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Situation‐based use of extended reality technologies for steel‐glass structures – a report from the DigitalTWIN research project Planning, construction and operation are characterized by coordination, evaluation and decision‐making processes, for which model data, visualizations and simulations provide essential support. The DigitalTWIN research project therefore focuses on the use of extended reality/XR services as an essential visualization path for future work processes. End‐to‐end data processing is an essential prerequisite in order to combine object, process and tool data in a coordinated manner is an essential prerequisite. The systematic use of building information modeling (BIM) and the application of agile project management methods are the base for this. Based on open platform technologies fast and task‐specific services were developed in order to efficiently adapt and optimize software interfaces between individual modules. New wireless technologies for low‐latency networking and the issue of broadband expansion on the construction site were also investigated, as state‐of‐the‐art visualization and interaction technologies increase the demands on broadband infrastructure. The article introduces the possibilities of XR services in construction and then shows the developed scenarios for steel‐glass constructions. Finally, the combinability of the software modules for specific application scenarios is shown and an outlook is given on how Industrial Internet of Things and augmented reality technologies can be linked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile software development in construction projects – a report summarizing the DigitalTWIN research project Project management in the construction sector is characterized by manifold and numerous interdependencies, high project volumes with variable constraints and long project durations. It requires structured and defined planning principles as well as flexibility, as criteria, assessments, and opinions change or only become clear during the course of a project. Digital tools for project management are consequently an important focus in the DigitalTWIN research project. The implementation of agile software development in the project course of grid shell structures and cable net facades show the advantages of a close collaboration between project stakeholders and specialists in data science and software engineering. Real project progress can be evaluated faster and more precisely, process designs can be developed based on data, and proven workflows can be adjusted to specific situations without losing the relation to a growing database. The paper gives an introduction to management methods and shows how knowledge and recommended actions for construction projects can be obtained faster from relevant data using individual software development. The required cloud infrastructures, platform technologies and methods are developed step by step in demonstrators and provide an outlook how collaboration can be structured, fast, comprehensive, digital and trustworthy using distributed IT systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Cheminformatics; machine learning; materials informatics; polymer science EN Cheminformatics machine learning materials informatics polymer science 637 642 6 08/09/22 20220601 NES 220601 Article note: A collection of invited papers on Cheminformatics: Data and Standards. The overarching goal of the data infrastructure is to enable data organization, access, and security for cross-team collaboration and end-use machine learning applications. This assessment described building ML models from limited data, followed by iteratively generating more data with guidance from the model coupled with subject matter expertise. [Extracted from the article]

We discuss modeling in the context of agile software development and reflect on how we, as educators, can use modeling to help improve agile practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common way to describe requirements in Agile software development is through user stories, which are short descriptions of desired functionality. Nevertheless, there are no widely accepted quantitative metrics to evaluate user stories. We propose a novel metric to evaluate user stories called instability, which measures the number of changes made to a user story after it was assigned to a developer to be implemented in the near future. A user story with a high instability score suggests that it was not detailed and coherent enough to be implemented. The instability of a user story can be automatically extracted from industry-standard issue tracking systems such as Jira by performing retrospective analysis over user stories that were fully implemented. We propose a method for creating prediction models that can identify user stories that will have high instability even before they have been assigned to a developer. Our method works by applying a machine learning algorithm on implemented user stories, considering only features that are available before a user story is assigned to a developer. We evaluate our prediction models on several open-source projects and one commercial project and show that they outperform baseline prediction models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of software architecture in large-scale Agile development is important because several teams need to work together to release a single software product while helping to maximise teams' autonomy. Governing and aligning Agile architecture across autonomous squads (i.e., teams), when using the Spotify model, is a challenge because the Spotify model lacks practices for addressing Agile architecture governance. To explore how software architecture can be governed and aligned by scaling the Spotify model, we conducted a longitudinal embedded case study in a multinational FinTech organisation. Then, we developed and evaluated an approach for architectural governance by conducting an embedded case study. The collected data was analysed using Thematic Analysis and informed by selected Grounded Theory techniques such as memoing, open coding, constant comparison, and sorting. Our approach for architectural governance comprises an organisational structure change and an architecture change management process. The benefits reported by the practitioners include devolving architectural decision-making to the operational level (i.e., Architecture Owners), enhancing architectural knowledge sharing among squads, minimising wasted effort in architectural refactoring, and other benefits. The practitioners in our case study realised an improved squad autonomy by the ability to govern and align architectural decisions. We provide two key contributions in this paper. First, we present the characteristics of our proposed architectural governance approach, its evaluation, benefits, and challenges. Second, we present how the novel Heterogeneous Tailoring model was enhanced to accommodate our architectural governance approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a domain‐specific software development venture at Nordea. We explore organizational constraints, challenges, and corrective actions undertaken when scaling the agile development approach of their Core Banking Platform program. The fit and required customizations of the rather complex and rigid SAFe framework in a policy‐heavy financial institution are audited against the organic growth of the program. In a qualitative study