Interface Management: An approach to support IT-Managers in decision making

Information systems are critical assets for modern enterprises. They must be updated continuously to reflect business needs, leaving cumulative effects on the system complexity. Information systems are normally composed of multiple subsystems or components. Interfaces arise wherever one subsystem or component interacts with another. This interaction can be achieved through interoperation or integration. However, both require a comprehensive knowledge about existing interfaces, which suffer from lack of documentations. This, as a result, has bad influence on managing the interfaces and could lead to wrong decisions. In our research-in-progress, we point to the problems companies face with their interfaces and present our solution to support IT managers in taking decisions regarding the interfaces in each phase in their lifecycle. Managing the interfaces includes analysing dependencies and the attributes of interfaces with their weight and influence on assessing the related risk

Introducing a new Workflow for Pig Posture Classification based on a combination of YOLO and EfficientNet

This paper introduces a pipeline for image-based pig posture classification by applying YOLOv5 for pig detection and EfficientNet for subsequent pig posture classification into 'lying' and 'notLying'. A high-quality dataset consisting of 5311 heterogeneous images from different sources with 78215 bounding box annotations was created. The bounding box annotations were then used to create a separate dataset for image classification, consisting of 9209 and 7855 images for each 'lying' and 'notLying'. The YOLOv5 model achieves an AP of 0.994 for pig detection, while EfficientNet achieves a precision of 0.93 for pig posture classification. Comparing the results of the proposed method with other approaches found in literature, it shows that significant improvements in terms of accuracy can be achieved by splitting the classification of pig posture into separate models. This research provides a foundation for the continued development of real-time monitoring and assistance systems in pig Precision Livestock Farming

The Obstacles of Sustainable Business Model Innovations

The continuous innovation process of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector shape the way businesses redefine their business models. Though, current drivers of innovation processes focus solely on a technical dimension, while disregarding social and environmental drivers. However, examples like Nokia, Yahoo or Hewlett-Packard show that even though a profitable business model exists, a sound strategic innovation process is needed to remain profitable in the long term. A sustainable business model innovation demands the incorporation of all dimensions of the triple bottom line. Nevertheless, current management processes do not take the responsible steps to remain sustainable and keep being in denial of the evolutionary direction in which the markets develop, because the effects are not visible in short term. The implications are of substantial effect and can bring the foundation of the company’s business model in danger. This work evaluates the decision process that lets businesses decide in favor of un-sustainable changes and points out the barriers that prevent the development towards a sustainable business model that takes the new balance of forces into account

Applying Software Quality Criteria to Blockchain Applications: A Criteria Catalog

The selection of the suitable blockchain software ecosystem has become very complex, given the growing market. More and more products with different functionality (mainly consensus algorithms and smart contracts) are available on the market. To identify the correct blockchain system for the respective application, a catalog of criteria with a focus on software quality is developed in this work. This catalog supports the selection of the right application and can be individually weighted

Building a Connection Between Decision Maker and Data-Driven Decision Process

It is quite common that most of companies’ decisions are made based on feelings, intuitions or personal experiences. The reasons for such patterns have organizational, technical and process oriented backgrounds. For instance, there is no structured way to deal with the analytical results on both sides simultaneously – organizational and technical. Usually, in case of analytics the ones doing analysis (e.g. data scientists) and the ones using results of analytics (e.g. decision makers) are different persons. As a result, such a structure leads to ambiguity and misunderstanding between the involved parties. In order to bridge the existing gap between data scientists and decision makers, we introduced the Data Product Profile which links both data science and data-driven decision processes

A risk-based MADM model for selecting free-libre open source software tools in the domain of IT service management

The availability of free-libre open source software (FLOSS) has stimulated their organizational implementation in many countries. The main attractiveness for it is the free-cost license of usage regarding with acquisition of COTS (components of the shelf) commercial software, among other factors such as: maturity status, available technical community support, popularity, and compliance to international standards. However, not of the all FLOSS tools released from such FLOSS development projects achieve the expected qualities, and thus organizations interested in using them must conduct a careful evaluation-selection process. With this in mind, several evaluation-selection frameworks for FLOSS have been reported in the literature and some studies have identified a set of organizational factors associated to successful and failed utilizations of FLOSS tools in organizations. In this research, we elaborate a FLOSS Evaluation-Selection model by combining both sets of literature on FLOSS evaluation models and FLOSS implementation models. This model is implemented with a MADM (Multi-Attribute Decision-Making) risk-based mechanism. We illustrate this model with the evaluation-selection of a FLOSS tool in the domain of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM). Hence, this paper contributes to our body of knowledge with the provision of a simplified evaluation-selection model for FLOSS tools derived from two core sets of FLOSS literatures, under an innovative risk-based approach

Towards Digital Solutions For Value Stream Analysis and Design: Investigating Enterprise Perspective Requirements

Value stream analysis and design is considered as a central element of lean management, globally utilized by improvement teams within industrial contexts to maximize value creation and eliminate waste. The advancement of value stream analysis and design, including material flow cost accounting, information logistics, and external factors, is shifting how improvement teams operate due to growing complexity and data volumes. Required novel workflows pull the need for digital solutions that empower improvement teams. While existing research primarily focuses on conceptualizations of solutions, there has been no derivation of real-world requirements from an enterprise perspective. To address this research gap, this paper adapts a mixed methods approach with exploratory sequential design. Initially, a qualitative interview series with nine lean management experts from different industry-related enterprises in Germany was conducted. Over 250 transcribed minutes of interviews were evaluated qualitatively and structurally. Subsequently, identified enterprise requirements were quantitatively instigated functional and dysfunctional utilizing a kano questionnaire; answered by 33 German participants with lean management background. Contributing findings of this paper are 15 enterprise requirements for digital solution development, alongside a more detailed analysis of these requirements based on their ability to systematically satisfy customer needs and mitigate dissatisfaction

Towards Digital Solutions For Value Stream Analysis and Design: Systematic Literature Review And Market Analysis

Recognized as a core element of lean management practice, value stream analysis and design is widely adopted by improvement teams in industrial settings to optimize value creation and eliminate waste. The advancement of value stream analysis and design, incorporating elements such as material flow cost accounting, information logistics, and external influential factors, requires change how improvement teams should think and operate. Emerging complexity of method application and the rise in data volumes underscores the need for novel workflows and the necessity for digital solutions that empower improvement teams in their duties. While existing research focuses on conceptual design of digital solutions, recently no systematic analysis of concepts and solutions from research and practice regarding core aspects of value stream analysis and design has been conducted. To address this research gap, this paper adapts a three-phase research design within a y-model structured process. A systematic literature review and a market analysis are conducted to identify digital solutions for value stream analysis and design. Solutions are showcased and evaluated via concept matrices. Contributing findings of this paper are an assessment of selected concepts form research and solutions from practice as well as the deduction of research-focused requirements, practice-focused requirements, and currently neglected requirements