Tuotekehitysprosessin alkupään järjestäminen pelialan yrityksessä

Tämän diplomityön tarkoitus on rakentaa mobiilipeliyritykselle tuotekehitysprosessin alkupään prosessi tuotekehityksen tehostamiseksi. Toimialan dynaamisuudesta ja hyperkilpailullisuudesta johtuen sekä projektien abstraktin luonteen takia tulee mobiilipelikehitysyritysten erityisesti panostaa tuotekehityksen alkuvaiheisiin. Työ tutkii yleisiä tuotekehityksen periaatteita sekä yleisiä olemassaolevia tuotekehitysprosesseja. Tarkastelun kohteena ovat erityisesti innovatiivinen organisaatio ja benchmarking tuotekehityksen apuna. Yleisesti tuotekehitysprosesseista tutustutaan yleisimpiin malleihin, jotka ovat olleet valtavirran käytössä jo pitkään. Prosessien tarkastelun lisäksi niitä tutkitaan kriittisesti ja löydetään osa-alueita, joihin tulee keskittyä erityisesti tuotekehitysprosessin alkupään järjestämisessä. Lisäksi työssä paneudutaan alan menestyneiden yritysten toimintatapoihin, joista haetaan oppia rakennettavaan malliin. Työssä käsitellään myös toimialan ominaispiirteitä, joista johtuen perinteiset tuotekehitysprosessit eivät ole optimaalisia alalle. Työn tuloksena saadaan virtaviivainen prosessimalli, joka maksimoi luovuuden, mutta säästää resursseja ja luo selkeät linjat prosessin läpivientiin. Rakennettuun malliin pohditaan myös kehitysehdotuksia, ja sille on laadittu kevyt jatkokehityssuunnitelma. Malli menee suoraan yrityksen käyttöön, joten lopullinen malli tulee myös hioutumaan tuotekehitysprojektien edetessä. Työssä on erityistä se, että työn tekijä on toiminut alalla työtehtävissä, ja malli on hioutunut pitkän ajan kuluessa. Täten suuri osa työstä on tekijän hiljaisen tiedon avaamista ja pohtimista.

Managing Customer Co-creation: Empirical Evidence from Finnish High-tech SMEs

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how customer co-creation activities are managed in Finnish high-tech SMEs by understanding managers’ views on relevant issues. According to theory, issues such as firm size, customer knowledge implementation, lead customers, the fuzzy front-end of product/service development as well as the reluctance to engage in customer co-creation are some of the field’s focal issues. The views of 145 Finnish SME managers on these issues were gathered as empirical evidence through an online questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS statistics software. The results show, firstly, that Finnish SME managers are aware of the issues associated with customer co-creation and are able to actively manage them. Additionally, managers performed well in regards to collaborating with lead customers and implemented customer knowledge evenly in various stages of their new product and service development processes. Intellectual property rights emerged as an obstacle deterring managers from engaging in co-creation. The results suggest that in practice managers would do well by looking for more opportunities to implement customer knowledge in the early and late stages of new product and service development, as well as by actively searching for lead customers.

Empirical studies on software quality construction: Exploring human factors and organizational influences

Software quality has become an important research subject, not only in the Information and Communication Technology spheres, but also in other industries at large where software is applied. Software quality is not a happenstance; it is defined, planned and created into the software product throughout the Software Development Life Cycle. The research objective of this study is to investigate the roles of human and organizational factors that influence software quality construction. The study employs the Straussian grounded theory. The empirical data has been collected from 13 software companies, and the data includes 40 interviews. The results of the study suggest that tools, infrastructure and other resources have a positive impact on software quality, but human factors involved in the software development processes will determine the quality of the products developed. On the other hand, methods of development were found to bring little effect on software quality. The research suggests that software quality is an information-intensive process whereby organizational structures, mode of operation, and information flow within the company variably affect software quality. The results also suggest that software development managers influence the productivity of developers and the quality of the software products. Several challenges of software testing that affect software quality are also brought to light. The findings of this research are expected to benefit the academic community and software practitioners by providing an insight into the issues pertaining to software quality construction undertakings.

