Integration by communication: knowledge exchange in global outsourcing of product software development

Global outsourcing is a growing trend among independent software vendors. In these projects like other distributed work, distances have negative effects on communication and coordination, directly impacting performance. We present a normative model designed to address this issue by improving communication and knowledge exchange. The model consists of six distinct practices and a tool blueprint, each coming with practical guidelines. It is based in part on two case studies of Dutch software vendors who have successfully outsourced part of their activities to an Eastern European outsourcing vendor, and validated by a panel of six experts from industry and the scientific community. It is concluded that knowledge exchange in global software outsourcing is a by‐product of efforts to enhance communication and coordination, rather than specific technical solutions. By committing to sharing knowledge, emphasizing transparency and integrating the outsourcing team into their organizations, customers from the product software business can realize the benefits of global outsourcing.     

Work-Home Interference, Job Stressors, and Employee Health in a Longitudinal Perspective.

The purpose of the present longitudinal study was to examine the role of negative work-home interference (WHI) in the classical stressor-strain sequence. First, the predominant time-lagged path between WHI and job stressors was investigated. Furthermore, the direct and indirect (mediating) process of WHI, job stressors, and employee health was examined. The sample consisted of 383 health care employees. Results showed evidence for predominant time-lagged paths from Time 1 job stressors to Time 2 WHI and not the other way around. In addition, it appeared that WHI played a partial mediating role between all 3 types of job stressors on the one hand and exhaustion on the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

ECONOMIC DISPARITY UNDER CONDITIONS OF INTEGRATION — A LONG TERM VIEW OF THE EUROPEAN CASE

ABSTRACT This paper examines the development of disparities between the regions of the European Union over a very long period of time. It does so by reviewing the relevant theoretical, empirical and prospective literature. First, the contributions of the; different schools of thought on regional growth are reviewed. They are inconclusive as to the outcome of the process in terms of convergence or divergence. Next, empirical studies into the differential development of European regions are reviewed, covering the whole period of the industrial revolution to our present time. The resulting picture reveals a considerable diversity of patterns. Over the postwar period, characterized by increased economic integration, a decrease in disparity has been recorded. Poorer regions have used their improved access to the European market and their better opportunities for attracting mobile capital to each up the likely behavior of the regional system of Europe are examined. In the future, new forms of economic integration (deepening like the EMU, and widening with the central European countries) will to a large extent shape the environment for regional developments. All in all, these factors are likely to bring more disparity. Therefore, increased attention should be given to policies that stimulate new ways of mobilizing the diverse potential of the various regions of the enlarged Europe.     

SiGe epitaxy on a 300 mm batch furnace

This work reports the feasibility of silicon and silicon germanium epitaxy using an ASM A412(TMa) LPCVD all quartz, hot wall, vertical batch furnace reactor using 100 wafer product loads. The very same furnace can be used for 25 wafer and 200 wafer load size, without any hardware changes, dependant on production needs. Following this approach a significant cost reduction for epitaxy in 300 mm high volume manufacturing is possible and enables new applications. The native oxide of the substrate was removed by wet chemical cleaning with time coupling of less than 1 h and subsequent in-situ low pressure hydrogen anneal prior to Si or SiGe deposition. The epitaxial layers were grown using silane and germane. The Si and SiGe layers have been characterized with ToFSIMS, XRD, Raman, AFM and TEM confirming excellent crystalline quality, layer thickness and within wafer SiGe stoichiometry uniformity.     

The accuracy of dependency analysis in static architecture compliance checking

Architecture compliance checking (ACC) is an approach to verify conformance of implemented program code to high‐level models of architectural design. Static ACC focuses on the modular software architecture and on the existence of rule violating dependencies between modules. Accurate tool support is essential for effective and efficient ACC. This paper presents a study on the accuracy of ACC tools regarding dependency analysis and violation reporting. Ten tools were tested and compared by means of a custom‐made benchmark. The Java code of the benchmark testware contains 34 different types of dependencies, which are based on an inventory of dependency types in object oriented program code. In a second test, the code of open source system FreeMind was used to compare the 10 tools on the number of reported rule violating dependencies and the exactness of the dependency and violation messages. On the average, 77% of the dependencies in our custom‐made test software were reported, while 72% of the dependencies within a module of FreeMind were reported. The results show that all tools in the test could improve the accuracy of the reported dependencies and violations, though large differences between the 10 tools were observed. We have identified 10 hard‐to‐detect types of dependencies and four challenges in dependency detection. The relevance of our findings is substantiated by means of a frequency analysis of the hard‐to‐detect types of dependencies in five open source systems. © 2016 The Authors. Software: Practice and Experience Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An integrated approach for requirement selection and scheduling in software release planning

