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This article describes a web-based application that can be used to help teach linear programming (LP) using an active learning approach in business courses such as management science and decision analysis. The software asks 42 integrated questions that guide students in creating product mix models and performing related analysis in Excel with Solver. Automated grading and extensive commentary provide fast feedback and help students more holistically understand topical relationships. Humor helps make learning the material more engaging and fun. The application uses randomized data and cell layout locations to encourage academic integrity and make repeated practice more value-adding. Assessment results suggest that the application offers challenges and supports learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software engineering (SE) research should be relevant to industrial practice. There have been regular discussions in the SE community on this issue since the 1980's, led by pioneers such as Robert Glass. As we recently passed the milestone of "50 years of software engineering", some recent positive efforts have been made in this direction, e.g., establishing "industrial" tracks in several SE conferences. However, many researchers and practitioners believe that we, as a community, are still struggling with research relevance and utility. The goal of this paper is to synthesize the evidence and experience-based opinions shared on this topic so far in the SE community, and to encourage the community to further reflect and act on the research relevance. For this purpose, we have conducted a Multi-vocal Literature Review (MLR) of 54 systematically-selected sources (papers and non peer-reviewed articles). Instead of relying on and considering the individual opinions on research relevance, mentioned in each of the sources, the MLR aims to synthesize and provide the "holistic" view on the topic. The highlights of our MLR findings are as follows. The top three root causes of low relevance, discussed in the community, are: (1) Researchers having simplistic views (or wrong assumptions) about SE in practice; (2) Lack of connection with industry; and (3) Wrong identification of research problems. The top three suggestions for improving research relevance are: (1) Using appropriate research approaches such as action-research; (2) Choosing relevant (practical) research problems; and (3) Collaborating with industry. By synthesizing all the discussions on this important topic so far, this paper aims to encourage further discussions and actions in the community to increase our collective efforts to improve the research relevance. Furthermore, we raise the need for empirically-grounded and rigorous studies on the relevance problem in SE research, as carried out in other fields such as management science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a multi-disciplinary decentralized integrated modeling approach (DIMA) for comprehensive modeling production and logistics networks. The DIMA allows the implementing of the principle of throughout modeling 'conceptual model → mathematical model → software'. In the paper, the DIMA is illustrated on the problem of collaborative network (CN) dynamical synthesis and reconfiguration. This problem is described in a comprehensive way on the conceptual and mathematical levels. This description allows interlinking synthesis and analysis issues of CN planning and control taking into account system elements' activity, uncertainty factors, and structure dynamics. The paper reports a novel approach for comprehensive multi-disciplinary modeling distributed large-scale business systems with decentralized decision-making and control. In this paper, the main features of the DIMA are summarized based on recently developed partial models and algorithms for a large spectrum of CN management issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the results of a project sponsored by the Engineering and Physics Science Research Council (EPSRC) in collaboration with leading engineering and consultant companies, which is aimed at developing new methodologies for Computer-Aided Assembly Process Planning (CAAPP). The aims of this project were to investigate contemporary industrial requirements for CAAPP, study the feasibility of integrating CAAPP with data management tools via a product model and review current state-of-the-art systems and methodologies. The research has been focused on finding solutions to some of the limiting factors that have kept CAAPP an immature technology for many years. The deliverable of the research project is a novel assembly planning system, which has been developed in a Product Data Management (PDM) environment. The system takes the product configuration model derived from the PDM system as the input. This input is analysed by the system using intensive built-in knowledge to yield detailed assembly plans. The system achieves integration of CAAPP functionality with a PDM tool, providing a data control framework and a high-level data structure to form the basis of planning. The prototype system has an automatic planning module and an interactive planning sub-system that complements it. The interactive planning module also allows the user to capture the assembly knowledge and model it as a flowchart in the system. As fully automatic planning is a new field, comparison of automatically generated results with those of the semiautomatic system help to evaluate the system and build up user confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocates of software risk management claim that by identifying and analyzing threats to success (i.e., risks) action can be taken to reduce the