In search of good relationships to music : understanding aspiration and challenge in developing music school teacher practices

This study focuses on teacher practices in publicly funded music schools in Finland. As views on the aims of music education change and broaden, music schools across Europe share the challenge of developing their activities in response. In public and scholarly debate, there have been calls for increased diversity of contents and concepts of teaching. In Finland, the official national curriculum for state-funded music schools builds on the ideal that teaching and learning should create conditions which promote ‘a good relationship to music’. The meaning of this concept has been deliberately left open in order to leave room for dialogue, flexibility, and teacher autonomy. Since what is meant by ‘good’ is not defined in advance, the notion of ‘improving’ practices is also open to discussion. The purpose of the study is to examine these issues from teachers’ point of view by asking what music school teachers aim to accomplish as they develop their practices. Methodologically, the study introduces a suggestion for building empirical research on Alperson’s ‘robust’ praxial approach to music education, a philosophical theory which is strongly committed to practitioner perspectives and musical diversity. A systematic method for analysing music education practices, interpretive practice analysis, is elaborated with support from interpretive research methods originally used in policy analysis. In addition, the research design shows how reflecting conversations (a collaborative approach well-known in Nordic social work) can be fruitfully applied in interpretive research and combined with teacher inquiry. Data have been generated in a collaborative project involving five experienced music school teachers and the researcher. The empirical material includes transcripts from group conversations, data from teacher inquiry conducted within the project, and transcripts from follow-up interviews. The teachers’ aspirations can be understood as strivings to reinforce the connection between musical practices and various forms of human flourishing such that music and flourishing can sustain each other. Examples from their practices show how the word ‘good’ receives its meaning in context. Central among the teachers’ concerns is their hope that students develop a free and sustainable interest in music, often described as inspiration. I propose that ‘good relationships to music’ and ‘inspiration’ can be understood as philosophical mediators which support the transition from an indeterminate ‘interest in music’ towards specific ways in which music can become a (co-)constitutive part of living well in each person’s particular circumstances. Different musical practices emphasise different aspects of what is considered important in music and in human life. Music school teachers consciously balance between a variety of such values. They also make efforts to resist pressure which might threaten the goods they think are most important. Such goods include joy, participation, perseverance, solid musical skills related to specific practices, and a strong sense of vitality. The insights from this study suggest that when teachers are able to create inspiration, they seem to do so by performing complex work which combines musical and educational aims and makes general positive contributions to their students’ lives. Ensuring that teaching and learning in music schools remain as constructive and meaningful as possible for both students and teachers is a demanding task. The study indicates that collaborative, reflective and interdisciplinary work may be helpful as support for development processes on both individual and collective levels of music school teacher practices.

Managing Finnish-Russian Business Relationships and Networks During Conflicts

This thesis examines management of business relationships during conflicts. The context of this study is the international political conflict which started in 2013 and is still affecting international trade relations in 2016. More specifically, this study researches the effects of the conflict in Finnish-Russian trade. The research aim is to identify the implications of a political conflict in the Finnish-Russian business relationships and networks. Furthermore, the study will explore how does a company adapt or overcome the challenges and barriers posed by the international business environment. This research combines relevant theories in management of business relationships and networks in order to review the research data through a critical research frame. The theoretical frameworks are different structures of business relationship development processes, various stages of interaction, and characteristics and functions of business relationships. Moreover, this study will examine the effect of interdependency, commitment and trust in trade relations. Also, what are the important exchange processes and how do these processes affect business relationship and overall performance of joint business operations. Qualitative single case study method was used in this research. Case company was a Finnish multinational company. To understand the changes, the data was collected and analysed through process research approach by pattern-matching and drawing temporal bracketing over two different periods of time, first period in years 2011-2013 and second period in years 2014-2016. Empirical data was collected through a semi-structured interview and additional data was collected from internal and external secondary data sources. The findings of the study confirmed the relationship between trade and conflict. However, the effects are not significant for a company in grocery retail industry which has had earlier experience in Russia and has managed its business relationships and operations effectively. Macroeconomic factors affect companies operating in foreign dynamic markets and in order to sustain changes and to adapt, companies should invest in their business relationships. Trust-based relationships and a higher level of commitment allow companies to have more efficient and beneficial outcomes before and during uncertainty. Furthermore, well-maintained and coordinated business relationships provide the ability to adapt and overcome challenges during uncertainty. Such relationships have information, financial and social exchange processes which allow the partnering firms to have successful business relationship management in dynamic market environments.

