Web Software Engineering - value added approach

Taking the maximum advantage of technological innovations and the investment in them is of key importance for businesses. The IT industry offers a wide range of innovative high-technology solutions to manage information processing and distribution. However for end-user businesses to make informed decisions in this area is challenging. The aim of this research is to identify the key differences in principal solutions, and what the selection criteria should be for those involved. Existing methodologies for software development are classified, and some key criteria are described to help IT system developers and users determine what are the most important factors in system selection, development and deployment. Statistical data is researched and analysed, a theoretical basis is developed and reviewed, key issues from case studies are identified and generalized to be presented along with the conclusions in the current study. The results give a good basis for corporate consideration and provide overall support to the key decisions in developing web-based software. The conclusion is that new web developments should be considered the stakeholders as an evolution of existing business systems, but they should then pay particular attention to the new advantages that web-based software offers in terms of standardised interfaces and procedures, universal deployment opportunities, and a range of other benefits the study highlights.

USER'S GUIDE FOR ADVANCED PROCESS SIMULATION SOFTWARE APROS 5

Tässä diplomityössä tehtiin käyttäjän opas kehittyneelle prosessisimulointiohjelmistolle APROS 5. Opas on osa VTT Energialle tehtävää APROS 5 käyttäjän koulutuspakettia, joka julkaistaan myöhemmin CD-ROM -muotoisena. Prosessisimulointiohjelmistoa AAPROS 5 voidaan käyttää termohydraulisten prosessien, automaatiopiirien ja sähköjärjestelmien mallinnuksessa. Ohjelma sisältää myös neutroniikkamallin ydinreaktorin käyttäytymisen mallintamiseksi. APROS:in aikaisemmilla UNIX-ympäristössä toimivilla versioilla on toteutettu useita ydinvoimalaitosten turvallisuustutkimukseen liittyviä analyysejä ja sekä ydinvoimalaitosten että konventionaalisten voimalaitosten koulutussimulaattoreita. APROS 5 toimii Windows NT -ympäristössä ja on oleellisesti erilainen käyttää kuin aikaisemmat versiot. Tämän myötä syntyi tarve uudelle käyttäjän oppaalle. Käyttäjän oppaassa esitetään APROS 5:n tärkeimmät toiminnot, mallinnuksen periaatteet ja termohydraulisten ja neutroniikan ratkaisumallit. Lisäksi oppaassa esitetään esimerkki, jossa mallinnetaan yksinkertaistettu VVER-440 -tyyppisen ydinvoimalaitoksen primääripiiri. Yksityiskohtaisempaa tietoa ohjelmistosta on saatavilla APROS 5 -dokumentaatiosta.

Developing a user-centric event management system

This thesis describes the development of a software requirements specification for a user-centric event management system. The system is set to satisfy three goals: adding value for the event attendees, adding value for the event organizer, and reducing the costs of arranging and running an event. The requirements are identified by researching the prescriptive traits of event business and the current state of the case company and its environment. First the professional and human needs for events are scrutinized. Second, some recent reports about the current trends in the event business are reviewed. Then the event life cycle is presented using the model of new service development, and online promotion of events and especially word-of-mouth marketing receive special attention. Events are also regarded from the perspective of social networks and social media. The case company’s current state and its competitors are reviewed to formulate the needs which the system should fulfil. Then the currently available solutions for social media oriented event management are reviewed. The result is a set of functional and non-functional requirements. The functional requirements are categorized into social media, social networking, event personalization, event management, and system administration features. The specified features and non-functional requirements satisfy the three goals set for the system.

User-driven community-based service development

This final thesis project was carried out in the Industrial Management department of University of Applied Sciences Stadia for Forum Virium Helsinki. The purpose of this study was to answer to the question of how companies can use online customer community of co-creation in service development and what is the value gained from it. The paper combines a range of recently published theoretical works and ongoing customer community case development. The study aims to provide new information and action approaches to new service developers that may increase the success of the community building process. The paper also outlines the benefits of the use of online customer community and offers practical suggestions for maximizing the value gained from the community in service development projects. The concepts and suggestions introduced in the study appear to have notable new possibilities to the service development process but they have to be further tested empirically. This paper describes the online consumer community of co-creation to an important organizational process of innovation management suggesting that it possesses a great value to business. Online customer communities offer a potential of improving the success of new services or products enabling early, penetrable market entry and creating sustainable competitive advantage.

