Comparison and problems between Traditional and Agile software development methods

In today’s world because of the rapid advancement in the field of technology and business, the requirements are not clear, and they are changing continuously in the development process. Due to those changes in the requirements the software development becomes very difficult. Use of traditional software development methods such as waterfall method is not a good option, as the traditional software development methods are not flexible to requirements and the software can be late and over budget. For developing high quality software that satisfies the customer, the organizations can use software development methods, such as agile methods which are flexible to change requirements at any stage in the development process. The agile methods are iterative and incremental methods that can accelerate the delivery of the initial business values through the continuous planning and feedback, and there is close communication between the customer and developers. The main purpose of the current thesis is to find out the problems in traditional software development and to show how agile methods reduced those problems in software development. The study also focuses the different success factors of agile methods, the success rate of agile projects and comparison between traditional and agile software development.

Dimensionality and clinical importance of pain and disability in hand osteoarthritis: Development of the Australian/Canadian (AUSCAN) Osteoarthritis Hand Index

Objective: To develop a reliable, valid, and responsive self-administered questionnaire to probe pain, stiffness and physical disability in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hand. Design: In order to assess the dimensionality of the symptomatology of hand OA, a self-administered questionnaire was developed to probe various aspects of pain (10 items), stiffness (two items), and physical function (83 items). The question inventory was generated from eight existing health status measures and an interactive process involving four rheumatologists, two physiotherapists, and an orthopaedic surgeon. Results: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 50 OA hand patients; 39 females and 11 males with mean age 62.8 years and mean disease duration 9.4 years. Items retained were those which fulfilled specified selection criteria: prevalence greater than or equal to60% and mean importance score approximating or exceeding 2.0 Item exclusion criteria included low prevalence, gender-based, ambiguous, duplicates or similarities, alternatives, composite items, and items that were too restrictive. This process resulted in five pain, one stiffness and nine function items which have been proposed for incorporation in the AUSCAN Index. Conclusions: Using a traditional development strategy, we have constructed a self-administered multi-dimensional outcome measure for assessing hand OA. The next stage includes reliability, validity and responsiveness testing of the 15-item questionnaire. (C) 2002 OsteoArthritis Research Society Intenational. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the impact of rigorous approaches on the quality of development

Software systems are expanding and becoming increasingly present in everyday activities. The constantly evolving society demands that they deliver more functionality, are easy to use and work as expected. All these challenges increase the size and complexity of a system. People may not be aware of a presence of a software system, until it malfunctions or even fails to perform. The concept of being able to depend on the software is particularly significant when it comes to the critical systems. At this point quality of a system is regarded as an essential issue, since any deficiencies may lead to considerable money loss or life endangerment. Traditional development methods may not ensure a sufficiently high level of quality. Formal methods, on the other hand, allow us to achieve a high level of rigour and can be applied to develop a complete system or only a critical part of it. Such techniques, applied during system development starting at early design stages, increase the likelihood of obtaining a system that works as required. However, formal methods are sometimes considered difficult to utilise in traditional developments. Therefore, it is important to make them more accessible and reduce the gap between the formal and traditional development methods. This thesis explores the usability of rigorous approaches by giving an insight into formal designs with the use of graphical notation. The understandability of formal modelling is increased due to a compact representation of the development and related design decisions. The central objective of the thesis is to investigate the impact that rigorous approaches have on quality of developments. This means that it is necessary to establish certain techniques for evaluation of rigorous developments. Since we are studying various development settings and methods, specific measurement plans and a set of metrics need to be created for each setting. Our goal is to provide methods for collecting data and record evidence of the applicability of rigorous approaches. This would support the organisations in making decisions about integration of formal methods into their development processes. It is important to control the software development, especially in its initial stages. Therefore, we focus on the specification and modelling phases, as well as related artefacts, e.g. models. These have significant influence on the quality of a final system. Since application of formal methods may increase the complexity of a system, it may impact its maintainability, and thus quality. Our goal is to leverage quality of a system via metrics and measurements, as well as generic refinement patterns, which are applied to a model and a specification. We argue that they can facilitate the process of creating software systems, by e.g. controlling complexity and providing the modelling guidelines. Moreover, we find them as additional mechanisms for quality control and improvement, also for rigorous approaches. The main contribution of this thesis is to provide the metrics and measurements that help in assessing the impact of rigorous approaches on developments. We establish the techniques for the evaluation of certain aspects of quality, which are based on structural, syntactical and process related characteristics of an early-stage development artefacts, i.e. specifications and models. The presented approaches are applied to various case studies. The results of the investigation are juxtaposed with the perception of domain experts. It is our aspiration to promote measurements as an indispensable part of quality control process and a strategy towards the quality improvement.