Identity Formation and Negotiation of Afghan Female Youth in Ontario

The following thesis provides an empirical case study in which a group of 6 first generation female Afghan Canadian youth is studied to determine their identity negotiation and development processes in everyday experiences. This process is investigated across different contexts of home, school, and the community. In terms of schooling experiences, 2 participants each are selected representing public, Islamic, and Catholic schools in Southern Ontario. This study employs feminist research methods and is analyzed through a convergence of critical race theory (critical race feminism), youth development theory, and feminist theory. Participant experiences reveal issues of racism, discrimination, and bias within schooling (public, Catholic) systems. Within these contexts, participants suppress their identities or are exposed to negative experiences based on their ethnic or religious identification. Students in Islamic schools experience support for a more positive ethnic and religious identity. Home and community provided nurturing contexts where participants are able to reaffirm and develop a positive overall identity.

La dimension institutionnelle du développement durable

La Conférence des Nations Unies sur l’environnement et le développement qui s’est tenue à Rio de Janeiro en juin 1992 a été, sans aucun doute, un événement marquant de la coopération multilatérale contemporaine. Le plus grand rassemblement multilatéral jamais organisé auparavant, cet événement aura marqué d’une empreinte indélébile l’architecture institutionnelle du traitement de la question envionnementale et façonne les institutions issues de la Conférence de Stockholm sur l’environnement humain. La Conférence de Rio aura été, au bout du compte, le point de départ d’une ère institutionelle nouvelle et d’une nouvelle façon d’aborder la coopération multilatérale pour la protection de l’environnement. La dimension institutionnelle de la question du développement durable renvoie nécessairement aux progrès qui restent à accomplir en vue d’une meilleure compréhension de la façon dont le développement durable est perçu au niveau national.Cette question traduit aussi la difficulté qu’il y a à adapter le mandat originel des institutions existantes aux exigences multiformes de l’intégration de la question de l’environnement dans les processus de développement économique et social.Elle exige surtout une action concertée tendue en vue d’une plus grande cohérence de l’action internationale qui serait au service d’une nouvelle démarche muliforme à l’égard de l’environnement,au service d’un développement respectueux des équilibres écologiques de notre planète.

Fehlersuche im Modell - Modellbasiertes Testen und Debuggen

Kern der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Erforschung von Methoden, Techniken und Werkzeugen zur Fehlersuche in modellbasierten Softwareentwicklungsprozessen. Hierzu wird zuerst ein von mir mitentwickelter, neuartiger und modellbasierter Softwareentwicklungsprozess, der sogenannte Fujaba Process, vorgestellt. Dieser Prozess wird von Usecase Szenarien getrieben, die durch spezielle Kollaborationsdiagramme formalisiert werden. Auch die weiteren Artefakte des Prozess bishin zur fertigen Applikation werden durch UML Diagrammarten modelliert. Es ist keine Programmierung im Quelltext nötig. Werkzeugunterstützung für den vorgestellte Prozess wird von dem Fujaba CASE Tool bereitgestellt. Große Teile der Werkzeugunterstützung für den Fujaba Process, darunter die Toolunterstützung für das Testen und Debuggen, wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelt. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wird der Fujaba Process im Detail erklärt und unsere Erfahrungen mit dem Einsatz des Prozesses in Industrieprojekten sowie in der Lehre dargestellt. Der zweite Teil beschreibt die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelte Testgenerierung, die zu einem wichtigen Teil des Fujaba Process geworden ist. Hierbei werden aus den formalisierten Usecase Szenarien ausführbare Testfälle generiert. Es wird das zugrunde liegende Konzept, die konkrete technische Umsetzung und die Erfahrungen aus der Praxis mit der entwickelten Testgenerierung dargestellt. Der letzte Teil beschäftigt sich mit dem Debuggen im Fujaba Process. Es werden verschiedene im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelte Konzepte und Techniken vorgestellt, die die Fehlersuche während der Applikationsentwicklung vereinfachen. Hierbei wurde darauf geachtet, dass das Debuggen, wie alle anderen Schritte im Fujaba Process, ausschließlich auf Modellebene passiert. Unter anderem werden Techniken zur schrittweisen Ausführung von Modellen, ein Objekt Browser und ein Debugger, der die rückwärtige Ausführung von Programmen erlaubt (back-in-time debugging), vorgestellt. Alle beschriebenen Konzepte wurden in dieser Arbeit als Plugins für die Eclipse Version von Fujaba, Fujaba4Eclipse, implementiert und erprobt. Bei der Implementierung der Plugins wurde auf eine enge Integration mit Fujaba zum einen und mit Eclipse auf der anderen Seite geachtet. Zusammenfassend wird also ein Entwicklungsprozess vorgestellt, die Möglichkeit in diesem mit automatischen Tests Fehler zu identifizieren und diese Fehler dann mittels spezieller Debuggingtechniken im Programm zu lokalisieren und schließlich zu beheben. Dabei läuft der komplette Prozess auf Modellebene ab. Für die Test- und Debuggingtechniken wurden in dieser Arbeit Plugins für Fujaba4Eclipse entwickelt, die den Entwickler bestmöglich bei der zugehörigen Tätigkeit unterstützen.

