Constant Software Updates vs. Public Software Acquisition

Software industry has widely adopted agile software development model, where it is accepted that change is constant. Indeed, as the environment in which the software is run changes – be it changes in jurisdiction, language, user expectations, reinterpretation or requirements, or something else – the software needs to be modified to satisfy end-user needs. At the same time, many organizations, especially those that operate in the public sector, rely on tendering and detailed requirements documentation when acquiring software, with an assumption that once deployed, the software would continue to serve the end users unaltered or with minor changes covered by a maintenance contract. In this article, we will consider this fundamental mismatch from the viewpoint of what we know about software evolution in general, and then propose ways forward to design and implement public sector software that can be adapted to new, emergent needs.Software industry has widely adopted agile software development model, where it is accepted that change is constant. Indeed, as the environment in which the software is run changes – be it changes in jurisdiction, language, user expectations, reinterpretation or requirements, or something else – the software needs to be modified to satisfy end-user needs. At the same time, many organizations, especially those that operate in the public sector, rely on tendering and detailed requirements documentation when acquiring software, with an assumption that once deployed, the software would continue to serve the end users unaltered or with minor changes covered by a maintenance contract. In this article, we will consider this fundamental mismatch from the viewpoint of what we know about software evolution in general, and then propose ways forward to design and implement public sector software that can be adapted to new, emergent needs

Gradual Deployment in Practice: Experiences from an Industrial Case Study

Peer reviewe

Perehdyttäminen Haaga-Kaarela alueen perhepäivähoitoyksikössä

Mikkonen, Heidi & Myllyneva, Tommi. Perehdyttäminen Haaga-Kaarelan perhepäivä-hoitoyksikössä. Produktiona perhepäivähoidon perehdytysopas. Diak Helsinki, syksy 2015, 77 s., 4 liite. Diakonia-ammattikorkeakoulu, Sosiaalialan koulutusohjelma, sosionomi (AMK) + lastentarhanopettajakelpoisuus. Toiminnallisen opinnäytetyömme tarkoituksena oli laatia perehdytysopas Helsingin Haaga-Kaarelan alueella toimiville perhepäivähoitajille. Perehdytysopas on osa alueen perhepäivähoidon laadun kehittämistä ja se on tehty yhteistyössä Helsingin perhepäivähoidon ohjaajien ja Helsingin Haaga-Kaarelan alueen perhepäivähoitajien kanssa. Pohjana on ollut heidän tarpeensa ja toiveensa. Taustamateriaalina on käytetty erilaisia perehdytysoppaita, mutta varsinaisen Haaga-Kaarelan alueen perehdytysoppaan puuttuessa olemme saaneet luoda perehdytysoppaan täysin oman ideointimme pohjalta. Perehdytysoppaan tekeminen oli ajankohtaista, sillä perhepäivähoidon ohjaaja ja perhepäivähoitajat kertoivat, ettei heillä ole olemassa ollenkaan varsinaista perehdytysopasta. Perehdytysoppaan tekeminen aloitettiin joulukuussa 2014 käymällä läpi olemassa olevia erilaisia Helsingin kaupungin perehdytysmateriaaleja. Oppaan varsinainen työstäminen alkoi tammikuussa 2015, jolloin järjestimme suunnittelukokouksen hoitajienillan yhteyteen ja mietittiin perehdytysoppaan sisältöä. Perehdytysopasta muokattiin vielä moneen otteeseen perhepäivähoitajien illoista tulleiden palautteiden, sekä perhepäivähoidon ohjaajien palautteen mukaan. Opinnäytetyön tuloksena syntynyt perehdytysopas palvelee työyhteisöä yhtenäistämällä työn periaatteita ja luomalla materiaalia uusien työntekijöiden perehdyttämisen helpottamiseksi. Opinnäytetyöraportti jakautuu perehdytystä, päivähoitoa, sekä työyhteisöä käsittelevään teoriatietoon, opinnäytetyöprosessia kuvaavaan osioon, sekä varsinaiseen perehdytysoppaaseen.Mikkonen, Heidi & Myllyneva, Tommi. Orientation in Haaga-Kaarela family day care unit. Orientation folder for a day care centre. 77 p., 4 appendix. Language: Finnish. Helsinki, Autumn 2015. Diaconia University of Applied Sciences. Degree programme in Social Services: Bachelor of Social Services + early childhood education teacher qualification. The purpose of the thesis was to produce an orientation folder for child minders working in Haaga-Kaarela area, Helsinki, Finland. The orientation folder is part of the development of quality for Haaga-Kaarela area family day care and it was made in co-operation with the family day care managers and child minders based on their wishes. The orientation folder of Helsinki City centre and other orientation materials have been used as the source of information and as backround material. Because there was no orientation folder covering Haaga-Kaarela area family day care, the authors had a great opportunity to use their own ideas. It was topical to create an orientation folder and it was hoped for very much. The process of making the orientation folder began in the December of 2014. First, the orientation materials of Helsinki city centre were read through. The actual making of the orientation folder started in January 2015 when a meeting was organized and a discussion concerning the content of the orientation folder took place. The orientation scheme was modified on many occasions according to the feedback gathered in parents’ evenings, as well as through family day care counsellors’ feedback. The orientation folder serves the work community by integrating working principles and also creating material to help the orientation of new workers. This thesis report includes information about orientation, day care and work community. The report also includes a presentation of the process of making the thesis and the orientation folder of Haaga-Kaarela family day care unit.Perehdytysopas, jota ei julkaista yksityistieotojen vuoksi. Työn liitteenä perehdytysoppaan sisällysluettelo