Best Practices of Sport For Development: A Case Study of An African Organization

Sport-for-development is the active practice of achieving social ideals through the use of sport and other traditional development programs. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate SFD best practices from the context of an African organization development project. The case was a development organization in Zambia, Africa that was utilizing sport within its strategy. The data collection and analysis framed using Curado and Bontis (2007) MIC Matrix, the Sport For Development International Working Group’s (2007) best practices model, and B. Kidd’s (2011) Sport-in-Development Logic Model. The research supports that a SFD project is multi-faceted and should include the employment of strategic community programming on the basis of collaborative and integrative sport, health care and education. Further, the researcher found that the best practices include setting specific goals and objectives, as well as instituting regular monitoring and evaluation strategies

Brazil on the spot: Rio+20, sustainability and a role for science

Rio +20, or the United Nations Conference for Sustainable Development, will take place at the end of this month of June 2012. In this paper, our central argument is that Brazil, as the host of Rio+20, has a historic opportunity to make the conference a success and take a decisive step in becoming a world leader in the shift from the traditional development paradigm to a new, sustainable development paradigm. To do that, Brazil will have to resolve a paradox: on the one hand the country has modern legislation and world class science, and on the other hand very poor social and environmental decision-making in recent times. In this column, we examine the green economy as a trajectory that leads to sustainable development and describe some pilot experiences at the sub-national level in Brazil. We discuss how science, and particularly plant sciences, will be essential to the transition to sustainable development. Finally, we propose immediate actions that we call upon the Brazilian government to commit to and to announce during this pivotal Rio+20 moment, which should serve as a milestone for all nations in building a sustainable future.

Límites y posibilidades de una reformulación de la banca de desarrollo para América Latina: caso Ecuador

El propósito de este trabajo de investigación es determinar bajo qué términos, es factible y necesaria una reformulación de la Banca de Desarrollo en América Latina como alternativa para fomentar el desarrollo, dentro de un contexto de mercados financieros subdesarrollados y dedicados al financiamiento de corto plazo concentrados en empresas de mayor tamaño; excluyendo así, a los pequeños proyectos productivos que requieren créditos bajo condiciones más favorables y adecuadas a su actividad, y que, por su aporte al crecimiento económico mediante la generación de empleo, caen en el ámbito de actividades financiables por el estado para promover el desarrollo. Para ello se realizará una revisión de los argumentos teóricos que justifican interacción del Estado con el mercado, se analizarán cuáles fueron los aciertos y errores de la Banca de Desarrollo tradicional, que han servido de base para la generación de alternativas para la reformulación de sus funciones; y finalmente, a través del estudio de un caso ecuatoriano, se verificará si dichas recomendaciones han sido implantadas. /

Automatic layout generation of static CMOS circuits targeting delay and power

The evolution of integrated circuits technologies demands the development of new CAD tools. The traditional development of digital circuits at physical level is based in library of cells. These libraries of cells offer certain predictability of the electrical behavior of the design due to the previous characterization of the cells. Besides, different versions of each cell are required in such a way that delay and power consumption characteristics are taken into account, increasing the number of cells in a library. The automatic full custom layout generation is an alternative each time more important to cell based generation approaches. This strategy implements transistors and connections according patterns defined by algorithms. So, it is possible to implement any logic function avoiding the limitations of the library of cells. Tools of analysis and estimate must offer the predictability in automatic full custom layouts. These tools must be able to work with layout estimates and to generate information related to delay, power consumption and area occupation. This work includes the research of new methods of physical synthesis and the implementation of an automatic layout generation in which the cells are generated at the moment of the layout synthesis. The research investigates different strategies of elements disposition (transistors, contacts and connections) in a layout and their effects in the area occupation and circuit delay. The presented layout strategy applies delay optimization by the integration with a gate sizing technique. This is performed in such a way the folding method allows individual discrete sizing to transistors. The main characteristics of the proposed strategy are: power supply lines between rows, over the layout routing (channel routing is not used), circuit routing performed before layout generation and layout generation targeting delay reduction by the application of the sizing technique. The possibility to implement any logic function, without restrictions imposed by a library of cells, allows the circuit synthesis with optimization in the number of the transistors. This reduction in the number of transistors decreases the delay and power consumption, mainly the static power consumption in submicrometer circuits. Comparisons between the proposed strategy and other well-known methods are presented in such a way the proposed method is validated.