3D-tuoteyhdistelmämallien ja mittakuvien tuottaminen PDM-järjestelmästä

Tämä diplomityö on selvitystyö mittakuvien ja kolmiulotteisten CAD-mallien tuottamisesta. Mittakuvat ja 3D-CAD-mallit halutaan Neles-tuotemerkin omaaville tuotteille. Olennaisena osana työssä on tuotetiedonhallintajärjestelmä AtonPDM, koska mittakuvia ja malleja toivottaisiin hallittavan AtonPDM-järjestelmällä. Työ tehdään Metso Automationin (MA) Flow Control (FC) –liiketoimintalinjalle. Nykyiset mittakuvat aiheuttavat ongelmia sekä MA:ssa että asiakkaille. MA:ssa mittakuvien tekeminen kestää kauemmin kuin asiakas toivoisi. Nykyisen mittakuvaohjelmiston riittämättömät ominaisuudet aiheuttavat lisätyötä mittakuvien valmistuksessa. Asiakkaille mittakuvien viivästyminen on suunnittelua hidastava tekijä. Mittakuvissa olevat virheet ja puutteet vaikeuttavat asiakkaan suunnittelutyötä ja saattavat päästä läpi tarkatuksien myös loppusuunnitelmiin, jolloin seurauksena voi olla rahallisia menetyksiä. Tämän päivän putkistosuunnittelu hoidetaan suurimmaksi osaksi 3D-CADohjelmistoilla. Suunnittelua helpotetaan ja nopeutetaan valmiilla komponenttien 3Dmalleilla, joihin on liitetty tuotetietoa. Työssä on haastateltu MA:n henkilökuntaa, CAD-järjestelmien toimittajia ja asiakkaita. Haastattelut ovat työn tärkein tiedonlähde. Teoriatietoa on selvitetty kirjoista, lehdistä ja internetistä. Teoriaosiossa käydään läpi tuotetiedonhallinta (Product Data Management, PDM), tietokanta ja parametrinen mallintaminen. Työn lopputuloksena on pyritty saamaan kuvaus siitä miten tuotetaan 3D-CAD-mallit ja mittakuvat Neles-tuotteista käyttäen tiedonlähteenä AtonPDM:ää ja millaisia 3Dmallien ja mittakuvien tulee olla. Malleja ja mittakuvia tuottavaan järjestelmään on etsitty ratkaisuja CAD-ohjelmistoista. Ratkaisuja on verrattu keskenään ominaisuuksien, joustavuuden ja AtonPDM yhteensopivuuden perusteella.

Rakennusprojektin laadunvarmistuksen automatisointi mobiiliteknologialla

Rakennusprojekteissa yksi haastava osa-alue on laadunvarmistus: Suomen elementtitehtailla se tapahtuu tällä hetkellä käsityöllä, eikä automaatiota käytetä. Lappeenrannan teknillisen yliopiston Mobilding-hankkeessa rakennuselementteihin upotetaan radiotunnisteita, joiden avulla elementit voidaan tunnistaa langattomasti ja yksilöllisesti, sekä yhdistää tietojärjestelmän tietoon. Käyttäen hyväksi kykyä tunnistaa elementit sähköisesti, tässä diplomityössä keskitytään ratkaisemaan laadunvarmistuksen haastetta automatisoimalla prosessia. Työssä kartoitetaan laadunvarmistuksen nykytila rakennusteollisuudessa ja sen pohjalta suunnitellaan ja tuotetaan laadunvarmistusjärjestelmä. Toteutettava järjestelmä kykenee havainnoimaan poikkeuksia reaktiona käyttäjien syötteeseen ja valvomaan projektin aikataulutusta käyttäen hyväksi elementtien tilatietoja. Havaituista poikkeuksista tiedotetaan automaattisesti. Järjestelmään toteutetaan rajapinta Web Service-teknologioilla, jolloin sitä voidaan käyttää matkapuhelimella. Työn tuloksena saatavaa järjestelmää testataan pilottihankkeissa ja siitä saadaan pohja laadunvarmistuksen jatkokehitykselle.

