iFloW: an integrated logistics software system for inbound supply chain traceability

Visibility plays an important role in supply chain management. Such visibility is not only important for better planning, but especially for real-time execution related with the traceability of goods. In inbound supply chain management, logistics planners need to trace raw materials from their requests in order to properly plan a plant’s production. The iFloW (Inbound Logistics Tracking System) integrates logistics providers IT applications and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to track and trace incoming freights. The Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) is updated in real-time allowing an improved materials planning process. This paper presents the iFloW project and describes how these issues are addressed and validated in a real pilot project.This research is sponsored by the Portugal Incentive System for Research and technological Development PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2013 and by project in co-promotion no 36265/2013 (Project HMIExcel—2013–2015)

Using scrum together with UML models: a collaborative university-industry R&D software project

Conducting research and development (R&D) software projects, in an environment where both industry and university collaborate, is challenging due to many factors. In fact, industrial companies and universities have generally different interests and objectives whenever they collaborate. For this reason, it is not easy to manage and negotiate the industrial companies’ interests, namely schedules and their expectations. Conducting such projects in an agile framework is expected to decrease these risks, since partners have the opportunity to frequently interact with the development team in short iterations and are constantly aware of the characteristics of the system under development. However, in this type of collaborative R&D projects, it is often advantageous to include some waterfall practices, like upfront requirements modeling using UML models, which are not commonly used in agile processes like Scrum, in order to better prepare the implementation phase of the project. This paper presents some lessons learned that result from experience of the authors in adopting some Scrum practices in a R&D project, like short iterations, backlogs, and product increments, and simultaneously using UML models, namely use cases and components.This research is sponsored by the Portugal Incentive System for Research and Technological Development PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2013 and by project in co–promotion nº 36265/2013 (Project HMIExcel - 2013-2015)

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Implementação de processos de negócio em software utilizando transformações de modelos

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de InformaçãoDado que as organizações se regem por processos de negócio, é emergente a necessidade de o desenvolvimento do sistema de informação de uma organização seja direccionado para suportar esses processos. Durante um processo de desenvolvimento de sistemas de informação são conhecidas várias abordagens e metodologias com o objectivo de este seja obtido com cada vez maior acréscimo de qualidade. Essa qualidade deve-se reflectir na definição dos processos do sistema de informação e deve requerer uma metodologia que possua tarefas bem definidas e automatizadas. Uma metodologia possível, a Business Implementation Methodology (BIM), propõe transformações dos processos de negócio de forma automatizada para que a implementação dos processos em software consuma menor esforço e menores custos. As quatro fases da metodologia são percorridas desde a definição inicial dos processos de negócio até ao sistema de informação final. O que distingue nesta fase das outras metodologias é a proposta de utilizar modelos de referência de processos. Dado o contexto, sugere-se a utilização de linguagens de modelação de processos para representação gráfica dos processos de negócio. Para obtenção do sistema de informação na última fase da metodologia seguida, é proposta a utilização do Model-Driven Architecture (MDA). A transformação de um modelo de processos de negócio que seja um Platform Independent Model (PIM) para um modelo que seja um Platform Specific Model (PSM) permitirá a obtenção da implementação do modelo de processos em software. O resultado da transformação será um modelo composto pelo processo de negócio em BPEL e pela devida integração de aplicações realizadas através do uso de um Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).Due the fact that organisations rule their business by business processes, it is emerging the need that development of the information system should be oriented to support those processes. During the process of an information system development many approaches are known so it can be achieved with an increase of quality. This quality must be reflected in the definition of the information system’s business processes and it requires a methodology that has well defined and automated tasks. A possible methodology, the Business Implementation Methodology (BIM), proposes transformations of business processes in an automated way so software implementation of the processes are less effort consuming. The four methodology phases are executed since the initial definition of the business process to the final information system. What distinguishes this methodology from other business implementation methodologies in these initial phases is the use of process reference models proposal. In the context, it is suggested the use of business process modelling languages for visual representation of business processes. For obtaining the information system in the last phase of the methodology, it is proposed the use of OMG’s Model-Driven Architecture (MDA). The transformation of a process framework that is a Platform Independent Model (PIM) to a Platform Specific Model (PSM) will allow obtaining software implementation. The result of the transformation will be a model composed by the business process in BPEL and the integration of applications through the use of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

