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Migrating Software Products to the Cloud
Cloud computing, as a disruptive innovation, has the potential to adversely affect companies. The effects can be particularly extreme for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Subsequently, considerations of organisational resilience should be made when integrating with disruptive innovations like cloud computing. This paper reports of a longitudinal study investigating how a set of SME high-value software vendors are migrating their software products to the cloud. Adaptive socio-technical systems (ASTSs) concepts are used to provide a framework for understanding the adoption process. This study draws out a set of macro and micro themes relating to key phases of strategy development, the migration process and the impact on customer perceptions. From the findings, more systemic and holistic approaches are identified to address key tensions through the adoption life cycle while considering organisational resilience
Migrating software products to the cloud: an adaptive STS perspective.
Cloud computing, as a disruptive innovation, has the potential to adversely affect companies. The effects can be particularly extreme for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Subsequently, considerations of organisational resilience should be made when integrating with disruptive innovations like cloud computing. This paper reports of a longitudinal study investigating how a set of SME high-value software vendors are migrating their software products to the cloud. Adaptive socio-technical systems (ASTSs) concepts are used to provide a framework for understanding the adoption process. This study draws out a set of macro and micro themes relating to key phases of strategy development, the migration process and the impact on customer perceptions. From the findings, more systemic and holistic approaches are identified to address key tensions through the adoption life cycle while considering organisational resilience
A View-based Approach to Quality of Service Modelling in Service-oriented Enterprise Systems
Service-oriented enterprise architecture and emerging advanced technologies bring up new problems for enterprise systems engineering or, more exactly, for service-oriented enterprise systems (SoESs) engineering. One of the most important issues is the modelling of quality of services (QoS). The QoS is a complex and multi-sided concept. In various contexts and for different aims it may be defined quite differently. In the context of SoES, QoS has also some specifics that in several aspects differ from the systems implementing service-oriented architecture (SOA) in other contexts, for example, in business-to-consumer or utility-service ones. The paper suggests that it is possible to identify several understandings of QoS reflecting the viewpoints of different SoES stakeholders in a similar way as it is carried out for software products. It also proposes a conceptual view-based framework for QoS modelling in web-based SoES and for balancing different viewpoints
Realizability of the Lorentzian (n,1)-Simplex
In a previous article [JHEP 1111 (2011) 072; arXiv:1108.4965] we have
developed a Lorentzian version of the Quantum Regge Calculus in which the
significant differences between simplices in Lorentzian signature and Euclidean
signature are crucial. In this article we extend a central result used in the
previous article, regarding the realizability of Lorentzian triangles, to
arbitrary dimension. This technical step will be crucial for developing the
Lorentzian model in the case of most physical interest: 3+1 dimensions.
We first state (and derive in an appendix) the realizability conditions on
the edge-lengths of a Lorentzian n-simplex in total dimension n=d+1, where d is
the number of space-like dimensions. We then show that in any dimension there
is a certain type of simplex which has all of its time-like edge lengths
completely unconstrained by any sort of triangle inequality. This result is the
d+1 dimensional analogue of the 1+1 dimensional case of the Lorentzian
triangle.Comment: V1: 15 pages, 2 figures. V2: Minor clarifications added to
Introduction and Discussion sections. 1 reference updated. This version
accepted for publication in JHEP. V3: minor updates and clarifications, this
version closely corresponds to the version published in JHE
Systems development methods and usability in Norway: An industrial perspective
This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2007 Springer Berlin HeidelbergThis paper investigates the relationship between traditional systems development methodologies and usability, through a survey of 78 Norwegian IT companies. Building on previous research we proposed two hypotheses; (1) that software companies will generally pay lip service to usability, but do not prioritize it in industrial projects, and (2) that systems development methods and usability are perceived as not being integrated. We find support for both hypotheses. Thus, the use of systems development methods is fairly stable, confirming earlier research. Most companies do not use a formal method, and of those who do, the majority use their own method. Generally, the use of methods is rather pragmatic: Companies that do not use formal methods report that they use elements from such methods. Further, companies that use their own method import elements from standardised methods into their own
Generalizing across moral sub-domains: infants bidirectionally link fairness and unfairness to helping and hindering
Across two experiments, we investigated whether infants use prior behavior to form expectations about future behavior within the moral domain, focusing on the sub-domains of fairness and help/harm. In Experiment 1, 14- to 27-month-old infants were familiarized to an agent who either helped or hindered another agent to obtain her goal. At test, infants saw the helper or hinderer perform either a fair or unfair distribution of resources to two recipients. Infants familiarized to helping looked longer to the unfair distribution than the fair distribution at test, whereas infants familiarized to hindering looked equally at both test events, suggesting that hindering led infants to suspend baseline expectations of fairness. In Experiment 2, infants saw these events in reverse. Following familiarization to fair behavior, infants looked equally to helping and hindering; in contrast, following familiarization to unfair behavior, infants looked significantly longer to helping than hindering on test, suggesting that prior unfair behavior led infants to expect the agent to hinder another agent’s goals. These results suggest that infants utilize prior information from one moral sub-domain to form expectations of how an individual will behave in another sub-domain, and that this tendency seems to manifest more strongly when infants initially see hindering and unfair distributions than when they see helping and fair distributions. Together, these findings provide evidence for consilience within the moral domain, starting by at least the second year of life