Java 3D

Tämä insinöörityö kertoo Java 3D -ohjelmointirajapinnan perusteista ja sen käytöstä kolmiulotteisen tietokonegrafiikan luomisessa Java ohjelmointikielellä. Java 3D on rajapinta Java-ohjelmointikielelle, jonka avulla voidaan luoda ja käsitellä kolmiulotteista tietokonegrafiikkaa. Java 3D -rajapinnan avulla käsitellään kolmiulotteista tietokonegrafiikka erityisen maisemagraafimallin avulla. Maisemagraafi on binääripuuta muistuttava malli, joka mahdollistaa kolmiulotteisten kohteiden ja niille tapahtuvien muunnoksien käsittelyn hierarkisessa järjestyksessä. Työssä käydään läpi Java 3D -maisemagraafien luominen ja kolmiulotteisessa avaruudessa sijaitseville kappaleille tehtäviä perusoperaatioita kuten siirtoa ja kiertoa. Lisäksi käydään läpi myös erilaisia animoinnissa ja interaktiossa käytettäviä luokkia, joiden avulla ohjelmoija saa automatisoitua muunnoksia sekä käyttäjä voi antaa syötteitä hiirellä ja näppäimistöllä. Näiden lisäksi käydään läpi myös mallin valaistusta, varjoja, teksturointia sekä omien kolmiulotteisten mallien tuontia Java 3D -maailmaan. Opinnäytetyön yhteydessä on tehty myös kirjo erilaisia esimerkkejä, jotka ovat saatavilla verkkosivustolta osoitteessa http://www.pahvilaatikko.org/j3d lisäksi kopio verkkosivustosta löytyy myös opinnäytetyön mukana tulevalta cd-levyltä.

Context exchange between devices in mobile environment

Context awareness is emerging on mobile devices. Context awareness can be used to improve usability of a mobile device. Context awareness is particularly important on mobile devices due the limitations they have. At first in this work, a literature review on context awareness and mobile environment is made. For aiding context awareness there exist an implementation of a Context Framework for Symbian S60 devices. It provides a possibility for exchanging the contexts inside the device between the client applications of the local Context Framework. The main contribution of this thesis is to design and implement an enhancement to the S60 Context Framework for providing possibility to exchange context over device boundaries. Using the implemented Context Exchange System, the context exchange is neither depending on the type of the context nor the type of the client. In addition, the clients and the contexts can reside on any interconnected device. The usage of the system is independent of the programming language since in addition to using only Symbian C++ function interfaces it can also be utilized using XML scripts. The Meeting Sniffer application, which uses the Context Exchange System, was also developed in this work. Using this application, it is possible to recognize a meeting situation and suggest device profile change to a user.

Personal Liberty in Psychiatric Care - Towards Service User Involvement

This study explores personal liberty in psychiatric care from a service user involvement perspective. The data were collected in four phases during the period 2000-2006 in psychiatric settings in Finland. Firstly, patient satisfaction and factors associated with user involvement were studied (n = 313). Secondly, patients’ experiences of deprivation of their liberty were explored (n = 51). Thirdly, an overview on patients’ options for lodging complaints was conducted, and all complaints (n = 4645) lodged in Finland from 2000 to 2004 were examined. Fourthly, the effects of different patient education methods on inpatients’ experiences of deprivation of liberty were tested (n = 311). It emerged that patients were quite satisfied, but reported dissatisfaction in restrictions, compulsory care and information dissemination. Patients experienced restrictions on leaving the ward and on communication, confiscation of property and coercive measures as deprivation of liberty. Patients’ experienced these interventions to be negative. In Finland, the patient complaint process is complicated and not easily accessible. In general, patient complaints increased considerably in Finland during the study period. In psychiatric care the number of complaints was quite stable and complaints led more seldom to consequences. An Internet-based patient education system was equivalent with traditional education and treatment as usual in supporting personal liberty during hospital care. This dissertation provides new information about the realization of patients' rights in psychiatric care. In order to improve patients' involvement, systematic methods to increase personal liberty during care need to be developed, the procedures for patients lodging complaints should be simplified, and patients' access to information needs to be ensured using multiple methods.

3D Surface Modeling From Point Clouds

The goal of this thesis is to implement software for creating 3D models from point clouds. Point clouds are acquired with stereo cameras, monocular systems or laser scanners. The created 3D models are triangular models or NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines) models. Triangular models are constructed from selected areas from the point clouds and resulted triangular models are translated into a set of quads. The quads are further translated into an estimated grid structure and used for NURBS surface approximation. Finally, we have a set of NURBS surfaces which represent the whole model. The problem wasn’t so easy to solve. The selected triangular surface reconstruction algorithm did not deal well with noise in point clouds. To handle this problem, a clustering method is introduced for simplificating the model and removing noise. As we had better results with the smaller point clouds produced by clustering, we used points in clusters to better estimate the grids for NURBS models. The overall results were good when the point cloud did not have much noise. The point clouds with small amount of error had good results as the triangular model was solid. NURBS surface reconstruction performed well on solid models.