chance of failure of a project. The first step in the risk management process is to identify the risk itself, so that appropriate countermeasures can be taken. One problem in this task, however, is that no validated lists are available to help the project manager understand the nature and types of risks typically faced in a software project. This paper represents a first step toward alleviating this problem by developing an authoritative list of common risk factors. We deploy a rigorous data collection method called a "ranking-type" Delphi survey to produce a rank-order list of risk factors. This data collection method is designed to elicit and organize opinions of a panel of experts through iterative, controlled feedback. Three simultaneous surveys were conducted in three different settings: Hong Kong, Finland, and the United States. This was done to broaden our view of the types of risks, rather than relying on the view of a single culture--an aspect that has been ignored in past risk management research. In forming the three panels, we recruited experienced project managers in each country. The paper presents the obtained risk factor list, compares it with other published risk factor lists for completeness and variation, and analyzes common features and differences in risk factor rankings in the three countries. We conclude by discussing implications of our findings for both research and improving risk management practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article identifies and describes the major categories of software tools which are available for supporting new product development (NPD). The goals, advantages, and disadvantages of these tools, rather than complete evaluations of the merits of specific software packages, are provided. Companies offering new products are best served by considering value to customers, global competition, strategic positioning and environmental concerns. The individual item must be brainstormed, designed, named and launched with cooperation among business groups to maximize creative ability.

The STRATPORT decision support system represents an extension and operationalization of current business portfolio approaches. It is designed to aid top managers and corporate planners in the evaluation and formulation of business portfolio strategies. It is an on-line computerized mathematical model utilizing empirical and (managerial) judgment-based data. A description of the basic structure of the STRATPORT model is presented, as well as an illustrative example of its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides information on the Factory Schedule Show (FSS) software. FSS is a Windows based software which provides a graphical demonstration of a factory operations schedule and machine loads. The system is also capable of showing relevant statistical data and performance measure. Because of the hundreds of download requests for FSS, it is apparent that there is a need and great potential for usage of a web site dedicated to the exchange of free software related to Manufacturing Systems Engineering. FSS also has the capability to show some relevant statistical data and performance measures. FSS is useful for teaching, research and actual application. The software is coded in Borland C + + 4.0 for Windows. It runs on IBM PC and requires Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher. The system consists of two main menus: File and View. Under the File menu, there are six items: Open - Run, Reset - Run, Close, Print Screen, Print Statistics and Exit. Under View menu, there are two items: Performance measures and Input data. However, it is the responsibility of the user to make sure about the integrity of the input data. FSS does not check the input file for detection of possible errors. Therefore, the required format of the input file must be observed.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize data quality (DQ) in the context of business process management and to propose a DQ oriented approach for business process modeling. The approach is based on key concepts and metrics from the data quality management domain and supports decision-making in process re-design projects on the basis of process models. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a design oriented research approach, in the course of which a modeling method is developed as a design artifact. To do so, method engineering is used as a design technique. The artifact is theoretically founded and incorporates DQ considerations into process re-design. Furthermore, the paper uses a case study to evaluate the suggested approach. Findings – The paper shows that the DQ oriented process modeling approach facilitates and improves managerial decision-making in the context of process re-design. Data quality is considered as a success factor for business processes and is conceptualized using a rule-based approach. Research limitations/implications – The paper presents design research and a case study. More research is needed to triangulate the findings and to allow generalizability of the results. Practical implications – The paper supports decision-makers in enterprises in taking a DQ perspective in business process re-design initiatives. Originality/value – The paper reports on integrating DQ considerations into business process management in general and into process modeling in particular, in order to provide more comprehensive decision-making support in process re-design projects. The paper represents one of the first contributions to literature regarding a contemporary phenomenon of high practical and scientific relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic classification has become an important research area due to the exponential