with three cycles using the Action Research method, both organizational and technical restrictions were tackled jointly with the company employees. Thirty‐four potential solutions were developed—some of which turned out to be dead‐ends. Ultimately, the effectiveness of prior recommendations was tested in a highly challenging implementation environment, and the list of guidelines was extended. We discovered several meeting and collaboration schemes that are not fully aligned with previous reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed agile software development is implemented to tackle the increasing competition and changing requirements of the software industry. It inspires the development of emergent software applications and supports user satisfaction with fast delivery to market at low cost. Distributed software development presents a complex distributed team structure of the software industry having various workplaces. Distributed agile software development requires effective and well-organized decisions during task allocation. Task allocation is a challenging activity across the spectrum of committed software developers in a distributed environment. Effective task allocation under the pressure of achieving project objectives is a complex management problem in distributed agile software development. Task allocation process is proposed to support effective task allocation in distributed agile software development. Firstly, we identify different aspects of the task allocation context to explore the basic requirements of decision-making in DASD. Based on the information related to the identified aspects, different types of process activities are defined; those should be fulfilled to support the task allocation decisions. Task allocation process during software project planning requires comprehensive information about various factors that influence decision-making. The proposed task allocation process is evaluated based on the process activities. None of the current state-of-the-art research works focus on an approach for task allocation that completely fulfills all activities related to high-level processes or low-level processes. We fill this gap by identifying, classifying, sequencing, and proposing these activities that can be used to realize a methodical approach for a generic task allocation process in a distributed agile software development setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software effort estimation is a significant part of software development and project management. The accuracy of effort estimation and scheduling results determines whether a project succeeds or fails. Many studies have focused on improving the accuracy of predicted results, yet accurate estimation of effort has proven to be a challenging task for researchers and practitioners, particularly when it comes to projects that use agile approaches. This work investigates the application of the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) along with the novel Energy-Efficient BAT (EEBAT) technique for effort prediction in the Scrum environment. The proposed ANFIS-EEBAT approach is evaluated using real agile datasets. It provides the best results in all the evaluation criteria used. The proposed approach is also statistically validated using nonparametric tests, and it is found that ANFIS-EEBAT worked best as compared to various state-of-the-art meta-heuristic and machine learning (ML) algorithms such as fireworks, ant lion optimizer (ALO), bat, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and genetic algorithm (GA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adequate allocation of human resources is one of the most important success factors in software projects. Although project teams can be regarded as complex systems in which a team's performance is highly influenced by the interdependencies among team members, the allocation methods applied to date have focused only on individual skills and consider project teams as units of isolated workers. The existing software project scheduling problem (SPSP) is extended to (1) consider different skills and efficiencies of employees and (2) examine the pairwise synergies between them, as well as to (3) handle the flexible structure of the project that is used in flexible management, such as agile project management. To better understand the impact of synergies on the project's cost, the solutions of the traditional and extended SPSP versions are analyzed and compared on the generated project networks. The results show not only that this factor has a highly significant impact but also that the project cost strongly depends on the structural parameters of the synergy network (e.g., topology, network size and degree centrality). Among these parameters, a low degree of centrality and some topologies, most notably star and circular networks, obtained the highest reduction in the projects' total cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the agile flight control design for a quadrotor unnamed aerial vehicle in the 3D environment. Due to the need for the high speed flight and aggressive manoeuver in practical scenarios, the kinematic and dynamic models of the unmanned quadrotor are described in SO(3) and the controller is designed in the rotation format, which can avoid the singularity in the Euler angle format and the unwinding issue in the quaternion format. Moreover, comparing with the other existing nonlinear control strategies for the unmanned quadrotor, the proposed controller has the advantage of easy implementation and good robustness to the modeling uncertainties and unknown external disturbances by using the robust‐integral‐signum‐error method. The stability of the closed loop system is proved via the Lyapunov based stability analysis, and the proposed nonlinear robust controller can guarantee the asymptotic convergence of the quadrotor's attitude and position tracking errors. The effectiveness of the proposed agile flight control design is validated via real‐time experiments in comparison with the classical cascaded PID controller. And the experimental results show that the proposed controller achieves much higher flight control accuracy in agile flights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agile approach and tools are popular for the management of Enterprise Application Software (EAS) development. This article focuses on the issue of inconsistency between strategic business objectives and the functionality of the software developed. Agile management tools lack the functionality of EAS project activities coordination. This article aims to rethink Agile project management using the causal modelling approach. A causal model of Agile project management using a management transaction (MT) concept was developed. The notion of the space of processes was used to identify the MTs location along the axes of aggregation, generalization, and time and to formalize their interaction specifications. Taxonomy of the coordination meta-types and types was developed using the identifiers of the MTs. The modified Agile activities hierarchy was developed, and vertical and horizontal causal interactions between Agile activities were identified. This modified Agile management model helps to consistently track the integrity of EAS project content. Complexity indicators were introduced to evaluate the EAS project complexity and their average and normalized values are presented. Additional attributes in the Agile management tool Jira are proposed. Monitoring