Simulation-supported change process for product customization - A case study in a garment company

Due to the increasing competition in global markets, many European garment manufacturers have had to undergo significant restructuring and were forced to create leaner value-adding processes. As a result, the majority of the manufacturing operations have been outsourced to low labor cost countries. At the same time, production logistics as well as information and communication technologies have gained importance, in order to keep job functions requiring higher qualifications within Europe. Another challenge concerns the introduction of customized products into the production processes which previously had been designed for manufacturing of large volumes. Prior to implementing such changes, the consequences with respect to production logistics as well as the financial impacts should be examined. The case study presented in this paper uses a simulation tool for these purposes. Different scenarios developed for a garment company were analyzed. Based on the results, recommendations for the further development of the regarded company were deduced.     

软件产品大规模定制及演化的一种新模型

模型立足于为资源有限的软件企业提供灵活的软件产品大规模定制及演化方案。采用以软件产品线原型为中心的振荡上升模型来实现软件大规模定制,在大规模定制的过程中不断提升整个软件产品线的质量,并同步完成产品线的升级维护工作。整个模型考虑了软件企业在各种资源上的不足,尽量设计得轻型、敏捷,以便能容易地应用于实践。     

Towards product customization: An integrated order fulfillment system

To stay competitive, manufacturing companies nowadays pursue product customization; and configure-to-order (CTO) has been recognized as an ideal business model to implement product customization. Due to the complexities resulting from the large number of customized products, an increased attention has been paid to the order fulfillment process in CTO. However, most of the solutions delivered either focus on own interested areas without considering the impacts from/on the others or approach order fulfillment processes from a strategic level. In view of the limitations of existing solutions and the significance of order fulfillment activity automation and integration, this study considers the entire spectrum of order fulfillment process at an operational level and, proposes an integrated order fulfillment system (IOFS). The IOFS is designed to (1) automatically execute order processing, which is conventionally undertaken in a face-to-face manner; (2) configure products and process plans based on product and process family models; and (3) allow real-time data extraction and sharing of the latest information. Therefore, it assists companies to quickly respond to diverse customer requirements and deliver the expected products at low costs. An industrial example of turn unit assemblies is presented to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the IOFS for product customization.     

Applying review and product metrics to the software engineering process: a case study

This paper describes the creation and initial implementation of a measurement programme to Eastman Kodak's Printer Products Division software engineering process. This measurement strategy is being applied to all appropriate programmes within the division. This case study describes one project where a simple set of metrics have improved the quality of our software products and the process used to develop the software. It describes the steps taken to create and implement, and the successes and problems encountered during software development.     

Performance variability in software product lines: proposing theories from a case study

In the software product line research, product variants typically differ by their functionality and quality attributes are not purposefully varied. The goal is to study purposeful performance variability in software product lines, in particular, the motivation to vary performance, and the strategy for realizing performance variability in the product line architecture. The research method was a theory-building case study that was augmented with a systematic literature review. The case was a mobile network base station product line with capacity variability. The data collection, analysis and theorizing were conducted in several stages: the initial case study results were augmented with accounts from the literature. We constructed three theoretical models to explain and characterize performance variability in software product lines: the models aim to be generalizable beyond the single case. The results describe capacity variability in a base station product line. Thereafter, theoretical models of performance variability in software product lines in general are proposed. Performance variability is motivated by customer needs and characteristics, by trade-offs and by varying operating environment constraints. Performance variability can be realized by hardware or software means; moreover, the software can either realize performance differences in an emergent way through impacts from other variability or by utilizing purposeful varying design tactics. The results point out two differences compared with the prevailing literature. Firstly, when the customer needs and characteristics enable price differentiation, performance may be varied even with no trade-offs or production cost differences involved. Secondly, due to the dominance of feature modeling, the literature focuses on the impact management realization. However, performance variability can be realized through purposeful design tactics to downgrade the available software resources and by having more efficient hardware.     

