Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Software engineering economics'

Das Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) ist ein ganzheitlicher Ansatz zur Entwicklung und Vermarktung von Software-Produktlinien auf Basis von Software-Systemfamilien. Eine in frühen Phasen des SPLE durchzuführende Aktivität ist das Scoping, bei dem die zu realisierenden Produkte mit den zwischen ihnen bestehenden Wiederverwendungspotentialen identifiziert werden. Bei der Durchführung des Scopings steht der Produkt-Manager vor dem Problem einen Ausgleich zwischen den Bedürfnissen der Kunden und dem Aufwand der Entwicklung zu finden. Durch die bestehenden Wiederverwendungspotentiale bei Software-Systemfamilien wird die Entscheidung zusätzlich erschwert. Aufgrund der bestehenden Komplexität der Entscheidung, wird in Literatur und Praxis eine Unterstützung in Form einer statistisch-mathematischen Optimierung gefordert. Dieser Forderung nimmt sich die vorliegende Arbeit an. In ihr werden mit der Konstruktion eines Modells gewinnbeeinflussender Faktoren, einer Methode zur wertbasierten Portfolio-Optimierung und eines Prototyps zur Unterstützung der wertbasierten Portfolio-Optimierung und der anschließenden Evaluation dieser Artefakte zwei Fragen adressiert. Erstens wird geprüft, ob die Optimierung von Produkt-Portfolios bei Software-Produktlinien mit statistisch-mathematischen Verfahren unterstützt werden kann. Zweitens wird geprüft, ob die statistisch-mathematische Optimierung von Produkt-Portfolios eine akzeptierte Unterstützung von Software-Anbietern sein kann. Die Arbeit ordnet sich mit ihren Fragen in die Forschung zum Produkt-Management bei Software-Produktlinien ein und trägt die vorgenannten Artefakte bei.

As globalisation is now a reality for most large organizations, and the competition for most businesses moving faster and becoming tougher, there is a need for engineering projects to deliver results faster in a more complex environment than ever, but also for companies to collaborate to utilize a wider array of competencies and to reach new markets with their products. This case study analyses which difficulties arise in interorganizational requirements engineering, and what organizations can do to alleviate the effects of those difficulties, as well as suggest which actions are most effective to focus on. The conclusion of this study is that the difficulties can be divided into three categories, namely interpersonal, structural and processual. Each category concerns a different set of people and require different actions for increased effectiveness. For the interpersonal category, prioritized efforts should be to establish a shared vocabulary and use techniques to build shared contextual understanding. For structural difficulties, evaluating management and control structures and the implementation of the project’s strategy should be prioritized. In the processual category, codifying existing processes to enable improvements, defining information artefacts and aligning information flows should be of high priority<br>Globaliseringens effekter är idag en verklighet för de flesta stora organisationer, och konkurrensen för företag blir hårdare och förändrar sig allt snabbare. Därför blir det allt viktigare för utvecklingsprojekt att anpassa sig till en allt mer komplex miljö och leverera resultat snabbare än tidigare, men också att samarbeta mer med andra företag för att såväl utnyttja bredare kompetens som att nå nya marknader. Den här studien undersöker utmaningarna i interorganisatoriskt kravställningsarbete, vad företag kan göra för att möta de utmaningarna, såväl som att föreslå vilka handlingar som ger mest effekt för ett bättre kravställningsarbete. Slutsatsen av studien är att utmaningarna kan delas in i tre kategorier, nämligen personorienterade, strukturella och processorienterade. Varje kategori rör en viss mängd deltagare i projektet och kräver olika handlingar för ökad effektivitet. För att minska utmaningar i den personorienterade kategorin bör ett projekt prioritera att använda tekniker för att skapa ett gemensamt språkbruk och att använda tekniker för att bygga upp gemensam kontextuell förståelse. För strukturella utmaningar bör det prioriteras att utvärdera styrnings- och kontrollstrukturer, samt hur projektets strategi har implementerats och förankrats bland deltagarna. I den processorienterade kategorin bör det prioriteras att kodifiera existerande processer för att möjliggöra förbättringsarbete, definiera informationsartefakter och att försäkra sig om att informationsflöden är i linje med varandra mellan företagen, så att rätt information möts vid rätt tillfällen.

A software development manager will often need to make decisions about the allocation of resources across a number of different development projects. These projects may vary in size, in importance, and in the potential value to the organisation of the software that is to be produced. Based upon these and other considerations, a manager might consider an increase in the resource allocation for a particular project. They might also consider changing the size of a planned software release by including or excluding a number of features. In doing this, the manager will need to consider economies, or diseconomies, of scale: if a project is given twice the resources, will the software be delivered in half the time? Will a particular project remain on schedule, despite a headcount reduction of 50%, if the size of the next deliverable is reduced also by 50%? If a software product would earn the company a certaiD amount if delivered in one month, and a lesser amount if delivered after that time, how much resource should be allocated to its development? Existing effort prediction models provide some guidance, but fail to agree about the extent, or even the existence, of economies and diseconomies of scale. The models are also limited to effort and scheduling predictions for a single project; there is no provision for the optimization of resource allocation, release sizing, and release scheduling across a portfolio of projects. This dissertation uses a new prediction model, derived from a large database of empirical results, to show the existence of an economy of scale with respect to project size, and a diseconomy of scale with respect to team size. It uses this model as a basis for the comparison and validation of the two leading prediction models, and shows that a failure to address the diseconomy of scale to team size can lead to significant errors. Drawing upon the tools and techniques of financial portfolio management, the model is used as the basis of an "economic framework" for software development optimization, a set of tools for optimizing resource allocation and release sizing across a portfolio of projects, in terms of the net value obtained from the software produced. This framework is extended to address declining marginal value and to provide an indication of risk and variability across a project portfolio.