mismatch between strategic business objectives and development activities content helps to improve the success of EAS projects delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift from automated testing to the level of business-driven continuous testing described above is a significant step forward in the development of software. However, from the perspective of DevOps, it offers significant benefits. Along the use of objective real-time evaluation of whether software meets business requirements at numerous "quality gates," organisations may automatically and reliably progress release candidates through the delivery pipeline. In this research paper, the details of several open-source testing tools, as well as the testing types that they provide, are given in a tabular format. It is true that some testing tools are more effective than others depending on the circumstances. To properly comprehend the DevOps revolution, many crucial components are necessary. The revolution is often sparked by a compelling event inside a firm, such as a transition to Agile development. Delivering software as a service (DevOps) and continuously testing are two additional processes that may be accelerated by using an Agile development methodology. This paper contains a taxonomic analysis of DevOps tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile methodology is adapted now in many industries globally. The robust framework has converged to critical factors affecting the success of a project around people, processes, organization culture. Globally distributed teams collaborate using improved technology, and communication methods effectively. The involvement of senior management and key stakeholders has shifted to the program manager's level. Certain businesses like retails, operations, and the manufacturing sector use agile and remain unmapped. Post-Covid -19 pandemic restrictions on travel, operating hours for shops, and free movement of people had a deep impact on the retail industry. Consumer behavior has seen a significant shift from typical operation hours to 24/7 online stores. Accessibility to the internet and the use of mobile phones have opened up new opportunities. Product availability in stores, at warehouses, and its logistics, have faced different challenges that we have never seen before. The use of IoT smart sensors has become affordable. Retailers want to keep their consumers engaged and happier on shelves to enable them to be brand ambassadors. Online purchases have become the new normal. Consumers' experience has seen a shift over time due to the introduction of digital marketing and noticed a behavior change in the way consumers refer to, search, purchase, use the product and expect after-sales behavior in omnichannel and multi-brand stores. This paper refers to using Agile methodology and IoT technology in the Retail industry. This case study based on a dipstick survey also shares pilot project findings, the feasibility of RFID-based inventory management, and its effectiveness while adopting Agile in the Retail Industry in developing countries like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sprint Retrospective A retrospective concludes each sprint and focuses on team process, rather than product, with the goal of improving team functioning. Vocabulary includes scrum board, product backlog, product backlog item, product owner, scrum master, and sprint. This is valuable because other students can request help with larger or more technical tasks that may be impossible alone, and as a whole allow for students to develop as a team, while providing a high-quality product at the end of the sprint. [Extracted from the article]

In the supply chain environment, agile distribution refined the division of operations, responded quickly to the customer needs of the mobile terminal, and promoted the construction of an intelligent logistics distribution system. In order to integrate the distribution resources of the distribution system of the logistics industry and maximize the overall benefits of distribution, this paper designs an intelligent logistics agile distribution model and optimizes the distribution strategy. Firstly, this paper puts forward a rationalization evaluation system based on the established logistics agile distribution model. Make full use of the fuzzy subsets of each level to quantify the fuzzy indexes to evaluate, and then comprehensively clarify the index attributes through the fuzzy transformation criteria to obtain the evaluation results. Secondly, aiming at the networked agile distribution organization form, the scientific location mathematical model of agile distribution center and the path mathematical model of the agile distribution are established. Finally, the uncertain influence of many objective conditions on distribution agility has been analyzed, and the dynamic optimization model of an agile distribution path with the concept of time window under random demand is constructed. Through the experimental analysis, the rationalization evaluation strategy and index of verification test results show that the model has significant optimization advantages, which not only improve the rationality and economic benefits of distribution, but also meet the time requirements of all users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large scale aerial deployment of miniature sensors in tough environmental conditions requires a deployment device that is lightweight, robust, and steerable. We present a novel samara-inspired autorotating craft that is capable of two flight modes (autorotating mode and diving mode) with an average glide angle of 28.9 $^{\circ }$ (1.81 m lateral distance per 1 m loss of altitude) in the former mode. The bidirectional transition between the two modes and directional control is achieved by using only a single actuator. Also, in order to minimize its glide angle, a design optimization methodology is presented for our prototype, diving samara autorotating wing, along with a new cyclic control strategy for directional control of autorotating descent. The dynamic model, simulated in a six degrees-of-freedom environment using the blade element theory, is integrated with genetic algorithm to derive parameters for the wing geometry, flap angle for autorotation, and the proposed cyclic control. The physical prototype autorotates at a descent velocity of 1.43 m/s and rotation speed 4.17 Hz, and is able to transit to diving mode in an average duration of 272 ms to increase its descent velocity by at least 17.6 times. At any point during the dive, it is able to transit back into autorotation in an average duration of 327 ms. Semioutdoor experiments were used to investigate the bidirectional transitions and verify the glide angle (28.9 $^{\circ }$), which is much improved from the previous prototype (SAW+, 58.4 $^{\circ }$). Lastly, as a demonstration of a real-life deployment scenario and environmental conditions, the prototypes were dropped from a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle at a suburban test site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into the limitations of quick response software for most organizations. It emphasizes that supply chain design, rather than software, is crucial for responsiveness. It suggests addressing common supply chain design issues before considering responsive planning tools. Evaluating factors like batch size, capacity flexibility, and production cycle sequence can determine the suitability of a quick response model.