Pervasive Business Intelligence

In the last few years, a new generation of Business Intelligence (BI) tools called BI 2.0 has emerged to meet the new and ambitious requirements of business users. BI 2.0 not only introduces brand new topics, but in some cases it re-examines past challenges according to new perspectives depending on the market changes and needs. In this context, the term pervasive BI has gained increasing interest as an innovative and forward-looking perspective. This thesis investigates three different aspects of pervasive BI: personalization, timeliness, and integration. Personalization refers to the capacity of BI tools to customize the query result according to the user who takes advantage of it, facilitating the fruition of BI information by different type of users (e.g., front-line employees, suppliers, customers, or business partners). In this direction, the thesis proposes a model for On-Line Analytical Process (OLAP) query personalization to reduce the query result to the most relevant information for the specific user. Timeliness refers to the timely provision of business information for decision-making. In this direction, this thesis defines a new Data Warehuose (DW) methodology, Four-Wheel-Drive (4WD), that combines traditional development approaches with agile methods; the aim is to accelerate the project development and reduce the software costs, so as to decrease the number of DW project failures and favour the BI tool penetration even in small and medium companies. Integration refers to the ability of BI tools to allow users to access information anywhere it can be found, by using the device they prefer. To this end, this thesis proposes Business Intelligence Network (BIN), a peer-to-peer data warehousing architecture, where a user can formulate an OLAP query on its own system and retrieve relevant information from both its local system and the DWs of the net, preserving its autonomy and independency.

Análisis Post-Hoc de un experimento acerca de TDD

Objetivo: Este Trabajo Fin de Máster (TFM) analiza la importancia de la información poblacional en el análisis de datos de experimentos en IS. Por otro lado se intenta abordar un estudio sobre las posibles metodologías que se pueden usar para realizar dicho análisis. Contexto: El análisis se realiza sobre los resultados de un experimento llevado a cabo por el Grupo de Investigación de IS empírica de la UPM, cuyo objetivo es analizar el impacto que tiene el uso de TDD (Test Driven Development) sobre la calidad y la productividad del desarrollo software en comparación con el desarrollo tradicional TLD. Método de Investigación: Se analizan ocho variables demográficas frente a tres variables respuesta. Las metodologías o técnicas de análisis que se revisan son la Dicotomización, la Correlación de Pearson, la regresión lineal múltiple y la stepwise regression. Resultados: No se encuentran evidencias claras para afirmar que las variables demográficas influyen en los resultados de los experimentos. No obstante los resultados no son del todo concluyentes y queda abierta la investigación a realizarse con una muestra más amplia y representativa. En relación a la metodología de análisis aplicada, la dicotomización y la correlación de Pearson presentan deficiencias que se solventan con la regresión lineal múltiple y la stepwise regression. Conclusión: Resulta de vital importancia encontrar evidencias de la influencia de las características demográficas de los sujetos experimentales en el análisis de los datos experimentos en IS. Se ha encontrado un buen método para analizar esta influencia, pero falta replicar este análisis a más experimentos de IS para obtener resultados mejor fundados.---ABSTRACT---Objective: This Master's Thesis (TFM) discusses the importance of demographic data in the analysis of data from experiments in SE. On the other hand, it attempts to address a study of the possible methodologies that can be used to perform the analysis. Context: The analysis is performed on the results of an experiment conducted by the ESE Research Group of the UPM, aimed at analyzing the impact of the use of TDD (Test Driven Development) on quality and productivity, compared to traditional development TLD (Test Last Development). Research Method: Eight demographic variables were analyzed against three response variables. The methodologies and analysis techniques that are reviewed include dichotomization, Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression and stepwise regression. Results: There is not clear evidence to say that demographic variables influence the results of SE experiments. However the results are not conclusive, and are open to research with a broader and more representative sample. Regarding the applied analysis methodology, dichotomization and Pearson correlation have deficiencies that are solved with multiple linear regression and stepwise regression. Conclusion: It is very important to find evidence on the influence of demographic characteristics of subjects in the data analysis of SE experiments. We found a good way to analyze this influence, but is necessary replicate this analysis on more SE experiments to obtain sound results.

Exploration of the relationship between tacit knowledge and software system test complexity

This research has explored the relationship between system test complexity and tacit knowledge. It is proposed as part of this thesis, that the process of system testing (comprising of test planning, test development, test execution, test fault analysis, test measurement, and case management), is directly affected by both complexity associated with the system under test, and also by other sources of complexity, independent of the system under test, but related to the wider process of system testing. While a certain amount of knowledge related to the system under test is inherent, tacit in nature, and therefore difficult to make explicit, it has been found that a significant amount of knowledge relating to these other sources of complexity, can indeed be made explicit. While the importance of explicit knowledge has been reinforced by this research, there has been a lack of evidence to suggest that the availability of tacit knowledge to a test team is of any less importance to the process of system testing, when operating in a traditional software development environment. The sentiment was commonly expressed by participants, that even though a considerable amount of explicit knowledge relating to the system is freely available, that a good deal of knowledge relating to the system under test, which is demanded for effective system testing, is actually tacit in nature (approximately 60% of participants operating in a traditional development environment, and 60% of participants operating in an agile development environment, expressed similar sentiments). To cater for the availability of tacit knowledge relating to the system under test, and indeed, both explicit and tacit knowledge required by system testing in general, an appropriate knowledge management structure needs to be in place. This would appear to be required, irrespective of the employed development methodology.