CompliancePal: A Tool for Supporting Practical Agile and Regulatory-Compliant Development of Medical Software

As digital transformation affects more and more industries, the increased role of software and the skills required to develop software trigger a ripple effect. Entire industries, where regulations and government standards play an important role (e.g. health care, avionics, etc.), have used long development cycles that relied on detailed up-front planning before advancing to any detailed decision. In contrast to this mindset, agile software development has proven to deliver results that satisfy customers needs faster than traditional waterfall methodologies. The lack of detailed upfront planning and fast delivery cycles have led to situations where the use of agile became synonymous with lack of documentation and poor quality, and hence the perception that the approach is not suitable for regulated systems. In this experience paper we describe the implementation of a service that integrates medical device software compliance specific activities such as architectural design and limited risk management into the daily agile practices of a software development team.Peer reviewe

Real-time Human Eye Resolution Ray Tracing in Mixed Reality

Mixed reality applications require natural visualizations. Ray tracing is one of the candidates for this purpose. Real-time ray tracing is slowly becoming a reality in consumer market mixed and virtual reality. This is happening due to development in display technologies and computer hardware. Some of these examples are foveated rendering enabled high resolution displays, like Varjo mixed reality headset, and parallel computing enablers, like GPUs getting ray tracing hardware acceleration enablers, such as for example Nvidia's RTX. Currently, the challenge in ray tracing is resource need especially in mixed reality where low latency is wanted and with human eye resolution where high resolution needs are obvious. In this paper, we design and implement a novel foveated ray tracing solution called Human Eye Resolution Ray Tracer (HERR) that achieves real-time frame rates in human eye resolution in mixed reality.Peer reviewe

Software—A New Open Access Journal on Software Engineering

Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) [...

From Apps to Liquid Multi-Device Software

AbstractThe recent history of software development has witnessed a battle between web-based software and native apps. At this point, native apps seem to be winning especially in mobile computing. In fact, the trend towards mobile apps seems to be strengthening with the increased popularity of “branded” apps. Such apps are rapidly replacing the use of traditional system applications in mobile devices. We argue that the transition to branded apps by no means predicts the demise of the Web as a software platform. However, there is still work ahead in turning the Web into a platform that can compete with dominant native platforms. At the same time, the focus in the industry is moving from PC and smartphone markets towards new device categories. In our view the industry needs to shift its focus from devices and device-specific apps to liquid software, i.e., multi-device experiences that allow people to use all of their devices seamlessly

Tools and Techniques for Applications in 5G Networks and Beyond

Future telecommunications networks, going beyond 5G, introduce numerous opportunities for new applications. Increased flexibility implies that new tools and techniques will be needed to take the most out of the networks, as otherwise we will simply create replicas of today's networks, which potentially include the same bottlenecks. In this keynote, we discuss network topologies, application architectures, and adaptability options that eventually will help in building superior user experience in future telecommunication networks and their applications. This will pave the way towards the Internet of people where technology is simply an enabler for satisfying end-user needs, and technological underpinnings are selected such that they best serve these needs.Peer reviewe

Software Reuse in the Era of Opportunistic Design

Peer reviewe

Software—A New Open Access Journal on Software Engineering

Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) [...