CASE-BASED REASONING IN SOFrWARE EFFORT ESTIMATION

A case-based analogical reasoning model, called Estor, was proposed and elaborated from verbal protocols gathered in a prior study. Estor incorporates five analogical problem solving processes: problem representation analog retrieval, solution transfer, attribute mapping, and no-correspondence adjustment. These five generic processes were supplemented with the domain-specific knowledge of the referent expert. The resulting system was then presented with fifteen software effort estimation tasks, ten of which were among those solved by the referent expert, plus five new tasks. For comparison, the expert was asked to estimate the five new tasks as well. The estimates of Estor were then compared to those of the expert as well as those of the Function Point and COCOMO estimations of the projects. Significant between-estimator differences were found, with the human expert and Estor dominating the effects. Correlations between the actual effort values and the estimates of the expert and Estor for all fifteen projects were .98 and .97 respectively. Furthermore, these coefficients differed significantly from those of COCOMO and Function Points. Differences between the model and the referent expert are discussed

PERFORMANCE =/= BEHAVIOR: A STUDY IN THE FRAGILITY OF EXPERTISE

The fragility of expertise is a known, but little understood, feature of expert reasoning. Essentially, fragili(y refers to the performance degradation of experts as task properties change. A study is presented in which the fragility of expertise in a complex, real-world task -- reactive scheduling -- is investigated. Six novices (students, trained in the task but with no experience in the domain) and three expert schedulers (ranging from six to 20 years of experience in the domain) each completed six reactive scheduling tasks varying in difficulty. All subjects were run individually and their protocols (verbal and action) were recorded on video-tape. Simple modifications to the task environment were sufficient to degrade the pelfonnance of the experts, sometimes to the level of the novices. However, an analysis of the behavior of the subjects suggests that a problem space characterization of fragility can explain how that degradation occurred. The behavior captured in the video-tapes (both verbal utterances and physical actions) show that, in this task, the primary source of degradation was the inappropriate formation of problem space components. That is, experts were stuck in the wrong problem space. Specifically, the experts would use inadequate search control knowledge while traversing problem spaces and/or repeatedly attempt to implement operators or types of search control knowledge that were not allowed in the experimental task, but were quite valid in the real task setting. We conclude by discussing the concept of expert fragility and how it should be taken into account when designing systems based on the construct of expertise: expert systems

Inter-Organizational Learning in Technology Acquisitions: Procuring More Than Knowledge

The fifth wave of Merger and Acquisition includes an increasing amount of technology acquisitions. Large firms acquire small, technology-centric firms as an external source of knowledge and innovation. A major challenge in these acquisitions is to capture the knowledge of the acquired firm as well as to assimilate and utilize it in the acquiring company. We extend March’s (1991) model of organizational learning through exploration and exploitation with an agent-based model allowing knowledge transfer across organizational boundaries from a target organization to an acquiring organization through (1) retention of employees from the smaller company into the large one or through (2) appropriation of the smaller target company’s organizational code by incorporation of industry best practice or cutting-edge technology. Our preliminary results qualify and extend March’s (1991) conclusions

The price of your soul: neural evidence for the non-utilitarian representation of sacred values

Sacred values, such as those associated with religious or ethnic identity, underlie many important individual and group decisions in life, and individuals typically resist attempts to trade off their sacred values in exchange for material benefits. Deontological theory suggests that sacred values are processed based on rights and wrongs irrespective of outcomes, while utilitarian theory suggests that they are processed based on costs and benefits of potential outcomes, but which mode of processing an individual naturally uses is unknown. The study of decisions over sacred values is difficult because outcomes cannot typically be realized in a laboratory, and hence little is known about the neural representation and processing of sacred values. We used an experimental paradigm that used integrity as a proxy for sacredness and which paid real money to induce individuals to sell their personal values. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that values that people refused to sell (sacred values) were associated with increased activity in the left temporoparietal junction and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, regions previously associated with semantic rule retrieval. This suggests that sacred values affect behaviour through the retrieval and processing of deontic rules and not through a utilitarian evaluation of costs and benefits

Ability-based view in action: a software corporation study

This research investigates antecedents, developments and consequences of dynamic capabilities in an organization. It contributes by searching theoretical and empirical answers to the questions: (a) What are the antecedents which can provide an organization with dynamic and ordinary capabilities?; (b) How do these antecedents contribute to create capabilities in an organization?; (c) How do they affect an organization's competitive advantage?; (d) Can we assess and measure the antecedents and consequences to an organization? From a first (theoretical) perspective, this paper searches answers to the first, second and third questions by reviewing concepts of an ability-based view of organizations that involves the abilities of cognition, intelligence, autonomy, learning and knowledge management, and which contributes to explain the dynamic behavior of the firm in the pursuit of competitive advantage. From a second (empirical) perspective, this paper reinforces and delivers findings to the second, third and fourth questions by presenting a case study that evidences the ability-based view in action in a software corporation, where it contributes by investigating: (a) the development of organizational capabilities; (b) the effects of the new capabilities on the organization; and (c) the assessment and measurement of the abilities and consequences