Studying Lean-Kanban Approach Using Software Process Simulation

We developed an event-driven simulator of the Kanban process a WIP limited pull system visualized by the Kanban board. WIP (work in process) represent the capacity in the activity to perform features simoultaneously. The simulator is fully object-oriented, and its design model reflects the objects of the Lean software development domain. We used this simulator to assess comparatively WIP-limited and unlimited processes. We also studied the optimum values of the working item limits in the activities, using a paradigmatic case of 4 activities and 100 work items. The cost function used is equal to the total time needed to complete the project, plus a weighted sum of the limits themselves. We performed an exhaustive search on all the admissible values of the solution, finding sensible optimal values, and a non-trivial behavior of the cost function in the optimization space. This demonstrates the feasibility and usefulness of the approach

Operationalizing the experience factory for effort estimation in agile processes

[Background] The effort required to systematically collect historical data is not always allocable in agile processes and historical data management is usually delegated to the developers' experience, who need to remember previous project details. However, even if well trained, developers cannot precisely remember a huge number of details, resulting in wrong decisions being made during the development process. [Aims] The goal of this paper is to operationalize the Experience Factory in an agile way, i.e., defining a strategy for collecting historical project data using an agile approach. [Method] We provide a mechanism for understanding whether a measure must be collected or not, based on the Return on Invested Time (ROIT). In order to validate this approach, we instantiated the factory with an exploratory case study, comparing four projects that did not use our approach with one project that used it after 12 weeks out of 37 and two projects that used it from the beginning. [Results] The proposed approach helps developers to constantly improve their estimation accuracy with a very positive ROIT of the collected measure. [Conclusions] From this first experience, we can conclude that the Experience Factory can be applied effectively to agile processes, supporting developers in improving their performance and reducing potential decision mistakes

Knowledge in Construction Processes

The growing complexity of the construction sector – due to the proliferation of products, techniques, and needs related to side, not secondary, aspects of objects (environmental impact, energy efficiency, durability, safety, etc.) – means that the current management styles in construction processes are no longer appropriate to their context. Therefore, the construction sector faces an inevitable process of growth in which knowledge is an indispensable resource. The purpose of this paper is to show how knowledge associated with construction processes can be represented using Knowledge Management techniques. The analysis of such knowledge uses a mixed top-down and bottom-up approach, which can formalize it and make it ready for easy access and search. The underlying goal is the rational organization of large amounts of data using the knowledge that characterizes the various stages of a construction process. Elementary Products could be the core concepts that can group the objects associated with such process, guiding the management of relevant information and knowledge involved in construction processes. The formalization was used to define a prototype implementation of the Knowledge Management System using DSpace

Free innovation environments: lessons learned from the software factory Initiatives

Entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises usually have issues on developing new prototypes, new ideas or testing new techniques. In order to help them, in the last years, academic Software Factories, a new concept of collaboration among universities and companies has been developed. Software Factories provide a unique environment for students and companies. Students benefit from the possibility of working in a real work environment learning how to apply the state of the art of the existing techniques and showing their skills to entrepreneurs. Companies benefit from the risk-free environment where they can develop new ideas, in a protected environment. Universities, finally benefit from this setup as a perfect environment for empirical studies in industrial-like environment. In this paper, we present the network of academic Software Factories in Europe, showing how Companies had already benefit from existing Software Factories and reporting success stories. The results of this paper can increase the network of the factories and help other universities and companies to setup similar environment to boost the local economy

A real-time KLT implementation for radio-SETI applications

SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, is the search for radio signals emitted by alien civilizations living in the Galaxy. Narrow-band FFT-based approaches have been preferred in SETI, since their computation time only grows like N∗lnN, where N is the number of time samples. On the contrary, a wide-band approach based on the Kahrunen-Lo'eve Transform (KLT) algorithm would be preferable, but it would scale like N∗N. In this paper, we describe a hardware-software infrastructure based on FPGA boards and GPU-based PCs that circumvents this computation-time problem allowing for a real-time KLT

Notulae to the Italian alien vascular flora: 10

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of vascular flora alien to Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, exclusions, and status changes for Italy or for Italian administrative regions. Nomenclatural and distribution updates published elsewhere are provided as Suppl. material 1