Assessing software product line potential: an exploratory industrial case study

Corporate organizations sometimes offer similar software products in certain domains due to former company mergers or due to the complexity of the organization. The functional overlap of such products is an opportunity for future systematic reuse to reduce software development and maintenance costs. Therefore, we have tailored existing domain analysis methods to our organization to identify commonalities and variabilities among such products and to assess the potential for software product line (SPL) approaches. As an exploratory case study, we report on our experiences and lessons learned from conducting the domain analysis in four application cases with large-scale software products. We learned that the outcome of a domain analysis was often a smaller integration scenario instead of an SPL and that business case calculations were less relevant for the stakeholders and managers from the business units during this phase. We also learned that architecture reconstruction using a simple block diagram notation aids domain analysis and that large parts of our approach were reusable across application cases.     

Using open source software in product development: a primer

There are important legal aspects involved in using open source software in commercial products. Here are answers to common questions on how to handle these issues to mitigate risk. The use of open source software in industrial products is growing rapidly because its many advantages are well known. However although we in industry understand liability and intellectual-property-right risks fairly well, the implication of OSS-related legal and managerial issues are new to many of us. Legal aspects can vary greatly from one piece of OSS to another depending on the license scheme used. We discuss the major legal aspects and risks in using OSS and how to mitigate them in product development. We've ordered the information in a top-down approach, starting with a definition of OSS, its benefits, and then some risks and experiences with managing it in software engineering practice.     

Measuring software quality: a case study

The National Security Agency's (NSA) mission is to provide support for the security of the United States. Over the years, the Agency has become extremely dependent on the software that makes up its information technology infrastructure. NSA has come to view software as a critical resource upon which much of the world's security, prosperity, and economic competitiveness increasingly rests. To ensure cost effective delivery of high quality software, NSA has analyzed effective quality measures applied to a sample code base of 25 million lines. This case study dramatically illustrates the benefits of code level measurement activities     

Value-based software engineering: a case study

The information technology field's accelerating rate of change makes feedback control essential for organizations to sense, evaluate, and adapt to changing value propositions in their competitive marketplace. Although traditional project feedback control mechanisms can manage the development efficiency of stable projects in well-established value situations, they do little to address the project's actual value, and can lead to wasteful misuse of an organization's scarce resources. The value-based approach to software development integrates value considerations into current and emerging software engineering principles and practices, while developing an overall framework in which these techniques compatibly reinforce each other.     

Wiki as a corporate learning tool: case study for software development company

In our study, we attempted to further investigate how Web 2.0 technologies influence workplace learning. Our particular interest was on using Wiki as a tool for corporate exchange of knowledge with the focus on informal learning. In this study, we collaborated with a multinational software development company that uses Wiki as a corporate tool since 2001. For our research, we used three different sources for acquisition of data. Primarily, we did an interview with top management. Next we acquired the data on usage statistics from the company Wiki. And finally we distributed a questionnaire in order to acquire users' feedback. Analysis provided many interesting results. One of the main conclusions is that Wiki is successfully used in this company, and large majority of employees finds it useful. Additionally, Wiki did aid informal learning, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.     

Integrating lean and other strategies for mass customization manufacturing: a case study

Mass customization (MC) manufacturing requires high flexibility to respond to customer needs in a timely manner. Lean manufacturing principles can be easily applied to situations with low levels of MC. However, as the degree of customization increases and customer involvement occurs earlier in the design and fabrication stages, the direct application of lean principles to maintain flow and low levels of inventory becomes difficult. This paper presents a framework to show how other strategies such as Quick Response manufacturing/POLCA, Theory of Constraints, Flexible/Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems, etc. can be integrated with lean in MC environments. A case study of boat mass customizer is then used to demonstrate how their operations are transformed by for more efficient MC. Simulation models are used to compare pre- and post-improvement performance.     

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.     

Macro-level software evolution: a case study of a large software compilation

Software evolution studies have traditionally focused on individual products. In this study we scale up the idea of software evolution by considering software compilations composed of a large quantity of independently developed products, engineered to work together. With the success of libre (free, open source) software, these compilations have become common in the form of ‘software distributions’, which group hundreds or thousands of software applications and libraries into an integrated system. We have performed an exploratory case study on one of them, Debian GNU/Linux, finding some significant results. First, Debian has been doubling in size every 2 years, totalling about 300 million lines of code as of 2007. Second, the mean size of packages has remained stable over time. Third, the number of dependencies between packages has been growing quickly. Finally, while C is still by far the most commonly used programming language for applications, use of the C++, Java, and Python languages have all significantly increased. The study helps not only to understand the evolution of Debian, but also yields insights into the evolution of mature libre software systems in general.