This paper tries to identify and understand the human social obstacles for developing quality software. These include lip-service, cutting corners, deception and effects of internal politics. These obstacles can undermine the good intentions behind the software methodologies. The paper draws from the literature in different disciplines and uses an ethnographic research methodology to create a rich picture of the concerning aspects in the framework of one software development company in India. What stands out among the findings are that internal audits has mainly focused on finding errors in documentation procedures but study of the actual practices has often been shallow. In addition the understanding of business risks by the internal auditors have often been weak. Context. The human based obstacles affecting Software Development Methodology analysed in the context of an ISO 9000 quality system in an Indian Software Development company working mainly with Swedish companies. Objectives. Identifying and increasing the understanding of intrinsic negative social aspects such as lip service, cheating and politics which are affecting the results of Software Development Methodologies and if possible suggest some means to mitigate them. In particular to create a deeper understanding of why people cheat and pay lip service to methodologies and to try to understand the political aspects of methodology and quality systems. There are other positive social aspects, but they are not considered since the objective is about understanding the negative aspects and possibly mitigate them. Methods. Ethnographic research using analysis of ISO 9000 and design artefacts, semi-structured interviews, participation in internal audits, Results. Most focus in audits was on documentation and very less focus on underlying methodologies, some indications of lip-service to process and processes were also mainly managed on a higher level in the organization while the understanding and practices were less well established on lower level. It was hard to get a grip on the internal political aspects since the perception of the subject in the informants view was that it is mainly malicious and therefore embarrassing to speak about. Some conflicts between internal quality goals and customers’ needs were also identified. Conclusions. An ethnographic research methodology gives a rich picture. The analysis gives deeper understanding of the problem areas, but not necessary solutions. The author suggests that at the heart of the problem is a difference in world view. Software professionals generally tend to resolve [technical] problems using a reductionist approach, while these intricate challenges cannot easily be resolved by this approach. A more holistic systemic approach is required and while the software methodology is useful to structure the development it does not resolve these dysfunctions. They have to be resolved on another level. It was also found that further studies is required in particular to better understand Internal politics, the effect of Positive and Negative Incentives, the effect of software metrics on quality performance and subjectivity in customers’ perception and expectation.<br>Uppsatsen försöker förstå mänskliga sociala hinder för att utveckla programvara med hög kvalitet. Dessa hinder inkluderar &quot;läpparnas bekännelser&quot;, ta genvägar, vilseleda och internpolitik. Sådana hinder kan underminera utvecklingsmetoder. Denna uppsats bygger på literatur från olika discipliner och använder etnografisk forskningsmetodik för att skapa en rik bild av dessa oroande aspekter inom ramen för ett IT-företag i Indien. Vad står ut är att intern kvalitetsrevision fokuserar för mycket på att finna fel i dokumentationsprocesser medan revision av hur utvecklingsarbetet faktiskt sker har varit för ytligt. Dessutom har de interna revisorernas förståelse av affärsrisker varit svag.

The goal of this project is to create a web application to help people learn about the stock market. The Virtual Sports Stock Exchange (VSSX) simulates market trading based on the world of sports. It allows users to experiment with different economic models. Virtual Sports Stock Exchange (VSSX) uses HTML and Java Server Page to generate the output and calculations and it uses Java Servlet to interact with the Oracle 9i database.