Simulations of 3D Stripixel Detectors

Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the main particle accelerator at CERN. LHC is created with main goal to search elementary particles and help science investigate our universe. Radiation in LHC is caused by charged particles circular acceleration, therefore detectors tracing particles in existed severe conditions during the experiments must be radiation tolerant. Moreover, further upgrade of luminosity (up to 1035 cm-2s-1) requires development of particle detector’s structure. This work is dedicated to show the new type 3D stripixel detector with serious structural improvement. The new type of radiation-hard detector has a three-dimensional (3D) array of the p+ and n+ electrodes that penetrate into the detector bulk. The electrons and holes are then collected at oppositely biased electrodes. Proposed 3D stripixel detector demonstrates that full depletion voltage is lower that that for planar detectors. Low depletion voltage is one of the main advantages because only depleted part of the device is active are. Because of small spacing between electrodes, charge collection distances are smaller which results in high speed of the detector’s response. In this work is also briefly discussed dual-column type detectors, meaning consisting both n+ and p+ type columnar electrodes in its structure, and was declared that dual-column detectors show better electric filed distribution then single sided radiation detectors. The dead space or in other words low electric field region in significantly suppressed. Simulations were carried out by using Atlas device simulation software. As a simulation results in this work are represented the electric field distribution under different bias voltages.

GPRS/EDGE Session Tracing and Analysis in Abis and AGPRS Interfaces

Efficient problem solving in cellular networks is important when enhancing the network performance and liability. Analysis of calls and packet switched sessions in protocol level between the network elements is an important part of this process. They can provide very detailed information about error situations which otherwise would be difficult to recognise. In this thesis we seek solutions for monitoring GPRS/EDGE sessions in two specific interfaces simultaneously in such manner that all information important to the users will be provided in easily understandable form. This thesis focuses on Abis and AGPRS interfaces of GSM radio network and introduces a solution for managing the correlation between these interfaces by using signalling messages and common parameters as linking elements. ~: Finally this thesis presents an implementation of GPRS/EDGE session monitoring application for Abis and AGPRS interfaces and evaluates its benefits to the end users. Application is implemented as a part of Windows based 3G/GSM network analyser.

Evaluating End-User Training Effectiveness in ERP System Implementation

Today’s business world demands more and more internal and external integration and transparency among companies at all fields. Integrated ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems offer a possibility to improve business practices and procedures by providing a unified view on the business including all functions and departments. Due to the obvious benefits, the popularity of integrated ERP systems keeps growing. The implementation of ERP systems has however proven risky. The implementation projects tend to be long, extensive, and costly – and often they end up in a failure. Due to the significant task and role changes ERP implementation brings to almost everybody in the company, training has been identified as one of the most critical success factors of an ERP implementation. To ensure that the training is conducted in the most effective and successful manner, the training outcomes should be evaluated. So far, training evaluation has however gained only limited attention at most companies investing in different training programs. Uponor corporation has initiated a large ERP implementation and process harmonization program in 2004. Thousands of end-users have been trained during this project so far, and the work still continues until the project is completed in 2010. In this thesis, the evaluation of end-user training in Uponor’s ERP program is brought further from the current state of performing the basic participant satisfaction survey in the end of each class. The results show that in order to reach reliable training effectiveness evaluation results, not only the reaction towards training but also transfer of skills and attitudes and the final results of the training program should be evaluated.

Improving and User Interface to E-Procurement Software Used in Asset Accounting and Investigating Effects to Efficiency

This diploma thesis has been done to international organization which takes care from the accounting actions of two major companies. In this organization are used three different purchasing tools which are used when new asset master data is wanted to input to SAP R/3- system. The aim of this thesis is to find out how much changing the user interface of one of these three e-procurement programs will affect to overall efficiency in asset accounting. As an addition will be introduced project framework which can be used in future projects and which help to avoid certain steps in the development process. At the moment data needs to be inputted manually with many useless mouse clicks and data needs to be searched from many various resources which slow down the process. Other organization has better tools at the moment than the myOrders system which is under investigation Research was started by exploring the main improvement areas. After this possible defects were traced. Suggested improvements were thought by exploring literature which has been written from usability design and research. Meanwhile also directional calculations from the benefits of the project were done alongside with the analysis of the possible risks and threats. After this NSN IT approved the changes which they thought was acceptable. The next step was to program them into tool and test them before releasing to production environment. The calculations were made also from implemented improvements and compared them to planned ones From whole project was made a framework which can be utilized also to other similar projects. The complete calculation was not possible because of time schedule of the project. Important observation in the project was that efficiency is not improved not only by changing the GUI but also improving processes without any programming. Feedback from end user should be also listened more in development process. End-user is after all the one who knows the best how the program should look like.