An agile process for modeling logical architectures: demonstration cases from large-scale software projects

Doctoral Program in Information Systems and TechnologyDeveloping software solutions is about providing responses to a set of business needs in form of a working software. These business needs are the starting point for the development process, which states the required business support that the software will provide, in form of functional and nonfunctional requirements. Then, every implementation decision aims satisfying those requirements. Of course, over time, the requirements change. In that sense, agile software development (ASD) approaches bring a set of practices towards embracing those changes as soon as possible. As the complexity of software increases, namely in terms of the quantity of the defined features, these approaches face some challenges, typically related in properly defining how different teams have to work together in order to deliver a unified solution. In complex solutions, the traceability between business (or stakeholder) and software (components) perspectives may not be properly assured. Using a logical architecture provides a view that organizes software components in order to meet functional requirements. In a large-scale agile (LSA) setting, the logical architecture provides a view in how different teams’ outputs fit together. Thus, this thesis presents a process for modeling logical architectures adequate for ASD settings (a.k.a., “Agile Modeling” – AM) with requirements elicitation and modeling techniques and, additionally, uses an architectural design method called “Four Step Rule Set” (4SRS) in order to trace the requirements models to the architectural components. An AM process should support evolutionary design, preventing the so-called “Big Design Up Front” (BDUF) with eventual efforts that are afterwards disregarded in “You Aren’t Going to Need It” (YAGNI) elements. The proposed process is called “Agile Modeling Process for Logical Architectures” (AMPLA). This research work aimed defining how AMPLA covers the model evolution and abstraction level from business to service-oriented logical architectures in LSA settings. Additionally, adopting an architectural style called “microservices”, eases the agility in developing (and deploying) the solutions, where its design principles promote continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) and DevOps. Thus, AMPLA includes architecture modeling as well as maintenance and evolution during ASD iterations.Desenvolver soluções de software é fornecer respostas a um conjunto de necessidades de negócios na forma de um software executável. Essas necessidades de negócios são o ponto de partida para o processo de desenvolvimento, que define como o software suportará o negócio, na forma de requisitos funcionais e não funcionais. Então, qualquer decisão de implementação visa satisfazer esses requisitos. Obviamente, com o tempo, os requisitos mudam. Nesse sentido, as abordagens de desenvolvimento ágil de software (ASD) trazem um conjunto de práticas para abraçar essas mudanças o mais rápido possível. À medida que a complexidade do software aumenta, principalmente em termos da quantidade de recursos definidos, essas abordagens enfrentam alguns desafios, geralmente relacionados à definição correta de como equipas diferentes devem trabalhar em conjunto para fornecer uma solução unificada. Em soluções complexas, a rastreabilidade entre as perspetivas do negócio (ou dos stakeholders) e software (componentes) pode não estar adequadamente garantida. Usando uma arquitetura lógica, é fornecida uma visão que organiza os componentes de software para que os requisitos funcionais sejam suportados. Num contexto ágil de larga-escala (LSA), fornece uma visão de como os diferentes resultados se encaixam. Assim, esta tese apresenta um processo para modelar arquiteturas lógicas adequadas às configurações de ASD (também conhecido como “Agile Modeling” - AM), composto pelas técnicas de levantamento e modelação de requisitos e, adicionalmente, usa um método arquitetural chamado “Four Step Rule Set” (4SRS) para rastreabilidade entre os requisitos e os componentes arquiteturais. Um processo de AM deve oferecer suporte a uma conceção evolutiva, impedindo o chamado “Big Design Up Front” (BDUF), com eventuais esforços que serão posteriormente desconsiderados em elementos “You Aren’t Going to Need It” (YAGNI). O processo proposto é chamado de “Agile Modeling Process for Logical Architectures” (AMPLA). Este trabalho de investigação pretendeu definir como o AMPLA cobre a evolução dos modelos e nível de abstração desde o negócio até a arquiteturas lógicas orientadas a serviços em contextos de LSA. Além disso, a adoção de um estilo arquitetural chamado “micro-serviços” facilita a agilidade no desenvolvimento (e instalação) das soluções, onde suas bases da conceção promovem a integração / entrega contínua (CI / CD) e cultura DevOps. Assim, o AMPLA inclui modelação da arquitetura, bem como manutenção e evolução durante ciclos ágeis