growth of digital content in the modern world. Evidently, manual classification of documents is very painstaking and laborintensive task. It takes much time to organize a collection of documents according to the subject area. This research has developed a computer programme that can automatically classifying a given text document. Therefore, the user gets correct classification results just after feeding the document to the new system. For the process of classification, we use a new algorithm developed by enhancing basic form of an existing text classifier called tf-idf. The results were obtained for classification accuracy of the new text classification algorithm. They were compared with the results obtained for the basic tf-idf classifier. The research revealed that, the newly developed classifier algorithm can obtain better classification accuracy than the basic tf-idf classifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a construction approach of confidence management software is presented to keep the confidence in the software lifecycle. The originality of the proposed approach is to combine software confidence theory and model driven development approaches to a consistent approach of Confidence Model Driven Architecture and Methodology. The confidence verification problem of the management software is described clearly according to the existing research results. This approach focuses on the structure elements of the layers in ICEMDA, describes the confident model, measures confidence index, verifies and optimizes the confidence of the element. The maintenance and transformation of the confidence among the layers is based on the model semantic maintenance technology of ICEMDA. The confidence verification of the business component platform -- specific model is taken as an example to introduce the implementation mechanism of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research involving tangible interaction and children has often focused on how tangibles might support or improve learning compared to more traditional methods. In this paper, we review three of our research studies involving tangible computer programming that have addressed this question in a variety of learning environments with a diverse population of children. Through these studies, we identify situations in which tangible interaction seems to offer advantages for learning; however, we have also identify situations in which tangible interaction proves less useful and an alternative interaction style provides a more appropriate medium for learning. Thus, we advocate for a hybrid approach-one that offers teachers and learners the flexibility to select the most appropriate interaction style to meet the needs of a specific situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the three enterprise software systems (enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM)) and firms’ innovative performance for process as well as product innovations. Using German firm-level data and a two-part model, the results reveal that SCM systems foster the firms’ likelihood of becoming a potential process innovator. In addition, ERP systems increase the number of process innovations a firm realizes. Concerning product innovation performance CRM systems increase the firms’ likelihood to acquire product innovations, whereas the number of expected product innovations is increased if firms use an SCM system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the ideas of neuroenergetic and neural field theories to detect stimulation-driven energy flows in the brain during face and auditory word processing. In this analysis, energy flows are thought to create the stable gradients of the fMRI weighted summary images. The sources, from which activity spreads in the brain during face processing, were detected in the occipital cortex. The following direction of energy flows in the frontal cortex was described: the right inferior frontal =>the left inferior frontal =>the triangular part of the left inferior frontal cortex =>the left operculum. In the left operculum, a localized circuit was described. For auditory word processing, the sources of activity flows were detected bilaterally in the middle superior temporal regions, they were also detected in the left posterior superior temporal cortex. Thus, neuroenergetic assumptions may give a novel perspective for the analysis of neuroimaging data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The (human) intuition when modelling a hierarchical business process is to reflect the incipient control pattern in the agents that comprise the physical organisation. One rationale behind this approach is that stakeholders can relate their perception of the business process to its software implementation. We describe a hierarchical approach to building a model of a call centre, in which the key elements are a call-router and a variable number of call-handlers and note that the communication overheads and complexity of the agents required to implement the call routing process rapidly increase with the sophistication and scale of the call-centre model. We contrast this with a non-hierarchical approach building on ideas from peer-to-peer networks and demonstrate through simulation the similarity of the key performance indicators derived from each approach. We conclude that the inherent flexibility and resilience of the decentralised approach suggests significant potential advantages compared with current approaches to call-centre management, and looking beyond this scenario, for dynamic task allocation in general. Furthermore, the multi-agent solution is capable of functioning both as an application and as a simulation that then allows experimentation with alternative business