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This study presents the design and implementation of a high-resolution radar extended target simulation system for simulating extended target echoes in high-resolution radar. The study establishes target echo models for one-dimensional distance targets, two-dimensional surface targets, and three-dimensional volume targets. The key technologies used to achieve the design and implementation of the high-resolution radar extended target simulation system include wideband RF receiver technology, large instantaneous bandwidth baseband echo signal generation technology, target RCS(Radar Cross Section) data acquisition and modulation technology, and wideband agile frequency synthesizer. The system is used to conduct RF simulation and two-dimensional imaging processing of a typical fighter jet target, and the results are compared with the simulation results obtained using RadBase simulation software to verify the effectiveness of the system. The validation results indicate that the RF simulation and two-dimensional imaging processing results of the system are consistent with the simulation results obtained using the RadBase software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior work on leadership in information systems development (ISD) teams has assumed that all developers are treated equally by their team leader and ignored the possibility that differentiated leader-member exchange (LMX) may be an important instrument for team leaders to influence self-organizing, agile ISD teams. We conducted a concurrent mixed methods inquiry to understand how LMX differentiation is associated with developer satisfaction in agile ISD teams and through which team processes agile ISD teams address LMX differentiation. We ran a multilevel, multistage survey of 1,894 software developers in 217 teams and an embedded case study of five ISD teams drawing on qualitative data from 40 interviews of developers and team leaders. Two focus groups (one with 10 developers and one with 10 team leaders) helped to substantiate the meta-inferences from the quantitative and qualitative studies. The results showed that LMX differentiation was positively associated with developer satisfaction, especially in teams with high-quality team-member exchange (TMX). We identify three team processes (i.e., collectivization of resources, visible appreciation of privileges, and freeing up leader capacities) that are enacted through agile ISD practices and allow ISD teams to leverage benefits from LMX differentiation for all their members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The software industry is increasingly facing the need for continuous deployment of systems. This leads to the adoption of continuous activities, including planning, integration, and deployment (a.k.a. Continuous Software Engineering (CSE)). At the same time, systems should exhibit high-quality architectures, which are often achieved through architecture evaluation methods. However, there is little insight of how such evaluation happens in the context of CSE. To cover this gap, we investigate in this work the state of the art of continuous evaluation of software architectures in CSE, including agile processes like SCRUM. For this, we systematically examine the literature to collect and summarize evidence. Our results show a diversity of means for evaluating architectures in continuous mode to support the continuous evolution of systems. We also found how such evaluation has been incorporated within continuous development processes and agile processes like SCRUM and Crystal. We finally derive the main trends and open issues in the area, aiming to support the community to better understand and further consolidate the field of continuous evaluation of software architectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The SingHealth-Duke-GlaxoSmithKline COPD and Asthma Real-world Evidence (SDG-CARE) collaboration was formed to accelerate the use of Singaporean real-world evidence in research and clinical care. A centerpiece of the collaboration was to develop a near real-time database from clinical and operational data sources to inform healthcare decision making and research studies on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Our multidisciplinary team, including clinicians, epidemiologists, data scientists, medical informaticians and IT engineers, adopted the hybrid waterfall-agile project management methodology to develop the SingHealth COPD and Asthma Data Mart (SCDM). The SCDM was developed within the organizational data warehouse. It pulls and maps data from various information systems using extract, transform and load (ETL) pipelines. Robust user testing and data verification was also performed to ensure that the business requirements were met and that the ETL pipelines were valid. Results: The SCDM includes 199 data elements relevant to asthma and COPD. Data verification was performed and found the SCDM to be reliable. As of December 31, 2019, the SCDM contained 36,407 unique patients with asthma and COPD across the spectrum from primary to tertiary care in our healthcare system. The database updates weekly to add new data of existing patients and to include new patients who fulfil the inclusion criteria. Conclusions: The SCDM was systematically developed and tested to support the use RWD for clinical and health services research in asthma and COPD. This can serve as a platform to provide research and operational insights to improve the care delivered to our patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various approaches toward the development of sustainable software systems have been proposed by the requirements engineering community over the last decade. We conducted a systematic mapping study, analyzed 55 publications, and identified 29 approaches that have been published since the year 2000. We analyzed how the approaches evolved over time and how the publications and authors are influenced by each other. Furthermore, the approaches are analyzed in terms of their supported requirements engineering activities, along with the evidence provided in the publications. Additionally, we also analyzed which sustainability definitions have been used, if an iterative application