Agile vs. structured distributed software development: A case study

In globally distributed software development, does it matter being agile rather than structured? To answer this question, this paper presents an extensive case study that compares agile (Scrum, XP, etc.) vs. structured (RUP, waterfall) processes to determine if the choice of process impacts aspects such as the overall success and economic savings of distributed projects, the motivation of the development teams, the amount of communication required during development, and the emergence of critical issues. The case study includes data from 66 projects developed in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The results show no significant difference between the outcome of projects following agile processes and structured processes, suggesting that agile and structured processes can be equally effective for globally distributed development. The paper also discusses several qualitative aspects of distributed software development such as the advantages of nearshore vs. offshore, the preferred communication patterns, and the effects on project quality.     

Towards dependable development tools for embedded systems: a case study in software verification

This case study describes the specification and formal verification of the key part of SPaS, a development tool for the design of open loop programmable control developed at the University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig. SPaS translates the high-level representation of an open loop programmable control into a machine executable instruction list. The produced instruction list has to exhibit the same behaviour as suggested by the high-level representation. We discuss the following features of the case study: characterization of the correctness requirements, design of a verification strategy, the correctness proof, and the relation to the Common Criteria evaluation standard.     

Mass personalization: social and interactive applications using sound-track identification

This paper describes mass personalization, a framework for combining mass media with a highly personalized Web-based experience. We introduce four applications for mass personalization: personalized content layers, ad hoc social communities, real-time popularity ratings and virtual media library services. Using the ambient audio originating from a television, the four applications are available with no more effort than simple television channel surfing. Our audio identification system does not use dedicated interactive TV hardware and does not compromise the user’s privacy. Feasibility tests of the proposed applications are provided both with controlled conversational interference and with “living-room” evaluations.     

A case study of software process improvement during development

We present a case study of the use of a software process improvement method which is based on the analysis of defect data. The first step of the method is the classification of software defects using attributes which relate defects to specific process activities. Such classification captures the semantics of the defects in a fashion which is useful for process correction. The second step utilizes a machine-assisted approach to data exploration which allows a project team to discover such knowledge from defect data as is useful for process correction. We show that such analysis of defect data can readily lead a project team to improve their process during development     

Can software risk management improve system development: an exploratory study

Software risk management can be defined as an attempt to formalise risk oriented correlates of development success into a readily applicable set of principles and practices. Earlier research suggests that it can reduce the likelihood of a system failure. Using a survey instrument we investigate this claim further. The investigation addresses the following questions: (1) which characteristics of risk management practices; and (2) which other environmental and process factors (such as development methods, manager's experience) relate to improved performance in managing software risks? Our findings support in general the claim that the use of risk management methods improves system development performance. Yet, little support was found for the claim that specific risk management methods are instrumental in attacking specific software risks. Overall, risks are better managed with combined measures of having experienced project managers, selecting a correct project size, and investing in and obtaining experience in risk management deliberations.     

The personal software process: a cautionary case study

In 1995, Watts Humphrey introduced the Personal Software Process in his book, A Discipline for Software Engineering (Addison Wesley Longman, Reading, Mass.). Programmers who use the PSP gather measurements related to their own work products and the process by which they were developed, then use these measures to drive changes to their development behavior. The PSP focuses on defect reduction and estimation improvement as the two primary goals of personal process improvement. Through individual collection and analysis of personal data, the PSP shows how individuals can implement empirically guided software process improvement. The full PSP curriculum leads practitioners through a sequence of seven personal processes. The first and most simple PSP process, PSPO, requires that practitioners track time and defect data using a Time Recording Log and Defect Recording Log, then fill out a detailed Project Summary Report. Later processes become more complicated, introducing size and time estimation, scheduling, and quality management practices such as defect density prediction and cost-of-quality analyses. After almost three years of teaching and using the PSP, we have experienced its educational benefits. As researchers, however, we have also uncovered evidence of certain limitations. We believe that awareness of these limitations can help improve appropriate adoption and evaluation of the method by industrial and academic practitioners