Black holes and a scalar field in an expanding universe
We consider a model of an inhomogeneous universe including a massless scalar
field, where the inhomogeneity is assumed to consist of many black holes. This
model can be constructed by following Lindquist and Wheeler, which has already
been investigated without including scalar field to show that an averaged scale
factor coincides with that of the Friedmann model. In this work we construct
the inhomogeneous universe with an massless scalar field, where we assume that
the averaged scale factor and scalar field are given by those of the Friedmann
model including a scalar field. All of our calculations are carried out in the
framework of Brans-Dicke gravity. In constructing the model of an inhomogeneous
universe, we define the mass of a black hole in the Brans-Dicke expanding
universe which is equivalent to ADM mass if the mass evolves adiabatically, and
obtain an equation relating our mass to the averaged scalar field and scale
factor. As the results we find that the mass has an adiabatic time dependence
in a sufficiently late stage of the expansion of the universe, and that the
time dependence is qualitatively diffenrent according to the sign of the
curvature of the universe: the mass increases decelerating in the closed
universe case, is constant in the flat case and decreases decelerating in the
open case. It is also noted that the mass in the Einstein frame depends on
time. Our results that the mass has a time dependence should be retained even
in the general scalar-tensor gravitiy with a scalar field potential.
Furthermore, we discuss the relation of our results to the uniqueness theorem
of black hole spacetime and gravitational memory effect.Comment: 16 pages, 3 tables, 5 figure
Sunlight and red to far-red ratio impact germination of tropical montane cloud forest species
Context: Australia’s tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) exhibit exceptional species richness and endemism. Determinants of regeneration via seed of these species are next to unknown, limiting our ability to quantify and project their vulnerability to climate change. The ratio of red to far-red light (R:FR) has been shown to influence seed germination of many tropical species.Aims: We investigated germination of six previously unstudied TMCF species in relation to the presence or absence of light (light/dark) and light quality (R:FR). We hypothesised that increased R:FR would lead to increased germination and that small-seeded species would be more likely to have a light requirement and be less sensitive to R:FR compared to larger-seeded species.Methods: Sunlight and polyester filters were used to create a gradient of R:FR ranging from 0.1 to 1.14. Seeds were also sown in constant darkness.Key results: Across species we saw varying germination responses. Three of the four smallest-seeded species exhibited an absolute light requirement for germination and did not discriminate between different R:FR. Germination of the small-seeded TMCF endemic Dracophyllum increased exponentially with increasing R:FR. Germination of the largest-seeded species was inhibited by both low and high R:FR, and germination was higher in constant darkness than diurnal light/dark. All six species were able to germinate at remarkably low R:FR values.Conclusions: Light affects seed germination of Australia’s TMCF plant species in a variety of ways.Implications: The findings of this study provide insights into plant recruitment in situ, and the acclimation potential of these species under reduced R:FR predicted for the future
Historical roots of Agile methods: where did “Agile thinking” come from?
The appearance of Agile methods has been the most noticeable change to software process thinking in the last fifteen years [16], but in fact many of the “Agile ideas” have been around since 70’s or even before. Many studies and reviews have been conducted about Agile methods which ascribe their emergence as a reaction against traditional methods. In this paper, we argue that although Agile methods are new as a whole, they have strong roots in the history of software engineering. In addition to the iterative and incremental approaches that have been in use since 1957 [21], people who criticised the traditional methods suggested alternative approaches which were actually Agile ideas such as the response to change, customer involvement, and working software over documentation. The authors of this paper believe that education about the history of Agile thinking will help to develop better understanding as well as promoting the use of Agile methods. We therefore present and discuss the reasons behind the development and introduction of Agile methods, as a reaction to traditional methods, as a result of people's experience, and in particular focusing on reusing ideas from histor
Key Challenges in Agile Requirements Engineering
Agile Software Development (ASD) is becoming more popular in all fields of
industry. For an agile transformation, organizations need to continuously improve their
established approaches to Requirements Engineering (RE) as well as their approaches to
software development. This is accompanied by some chal‐lenges in terms of agile RE. The
main objective of this paper is to identify the most important challenges in agile RE industry
has to face today. Therefore, we conducted an iterative expert judgement process with 26
experts in the field of ASD, comprising three complementary rounds.
In sum, we identified 20 challenges in three rounds. Six of these challenges are defined as
key challenges. Based on the results, we provide options for dealing with those key
challenges by means of agile techniques and tools. The results show that the identified
challenges are often not limited to ASD, but they rather refer to software development in
general. Therefore, we can conclude that organ‐izations still struggle with agile transition and
understanding agile values, in particular, in terms of stakeholder and user involvement.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED
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