004-07. Estimates show that trade facilitation reforms do improve the export performance of developing countries. This is particularly true with investment in physical infrastructure and regulatory reform to improve the business environment. Moreover, the findings provide evidence that the marginal effect of infrastructure improvement on exports appears to be decreasing in per capita income. In contrast, the impact of information and communications technology on exports appears increasingly important for richer countries. Drawing on estimates, the authors compute illustrative exports growth for developing countries and ad-valorem equivalents of improving each indicator halfway to the level of the top performer in the region. As an example, improving the quality of physical infrastructure so that Egypt's indicator increases half-way to the level of Tunisia would increase exports by 10.8 percent. This is equivalent to a 7.4 percent cut in tariffs faced by Egyptian exporters across importing markets.Environmental Economics&Policies,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Free Trade,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy

Why trade facilitation matters to Africa ?

This paper reviews data and research on trade costs for Sub-Saharan African countries. It focuses on: border-related costs, transport costs, costs related to behind-the border issues, and the costs of compliance with rules of origin specific to preferential trade agreements. Trade costs are, on average, higher for African countries than for other developing countries. Using gravity-model estimates, the authors compute ad-valorem equivalents of improvements in trade indicators for a sample of African countries. The evidence suggests that the gains for African exporters from improving the trade logistics half-way to the level in South Africa is more important than a substantive cut in tariff barriers. As an example, improving logistics in Ethiopia half-way to the level in South Africa would be roughly equivalent to a 7.5 percent cut in tariffs faced by Ethiopian exporters.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Free Trade,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade Policy

Rules of origin for preferential trading arrangements : implications for the ASEAN Free Trade Area of EU and U.S. experience

With free trade areas (FTAs) undernegotiation between Japan and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) members and between the Republic of Korea and AFTA members, preferential market access will become more important in Asian regionalism. Protectionist pressures will likely increase through rules of origin, the natural outlet for these pressures. Based on the experience of the European Union and the United States with rules of origin, the authors argue that, should these FTAs follow in the footsteps of the EU and the U.S. and adopt similar rules of origin, trading partners in the region would incur unnecessary costs. Using EU trade under the Generalized System of Preferences with Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific partners, the authors estimate how the use of preferences would likely change if AFTA were to veer away from its current uniform rules of origin requiring a 40 percent local content rate. Depending on the sample used, a 10 percentage point reduction in the local value content requirement is estimated to increase the utilization rate of preferences by between 2.5 and 8.2 percentage points.Free Trade,Rules of Origin,Trade and Regional Integration,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy

Prospects for the formation of a pluralistic security community between China and ASEAN

Since the end of the Cold War, deep transformations in East Asia have begun to restructure the political, economic and security landscape of the region. Many of these transformations have been of a positive nature, in the sense that East Asian states are now interacting with each other with the purpose of enhancing their economic performance and regional politico-security stability. One such positive regional change has been the potential for a new phase of peaceful relations between China and the Southeast Asian nations (frequently referred to in this research as the "ASEAN states"), which until relatively recently remained hostile and marred by mutual suspicion. Thus, this research explores Sino-ASEAN relations from the perspective of the possibility of fostering a durable and reliable peace between these actors. The research begins by discussing the relevance of China, ASEAN and the region of East Asia, or in other words: why do these actors matter at the regional and global level? In tandem with the latter, the research also discusses the concept of security communities, which is the central concept permeating the whole work. An introductory note on Karl Deutsch (father of the security community concept) and the nature of war and conflict is also present. The literature review examines what has been produced to date on the topics of security communities and East Asia, China and ASEAN; which mainly encapsulates the broad areas of East Asian regionalism, Chinese foreign policy, constructivist theory and more direct relations between China and Southeast Asia. The analytical framework and methodology are also discussed. Security communities are explained in detail (e.g. types, genesis and demise) so as the framework for the study of the formation of security communities, developed by the scholar Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett; and which is also central to the argument of this thesis. Moreover, a comprehensive discussion ensues about the role of the main international relations theories (i.e. realism, liberalism and social constructivism) affecting the conceptualisation of security communities, as each affects the later in profound and particulars ways. The role of political elites and the units of analysis are explained as part of clarifying the methodology. The research then divides into three main areas: China's approach to Southeast Asia (mainly expressed in China's foreign policy towards the region), ASEAN's approach to China (mainly expressed by the Association's declaratory policy towards China and the creation or regional frameworks), and another section focusing on how each individual ASEAN states have perceived and approached China throughout the decades after the end of the Second World War. The latter covers politico-economic interactions and their relevance (which aim to stress the level of "transactions" between both actors) and how Southeast Asia's political elites have perceived China. Finally, conclusions are presented and the empirical data weighted against the theoretical framework. The methodology of the research consists in confronting empirical data with the different tiers and sub-categories of Alder and Barnett's framework for the study of the formation of security communities. Adler and Barnett have created a "roadmap" to the formation of security communities. They have organised a succinct, clear and useful means to help political scientists to explore the possibilities of the evolution of security communities between states. Adler and Barnett's framework divides into an initial stage of creation (i.e. precipitating conditions), a process and a structural category in which elements such as power, social learning, international organisations and transactions interact in such a way that have the potential to create a final stage in which mutual trust and a common identity might have begun to operate between the actors. Thus, the research compares the available data between China and the ASEAN states (e.g. transactions, perceptions, regional frameworks, roles of power, etc) against Adler and Barnett's framework. The findings are revealing. Following the framework, there are strong indications of an evolving security community (of a pluralistic type) between China and ASEAN, particularly in some sub-categories. Though it is not possible to affirm the existence of a fully-fledged security community between them, strong elements are still evolving and because of the latter, new questions arise which provide with more interesting projections not the future (e.g. is there the possibility of seen the evolution of a particular set of ideas between both actors?). The research sets clear too that, a new angle to the study of Sino-ASEAN relations can be followed, with the possibility of enriching and novel results