Rule 1: Make sure a workflow engine can talk to your software easily The fundamental notion of a computational workflow is that a workflow engine runs software tools in a given sequence, feeding data from one step to the next [[8]]. Within software design I separation of concerns i is a fundamental design principle [[55]], but developers may only address it within a piece of software, instead of considering the boundaries of the software tool itself. Despite significant increase in uptake of workflow tools [[7]], there is little specific guidance for writing software intended to slot in as a tool within a workflow, or on converting an existing stand-alone research-quality software tool into a reusable, composable, well-behaved citizen within a larger workflow. [Extracted from the article]

Transport activities and citizen mobility have a deep impact on enlarged smart cities. By analyzing Big Data streams generated through Internet of Things (IoT) devices, this paper aims to show the efficiency of using IoT analytics, as an agile optimization input for solving real-time problems in smart cities. IoT analytics has become the main core of large-scale Internet applications, however, its utilization in optimization approaches for real-time configuration and dynamic conditions of a smart city has been less discussed. The challenging research topic is how to reach real-time IoT analytics for use in optimization approaches. In this paper, we consider integrating IoT analytics into agile optimization problems. A realistic waste collection problem is modeled as a dynamic team orienteering problem with mandatory visits. Open data repositories from smart cities are used for extracting the IoT analytics to achieve maximum advantage under the city environment condition. Our developed methodology allows us to process real-time information gathered from IoT systems in order to optimize the vehicle routing decision under dynamic changes of the traffic environments. A series of computational experiments is provided in order to illustrate our approach and discuss its effectiveness. In these experiments, a traditional static approach is compared against a dynamic one. In the former, the solution is calculated only once at the beginning, while in the latter, the solution is re-calculated periodically as new data are obtained. The results of the experiments clearly show that our proposed dynamic approach outperforms the static one in terms of rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations have increasingly applied agile project management; however, they face challenges in scaling up this approach to large projects. Thus, this study investigates the key barriers and benefits of scaling agile methods to large projects. The research approach is a literature review, applying bibliometrics and content analysis with Bibliometrix and UCINET software. We conducted a sampling process in the Web of Science and Scopus databases and surveyed 76 articles in depth. The results identified 53 barriers clustered into six main categories: organizational issues, managerial issues, agile method-specific barriers, product/process issues, customer issues, and team issues. Thirty-two benefits were coded and clustered into three categories: business, project, and team. Requirement management appears as a core topic, impacting both barriers and benefits for scaling agile project management. We identified a strong relationship between the barriers and benefits. These results can be used to create questionnaires to explore these barriers and benefits in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software traceability, the ability to relate software development artifacts such as requirements, design models and code to each other, is an important aspect in software development. It yields a number of benefits such as facilitating impact analysis and tracking software changes. However, for companies to reap these benefits, a proper traceability strategy—a plan for how traceability should be managed—needs to be defined and implemented. Existing literature lacks concrete guidelines for practitioners to systematically define such a strategy. In this study, we address this gap by defining a Traceability Introduction Methodology (TracIMo), which is a methodology for systematically designing, implementing and evaluating software traceability in practice. We used design science research to design TracIMo and evaluated it in a case study with an agile development team of a company in the finance domain. Our results show that TracIMo is feasible as it allows incremental definition and evaluation of a traceability strategy that is aligned with the company's traceability goals and the existing development process. We also report practical challenges encountered when designing a traceability strategy such as defining the right level of granularity and the need for defining intermediate development artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge management systems (KMS) are computer‐based systems highly valued in business organizations because they support knowledge management (KM) processes. Most KMS have been developed using non‐intelligent computer technology—that is, DMS, CMS, DBMS, and CIS—, and thus, they cannot provide advanced capabilities. Consequently, enhanced KMS using intelligent technologies of ontologies with inference engines—called ontology‐based knowledge management systems (OKMS)—have been proposed in the last three decades. Nowadays, however, the implementation of OKMS in real‐world settings is still scarce. Lack of comprehensive and systematic development methodologies including Project Management and Technical Systems Engineering processes—as the Systems and Software Systems Engineering standards propose—have been suggested as a factor that inhibits OKMS implementations. In this study, we review the OKMS literature (1990–2021 period)—from six seminal studies located using a research search engine—to assess OKMS development methodologies that can be considered comprehensive and systematic. Five methodologies were identified and assessed using an evaluation subset from the ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 Systems and Software Engineering standard. Two of them—CommonKADS and NeON—were found with a high comprehensive and systematic level and both are suggested for organizations interested in OKMS implementations, but none of them qualified as agile, which is a current development approach for systems and software systems. Hence, further empirical research toward the realization of comprehensive and systematic OKMSs development methodologies, including agile versions, is suggested for fostering the implementation of OKMS in real‐world settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has changed the way the world works, the frameworks and ways of cooperation and methods. Every organization must be able to cope with major unforeseen disruptions, environmental changes and uncertainties. Studies in the international literature have examined