Agent based computational economics (ACE), as a research field, has been using co-evolutionary algorithms for modelling the socio-economic learning and adaptation process of players within games that model socio-economic interactions. In addition, it has also been using these algorithms for optimising towards the game equilibria via socio-economic learning. However, the field has been diverging from evolutionary computation, specifically co-evolutionary algorithm design research. It is common practice in ACE to explain the process and outcomes of such co-evolutionary simulations in socio-economic terms. However, co-evolutionary algorithms are known to have unexpected dynamics that lead to unexpected outcomes. This has often lead to mis-interpretations of the process and outcomes in socio-economic terms, a case in point being the lack of a methodical use of the term bounded rationality. This mis-interpretation can be attributed to the lack of a proper consideration of the solution concept being implemented by the coevolutionary algorithm used for the simulation. We propose a holistic methodical framework for analysing and designing co-evolutionary simulations, such that mis-interpretations of socio-economic phenomena be methodically avoided, disabling the algorithm from being mis-interpreted in socio-economic terms, aimed at benefiting ACE as a research field. More specifically, we consider the methodical treatment of co-evolutionary algorithms, as enabled by the framework, such that mis-interpretations of bounded rationality be avoided when these algorithms are used to optimise towards equilibrium solutions in bargaining games. The framework can be broken down into two parts: • Analysing and refining co-evolution for ACE, using the notion behind co-evolutionary solution concepts from co-evolutionary algorithm design research: Challenging the value of the implicit assumption of bounded rationality within co-evolutionary simulations, which leads to it being mis-interpreted, we show that convergence to the equilibrium solutions can be achieved with boundedly rational agents by working on the elements of the implemented co-evolutionary solution concept, as opposed to previous studies where bounded rationality was seen as the cause for deviations from equilibrium. Analysis and refinements guided by the presence of top-down equilibrium solutions, allow for a top-down avoidance of misinterpretations of bounded rationality within simulations. • Analysing and refining co-evolution for ACE, using the notion behind reconciliation variables proposed in the thesis: Reasonably associating mis-interpreted socio-economic phenomena of interest with the elements of the implemented co-evolutionary solution concept, parametrising and quantifying the elements, we obtain our reconciliation variables. Systematically analysing the simulation for its relationship with the reconciliation variables or for its closeness to desired behaviour, using this parametrisation, is the suggested idea. Bounded rationality is taken as a reconciliation variable, reasonably associated with agent strategies, parametrised and quantified, and analysis of simulations with respect to this variable carried out. Analysis and refinements based on such an explicit expression of bounded rationality, as opposed to the erstwhile implicit assumption, allow for a bottom-up avoidance of mis-interpretations of bounded rationality within simulations. We thus remove the causes that lead to bounded rationality being mis-interpreted altogether using this framework. We see this framework as one next step in ACE socio-economic learning simulation research, which must not be overlooked.

Användandet av agila metodiker har ökat under de senaste decennierna. Detta har lett till en uppskalning av agila metodiker då även stora organisationer vill uppnå fördelarna som kommer med det agila arbetssättet. Att skala upp agila metodiker, och använda dessa i storskaligt agila miljöer (författarnas koncept skagila miljöer, som återfinns i sektionen ’Begreppet ’skagil’'), kommer dock med flera nya organisatoriska utmaningar. En utmaning, som omnämns i både litteratur och i arbetets empiriska undersökning på företaget Avanza, är inter-teamsamordning i skagila miljöer. Avanza har identifierat problemen med beroenden mellan team i skagila mjukvaruutvecklingsprojekt. För att möta problemet med beroenden initierades det här arbetet med syftet att, utifrån Avanzas nuvarande projekt design, undersöka hur teamöverskridande arbete kan samordnas för att möta beroenden i projektprocessen. För att uppnå syftet genomfördes en fallstudie på Avanza innehållande intervjuer med tolv respondenter och observation av interna dokument. Den empiriska undersökningen bekräftade ursprungsproblematiken gällande inter-teamsamordning och bidrog även med information om företagets nuvarande projektdesign. Resultatet visade att projektorganisationen verkar som en hybrid organisation med starka, agila inslag. Dock visade sig Avanza uppleva sin projektdesignen som helt agil. Vidare ansågs projektets beroenden bidra till agilt slöseri, vilket påverkar både produktivitet och effektivitet negativt i mjukvaruutvecklingsprocessen. Fyra huvudområden av agilt slöseri identifierades vilka var väntan, rörelse, defekter och tilläggsprocesser. Genom att klustra ihop liknande slöseri framtogs tre problemområden kopplade till Avanzas projektprocess, nämligen ’viss frånvaro av proaktivt angreppssätt och planering’, ’viss frånvaro av forum för hantering av inter-teamberoenden’ och ’skillnader i implementering av agila metodiker och projektprioritering bland teamen’. För att möta problemen fastställdes sex åtgärder, nämligen implementering av en mer proaktiv projektledarroll, anammning av hybridkulturen, skapande av rollspecifika team, implementering av arrangerade forum för teamsynkronisering, kodifiering och utveckling av befintliga mekanismer och samordning samt skapande av ett gemensamt förhållningssätt till agila principer i projekt. Arbetets slutsatser är till viss del generaliserbara och skulle kunna adopteras av andra företag eller projektorganisationer som har liknande problem och projektdesign som Avanza. Dock krävs en viss ansträngning för att först identifiera vilken projektdesign intressentföretag har samt att identifiera projektrelaterat slöseri. Avanza är även verksamma inom tech-branschen där projektorganisationen verkar kring mjukvaruutveckling. Därför kan det antas att slutsatserna mer sannolikt, passar andra organisationer som jobbar med mjukvaruutveckling.<br>The usage of agile methodologies has rapidly increased over the last decades. This has led to an upscaling of agile methods since larger organizations want to gain the benefits of the agile way of working. However, this has not come without issues, and using agile at scale (authors’ concept scagile, in upcoming section ’Begreppet ’skagil”) has introduced new organizational challenges. One challenge that is mentioned both in literature and in the empirical findings at the case company, Avanza, is inter-team coordination in scagile environments. Today Avanza is struggling with dependencies between teams in scaled agile software projects. To address this issue this study was initiated with the purpose to, based on Avanza’s current project design, investigate how cross-team collaboration could be coordinated to face and overcome dependencies in the project process. To accomplish this a case study, containing interviews with twelve respondents and observation of internal documents, was made. The empirical findings confirmed the original issues related to inter-team coordination and also provided valuable information about the company’s project design. Regarding the project design the findings showed that the project organization is a hybrid organization with strong agile influences. However, the alleged perception of the project design was a fully agile organization. Further, the dependencies in the projects seem to cause agile waste, which has a negative influence on productivity and efficiancy in software projects. Four main areas of agile waste were detected, namely waiting, motion, defects and extra processes. By clustering similar waste, three main problem areas were detected, viz ’a certain absence of a proactive approach and planning’, ‘a certain absence of forums for handling inter-team dependencies’, and ‘differences between teams regarding the implementation and usage of agile principles, and project prioritization’. To face these issues, six measures were determined, namely implementation of a more proactive project management approach, embracing the hybrid culture, creating role specific teams, arranging forums for team synchronization, codifying and developing the current coordination mechanisms and deciding on a shared approach for project methodologies. The findings of this study is to some extent generalizable and could be adopted by other companies, or project organizations, that are struggling with the same problem areas and have the same project design as Avanza. However, some effort is required to first determine current project design and to identify project related waste. Further, the client company is operative in the fin-tech industry where the project organization orbits around software development. Therefore it can be assumed that the findings are more likely to fit another software organization.

