Test-Driven Development as an Innovation Value Chain

For all companies that consider their Information Technology Department to be of strategic value, it is important to incorporate an innovation value chain into their software development lifecycles to enhance their teams' performance. One model is TDD (Test-Driven Development), which is a process that detects failures and improves the productivity and quality of the team’s work. Data were collected from a Financial Company with 3,500 employees to demonstrate that software projects that require more than 4,000 hours of development benefit from TDD if a clear knowledge conversion step occurs between the client and the developers

Modularidade em montadoras de automóveis: uma análise sob a ótica da estratégia

The relationships between the application of modularity in the car industry and the organizational strategies are a study field which needs to be better understood. This study is intended to research the organizational strategies and competencies inherent to the modularity process in the car-making enterprises. Case-based research was conducted in two car-makers. The study shows that the modularity process has been used to transfer fixed costs to the suppliers generating dependence among the enterprises and making the change of supplier difficult whenever necessary. There is concern of the car-makers in creating strategies capable of preventing the loss of know how. For this reason, not all the projects of the modules are outsourced. It was found that the enterprises studied reached partially the essential competencies and operate at the level of the distinctive competencies, but enough to give support to modular strategy. The set of organizational strategies and competencies conquered held in the construction of competitive advantage in those enterprises.As relações entre a aplicação da modularidade na indústria automobilística e as estratégias organizacionais correspondem a um campo de estudos que precisa ser compreendido de forma mais aprofundada. Nesse sentido, este estudo tem como objetivo analisar as estratégias organizacionais e as competências inerentes ao processo de modularidade em empresas automobilísticas, por meio da realização de um estudo multicaso em duas montadoras de veículos. Verificou-se que o processo de modularidade tem sido utilizado para transferir custos fixos para os fornecedores, gerando uma dependência entre as empresas e dificultando a troca de um fornecedor, quando necessário. Também se verificou uma preocupação das montadoras em criar estratégias capazes de impedir a perda de know how. Por esta razão, nem todos os projetos de módulos são terceirizados. Verificou-se que as empresas estudadas atingiram parcialmente as competências essenciais e operaram no nível das competências distintivas, o suficiente para dar suporte à estratégia modular. O conjunto de estratégias organizacionais e competências conquistadas ajudaram na construção de vantagem competitiva nessas empresas