Simulation Modeling for Service-Oriented Development

As a consequence of the growing customer orientation of business, organizations are now showing a big interest in the development of technological solutions that allow them both to offer a quick respond to their customers and procuring operational efficiency. In this sense, SOA can be seen as a mechanism to help achieve the alignment of business goals and objectives with technology capability. SOA benefits an organization by abstracting business services from the specific technologies they are developed with. However, to translate SOA benefits into successful software development projects, well defined processes to develop software from business processes are needed. To achieve this, simulation modeling techniques can be useful tools since they make it possible to model and improve both business processes within organizations and their service-oriented development process. This paper presents a set of domains in service-oriented development where simulation modeling can be applied and discusses the benefits of this application. These domains are also related with the different phases of a general SOA lifecycle. An overview of the main works in this field is also included.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2007-67843-C06-0

Gamification in IT Service Management: A Systematic Mapping Study

Despite the benefits of adopting IT Service Management (ITSM) reference models, such initiatives do not always produce the expected results. The research literature in this area concludes that motivation, engagement, skills, experience, performance and willingness to change of the personnel involved are among the critical factors for an effective ITSM implementation. Gamification has the capability to improve people's motivation and engagement and to drive people's behavior to meet the objectives set. Besides, gamification is widely used in learning systems for increasing students' skills and competences. In the last years, many researchers have added gamification to their process improvement initiatives to increase the motivation and engagement of process participants and to address their behavior throughout the process. Thus, we consider that adopting gamification in ITSM processes can be an interesting area of study. In this paper, we conducted a systematic mapping study to analyze the actual state of research in the field of ITSM gamification and identify the key challenges that justify future research. The results of our study highlight the positive impact of adopting gamification in ITSM processes and that ITSM gamification is a novel an attractive research area with many action possibilities

A System Dynamics Approach to Web Service Capacity Management

This paper presents a dynamic simulation model applied within the field of web services capacity management. The main purpose of the model is to help manage the web services capacity that providers assign their customers accordingly so as to ensure the fulfillment of the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) established.Therefore, the model allows for the analysis of the effects of different web services capacity management polices on the service performance and on the penalties to be assumed by providers for non-compliance with the response times agreed with their customers. The main aims of the sensitivity analysis carried out in the case study of this research paper are as follows: (1) to assess the fulfillment of the SLAs according to the web service capacity contracted by the customer, (2) to determine the lowest web service capacity and those capacity management parameters that ensure that the actual service performance is the one that has been agreed on (3) to evaluate the penalties that the web service provider should assume for non-compliance with response times.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2007-67843-C06-0

Analyzing Strategic Business Rules through Simulation Modeling

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) holds promise for business agility since it allows business process to change to meet new customer demands or market needs without causing a cascade effect of changes in the underlying IT systems. Business rules are the instrument chosen to help business and IT to collaborate. In this paper, we propose the utilization of simulation models to model and simulate strategic business rules that are then disaggregated at different levels of an SOA architecture. Our proposal is aimed to help find a good configuration for strategic business objectives and IT parameters. The paper includes a case study where a simulation model is built to help business decision-making in a context where finding a good configuration for different business parameters and performance is too complex to analyze by trial and error.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2007-67843-C06-0

Using Simulation to Aid Decision Making in Managing the Usability Evaluation Process

Context: This paper is developed in the context of Usability Engineering. More specifically, it focuses on the use of modelling and simulation to help decision-making in the scope of usability evaluation. Objective: The main goal of this paper is to present UESim: a System Dynamics simulation model to help decision-making in the make-up of the usability evaluation team during the process of usability evaluation. Method: To develop this research we followed four main research phases: a) study identification, b) study development, c) running and observation and finally, d) reflexion. In relation with these phases the paper describes the literature revision, the model building and validation, the model simulation and its results and finally the reflexion on it. Results: We developed and validated a model to simulate the usability evaluation process. Through three different simulations we analysed the effects of different compositions of the evaluation team on the outcome of the evaluation. The simulation results show the utility of the model in the decision making of the usability evaluation process by changing the number and expertise of evaluators employed. Conclusion: One of the main advantages of using such a simulation model is that it allows developers to observe the evolution of the key indicators of the evaluation process over time. UESim represents a customisable tool to help decision-making in the management of the usability evaluation process, since it makes it possible to analyse how the key process indicators are affected by the main management options of the Usability Evaluation Process

Methodology for an effective risk assessment of urban areas: progress and first results of the merisur project