The inability to accurately estimate costs which are associated with software development is an increasing concern of the scientists and practitioners involved. Many factors influence the cost and many models have been offered to estimate the expenses for developing a software system of any size and type. Unfortunately, the problem remains the same. There is a significant need for further research in order to develop complete understanding in this area.This thesis examines the cost influential factors and reviews a number of existing cost estimation models. Then, a hypothetical method is shown for estimating cost, incorporating the PERT sizing technique, the Basic and Intermediate COCOMO models, and a blend of features from the Putnam's Resource Allocation model and the SLIM model. The implementation of this method is also included.<br>Department of Computer Science

Thesis (S.M. in System Design and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-71).<br>This paper reports results of an empirical study that aimed to demonstrate the link between software product design structure and engineers' effort to perform a code modification in the context of a corrective maintenance task. First, this paper reviews the current state of the art in engineering economics of the maintenance phase of software lifecycle. Secondly, a measure of software product complexity suitable to assess maintainability of a software system is developed. This measure is used to analyze the design structure change that happened between two versions of a mature software product. The product selected for this study underwent a significant re-design between two studied versions. Thirdly, an experiment is designed to measure the effort engineers spend designing a code modification associated with a corrective change request. These effort measurements are used to demonstrate the effect of product design complexity on engineers' productivity. It is asserted in the paper that engineer's productivity improvements have a significant economic value and can be used to justify investments into re-design of an existing software product.<br>by Andrei Akaikine.<br>S.M.in System Design and Management

This thesis presents a new integrated tool and decision support framework to approach complex problems resulting from the interaction of many multi-criteria issues. The framework is embedded in an integrated tool called OUTDO (Oxford University Tool for Decision Organisation). OUTDO integrates Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), decision rationale management with a modified Issue-Based Information Systems (IBIS) representation, and probabilistic forecasting to effectively capture the essential reasons why decisions are made and to dynamically re-use the rationale. In doing so, it allows exploration of how changes in external parameters affect complicated and uncertain decision making processes in the present and in the future. Once the decision maker constructs his or her own decision process, OUTDO checks if the decision process is consistent and coherent and looks for possible ways to improve it using three new semantic-based decision support approaches. For this reason, two ontologies (the Decision Ontology and the Energy Ontology) were integrated into OUTDO to provide it with these semantic capabilities. The Decision Ontology keeps a record of the decision rationale extracted from OUTDO and the Energy Ontology describes the energy generation domain, focusing on the water requirement in thermoelectric power plants. A case study, with the objective of recommending electricity generation and steam condensation technologies for ten different regions in the UK, is used to verify OUTDO’s features and reach conclusions about the overall work.

Abstract Software has become an important part of our everyday life in the form of various information processing intensive products and services. The number of companies producing software has risen considerably and at the same time competition between software businesses has greatly intensified. During the last decades software process improvement (SPI) has been recognized as a usable possibility to increase the quality of software development. Implemented SPI investments have often indicated increased process capabilities as well. Recently more attention has been focused on the costs of SPI as well as on the cost-effectiveness and productivity of software development, although the roots of economic-driven software engineering originate from the very early days of software engineering research. This research tries to advance the concepts, principles and practical methods of economic-driven software engineering by associating them with SPI concepts, theories and software process assessment methods, in particular, capability-maturity -based assessment methods. This is done in part by presenting an analysis of the economic-driven view of software development and in part by discussing the SPI context and cost-efficiency characteristics. As a result of this analysis work, a value-based approach is adopted in the study, involving definition of the essential concepts of value, cost and worth in software development. These definitions originate from the Value Engineering (VE) method, originally applied and developed for the needs of the production industry. Therefore, for the purposes of this study these concepts are firstly justified and secondly defined. In order to study and evaluate the value-based approach, a method called value assessment is developed and later on also combined with capability-maturity -based assessment and called the Value Enhanced Assessment (VEA) method. The combination is seen to respond even better to the overall challenges of software development and SPI. Although VEA is used here only for research purposes, it is a rational outcome of the value-based approach and developed in the context of the BOOTSRAP software process assessment method. The results show that even though there is still much to do in making the economic-driven view complete in software engineering, the value-based approach outlines a way towards a more comprehensive understanding of it. In addition, value-based methods are most likely to be needed to complete existing capability-maturity -based assessment methods, such as BOOTSTRAP.