the impact of COVID-19 on agile organizations and some have indicated that agility has been a very useful solution for many organizations during the COVID-19 crisis, as agile teams or organizations have been able to build for the long term in a dynamically changing turbulent environment. There has been no discussion in the Hungarian literature, however, on the impact of the changes generated by COVID-19 on small agile software development companies and teams less likely to adopt a work from home strategy before the virus or how these organizations have responded to the current changes. This paper primarily sought to address these issues and to fill this gap in the Hungarian literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐functional requirements define qualities of the software system that ensure effectiveness while embedding any constraints and restrictions on the design. A challenge rises with agile implementation in handling non‐function requirements in regulated environments. Thus, a practitioner's perceptions of agile method tailoring are described in relation to inter‐team boundaries and non‐functional requirements. The research comprises 18 practitioner interviews from two multinational agile software development companies. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using an approach informed by grounded theory and information flow models were used to compare and contrast interactions of processes. It was discovered that one of the case study companies managed non‐functional requirements as artefacts in their agile methodology, while the other company reverts to conventional plan‐based software development practices of documentation, timeline estimations, and safety critical requirements. This research creates a detailed comparison of these contrasting approaches. The main contribution of this study is a set of proposed recommendations to deal with non‐functional requirements in a regulated environment using agile techniques. The introduction of two new artefacts, Documentation Work Item and Safety Critical Work Item, is recommended and it is accompanied with an illustrative example, to transform the handling of documentation and safety critical requirements in a more agile way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to analyse the possible relationships between different aspects of exercise score in competition and anthropometric characteristics in a group of national elite AG adolescents according to two different categories. Descriptive and cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 39 adolescents aged between 11 and 19 years (14,9± 2,39), from the junior and senior categories. An ad hoc questionnaire was administered asking for sociodemographic and sporting data, together with anthropometric measurements of weight, height, waist circumference and tricipital, bicipital, suprailiac, supraspinatus, supraspinatus and calf skinfolds. Significant associations were found between the % BF (sum of triceps and subscapularis skinfold) with the BAL and COMB exercise difficulty score and more moderately with the DYN exercise difficulty and end score. Similarly, the % of BF with the sum of the two tricipital and calf creases showed a moderate association with the final grade of the DYN exercise and the difficulty grade of the BAL exercise, as well as the difficulty grade of the DYN exercise. The bases present higher values in all anthropometric measures compared to the agile; in terms of performance, it is higher in the senior category, obtaining better scores in all the variables analysed and finally, there is a negative association between the % BF and the score in the difficulty grades of all the exercises, as well as in the final grade of the DYN exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: This article presents agile software engineers stick together (ASEST+), an improved version of a framework called ASEST that aims to develop team cohesion, leading to better team learning and software engineering student teams. Background: Effective teamwork is crucial for agile software development’s success and is, therefore, a key topic of current software engineering education. In the previous work, a preliminary proposal for ASEST+ was presented. Here, an improved version, more suitable for agile practice education and considering cohesion antecedents, is described. Intended Outcome: A teaching-learning framework to support teamwork in agile software education. Application Design: ASEST+ is built around Scrum teams and combines learning strategies to train students in collaborative and technical agile practices. ASEST+ establishes policies for role allocation and team rule agreements to regulate communication and address conflict management agile practices. ASEST+ addresses personality traits, conflict resolution, and task interdependence as the antecedents identified as the most important. Findings: A quasiexperiment showed that the use of ASEST+ significantly increases the students’ positive perceptions on team cohesion, team performance, and team learning compared with the control group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Perspective briefly summarizes what is known about electrically conducting domain walls. It highlights insights into the underlying causes of enhanced current transport, developed despite the frustrations and limitations of the standard two-probe source and drain measurements that have dominated the field to date (because of the pervasive use of conventional conducting atomic force microscopy). This perspective gives a feel for the unique possibilities offered by conducting domain walls, in future forms of agile electronics. Indeed, it is imagined that domain walls and domain wall junctions might eventually allow for entire nanoscale circuits (devices and their interconnects) to be created in one instant, for one purpose, only to be wiped clean and rewritten in a different form, for a different purpose, in the next instant. Malleable domain wall network architecture that can continually metamorphose could represent a kind of technological genie, granting wishes on demand for radical moment-to-moment changes in electronic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of agile frameworks applied to small projects have aroused interest in the large-scale software industry. However, applying them in scaled environments has meant facing multiple challenges, including communication, coordination, and cooperation. Scaled frameworks emerge in response to these challenges, describing the implementation guides to achieve the agile large-scale transformation. However, a lack of conceptual clarity regarding the elements prescribed by these frameworks was identified in the literature. This article introduces the Scaled Agile Model reference model, which integrates the experience reported in the literature and the fundamental attributes of scaled agile frameworks: SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, and DAD. A protocol was followed for the harmonization of