models and potentially enabling more effective day-to-day allocation and utilisation of resources within actual call centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical modeling has been a vital tool in the field of environmental engineering. Various models have been developed to simulate the level of aeration efficiency (AE) provided by different aerating structures to raise levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) in streams; one of which is the stepped cascade structure. Three models developed by Gameson et al. WRL, and Nakasone, in addition to Qual2k, a computer program for stream modeling, have been used in this research; values of AEs obtained have been compared to those computed using DO measured from a built model at a WWTP. A stepped cascade structure was installed with different heights to aerate five flowrates with different levels of COD. An adjustment has been made to the Nakasone model to test the effect of pollutant load on the amount of aeration that could be reached. Values of AEs computed using the Gameson model were 30%, 39.5%, and 40% for cascade heights (Hd) 45, 60, and 75 cm respectively for the five flowrates (q) that ranged from 21-66 m3/hr. Values of AEs from WRL model were 32.8%, 42%, and 43% consequently. Values of AEs from Nakasone model ranged from 4.6-7.5%, 6-10%, and 7.6-12% respectively. For the adjusted Nakasone model, values of AEs ranged from 3.2-4.9%, 3.3-5.3%, and 4.1-6.7% respectively. Finally, the AEs computed using the values of downstream DO generated by Qual2k ranged from 4-18%, 2-15%, and 2.5-5.1% correspondingly. Around 80% of the downstream DO values computed using the Nakasone and adjusted Nakasone model were closer to those measured in the field, thus more reliable in cascade design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific collaboration and gender equality are two spheres of great interest for the organizations responsible for instigating scientific policies. We have identified the research groups and women's contribution to one of the most outstanding Spanish psychology journals. We have selected papers published during the 1989-2008 period in Psicothema. A bibliometric and network analysis was carried Out using the Pajek Software tool. We have analysed 1,718 papers, written by 2,423 authors, 53.45% men and 47.54% women. We have identified 86 research groups made up of 293 researchers. We have observed a high increase of productivity and collaboration in the 1999-2008 period, as well as the consolidation, growth, and evolution of many incipient groups identified in the 1989-1998 period, benefiting from the increased interest and prestige of the journal. Despite the increase in the number of women, rising from 35.71% in 1989 to 48.48 in 2008, we have observed an imbalance with regard to productivity and the order of signatures, where women are relegated to intermediate positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the work-arounds through which an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system is implemented within an Australian University. We argue that while resistance is significant, the process of working around a technology can have ambiguous effects in terms of how users-in this case academics-are governed and govern themselves. Drawing upon Andrew Barry's Foucauldian-inspired work on ''technological zones,'' we show how attempts to work-around the ERP contributed to the creation of an alternative technological zone based on cultural discourses of academic freedom aimed at resisting the standardized programs of action inscribed within the university-wide ERP. However, we demonstrate also that these work-arounds resulted in a partial convergence with the university's advanced liberal objectives of going online to become a globally competitive university. We conclude that more research needs to be conducted into the multiple and ambiguous effects of work-arounds in the practice of governing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informatics systems play an important role in modern organisations. Their existence may represent an important coercion for organisations. Appears a constant rise of interdependence between strategies, rules, procedures and the informatics systems consist of computer programmes, data bases and telecommunications equipment. A change in any of these components leads often to significant alteration of the others. This relation becomes critical when the organisation's management realise long and medium term panning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview on the bibliographic software selection criteria for gaming researchers and industry and gambling industry authors. It states that the selecting the latest software version for a certain purpose is a daunting task for every gaming researchers due to the changes that may occur in the new research resources. It suggests that it would be important for software users to understand the capabilities and limitations of the application they use to avoid frustration. It also cites the importance of considering the associated costs with the software when choosing bibliographic software.

The article offers information on organisational and personal knowledge management (PKM). It mentions that PKM is a concept that has developed from a combination of fields as diverse as personal information management (PIM), communications, management science and knowledge management (KM). It states that KM has been focused on how it can be used and on organisational knowledge since its 1990 inception as field of study. It says that PIM is one of the more apparent antecedents of PKM which stems from personal productivity tools and software, and research in library and information management.

