Information System Development Team Collaboration Antecedents

Despite information system development companies have invested substantial resources to support the success of information system development (ISD) projects, the failure rate is still high. Extant studies indicated that the constant changes from socio-technical environments are the main causes of the low success rate. This study argues that team collaboration is a key factor to effectively cope with unexpected disruptions that would have negative effect on overall software product success. This study proposes a research model exploring factors that influence the development of team collaboration. These factors include the team commitment, transactive memory systems (TMS), and collective mind. In addition, the study suggests that the collective mind has an intermediate effect on the team commitment, TMS, and team collaboration. This study takes the information development teams of various companies in Taiwan as its subjects

Constructing Employability Indicators for Enhancing the Effectiveness of Engineering Education for the Solar Industry

The aim of this research is to establish a set of employability indicators that capture the competency requirements and performance expectations that solar energy enterprises have of their employees. In the qualitative component of the study, 12 administrators and 32 engineers in the industry were interviewed, and meetings with focus groups were conducted to formulate a questionnaire for a survey of Taiwanese solar energy companies for the confirmation and prioritisation of the employability indicators. On the basis of the results of the quantitative component, an interpretational model relating competence, job performance, working attitude, and employability for solar corporation recruitment and training purposes as well as for school curricular development was developed. The interpretation model formulated effectively interprets the relationship between solar enterprises’ expectations and students’ employability. The research contributes a framework for the selection and cultivation of talent, as well as providing a basis for fundamental development of the solar engineering curriculum

Methodology for synthesis and optimization of diffusion patterns in flow systems

This analytic study used a generalization of Reichardt's hypothesis by Alexander, Baron & Comings to develop a unified treatment for the synthesis of diffusion patterns for mass, heat and momentum. The technique was applied for co-planar and co-axial flows, to a study of the effects of initial flux distribution and outlet shape on diffusion patterns; and to shallow submerged outlets. Four simple approximations to the P-function, involving only exponential and error functions, were found to represent flux distributions downstream from a circular jet of finite size at all points between the nozzle and infinity. The results may be applied in the study and design of discharge outlets, syphon spillways, hydraulic breakwaters and diffusion of tracers in streams and penstocks.U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological SurveyOpe