of the approaches is discussed, and if the approaches also provide a tool-support for practitioners. We noticed an increase of publications on requirements engineering approaches toward sustainability in the last years, whereas a majority discuss sustainability based on the same multi-dimensional concept. Although different case studies have been already conducted, we noticed a lack of an industrial application. Our main findings concern the need of an evaluation on how the proposed requirements engineering approaches can also be applied in agile software development processes. Additionally, we also promote the development of supporting software tools to support practitioners in adapting the proposed approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention is currently being focused on DevOps, which aims to reduce software development time by means of close collaboration between the development and operations areas. However, little effort has been made to determine the role of requirements management in DevOps. The objective of this study is to help both researchers and practitioners by providing an overview of the best practices regarding requirements engineering in DevOps and identifying which areas still need to be investigated. A multivocal mapping study has, therefore, been carried out in order to study which methodologies, techniques and tools are used to support requirements management in DevOps environments. After applying the review protocol, 37 papers from formal literature and 14 references from grey literature were selected for analysis. The general conclusions obtained after analysing these papers were that, within DevOps, more attention should be paid to: (1) the reuse of requirements in order to identify systems and software artefacts that can serve as a basis for the specification of new projects; (2) the communication of requirements between the different areas of an organisation and the stakeholders of a project; (3) the traceability of requirements in order to identify the relationship with other requirements, artefacts, tasks and processes; (4) non-functional requirements in order to identify the requirements of the operations area in the early phases of a project; and finally (5) specific requirements tools that should be seamlessly integrated into the DevOps toolchain. All these issues must be considered without ignoring the agile and continuous practices of development, operations and business teams. More effort must also be made to validate new methodologies in industry so as to assess and determine their strengths and weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The software industry is a dynamic and ever‐changing environment where knowledge dissemination and ongoing learning is an open challenge, especially in agile organizations where continuous learning is essential. Organizational training covers the set of activities that drive this learning process and is one of the process areas of process improvement models like CMMI. In this paper, we discuss how the organizational training activity has been carried out at agile organizations under the lens of CMMI V2.0. In other words, we use the CMMI‐DEV V2.0 Organizational Training practices to provide an overview of how agile organizations plan, perform, and assess their training activities as part of their continuous learning process. Existing literature primarily discusses the techniques used to train and retrain employees. However, there is little evidence on how to plan training, how to assure alignment with the organization's strategic and tactical goals, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of training, which are very important challenges in the organizational training process. The paper concludes by presenting eight valuable insights identified by this research and matching them up with the CMMI‐DEV V2.0 Organizational Training practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software Size Measurement is a critical task in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It is the primary input for effort estimation models and an important measure for project control and process improvement. There exist various size measurement methods whose successes have already been proven for traditional software architectures and application domains. Being one of them, functional size measurement (FSM) attracts specific attention due to its applicability at the early phases of SDLC. Although FSM methods were successful on the data-base centric, transaction oriented stand-alone applications, in contemporary software development projects, Agile methods are highly used, and a centralized database and a relational approach are not used as before while the requirements suffer from a lack of detail. Today's software is frequently service based, highly distributed, message-driven, scalable and has unprecedented levels of availability. In the new era, event-driven architectures are appearing as one of the emerging approaches where the 'event' concept largely replaces the 'data' concept. Considering the important place of events in contemporary architectures, we focused on approaching the software size measurement problem from the event-driven perspective. This situation guided us to explore how useful event as a size measure in comparison to data-movement based methods. The findings of our study indicates that events can be promising for measurement and should be investigated further in detail to be formalized for creating a measurement model thereby providing a replicable approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile approaches being practised by multiple teams operating remotely are widely adopted for large software development efforts these days. An agile setting is typically characterized by flexibility, to accommodate changing customer demands for continuous delivery of business value. A distributed setting brings about multiple demands for stability, in terms of a push for clear specification of requirements and design, and a big picture product definition. Therefore, implementing agile distributed development (ADD) projects results in an inherent conflict that must be reconciled. This article attempts to provide nuanced clarity on the notion of conflict between