Advances in computer technology, encompassed with fast emerging of multicore processor technology, have made the many-core personal computers available and more affordable. The availability of network of workstations and cluster of many-core SMPs have made them an attractive solution for high performance computing by providing computational power equal or superior to supercomputers or mainframes at an affordable cost using commodity components. In order to search alternative ways to extract unused and idle computing power from these computing resources targeting to improve overall performance, as well as to fully utilize the underlying new hardware platforms, these are major topics in this field of research. In this research paper, the design rationale and implementation of an effective toolkit for performance measurement and analysis of parallel applications in cluster environments is introduced; not only generating parallel applications’ timing graph representation, but also to provide application execution’s performance data charts. The goal in developing this toolkit is to permit application developers have a better understanding of the application’s behavior among selected computing nodes purposed for that particular execution. Additionally, multiple execution results of a given application under development can be combined and overlapped, permitting application developers to perform “what-if” analysis, i.e., to deeper understand the utilization of allocated computational resources. Experimentations using this toolkit have shown its effectiveness on the development and performance tuning of parallel applications, extending the use in teaching of message passing, and shared memory model parallel programming courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the practice of simulation modeling by investigating how parameterizations are constructed and integrated into existing frameworks. Parameterizations are simplified process descriptions adapted for simulation models. On the basis of a study of meteorological research, the article presents predictive and representative construction as two different ways of developing parameterizations and the trade-offs involved in this work. Because the overall aim in predictive construction is to improve weather forecasts, the most practical solutions are chosen over the best theoretical solutions. In representative construction, the situation is reversed, but while discourse focuses on theory and models, the everyday work is often tied to computer programs. These different ways of construction work are closely related to the role of the simulation models as epistemic or technical objects, and this characterization is also used to compare the results with previous research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory paper has been written for readers who know nothing about model checking but do know about software. Its aim is to present, almost without mathematical terms, the fundamental general approaches on which the papers in this Special Section build, and give an idea of what kind of contribution each paper makes. The main issues discussed are motivation for model checking, state spaces, and bounded model checking with sat solvers. Individual papers lead to discuss the following ideas: exploiting a distributed computing environment for model checking, constructing those states first that look most promising for eventually finding errors, only constructing a representative subset of states, the representation of contents of variables in an abstract way with approximation from below, and the use of more general solvers than sat solvers in bounded model checking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single statistical framework, comprising power law distributions and scale-free networks, seems to fit a wide variety of phenomena. There is evidence that power laws appear in software at the class and function level. We show that distributions with long, fat tails in software are much more pervasive than previously established, appearing at various levels of abstraction, in diverse systems and languages. The implications of this phenomenon cover various aspects of software engineering research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the emergence of knowledge management in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and provides a knowledge toolkit. A survey of 219 small and medium-sized enterprises in Austria and Switzerland was done and from that the four key knowledge processes which includes knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge distribution, and knowledge preservation for SMEs is illustrated. The knowledge toolkit for SMEs integrates knowledge processes, methods and software tool for decision support making. The social view of knowledge management to SMEs is discussed

Atlas.ti is qualitative data analysis (QDA) software, and its recent version 5.2.12 is now more user friendly as a Windows-based application. Atlas.ti provides some very useful tools in academic research, particularly for social science disciplines. This review offers a case study of utilizing a QDA software package, with two examples of research presented to show how to utilize Atlas.ti. This will serve as a practical guide for qualitative researchers who are beginning to use the QDA software Atlas.ti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a mathematical model for a generic problem of staff allocation. A solution is implemented and evaluated by means of the Tabu Search metaheuristic. The proposed algorithm is used to solve a real case of forestry supervisors' allocation. The results show that the developed algorithm is efficient solving this kind of problems and that it has a wide range of application for other real situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CAQDAS (Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software) identifies software packages, created to support qualitative research. Some researches have confidence on software convenience, effectiveness and easiness, but others have concerns about using this kind of tool. There is some discussion regarding computers usage to support qualitative research, establishing an opportune and necessary debate about this subject. The purpose of this essay is to present and analyze the main concerns related to computers usage in qualitative data analysis. Different