Many IT-systems are when created not designed to be flexible and dynamic resulting in old and complex systems hard to maintain. Systems usually build their functionality and capability on the data contained in their databases. The database underlines such system, and when data do not correspond between different and synchronizing systems, it is a troublesome debugging process. This is because systems are complex and the software architecture is not always easy to understand. Due to increasing complexity in systems over time, making systems harder to debug and understand, there is a need for a system that decreases debugging costs. Furthermore, result in better transaction costs. This study proposes a system based on blockchain technology to accomplish this.   An ERP system based on blockchain with encrypted transactions was constructed to determine if the proposed system can contribute in better transaction costs. A case study at multiple IT-companies and comparison to an existing ERP system module validated the system. A successful simulation showed that multiple parts could read and append data to an immutable storage system for one truth of data. By all counts, and with proven results, the constructed blockchain solution based on encrypted transactions for an ERP system can reduce debugging costs.   It is also shown that a centralized database structure where external and internal systems can get one truth of data, decreases transaction costs. However, it is the decision makers in companies that need to be convinced for the constructed system to be implemented. A problem is also when modifications to the object type, then historical transactions cannot be changed in an immutable storage solution. Blockchain is still a new technology, and the knowledge of the technology and the evolution of the system determines if the proposed software architecture will result in better transaction costs.

Il successo dei progetti di sviluppo di un prodotto è un fattore critico di competizione in molti ambiti industriali. La gestione ottimale di tali progetti richiede la comprensione profonda e la capacità di intervenire nelle complesse dinamiche che li governano. In questo campo, la ricerca ha spesso, e continua anche oggi, focalizzato su una visione statica del project management. Questa ricerca invece vuole investigare gli impatti sulle performance della struttura inerentemente prona a dinamicità dei progetti, focalizzando l’attenzione sull’influenza delle caratteristiche dei processi di sviluppo così come sugli impatti dei fattori di tipo “soft” all’interno di un sistema sociale come quello di un progetto. Durante il percorso di ricerca è stato sviluppato un modello di simulazione dinamica di una fase singola di un progetto di sviluppo software, attraverso la metodologia della System Dynamics. Il modello integra diverse strutture sviluppate e testate precedentemente in letteratura riguardo la gestione dei progetti di sviluppo software, e propone delle strutture separate per la gestione della comunicazione e della negoziazione con il committente. Le simulazioni hanno consentito di osservare e descrivere gli andamenti dei comportamenti delle variabili di interesse generati dall’interazione di una fase singola della struttura di sviluppo di un progetto con la struttura gestionale del progetto stesso. La performance della fase di progetto è stata misurata attraverso gli indicatori di tempo, costo e qualità del progetto. Il risultato della ricerca è stato quello di studiare e determinare alcuni possibili impatti sul comportamento dinamico di un progetto da parte di diversi fattori sia di tipo “hard” che “soft”. In particolare è stato mostrato come il processo di sviluppo giochi un ruolo significativo sui progetti software, evidenziando gli effetti dei cicli di feedback, dei ritardi intrinseci al sistema e delle relazioni non lineari sugli andamenti delle variabili di interesse, a differenza di quanto succede negli approcci tradizionali al project management. L’espansione di tali approcci/metodi per includere delle caratteristiche di dinamicità del modello richiede tuttavia un cambio di prospettiva da parte sia del mondo dei professionisti che del mondo accademico. La metodologia della system dynamics fornisce alcuni degli strumenti per poter sviluppare ed implementare tali modelli estesi. Ulteriore ricerca in tale direzione e l’utilizzo dei nuovi modelli può inoltre consentire lo sviluppo di nuova conoscenza relativamente alla dinamicità dei progetti, nonché facilitare l’utilizzo di tale conoscenza nella pratica manageriale della gestione di progetti software complessi.<br>Successful product development projects are critical to competitiveness in several industries. Successful management of these projects requires an understanding and use of the dynamics of projects. Existing research has focused on a static view of project management. This research investigates the impacts of dynamic project structure on performance with a focus on the influence of the development process. A dynamic simulation model of a single phase project was built using the system dynamics methodology. The model integrates several previously developed and tested software project structures and adds a separate structure for the negotiation process. Simulations describe the behaviour generated by the interaction of a customized development project phase and a project management structure. Project performance is measured in time, quality and cost. The research finds that development processes significantly impact the dynamic behaviour of projects through the feedback, delays and nonlinear relationships which are not used in traditional project models but are important descriptors of project complexity. Expanding the models used to manage projects to include dynamic features requires a change of focus by researchers and practitioners. The system dynamics methodology provides some of the tools for developing and implementing such an expanded project model. Future research using the model within and beyond its current limits can facilitate the development of new knowledge of project dynamics and the implementation of that knowledge in project management practice.