It is essential for product software companies to decide which requirements should be included in the next release and to make an appropriate time plan of the development project. Compared to the extensive research done on requirement selection, very little research has been performed on time scheduling. In this paper, we introduce two integer linear programming models that integrate time scheduling into software release planning. Given the resource and precedence constraints, our first model provides a schedule for developing the requirements such that the project duration is minimized. Our second model combines requirement selection and scheduling, so that it not only maximizes revenues but also simultaneously calculates an on-time-delivery project schedule. Since requirement dependencies are essential for scheduling the development process, we present a more detailed analysis of these dependencies. Furthermore, we present two mechanisms that facilitate dynamic adaptation for over-estimation or under-estimation of revenues or processing time, one of which includes the Scrum methodology. Finally, several simulations based on real-life data are performed. The results of these simulations indicate that requirement dependency can significantly influence the requirement selection and the corresponding project plan. Moreover, the model for combined requirement selection and scheduling outperforms the sequential selection and scheduling approach in terms of efficiency and on-time delivery.     

Incremental method evolution in global software product management: A retrospective case study

Company growth in a global setting causes challenges in the adaptation and maintenance of an organization’s methods. In this paper, we will analyze incremental method evolution in software product management in a global environment. We validate a method increment approach, based on method engineering principles, by applying it to a retrospective case study conducted at a large ERP vendor. The results show that the method increment types cover all increments that were found in the case study. Also, we identified the following lessons learned for company growth in a global software product management context: method increment drivers, such as the change of business strategy, vary during evolution; a shared infrastructure is critical for rollout; small increments facilitate gradual process improvement; and global involvement is critical. We then claim that method increments enable software companies to accommodate evolutionary adaptations of development process in agreement with the overall company expansion.     

Reviewing Enterprise Content Management: a functional framework

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) focuses on managing all types of content being used in organizations. It is a convergence of previous approaches that focus on managing only particular types of content, as for example documents or web pages. In this paper, we present an overview of previous research by categorizing the existing literature. We show that scientific literature on ECM is limited and there is no consensus on the definition of ECM. Therefore, the literature review surfaced several ECM definitions that we merge into a more consistent and comprehensive definition of ECM. The Functional ECM Framework (FEF) provides an overview of the potential functionalities of ECM systems (ECMSs). We apply the FEF in three case studies. The FEF can serve to communicate about ECMSs, to understand them and to direct future research. It can also be the basis for a more formal reference architecture and it can be used as an assessment tool by practitioners for comparing the functionalities provided by existing ECMSs.     

Exercise echocardiography or exercise SPECT imaging? A meta-analysis of diagnostic test performance

CONTEXT: Cardiac imaging has advanced rapidly, providing clinicians with several choices for evaluating patients with suspected coronary artery disease, but few studies compare modalities directly. OBJECTIVES: To review the contemporary literature and to compare the diagnostic performance of exercise echocardiography (ECHO) and exercise single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. DATA SOURCES: Studies published between January 1990 and October 1997 identified from MEDLINE search; bibliographies of reviews and original articles; and suggestions from experts in each area. STUDY SELECTION: Articles were included if they discussed exercise ECHO and/or exercise SPECT imaging with thallous chloride TI 201 (thallium) or technetium Tc 99m sestamibi for detection and/or evaluation of coronary artery disease, if data on coronary angiography were presented as the reference test, and if the absolute numbers of true-positive, false-negative, true-negative, and false-positive observations were available or derivable from the data presented. Studies performed exclusively in patients after myocardial infarction, after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, after coronary artery bypass grafting, or with recent unstable coronary syndromes were excluded. DATA EXTRACTION: Clinical variables, technical factors, and test performance were independently extracted by 2 reviewers on a standardized spreadsheet. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus. RESULTS: Forty-four articles met inclusion criteria. In pooled data weighted by the sample size of each study, exercise ECHO had a sensitivity of 85% (95% confidence interval [CI], 83%-87%) with a specificity of 77% (95% CI, 74%-80%). Exercise SPECT yielded a similar sensitivity of 87% (95% CI, 86%-88%) but a lower specificity of 64% (95% CI, 60%-68%). In a summary receiver operating characteristic model comparing exercise ECHO performance to exercise SPECT, exercise ECHO was associated with significantly better discriminatory power (parameter estimate, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.71-1.65), when adjusted for age, publication year, and a setting including known coronary artery disease for SPECT studies. In models comparing the discriminatory abilities of exercise ECHO and exercise SPECT vs exercise testing without imaging, both ECHO and SPECT performed significantly better than exercise testing. The incremental improvement in performance was greater for ECHO (3.43; 95% CI, 2.74-4.11) than for SPECT (1.49; 95% CI, 0.91-2.08). CONCLUSIONS: Exercise ECHO and exercise SPECT have similar sensitivities for the detection of coronary artery disease, but exercise ECHO has better specificity and, therefore, higher overall discriminatory capabilities as used in contemporary practice.