opinions and arguments are presented, considering the pros and cons of CAQDAS, based on a bibliographic review focused in four main points, related to contradictory researchers' opinions: the effectiveness of software data management; the increase of researcher closeness with data; the easiness of researchers' communication process; the possibility of bias in the analytical process. It is discussed too some recent Brazilian experiences in CAQDAS usage, to illustrate the points discussed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of interrater reliability (IRR) and interrater agreement (IRA) indices has increased dramatically during the past 20 years. This popularity is, at least in part, because of the increased role of multilevel modeling techniques (e.g., hierarchical linear modeling and multilevel structural equation modeling) in organizational research. IRR and IRA indices are often used to justify aggregating lower-level data used in composition models. The purpose of the current article is to expose researchers to the various issues surrounding the use of IRR and IRA indices often used in conjunction with multilevel models. To achieve this goal, the authors adopt a question-and-answer format and provide a tutorial in the appendices illustrating how these indices may be computed using the SPSS software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate knowledge exchange among commercial organizations, the rationale behind it, and its effects on the market. Knowledge exchange is known to be beneficial for industry, but in order to explain it, authors have used high-level concepts like network effects, reputation, and trust. We attempt to formalize a plausible and elegant explanation of how and why companies adopt information exchange and why it benefits the market as a whole when this happens. This explanation is based on a multiagent model that simulates a market of software providers. Even though the model does not include any high-level concepts, information exchange naturally emerges during simulations as a successful profitable behavior. The conclusions reached by this agent-based analysis are twofold: 1) a straightforward set of assumptions is enough to give rise to exchange in a software market, and 2) knowledge exchange is shown to increase the efficiency of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into student experiences of e-assessment has been neglected. Students' expectations and perceptions of e-assessment have been under-researched and their learning strategies are often unclear. This paper reports a qualitative study which investigated student expectations and perceptions of formative e-assessment. Screen-capture software was utilised to record students' on-task actions during completion of a formative e-assessment. The captured interaction was subsequently used to stimulate recall in post-assessment interviews. Participants discussed the thinking underpinning their approach to different question types, reflected on strategies employed during completion of their assessments and described in detail any difficulties encountered. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified seven major themes. These provided an insight into the way students approach formative e-assessment tasks, the techniques they employ, issues associated with assessment design, and the provision and quality of feedback. Implications for future research and professional action to enhance the effectiveness of formative assessment were outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new research tool within the international fi eld of development cooperation and studies: the Focuss.Info initiative. Focuss.Info facilitates a content specific search engine. This search engine indexes the favourite websites of partners in the initiative and individual contributors who are tagging their websites on a social bookmark platform. In this way, the fi eld of global studies facilitates a valuable research tool in which institutions from all over the world collaborate and share their 'knowledge of websites' with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recent increased attention afforded malware by the popular press, there appears to be a dearth in user awareness and understanding of certain aspects of the security paradigm. This article presents a comparison of user awareness levels of rootkits, spyware, and viruses between U.S. and Chinese users. The results of a survey of 210 U.S. respondents and 278 Chinese respondents indicate that respondents' awareness and knowledge of rootkits is well below that of spyware and viruses. Data analysis further reveals that there are significant differences in Chinese and U.S. user perceptions with regard to spyware and computer viruses. However, there is no difference in cross-cultural awareness with regard to rootkits. Due to the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, rootkits and other malware do not yield at transnational borders. An important step to mitigate the threats posed by malware, such as rootkits, is to raise awareness levels of users worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article presents the research conducted regarding the use of Mobile Findex in dealing information access in the mobile web searching having automatic result clusters. Mobile Findex is a mobile search user interface which utilizes automatically computed result clusters in providing the user with the overall result set and in aiding the evaluation of the result. The study administered to 16 participants reveals that most of them prefer Mobile Findex as a tool in seeking relevant results,as well as due to its efficiency and suitability.

The importance given to competency management is well justified. Acquiring new competencies is the central goal of any education or knowledge management process. Thus, it must be embedded in any software framework as an instructional engineering tool, to inform the runtime environment of the knowledge that is processed by actors, and their situation toward achieving competency-acquisition objectives. We present here some of our results in the last 10 years that have led to an ontology for designing competency-based learning and knowledge management applications. Based on this ontology, we present a software framework for ontology-driven e-learning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]