Análisis de la inversión social de ECOPETROL en la gestión municipal de Barrancabermeja, 2006-2008

La presente monografía hace un análisis sobre la Gestión Social de ECOPETROL, es decir sobre las acciones voluntarias que desarrolla la Empresa petrolera para generar procesos de desarrollo sostenible y mejorar las condiciones de vida de las comunidades de su área de influencia, en asocio con autoridades locales y en concordancia con los planes de desarrollo municipal: generando un complejo proceso de interacción, que hasta el momento no ha sido medido ni estudiado por ninguna institución del país. En este orden de ideas, el presente estudio enfatiza su esfuerzo en la solución de este problema, realizando un estudio detallado del proceso de interacción entre ECOPETROL y el municipio de Barrancabermeja: identificando los indicadores de gestión pública del municipio y de la gestión social de ECOPETROL, para así determinar el nivel de interdependencia y efectividad del municipio en la prestación de sus servicios frente al esfuerzo voluntario que realiza ECOPETROL.

Women in Post –1961 Goa : Problems and Challenges

When the women of Goa begin to reminiscence about the last four and a half decades of Goan history it will be a journey of mixed responses, for the women’s movement has witnessed gains and losses, successes and failures, times of expression and times of being silenced, times of vibrant activity and times of lulls and importantly, times of prolonged protests against markets and developmental forces, and media projections. For decades the women of Goa have taken a vociferous stand against arbitrary Development practices that the Government has attempted to foist upon the people of the State and especially its women. For decades the women of Goa have demanded for a gendered perspective and an equal representation in the development processes in the State.

Educação e desenvolvimento em Santa Catarina (Cabo Verde)

RESUMO: A educação e o desenvolvimento, são questões fundamentais do mundo actual, hoje mais do que nunca, fazem parte integrante dos discursos, discussões, convenções locais, nacionais e internacionais. Esta dissertação procura verificar se há ou não convergência entre a educação e desenvolvimento, respondendo à seguinte questão: o desenvolvimento e a educação podem ser complementares, através do investimento em capital humano? Este trabalho de investigação foi desenvolvido a partir de uma perspectiva educativa, isto é dando centralidade aos processos de aprendizagem da própria pessoa e sua construção como resposta aos desafios, aos imprevistos e incertezas, característicos da sociedade actual. Pretendemos também fornecer elementos de reflexão sobre os desafios que se colocam aos sistemas de educação, numa perspectiva sistémica, e na sua relação com o desenvolvimento. Para concretizar a investigação, avaliamos a influência da educação nas práticas efectivas do desenvolvimento de Santa Catarina (Cabo Verde), partindo de pressuposto de que a educação na sociedade cabo-verdiana, em particular no município de Santa Catarina, é a chave do desenvolvimento e progresso, no contexto dos recursos e constrangimentos existentes. Por isso, tivemos como objectivo analisar a influência da educação no processo de desenvolvimento para se avaliar o referido contributo. As nossas conclusões apontam para a existência de uma forte relação entre educação e desenvolvimento, as pessoas a ganharem centralidade no processo de desenvolvimento e a educação a surgir como motor do desenvolvimento. ABSTRACT: Education and deveopment are key issues in today's world, today more than ever they do make part of speeches, debates, local conventions, national and international meetings. This essay seeks to determine whether in Santa Catarina (Cape Verde) there is convergence between education and development, answering to the following question: development and education can be complementary, through investment in human capital? The research will be developed from an educational perspective, that is, giving centrality to the learning processes and to their construction as a response to the challenges, contingencies and uncertainties, which are characteristic of contemporary society. We also wanted to provide input on the challenges facing education systems, in a systemic perspective, and in their relationship with development To achieve the research, we intended to evaluate the impact of education in the actuals practices of the development of Santa Catarina (Cape Verde), beginning from the assumption that education in Cape Verde society, particularly in the municipality of Santa Catarina, is the key of development and progress, under or in respect of resources and existing constraints. Therefore, we aim to analyze the impact of education in the development processes to evaluate this contribution Our results indicate the presence of a strong relationship between education and development, people gains centrality in the development process and the education emerges as the motor of development.

