The role of industry within an undergraduate module: a tale of unexpected surprises, cunning, and banana republics

The interaction of industry within undergraduate modules is generally fairly limited, with most interactions taking the form of case studies and guest lectures. This paper outlines how industry was integrated into student coursework on an undergraduate module within a Computer Science department. In doing so it provides insights into how such coursework could be designed, and explores many of the issues that need to be addressed in order to make such interactions a success

Requirement engineering education in the UK, an empirical study

The quality of software is critically dependent on the quality of Requirements Engineering activities undertaken during software development. This paper outlines a survey of Higher Education (HE) institutions in the UK undertaken to determine the nature of the topics covered relating to Requirement Engineering, and the extent to which such topics are practically taught and assessed. Very few surveys of Requirement Engineering within HE have been conducted, and, to the authors knowledge this will be the first significant one published which focussing on HE in the UK. The paper concludes that a number of key issues exist in the UK provision for teaching in this area, which impact on the ability of industry to leverage the skills gained by students whilst studying at university

Automated negotiation for service contracts

Automated negotiation draws upon research from a number of different computing disciplines, predominantly those of Game Theory, AI, Requirement specification & Authorisation research. Automated negotiation allows clients / services to come to agreements regarding service utilisation. A number of problems exist within the area, primarily those of requirement elicitation and trust. These problems can be minimised through standardisation and careful design; however, human participation in the process cannot be completely removed. This paper examines a possible format, architecture and implementation (TRANSACT) to aid in the automated negotiation of service contracts based on exogenously stated requirements / capabilities. In doing so it explores the issues and areas in which further developments are required to support future service developments

Modelling the Strategic Alignment of Software Requirements using Goal Graphs

This paper builds on existing Goal Oriented Requirements Engineering (GORE) research by presenting a methodology with a supporting tool for analysing and demonstrating the alignment between software requirements and business objectives. Current GORE methodologies can be used to relate business goals to software goals through goal abstraction in goal graphs. However, we argue that unless the extent of goal-goal contribution is quantified with verifiable metrics and confidence levels, goal graphs are not sufficient for demonstrating the strategic alignment of software requirements. We introduce our methodology using an example software project from Rolls-Royce. We conclude that our methodology can improve requirements by making the relationships to business problems explicit, thereby disambiguating a requirement's underlying purpose and value.Comment: v2 minor updates: 1) bitmap images replaced with vector, 2) reworded related work ref[6] for clarit

Smart home: Devices, applications and their potential benefits and challenges

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. This study surveys a range of devices and applications based on information and computer technologies to automate their control houses and related activities which together form and are called Smart Home systems. The aim of this research is to explore examples of such devices and applications used to provide smart home technologies and their benefits and challenges to users. Interviews were administered to 18 users of Smart Home technologies. The participants were selected randomly by purposive sampling on the basis of having and using a smart home technology, and with the goal of ascertaining which type of the technologies are being used, their modus operandi, and their benefits and any implementation issues. This was complemented by exploring the systems through watching and observing online videos of people using them. The findings reveal a varied number of Smart Home systems being used for automating household operations. The primary reasons for using them are their efficiency and simplicity of operation in spite of being challenged by their high costs. In relative order, the greatest perceived benefits of a smart home system for the participants were convenience, energy savings, the security it can provide, and simplicity of control. The greatest challenges were cost, design aspects, technical challenges and lacking in meeting special user needs

An investigation of management systems for sustainable e-government

Sustainable e-government has become an important issue for countries wishing to sustain their e-services and promote integration with smart cities. Such new challenges require policy makers to move toward sustainable e-government and encourage organisations to engage with management systems that promote sustainability; these include systems for environmental sustainability (ISO14001) and social sustainability (ISO 26000). The literature related to sustainable e-government shows a lack of research into the acceptance and adoption of such management systems and their influence on e-government sustainability. A quantitative case study was conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which investigated the Saudi Ministry of Justice (MoJ), together with private software companies employed by the MoJ. The purpose of the study was to understand the current situation regarding standards that support sustainability in e-government and its affiliates in the private sector. Survey data was gathered from 83 e-government project employees from the public and private sectors; participants reported on their adoption of management systems designed to support sustainable egovernment. Social management systems were more highly ranked than other management systems, namely those related to environmental and economic administration. This raises concerns about the low level of awareness of green-ability (environmental considerations). While social management systems were more likely to be adopted, these four management systems, environmental, social, quality and economic, showed a strong positive interrelationship: when organisations agreed on the adoption of one form of system, they tended to respond positively to others. These results will be utilised to support future work in designing a framework for sustainable e-government