Currently, Sälen area in Sweden is finding issues in the power grid due to an irregular load profile with high peak power demand and an infrastructure that is becoming undersized. Distributed PV-battery systems are considered a possible solution to solve this problem.A PV-battery system for a typical vacation home in this town is designed and optimized to give the best economical solution to the homeowner. Then, a techno-economic evaluation of the system is performed. A photovoltaic system and an only grid connected system are also simulated and compared. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed on different simulation inputs.HOMER Grid software is used to simulate and size the system. Firstly, a pre-sized system is modelled using average or typical market prices and component characteristics. Afterwards, real market components that fit into the pre-sized model are modelled to get a real system design. The optimized design includes a PV system of 13 kW, a BYD lithium ion battery of 5.1 kWh capacity and a Sungrow hybrid inverter of 10 kW.The economic evaluation of the system indicates that, with current market prices and subsidies, the optimized system is the most economical solution for the homeowner compared to the other systems. In the sensitivity analysis, a significant risk for the profitability of the system is found on the compensation from selling electricity to the grid.The technical evaluation of the system indicates that the battery provides a significant peak-shaving effect that can benefit the power grid. However, large solar energy sales to the grid with high power peaks that could cause instability issues are observed.

La participation des entreprises aux logiciels libres touche des domaines différents aux sciences économiques et sciences sociales. Elle est parmi d'autres une expérience naturelle pour la production des biens publics, pour l'innovation collective, pour les technologies disruptives, pour l'externalisation des technologies ou pour les organisations décentralisées. Cette thèse se concentre sur la production des biens publics, l'innovation collective et l'externalisation des technologies. Dans notre analyse, nous utilisons une base de données de 10 000 logiciels libres trouvables sur SourceForge et lions l'information des développeurs aux profils académiques, salariés et bénévoles.

Buildings are directly responsible for 40% of the final energy use in most developed economies and for much more if indirect requirements are considered. This results in huge impacts which affect the environmental balance of our planet.<p>However, most current building energy assessments focus solely on operational energy overlooking other energy uses such as embodied and transport energy. Embodied energy comprises the energy requirements for building materials production, construction and replacement. Transport energy represents the amount of energy required for the mobility of building users.<p>Decisions based on partial assessments might result in an increased energy demand during other life cycle stages or at different scales of the built environment. Recent studies have shown that embodied and transport energy demands often account for more than half of the total lifecycle energy demand of residential buildings. Current assessment tools and policies therefore overlook more than 50% of the life cycle energy use.<p>This thesis presents a comprehensive life cycle energy analysis framework for residential buildings. This framework takes into account energy requirements at the building scale, i.e. the embodied and operational energy demands, and at the city scale, i.e. the embodied energy of nearby infrastructures and the transport energy of its users. This framework is implemented through the development, verification and validation of an advanced software tool which allows the rapid analysis of the life cycle energy demand of residential buildings and districts. Two case studies, located in Brussels, Belgium and Melbourne, Australia, are used to investigate the potential of the developed framework.<p>Results show that each of the embodied, operational and transport energy requirements represent a significant share of the total energy requirements and associated greenhouse gas emissions of a residential building, over its useful life. The use of the developed tool will allow building designers, town planners and policy makers to reduce the energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions of residential buildings by selecting measures that result in overall savings. This will ultimately contribute to reducing the environmental impact of the built environment.<br>Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Un modèle représente un système, ses composants et les interactions entre composants. Il sert à analyser et simuler les interactions, en déduisant les conséquences logiques d'hypothèses sur les variables d'état du système, ou sur des variables de contrôle ou de perturbation. Comment juger, ou mieux mesurer, si le modèle est proche de la réalité ? La thèse établit les principes d'un tel examen, appelé audit technique d'un modèle. Il s'agit de détecter, identifier, et si possible réduire, les erreurs et les incertitudes, que nous décomposons en quatre classes : (i) erreur de conception (quels mécanismes explicatifs constituent la composition conceptuelle, quelles schématisations ?), (ii) erreur formelle (la synthèse mathématique des mécanismes explicatifs dans une formule caractéristique, doit être conforme au contenu conceptuel et cohérente), (iii) erreur algorithmique (le dispositif de résolution fournit-il vraiment une solution ? Avec quelle précision ?), (iv) enfin une incertitude de type économétrique qui englobe l'erreur d'estimation et l'erreur exogène a priori sur les inputs. Chaque classe d'erreur relève d'une discipline spécifique, ce qui confère autant de dimensions à l'audit : audit conceptuel à base d'analyse systémique, audit formel à caractère mathématique, audit algorithmique de caractère physique ou informatique, audit économétrique. Nous proposons une méthode systématique d'audit. Nous l'appliquons à un modèle d'équilibre entre offre et demande, précisément un modèle de choix d'itinéraire sur un réseau avec une offre sujette à congestion et une demande qui arbitre de façon diversifiée entre prix et temps. Nous établissons une formule caractéristique (inéquation variationnelle en dimension finie) dont la solution jouit de propriétés d'existence et d'unicité ; nous proposons et testons plusieurs algorithmes et critères de convergence ; nous effectuons l'analyse de sensibilité pour propager l'erreur économétrique exogène à travers le modèle.