Prosperity Thinking in Action: a case study from Future Food Institute’s Paideia Campus

The need for sustainable economic growth and environmental stewardship emerged around the start of the twentieth century when society became aware that the traditional development model would lead to the collapse of the terrestrial ecosystem in the long run. Over the years, the international community's environmental efforts have demonstrated unequivocally that the planet's limits are real. And so, the new development approach has laid the groundwork for the future. According to this model, design also plays a key role in ensuring a better future. The design has undergone an ecological and sustainable evolution as a result of the global environmental crisis and the degradation of our ecosystem and biodiversity. In this contest, Prosperity Thinking is inserted, a still evolving methodology developed by the Future Food Institute starting from 2019. The main concepts on which it is based are described, as well as the method that identifies it, which is divided into the following stages: 1) Problem Framing 2) Ideation and Prototyping 3) Test & Analyze. The development of the prosperity thinking toolkit is described, beginning with the search for tools from the literature on sustainable design and ending with its validation with the help of design experts. The testing of some tools will be recounted during a workshop organized by FFI, in which 15 people ranging in age from 14 to 40 will participate, and then the final version of the toolkit will be presented which has been obtained by adding to it the tools proposed by the experts. Finally, a reflection on the future of Prosperity Thinking, a method in constant evolution that must continue to follow societal and environmental changes in order to respond to the ever-increasingly complex challenge of sustainability.

Valorization of traditional portuguese apples and cherries: biochemical characterization and development of functional ingredients

Dissertation presented to obtain a Ph.D degree in Engineering and Technology Sciences, Biotechnology at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Fish crackers development from minced fish and starch: an innovative approach to a traditional product

This study aimed to develop sensory acceptable, high nutritional value fish crackers that could be kept at room temperature for 180 days. Minced fish of different low-value species was the raw material employed to produce two types of fish crackers: a) the traditional keropok cracker, which was expanded by deep frying; and b) a low-fat fish cracker, expanded by microwave cooking. The protein content of the fried fish crackers (FFCs) and that of the microwaved fish crackers (MFCs) were high (10.86 and 14.70%, respectively). The essential amino acid contents of the two types of fish cracker were above the FAO requirements for adults, and the lysine content was above the requirements for children. Sensory analysis, performed by adult panelists, resulted in a general level of acceptability of 90% for the MFCs and of 97% for the FFCs. Vacuum packaging maintained microbiological and physicochemical properties for a storage period of 180 days at room temperature.

Role of Commission Agents in the Development of Traditional Marine Fisheries of Kerala with Special Reference to Financing

The study clearly brings out the role of commission agents in the traditional marine fisheries sector and thereby goes to set at rest the controversy regarding their role. The findings of the study has important implications for formulation of policies and development strategies related to the traditional marine fisheries sector. The study points out the need for a thorough review and reformulation of the policies and development strategies for efficiently achieving the development potential of the traditional marine fisheries sector and for improving the economic conditions of the fishermen. The study is based mostly on Alappuzha District of Kerala, covering all the 30 marine fishing villages, spread over the three coastal taluks, namely, Karthikappally, Ambalappuzha and Cherthala

Societal development and the traditional museum: Applying New Museology to a different context

The Dapperstreet[1] ...Anything is a lot, when you expect so little Life keeps its wonders hidden To suddenly reveal them in a divine state. I thought about all t Soaking wet, one drizzly morning, Simply happy in the Dapperstreet. The Dapperstreet is part of a neighbourhood often referred to as “East”, situated in the eastern part of Amsterdam. It is a lively and vibrant multi-cultural part of the city. It has a daily market with food from around the world, but is also known worldwide because of the murder on Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film director who was killed there in 2001 because of his critical and provocative statements on the Islam. Thus it can be concluded that it is certainly a neighbourhood with its own problems but, as can be read in Bloem’s poem, a place to call home and long for. [1] Poem by J.C. Bloem, The Dapperstreet (Het Verlangen, 1921). Translation by Davida de Hond.