The progress and results the MERISUR, Methodology for an Effective RISk assessment of URban areas, are presented. This project aims at developing an effective methodology for urban seismic risk assessment that provides solutions to some deficiencies detected after recent damaging events worldwide, including risk mitigation actions based on benefit/cost ratios. In a fisrt stage, the hazard and vulnerability models are developed and improved. A procedure to determine the hazard-controlling seismogenic fault, contsistent with different probability levels, is established. Methods to include active faults as individual sources and to consider near filed effects that significantly amplify ground motions are proposed. A more complete description of seismic vulnerability encompassing structural, non-structural components is accomplished. Vulnerability modifiers to incorporate effects or urban parameters on vulnerability classes are also quantified. A distinction is also made between damage to structural and non-structural building elements. For this purpose, a pushover analysis is specifically carried out to model building response and damage trends on non-structural elements. This gives the primary damage. In addition, the area covered by the resulting debris is also estimated both in inner spaces (within the building) and in the outer space (public roads and streets). In this way, a volume of debris will be associated to each area unit of the city, and the potential damage to persons and elements exposed, such as urban furniture and vehicles, will be assessed. This constitutes the secondary damage. A static level of occupation (building, urban furniture, etc.) and a dynamic level of occupation (persons, vehicles) will be assigned to each area unit of the city, hereby defining the exposure in time and space. Earthquake losses related to primary damage of building components and to secondary damage (such as urban furniture and vehicles) will be also assessed. Cost/benefit ratios between ex ante risk mitigation measurements will be developed in order to decide whether risk transfer or risk retention is preferable for different risk scenarios. This analysis will confer effectiveness to the results of a seismic risk study. Overall, the estimate of earthquake losses and cost/benefit ratios are topics with little presence in the scientific literature concerning damaging earthquakes in Spain. Thus, the results of this study will provide effective solutions to the challenge to society tackled in this proposal

Methodology for an effective risk assessment of urban areas: progress and first results of the merisur project

The progress and results the MERISUR, Methodology for an Effective RISk assessment of URban areas, are presented. This project aims at developing an effective methodology for urban seismic risk assessment that provides solutions to some deficiencies detected after recent damaging events worldwide, including risk mitigation actions based on benefit/cost ratios. In a fisrt stage, the hazard and vulnerability models are developed and improved. A procedure to determine the hazard-controlling seismogenic fault, contsistent with different probability levels, is established. Methods to include active faults as individual sources and to consider near filed effects that significantly amplify ground motions are proposed. A more complete description of seismic vulnerability encompassing structural, non-structural components is accomplished. Vulnerability modifiers to incorporate effects or urban parameters on vulnerability classes are also quantified. A distinction is also made between damage to structural and non-structural building elements. For this purpose, a pushover analysis is specifically carried out to model building response and damage trends on non-structural elements. This gives the primary damage. In addition, the area covered by the resulting debris is also estimated both in inner spaces (within the building) and in the outer space (public roads and streets). In this way, a volume of debris will be associated to each area unit of the city, and the potential damage to persons and elements exposed, such as urban furniture and vehicles, will be assessed. This constitutes the secondary damage. A static level of occupation (building, urban furniture, etc.) and a dynamic level of occupation (persons, vehicles) will be assigned to each area unit of the city, hereby defining the exposure in time and space. Earthquake losses related to primary damage of building components and to secondary damage (such as urban furniture and vehicles) will be also assessed. Cost/benefit ratios between ex ante risk mitigation measurements will be developed in order to decide whether risk transfer or risk retention is preferable for different risk scenarios. This analysis will confer effectiveness to the results of a seismic risk study. Overall, the estimate of earthquake losses and cost/benefit ratios are topics with little presence in the scientific literature concerning damaging earthquakes in Spain. Thus, the results of this study will provide effective solutions to the challenge to society tackled in this proposal

Extracellular ATP and P2 purinergic signalling in the tumour microenvironment

Modulation of the biochemical composition of the tumour microenvironment is a new frontier of cancer therapy. Several immunosuppressive mechanisms operate in the milieu of most tumours, a condition that makes antitumour immunity ineffective. One of the most potent immunosuppressive factors is adenosine, which is generated in the tumour microenvironment owing to degradation of extracellular ATP. Accruing evidence over the past few years shows that ATP is one of the major biochemical constituents of the tumour microenvironment, where it acts at P2 purinergic receptors expressed on both tumour and host cells. Stimulation of P2 receptors has different effects depending on the extracellular ATP concentration, the P2 receptor subtype engaged and the target cell type. Among P2 receptors, the P2X purinergic receptor 7 (P2X7R) subtype appears to be a main player in host–tumour cell interactions. Preclinical studies in several tumour models have shown that P2X7R targeting is potentially a very effective anticancer treatment, and many pharmaceutical companies have now developed potent and selective small molecule inhibitors of P2X7R. In this Review, we report on the multiple mechanisms by which extracellular ATP shapes the tumour microenvironment and how its stimulation of host and tumour cell P2 receptors contributes to determining tumour fate