El desarrollo rural: sine qua non del desarrollo nacional (Otros Temas)

El artículo identifica sintéticamente, primero, las relaciones de poder económico y político a nivel nacional que históricamente han obstaculizado el desarrollo rural en América Latina, segundo, la importancia del desarrollo rural en relación con la persistencia de desigualdades sociales –enraizadas en el campo– que explican la falta de, o los problemas fundamentales del desarrollo nacional, tercero, algunas dimensiones internacionales de los conflictos rurales contemporáneos, y finalmente, unas sugerencias generales para la formulación de políticas alternativas a la aplicación dogmática de las recetas neoliberales.

Land re-use, complexity and actor-networks: a framework for research

This paper will present a conceptual framework for the examination of land redevelopment based on a complex systems/networks approach. As Alvin Toffler insightfully noted, modern scientific enquiry has become exceptionally good at splitting problems into pieces but has forgotten how to put the pieces back together. Twenty-five years after his remarks, governments and corporations faced with the requirements of sustainability are struggling to promote an ‘integrated’ or ‘holistic’ approach to tackling problems. Despite the talk, both practice and research provide few platforms that allow for ‘joined up’ thinking and action. With socio-economic phenomena, such as land redevelopment, promising prospects open up when we assume that their constituents can make up complex systems whose emergent properties are more than the sum of the parts and whose behaviour is inherently difficult to predict. A review of previous research shows that it has mainly focused on idealised, ‘mechanical’ views of property development processes that fail to recognise in full the relationships between actors, the structures created and their emergent qualities. When reality failed to live up to the expectations of these theoretical constructs then somebody had to be blamed for it: planners, developers, politicians. However, from a ‘synthetic’ point of view the agents and networks involved in property development can be seen as constituents of structures that perform complex processes. These structures interact, forming new more complex structures and networks. Redevelopment then can be conceptualised as a process of transformation: a complex system, a ‘dissipative’ structure involving developers, planners, landowners, state agencies etc., unlocks the potential of previously used sites, transforms space towards a higher order of complexity and ‘consumes’ but also ‘creates’ different forms of capital in the process. Analysis of network relations point toward the ‘dualism’ of structure and agency in these processes of system transformation and change. Insights from actor network theory can be conjoined with notions of complexity and chaos to build an understanding of the ways in which actors actively seek to shape these structures and systems, whilst at the same time are recursively shaped by them in their strategies and actions. This approach transcends the blame game and allows for inter-disciplinary inputs to be placed within a broader explanatory framework that does away with many past dichotomies. Better understanding of the interactions between actors and the emergent qualities of the networks they form can improve our comprehension of the complex socio-spatial phenomena that redevelopment comprises. The insights that this framework provides when applied in UK institutional investment into redevelopment are considered to be significant.

Generic unified modelling process for developing semantically rich, dynamic and temporal models

Models play a vital role in supporting a range of activities in numerous domains. We rely on models to support the design, visualisation, analysis and representation of parts of the world around us, and as such significant research effort has been invested into numerous areas of modelling; including support for model semantics, dynamic states and behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. Whilst these efforts have increased our capabilities and allowed us to create increasingly powerful software-based models, the process of developing models, supporting tools and /or data structures remains difficult, expensive and error-prone. In this paper we define from literature the key factors in assessing a model’s quality and usefulness: semantic richness, support for dynamic states and object behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. We also identify a number of shortcomings in both existing modelling standards and model development processes and propose a unified generic process to guide users through the development of semantically rich, dynamic and temporal models.

Vad sker i elevers parskrivande vid datorn? : Observation av fyra elevpar i årskurs ett

The aim with this study is to explore if and how linguistic learning takes places when four pairs ofstudents in grade one writes on the computer. Observations of eight students took place duringtwelve lessons to investigate what happened during their writing processes. This study isimportant because students’ computer writing is a relatively new phenomenon in the Swedishprimary school.It is clear that the peer collaboration creates a complex interaction that becomes the platform, andalso the prerequisite, for successful language training. The method can clearly give students profitsin their linguistic development. When working in pairs, children support each other in writing andreading. They also get to train letter knowledge, phonemic awareness and the correspondencebetween phonemes and graphemes. Although the method creates good possibilities for readingand writing development, it cannot be the only way to learn reading. There are also risks thatstudents get stuck in different positions that can affect their progresses, which is important thatthe teachers consider while creating writing pairs. Teachers need to identify student’s reading andwriting development processes and also be able to create reading and writing instruction thatprovides different learning strategies.