Das Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) ist ein ganzheitlicher Ansatz zur Entwicklung und Vermarktung von Software-Produktlinien auf Basis von Software-Systemfamilien. Eine in frühen Phasen des SPLE durchzuführende Aktivität ist das Scoping, bei dem die zu realisierenden Produkte mit den zwischen ihnen bestehenden Wiederverwendungspotentialen identifiziert werden. Bei der Durchführung des Scopings steht der Produkt-Manager vor dem Problem einen Ausgleich zwischen den Bedürfnissen der Kunden und dem Aufwand der Entwicklung zu finden. Durch die bestehenden Wiederverwendungspotentiale bei Software-Systemfamilien wird die Entscheidung zusätzlich erschwert. Aufgrund der bestehenden Komplexität der Entscheidung, wird in Literatur und Praxis eine Unterstützung in Form einer statistisch-mathematischen Optimierung gefordert. Dieser Forderung nimmt sich die vorliegende Arbeit an. In ihr werden mit der Konstruktion eines Modells gewinnbeeinflussender Faktoren, einer Methode zur wertbasierten Portfolio-Optimierung und eines Prototyps zur Unterstützung der wertbasierten Portfolio-Optimierung und der anschließenden Evaluation dieser Artefakte zwei Fragen adressiert. Erstens wird geprüft, ob die Optimierung von Produkt-Portfolios bei Software-Produktlinien mit statistisch-mathematischen Verfahren unterstützt werden kann. Zweitens wird geprüft, ob die statistisch-mathematische Optimierung von Produkt-Portfolios eine akzeptierte Unterstützung von Software-Anbietern sein kann. Die Arbeit ordnet sich mit ihren Fragen in die Forschung zum Produkt-Management bei Software-Produktlinien ein und trägt die vorgenannten Artefakte bei.:Abbildungsverzeichnis ix Tabellenverzeichnis xi Abkürzungsverzeichnis xii Symbolverzeichnis xiv 1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Stand der Forschung 3 1.2 Forschungsbedarf 5 1.3 Forschungskonzept 7 1.4 Verwendete Methoden und Notationen 9 1.4.1 Method Engineering 10 1.4.2 Software & Systems Process Engineering Meta-Model 12 1.4.3 Merkmaldiagramme 14 1.5 Aufbau der Arbeit 16 I Modell 17 2 Software-Ökonomie 18 2.1 Unternehmen und ihre Produkte 20 2.1.1 Eigenschaften von Software-Produkten 23 2.1.2 Vom Software-System zum Geschäftsmodell 24 2.1.3 Kosten 28 2.1.4 Erlös 31 2.2 Kunden 35 2.2.1 Nutzen und Wertvorstellung 35 2.2.2 Zahlungsbereitschaft 35 2.2.3 Kundenmodell 37 2.3 Konkurrenz und Markt 38 2.3.1 Konkurrenzmodell 38 2.3.2 Ökonomische Besonderheiten von Software-Produkten 39 2.3.3 Struktur von Software-Märkten 40 2.4 Preis 41 2.4.1 Preisbeeinflussende Faktoren 42 2.4.2 Verfahren der Preisbildung 42 2.4.3 Preismodell 44 2.5 Produkt- und Preisdifferenzierung 44 2.5.1 Typen der Preisdifferenzierung 46 2.5.2 Preisdifferenzierung mit Selbstselektion 47 2.5.3 Gewinnoptimalität 48 2.6 Zusammenfassung 49 3 Software-Produktlinien 50 3.1 Prozesse des Software Product Line Engineerings 53 3.1.1 Domain Engineering 54 3.1.2 Anwendungsentwicklung 56 3.1.3 Management 57 3.1.4 Scoping 58 3.2 Methoden des Software Product Line Engineerings 60 3.3 Szenarios des Einsatzes von Software-Systemfamilien 62 3.4 Angereicherte Software-Produktlinien 64 3.5 Kostenmodell bei Software-Systemfamilien 65 3.6 Modell gewinnbeeinflussender Faktoren 68 3.6.1 Interne Einflüsse 68 3.6.2 Externe Einflüsse 70 3.7 Zusammenfassung 71 I I Vorgehen 72 4 Methode zur wertbasierten Portfolio-Optimierung 73 4.1 Die Methode im Überblick 74 4.2 Kundenanalyse 76 4.2.1 Techniken 77 4.2.2 Einsatz 83 4.2.3 Zusammenfassung 88 4.3 Kostenanalyse 89 4.3.1 Techniken 91 4.3.2 Einsatz 94 4.3.3 Zusammenfassung 97 4.4 Konkurrenzanalyse 98 4.5 Optimierung und weitere Schritte 100 4.6 Zusammenfassung 101 5 Merkmalbasierte Generierung adaptiver Conjoint-Studien 102 5.1 Meta-Modelle 103 5.1.1 Merkmalmodelle 103 5.1.2 ACA-PE-Konfigurationen 105 5.2 Abbildung von Merkmalmodellen auf ACA-PE 106 5.2.1 Erste Überlegungen 106 5.2.2 Stufen 107 5.3 Illustrierendes Beispiel 111 5.4 Zusammenfassung 113 6 Wertbasierte Portfolio-Optimierung 114 6.1 Technische Vorbemerkungen 115 6.2 Verwandte Arbeiten 117 6.2.1 Analytische Arbeiten 117 6.2.2 Praktische Arbeiten 118 6.2.3 Besondere Ansätze 121 6.2.4 Schlussfolgerung 122 6.3 Entwurfsproblem bei Software-Produkt-Portfolios 123 6.3.1 Notationsmittel 123 6.3.2 Mathematisches Programm 125 6.4 Lösungsprozedur 126 6.4.1 Finden des optimalen Software-Produkt-Portfolios 127 6.4.2 Identifikation wichtiger Systeme 129 6.5 Illustrierendes Beispiel 129 6.6 Erweiterung 132 6.7 Zusammenfassung 133 I I I Umsetzung 134 7 Software-Prototyp zur wertbasierten Portfolio-Optimierung 135 7.1 Anforderungen 136 7.1.1 Funktional 136 7.1.2 Nicht-funktional 140 7.2 Technologiestudie 140 7.3 Entwurf 143 7.4 Implementierung 146 7.4.1 Spezifikationseditor 146 7.4.2 ACA-PE-Editor 151 7.4.3 Anwendungskern 152 7.5 Test 157 7.6 Zusammenfassung 157 8 Evaluation 158 8.1 Demonstration 158 8.2 Ergebnisgüte und Skalierbarkeit 162 8.2.1 Theoretisches Testdaten-Modell 163 8.2.2 Testtreiber und Testdatengenerator 166 8.2.3 Auswertung 167 8.3 Akzeptanz 174 8.3.1 Untersuchungsdesign 174 8.3.2 Auswertung 175 8.4 Zusammenfassung 176 9 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick 177 IV Anhang 181 Glossar 182 Literaturverzeichnis 184 A Befragungen 206 A.1 Befragung zur praktischen Relevanz der Portfolio-Optimierung 206 A.2 Experteninterview zur Akzeptanz 208 B Herleitungen 214 B.1 Struktur von Software-Märkten 214 B.2 Gewinnoptimalität der Preisdifferenzierung mit Selbstselektion 219 B.3 Preis-Subproblem für den Simplex-Algorithmus 227 B.4 Beispiel analytisch bestimmter Testdaten 228 C Modelle und Ausgaben des Prototyps 229 Wissenschaftlicher und persönlicher Werdegang 232 Selbstständigkeitserklärung 233