multiple models, which allowed integrating and obtaining a reference model from the results of the harmonization of frameworks and the literature found. Additionally, SAM was evaluated for clarity, suitably, and completeness through a focus group. Thus, the proposed reference model defines sixteen roles, three levels of scale, and 34 practices grouped into 8 categories. The results suggest a good acceptance by the experts who evaluated the proposal. Likewise, the proposed model aims to be of great practical benefit for companies that want to scale, companies that are scaling, or companies that have already scaled and want to evaluate their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates how different constellations of agile and plan-driven project management methods used by in- and out-suppliers, out-supplier reputation, and satisfaction with the in-supplier affect intentions to choose the out-supplier for a new professional service, and whether these effects are mediated by perceived switching costs. This is a survey-based study with 971 participants in Switzerland using scenarios about a new digital business solution. The data were analyzed using path analysis and analysis of variance. The intention to choose the out-supplier is highest when the out-supplier uses agile methods while the in-supplier uses plan-driven methods. Higher out-supplier reputation leads to lower perceived switching costs and higher intentions to choose the out-supplier. Higher satisfaction with the in-supplier leads to higher perceived switching costs and lower intentions to choose the out-supplier. The results extend previous research by showing that the constellation of project management methods has stronger effects on perceived switching costs and intentions to choose the out-supplier than have out-supplier reputation and satisfaction with the in-supplier. While perceived switching costs depend more strongly on out-supplier reputation, intentions to choose the out-supplier depend more strongly on satisfaction with the in-supplier. Out-suppliers can increase their acquisition rate by using agile methods when competing with an in-supplier using a plan-driven approach. Out-suppliers should proactively communicate the benefits of agile approaches in the business initiation stage, invest in proactive reputation management, and carefully analyze the existing business relationship between the target customer and the in-supplier. If the target customer is satisfied with the in-supplier using an agile approach, it is less likely that the out-supplier will successfully outcompete them. This study is the first to examine the effects of different constellations of project management methods in addition to out-supplier reputation and satisfaction with the in-supplier on perceived procedural switching costs and the intention to choose the out-supplier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Most children and adolescents in Sweden do not meet the recommended daily physical activity levels of the World Health Organization. Active school transport (AST) and gamification are potential methods for increasing children's daily physical activity. We previously developed a game named Tic-Tac-Training for promoting active transport at workplaces; however, the game has not been applied to AST. Objective: The objectives of this study are to investigate how Tic-Tac-Training functions to promote AST among schoolchildren in northern Sweden, improve the game to be more suitable for schoolchildren, and construct a road map for future development based on children's ideas. Methods: First, we developed Tic-Tac-Training using the Scrum agile software development method. Second, we conducted a questionnaire-based formative evaluation of the game with schoolchildren (n=16; 9/16, 56% male; 6/16, 38% female; and 1/16, 6% other aged 11-12 years) in Luleå, Sweden. Third, we conducted focus group interviews with 33 children (13/33, 39% male and 20/33, 61% female aged 12-13 years) to gather ideas for gamifying AST. We mapped the interview results to the Octalysis gamification framework and established a road map for future development. Results: The formative evaluation revealed several issues, including a lack of interesting game features, lack of support for continuous engagement, disliked competitive features, and lack of incentives for discourse and participation. New features such as rewards, collectibles, and levels were implemented based on the results. The focus group interviews revealed additional ideas for gamifying AST, such as using avatars, in-game currency and trading, and context-sensitive tasks. Conclusions: The results have several potential impacts on how reusable, gamified AST interventions can be developed and what kind of gamification elements schoolchildren in northern Sweden wish to see. These results can interest game researchers and teachers who wish to apply gamification in school contexts. Finally, we aim to continue developing the game based on the road map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A test case is a cornerstone of the testing process; hence, it is quintessential to ensure the quality of the test cases. However, test case design in the Agile testing process has limitations that affect its quality standards, leading to the failure of many software projects. Previous studies are limited in providing a clear guideline for assessing the test case quality. However, evaluating the quality of test cases will help software testing practitioners to understand some critical issues in designing test cases from various perspectives. Therefore, this paper aims to present the verified factors and criteria of test case quality by software testing experts in an Agile environment. The proposed factors and criteria were verified through expert review techniques, which included an online survey of professionals and those in domain and knowledge experts. Twenty-three industry practitioners, including developers, testers, and systems analysts, were used to identify the domain experts. In contrast, the knowledge experts were drawn from 13 academic areas of software engineering and testing. The results showed that the quality of test cases is paramount in Agile projects; therefore, the experts accept seven factors and 32 criteria with a few mod- ifications and suggestions. The finding may assist the researchers in improving the proposed factors and criteria for validation purposes. Hence, may contribute to soft- ware testing practitioners as a guideline in constructing, designing, and assessing compelling test cases. Most significantly, the fixed factors and criteria may contribute to the body of knowledge in the software testing domain and industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to show how the use of agile methodology unfolds within the scope of Project management in the automotive industrial segment in scientific literature. This work is a Systematic Literature Review, where procedures were applied in the selection of articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, for the identification and interpretation of the main publications on the subject in the scientific literature, seeking to understand its relevance and evolution. The findings of this research will contribute to the understanding of how the use of agile methodologies can contribute to maximize the success of the negotiations practiced in projects in the automotive industrial segment. In addition, due to the particular characteristics of agile methodologies, focus on management efficiency and focus on results. This work contributes to an improvement in the understanding of the benefits of applying agile methodologies in project management in the automotive industrial segment. This research addresses two main, current and quite comprehensive themes - agile methodologies and project management - involving several complementary disciplines found in the collected works (Automotive Industry; Impact; Implementation; Management; Model; Performance; Process Engineering; Process Monitoring; Six Sigma; Six Sigma methodology; Work Simplification), which support the identification of how these themes relate to the presence and use of agile methodologies in project management in the automotive industrial segment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper is presented a methodology for the design and implementation of automation products for technological processes from the Cuban pharmaceutical industry. The proposed methodology is based on a scrum approach, by using own software technologies which reduce the time of development and start up, provide great flexibility and efficiency in operations, significantly improve the traceability of processes and facilitate work based on user-friendly designs of the human-machine interface among its main advantages. The methodology developed is applicable to the automation of most of the pharmaceutical industry processes and guarantees to satisfy the demanding quality indicators of this industry and the requirements of the Drug Control Center (CECMED) of Cuba. The application of the methodology in the Cuban pharmaceutical industry has meant a saving to the country more of three and half million of euros in the last five years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern software development faces several challenges related to fast technological changes and shorter delivery cycles. This, is reflected in adopting agile approaches that try to lean as much as possible the software development process, from requirements engineering to system deployment. As part of this leaning effort, requirements prioritization is an important activity, as it is usually not possible to implement all requirements at once. Nevertheless, requirements prioritization is a complex activity where several stakeholder's opinions have to be taken into account hierarchically. There are many techniques to prioritize requirements, being the most accurate and complex the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP is very reliable when prioritizing requirements in the most accurate way due to its mathematical founding, however, this method involves matrix and vectors operations as well as a defined number of pairwise comparisons, which makes it a CPU-intensive method. This paper presents an improved AHP using evolutionary computing techniques to try to optimize requirements prioritization. The proposed approach reduces the complexity of the overall AHP process, and shows to outperform traditional AHP in terms of prioritization accuracy, according to some industry-level requirements data sets extracted from developed software systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the article " Cost-of-Delay A Framework for Air Force Software Factories " by James Goljan Jonathan D. Ritschel, Scott Drylie, Edward White, which appeared in the periodical " Air & Space Power Journal" on Winter 2021 is presented. Topics include on the Air Force software development environment, utilizing a cost-of-delay (CoD) framework and Agile development environment has introduced new challenges that could undermine the Air Force's ultimate goal of maximizing a finite budget.

Agile software development, a paradigm that emphasizes project team autonomy and the value of responding to changes over following standardized processes, has gained prominence in the software industry. Prior investigations on the adoptions of agile paradigms for software operations and their performance implications have typically focused on isolated aspects of software development processes. In this study, we adopt a configurational perspective of software operations and assess the causal impacts of adopting an organizational policy that grants higher levels of autonomy to project teams. Building on the equifinality framework proposed in organizational studies, we posit that an organizational policy that provides higher levels of autonomy for software teams engenders performance-enhancing adaptations through agile reconfigurations of project operations. To test our hypothesis, we collaborated with a commercial software firm and collected data from a policy experiment at the firm. We examined projectlevel data spanning a four-year observation period during which the firm implemented a new policy that significantly reduced the hurdles for project teams to autonomously reconfigure their operations. The results support our postulation and shed light on how an organizational policy that provides greater autonomy to software teams for designing their context-specific project configurations can improve project performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maturity of organisations is measured using process assessment models like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/IEC 33001. Product quality is refined with internal and external product quality characteristics based on models like the ISO/IEC 25010. With the shift from the Tailorism‐driven process orientation to a more people‐centric organization, the process and product quality dimensions have to be extended by the teamwork quality (TWQ) dimension. For the sake of systematic organization development, this new third quality dimension needs to be integrated into existing quality frameworks to achieve a holistic quality approach. This article introduces agile TWQ as the method of choice. It explains its design, implementation and evaluation in the large enterprise context of the Volkswagen AG. It provides insights into the effectivity of this approach in heterogeneous multi‐team settings, as well as into its strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Allogeneic stem cell transplantation would benefit from re-engineering care towards an integrated eHealth-facilitated care model. With this paper we aim to: (1) describe the development of an integrated care model (ICM) in allogeneic SteM-cell-transplantatIon faciLitated by eHealth (SMILe) by combining implementation, behavioral, and computer science methods (e.g., contextual analysis, Behavior Change