Inherent discipline required in large system change

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 90).Recent electrical architectures of land vehicles have shown a marked increase in networking and integration of electronic controls into traditionally electro-mechanical devices, which results in complex functional interactions throughout the electrical system. This trend often drives a large system change that modifies the engineering roles of the component level engineer and also creates a need for an evolution to a vehicle level systems engineering approach. In this paper, a claim was put forth that without a certain level of inherent discipline in place and functional, no successful large system change can occur. Inherent discipline was decomposed into three parts: process, personal, and organizational disciplines. Each of these was described and relationships between them were investigated. The correlation between parenting and organizational discipline was explored. A case for the business value of inherent discipline was made by examining two examples; one of organizational progress and one of manufacturing progress. Then a case study of an emerging large system change, feature ownership, was presented. Details on the engineering roles required for feature based development at each of the hierarchical levels of the electrical system were presented.(cont.) Using the Design Structure Matrix as a tool, the interactions of the development process used for implementing distributed features were analyzed. Elements of inherent discipline required for a successful implementation of feature ownership were identified, as well as feedback from engineers in the organization implementing this large system change. The criticality of organizational discipline, in particular, to the feature ownership change initiative was emphasized. Recommended next steps for process, personal, and organizational discipline were detailed and possible effects of lack of discipline on feature ownership were postulated. The three types of discipline form a balance for the large system change initiative. The absence of any of the three can have a detrimental effect on the progress and effectiveness of the change, leading to poor quality, application or implementation of the change.by Robin L. Rivard.S.M

2014 Evaluation of Hybrid Bell Pepper Varieties for High Tunnel Production in Kansas

This is a compilation of 30 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included

2014 Evaluation of Determinate Tomato Varieties for High Tunnel Production in Kansas

This is a compilation of 30 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included

2017 Evaluation of Hybrid Bell Pepper Varieties for High Tunnel Production in Kansas

This is a compilation of 18 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included

User Developed Applications: Evaluation of Success From the DP Department Perspective

User development of computer-based applications (UDA) is a new phenomenon in organizations, and can provide benefits for both users and for data processing departments. The benefits of UDA to DP departments are consi.dered in this paper. The UDA literature suggests that the DP departments can expect to receive two major types of benefits: the backlog of DP appl ication devel opment projects shoul d decrease, and the proportion of DP resources spent on application maintenance should be reduced. However, this study, which was carried out in ten 1 arge Canadian business fi rms, ,found that in no instances were these factors cited by senior.pP managers as primary success considerations. In most cases, these managers felt that UDA might have some effect on the amount of DP resources devoted to perfective maintenance or on the porti on of the backl og which consi sts of smaller, one-shot appl ications. However, in ng instances had the DP managers attempted to measure these factors. More importantly, the decrease of the appl ications backl og and the decrease of the maintenance load were not perceived by the DP executives as being important components of UDA success. Rather, these DP managers were mainly interested in being able to demonstrate that the appl ications devel oped by users are of demonstrabl e, tangi bl e benefit to the organization, and that the users themselves are satisfied with the UDA services made avail abl e to them via the DP department. These findings are summarized in Table 1. This study also found that the eval uation of the tangibl e benefits to be derived from UDA activities was a critical issue for DP managers. In the paper, a simple evaluation framework, derived from an earlier model by Keen, is proposed and illustrated with experiential data drawn from the companies studied. The framework is useful in explaining why some DP departments are successful in their evaluations . Finally, an argument is presented that users themselves, not the DP department staf f, shoul d be hel d di rectly responsible for demonstrating that the appl ications they develop are cost beneficial to the firm. Implications of this argument include: (1) that DP departments charge users for the use of computing resources; (2) the proper rol e of the DP department in UDA eval uati on is that of advisor

2016 Evaluation of Hybrid Bell Pepper Varieties for High Tunnel Production in Kansas

This is a compilation of 21 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included

2016 Evaluation of Standard Pickling Cucumber Varieties in Kansas

This is a compilation of 21 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included

2017 Evaluation of Determinate Tomato Varieties for High Tunnel Production in Kansas

This is a compilation of 18 research trial reports from four land-grant universities in the Midwestern United States. Crops include cantaloupe, pickling cucumber, pepper, potato, pumpkin, summer squash and zucchini, sweet corn, tomato, and watermelon. Somecrops were evaluated in high tunnels or hoophouses. Most trials evaluated different cultivars or varieties. One report addressed plant spacing for sweet corn and one addressed soil block for production of tomato seedlings. A list of vegetable seed sources and a list of other online sources of vegetable trial reports are also included