碩士<br>國立臺北大學<br>企業管理學系碩士在職專班<br>107<br>The subscription business model is rapidly transforming pretty much every industry on the plant. The advantages of offering people access to the benefits of your product or service rather than mere ownership are so compelling that logically this will be the way everyone does business in the future. Nce customers realize they can get the outcomes they want without having to worry about owning physical assets anymore, demand will soar and new revenue streams will start flowing. This is the future of business. In market after market around the world, big changes are happening. The old model of business was to focus on "getting a product to market" and then selling as many units as possible in order to enjoy economies of scale. You maximized sales channels and really didnt care who brought them as long as your stuff sold. Todays most successful companies start with the customer. They go to the channels where their customers are, learn as much as possible about them and then deliver them the right mix of customized services to generate the outcomes they care about. The new business model is to have a circular, dynamic ongoing relationship with your subscribers. These companies have a customer-centric mindset. The main reason why the change from the old business model to the new is happening right now is the fact digital subscriptions generate a huge amount of data about subscribers. Companies can now use that data to customize the services they deliver rather than relying on one-size-fits-all.

The aim of this Work Project, carried out under the method of Direct Research Internship, is to provide a clear overview of the potential implications of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the Global Business Services company Softinsa – Advanced Software Engineering, Lda. The enforcement of the GDPR will impose new costs due to the need of implementing Technical and Organisational Measures (TOMs). It will also force changes from a structural perspective, such as hiring additional legal experts. Finally, the GDPR will impose significant restrictions regarding the processing of personal data, carried out by Softinsa.

Organisation log data are generate by software and can provide help to maintenance team addressing issues reported by the client. Once an application is in production, there are defects and other issues that need to be handled. This is also cause by customisation and maintenance of the software. That can compromise software integrity and functionality. This happening in production environment which the maintenance team don’t have access becomes a difficult to resolve. The issue must be handling in development environment which causes a condition to understand the problem in order to be able to fix it. To help with this, using log data from production to trace actions that occur of the issue. The log data doesn’t contain any of private data; it only contains actions events as a result of software usage. The main objective of this thesis work is to build a framework for an automatic log analyser to assist maintenance team addressing software issues. This framework also provides a knowledge management system allowing registering tacit experience into explicit knowledge. A prototype was developed to produce metrics and make a proof of this framework. This was done on a real environment and is related to a software migration project which means transferring data between databases that holds company business.