Wheel, and user-centered design combined with agile software development); and (2) describe that model's characteristics and its application in clinical practice. Methods: The SMILe intervention's development consisted of four steps, with implementation science methods informing each: (1) planning its set-up within a theoretical foundation; (2) using behavioral science methods to develop the content; (3) choosing and developing its delivery method (human/technology) using behavioral and computer science methods; and (4) describing its characteristics and application in clinical practice. Results: The SMILe intervention is embedded within the eHealth enhanced Chronic Care Model, entailing four self-management intervention modules, targeting monitoring and follow-up of important medical and symptom-related parameters, infection prevention, medication adherence, and physical activity. Interventions are delivered partly face-to-face by a care coordinator embedded within the transplant team, and partly via the SMILeApp that connects patients to the transplant team, who can monitor and rapidly respond to any relevant changes within 1 year post-transplant. Conclusion: This paper provides stepwise guidance on how implementation, behavioral, and computer science methods can be used to develop interventions aiming to improve care for stem cell transplant patients in real-world clinical settings. This new care model is currently being tested in a hybrid I effectiveness-implementation trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software development techniques have always been in-focus while creating high-quality software. Off late, most software firms have adopted the latest approach of the market- “Agile Software Development” to create a superior product. Agile software development allows an incremental and iterative development of the product with close interaction of all the teams on deck. This allows for the efficient utilization of the available resources to satisfy the demands of the end consumer. In the current proposal, a mathematical model has been created which allows optimal allocation of the limited developmental resources among the various sprint cycles and modules. Optimization tools have been used to determine this optimal distribution of resources. The proposed model has been validated on the resource allocation data with promising results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of the planning of the multifunctional, inclusive community garden "Ludwigsgarten Braunschweig", it was worked out which contents should be included in the term "urban green knowledge". Legal and insurance requirements, urban planning aspects, botanical and horticultural knowledge of plants, knowledge of urban ecology including climate and biodiversity are just as much a part of urban green knowledge as is knowledge of the needs and expectations of the users or residents of the district in which the garden is located. This complex urban green knowledge was essential for the planning of the garden concept for the "Ludwigsgarten Braunschweig" in order to be able to transfer it to the implementation via agile project management with the participation of many actors. A suitable communication structure could be established through social work skills. This addressed the people with disabilities as well as the residents of the neighborhood. A project manager turned out to be the key person for communication in the project and was supported by a group of experts with a rotating cast. It is recommended that the usual planning project for green spaces be preceded by participation planning for all groups of actors and that clear rules and obligations follow in a jointly developed user management concept. This enables citizens to be actively and actively involved in urban green planning, landscaping and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile methodology has been noted as the mostly used method for software development over the past few years. This methodology guarantees the rapid delivery of software products with lower cost and greater customer contentment. The adoption of agile methods was initially applied in the software development industry for single, small project teams following the principles of Agile Manifesto. The intense need of the time is to identify from management perspective the motivators that can be focused on to adopt agile methodologies in large-scale projects. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to develop from management perspective a priority-based taxonomy of motivators that helps in scaling agile methodologies in large-scale projects. The taxonomy is developed in two steps. In the first step, data are collected from a survey and open literature. In the second step, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is implemented on the collected data that produced the proposed priority-based taxonomy of the motivators. With the help of AHP model, the 21 motivators of successful project management are categorized into four main categories, i.e., "organization management," "team," "customer and technology," and "process." Furthermore, the AHP analysis is used to rank the motivators and their respective categories in order of their importance. The findings of this study are further reviewed and validated by the agile experts in other organizations. The proposed priority-based taxonomy of motivators can be used as a handbook that gives guidelines on scalability of agile methodologies to large projects, which helps in successful management of large-scale projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the costs and benefits of integrating security into the development of applications and gives formulas for calculating security costs and benefits. The lack of safe application might lead to safety issues. Increasingly, there are accidents recorded that expose security flaws in many major software systems. It results in significant losses for consumer companies. While software businesses are working to produce secure software, the utility of secure software is quite limited. In contrast to the traditional manufacturers of commodities, for example, automakers, software developers have no legal responsibility if their products include flaws. The market reacts adversely to software manufacturers with serious vulnerabilities in their products. This is because of the loss of credibility, cost of patches, and so on. The study shows that the market is ready to penalize the supplier for insecurity and therefore offers the chance to deliver safer technologies. To improve cost/efficiency, the vulnerabilities are connected by accessible fixes. Significant savings are gained when security shortcomings are corrected during designing requirements instead of fixing security failures after deploying software. For suppliers, updates are more expensive to produce and publish. In addition, development costs can be reduced by plugging security issues in the early stages of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]