Software sustainability from a user perspective: A case study of a developing country (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Interest in sustainable development is increasing. Understanding the user’s perspective toward software sustainability helps to enhance understanding of the concept. The need for developing countries to enhance their ICT infrastructure to align with United Nation (UN) sustainable development goals increases the necessity to understand the current perception of software users, industry and sustainability experts, to improve the level of software sustainability. Software sustainability has a number of challenges with regard to adoption by software users. This study investigates software sustainability from the point of view of users in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) by addressing four scales, namely beliefs, intention, attitude and perceptions toward using sustainable software. It also addresses key barriers to sustainable software, such as lack of awareness and difficulty of recognising sustainable software

An investigation into sustainable e-government in Saudi Arabia

Sustainable e-government has become an important consideration for governments. However, existing e-government literature on sustainability is sparse. A quantitative empirical study was conducted to survey the perceptions of Saudi Arabian citizens with regard to the characteristics of sustainable e-government. Survey data gathered from 442 respondents were analysed to investigate their understanding of the importance of each of these characteristics, allowing the identification of a set of key characteristics likely to influence citizens’ utilization of sustainable e-government services. The study also investigated users’ perceptions of three key barriers to the ability of policymakers to develop and adopt sustainable e-government systems. The results indicate that the characteristics perceived to be the most significant were usability, security, performance, transparency and flexibility, whereas respondents were relatively unconcerned with the social, environmental and economic dimensions of the impact of the software used in e-government systems. This study has also shed new light on experts’ perceptions by investigating sustainable e-government features from their perspective. Data gathered from 83 respondents affirms the importance of sustainable e-government, the importance of cooperation between software development department and government agencies during designing and using sustainable e-government, and the influence of sustainability qualities on e-government. These results will be utilised in future as part of a framework for evaluating sustainable e-government

An empirical study of sustainable E-Government characteristics in Saudi Arabia

It is clear that sustainable e-government has become an important consideration for governments, and a political buzz-phrase encompassing e-government literature and sustainability. However, existing e-government literature on sustainability is sparse. A quantitative empirical study was conducted to survey the perceptions of Saudi Arabian citizens with regard to the characteristics of sustainable e-government. Survey data gathered from 442 respondents were analysed to investigate their understanding of the importance of each of these characteristics, allowing the identification of a set of key characteristics likely to influence citizens’ utilization of sustainable e-government services. The study also investigated users’ perceptions of three key barriers to the ability of policymakers to develop and adopt sustainable e-government systems. The most significant barrier was found to be low public awareness of the benefits of sustainable e-government, followed by the inability of governments to predict the needs of future generations of citizens, and their inability to meet current users’ needs. This study also seeks to rank the characteristics of sustainable e-government according to citizens’ perceptions of their priority. The ranking of sustainable e-government characteristics provides an authoritative measurement to guide efforts to develop e-government systems by identifying key characteristics in terms of their effects on the sustainability of e-government. The results indicate that the characteristics perceived to be the most significant were usability, security, performance, transparency and flexibility, whereas respondents were relatively unconcerned with the social, environmental and economic dimensions of the impact of the software used in e-government systems. Participants were found to differ by gender in the priority they assigned to the various characteristics. For example, females considered security to be the most important of the eleven characteristics assessed, while males considered usability to be the most vital characteristic. These results can be utilised in future as part of a framework for evaluating sustainable e-government. Furthermore, the characteristics identified here can be used as a means of providing valuable feedback for the planning and implementation of future sustainable e-government initiatives