flexibility and stability and its management across variants of an ADD setup. Through multiple case studies, our findings suggest that the specific mode of agile project engagement and distributed team configuration drives the response to flexibility and stability respectively. Leveraging ambidexterity as a theoretical lens, this study contributes to the literature by providing insights beyond the earlier conceptualization of flexibility-stability conflict for the ADD setting. It considers contextual elements to understand the dynamics of conflicting forces. An empirical contribution of this research is the managerial framework that should assist practice in future implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is to improve academic performance through collaborative systems design. To increase the quantity and quality of interactions in CSCL and to reduce feelings of loneliness and burnout during online learning, learner group regulation should be supported. According to the literature, performance and learning motivation cannot be achieved if group communication and interactions are not adequately supported in collaborative learning. However, studies comparing traditional online teamwork and co-regulation guidance are rare. In this context, the purpose of this study is to determine the effects of experimental application designed using agile project management tools to support students' group regulation in collaborative teamwork in online environments on co-regulation, transactive memory, group cohesion, atmosphere, and participation in web programming education. 91 university students participated in this study, which was carried out in the web programming course. The application lasted 17 weeks. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in the study, which was designed with the mixed method. As a result of the research, there was a significant difference between the co-regulation, group cohesion, and group participation scores of the students in group regulation guidance practices through agile learning strategies, according to the intervention groups. It was concluded that the experimental application had positive effects on the improvement of group dynamics. This study provides an example of how to develop co-regulation practices in online collaborative contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By adopting agile and lean practices, DevOps aims to achieve rapid value delivery by speeding up development and deployment cycles, which however lead to more security concerns that cannot be fully addressed by an isolated security role only in the final stage of development. DevSecOps promotes security as a shared responsibility integrated into the DevOps process that seamlessly intertwines development, operations, and security from the start throughout to the end of cycles. While some companies have already begun to embrace this new strategy, both industry and academia are still seeking a common understanding of the DevSecOps movement. The goal of this study is to report the state‐of‐the‐practice of DevSecOps, including the impact of DevOps on security, practitioners' understanding of DevSecOps, and the practices associated with DevSecOps as well as the challenges of implementing DevSecOps. The authors used a mixed‐methods approach for this research. The authors carried out a grey literature review on DevSecOps, and surveyed the practitioners of DevSecOps in industry of China. The status quo of DevSecOps in industry is summarized. Three major software security risks are identified with DevOps, where the establishment of DevOps pipeline provides opportunities for security‐related activities. The authors classify the interpretations of DevSecOps into three core aspects of DevSecOps capabilities, cultural enablers, and technological enablers. To materialise the interpretations into daily software production activities, the recommended DevSecOps practices from three perspectives—people, process, and technology. Although a preliminary consensus is that DevSecOps is regarded as an extension of DevOps, there is a debate on whether DevSecOps is a superfluous term. While DevSecOps is attracting an increasing attention by industry, it is still in its infancy and more effort needs to be invested to promote it in both research and industry communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost-reducing potential of intelligent supply chains (ISCs) has been recognized by companies and researchers. This paper investigates a two-echelon steel supply chain scheduling problem that considers the parallel-batching processing and deterioration effect in the production stage and sufficient vehicles in the port delivery stage. To solve this problem, we first analyze several sufficient and necessary conditions of the optimal scheme. We then propose a heuristic algorithm based on a dynamic programming algorithm to obtain the optimal solution for a special case where the assignment of all ingots to the soaking pits is known. Based on the results of this special case, we develop a modified biased random-key genetic algorithm (BRKGA), which incorporates genetic operations based on the flower pollination algorithm (FPA) to obtain joint production and distribution schedules for the general problem. Finally, we conduct a series of computational experiments, the results of which indicate that BRKGA-FPA has certain advantages in solving quality and convergence speed issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years a type of financial institution has emerged, named fintechs, with reduced capital structure, no physical bank agencies and offering more agile functionalities, without the majority of fees and the typical bureaucracy of the traditional banks. In order to extend the credit offers possibilities, the Brazilian Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) sought the fintechs as partners, causing the Bank to adapt to a more agile business model. Such a process was characterized as an organizational culture change put into practice through its digital transformation. At the same time, the world has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a trigger to accelerate the process. This article presents a case study that describes the adaptation process of BNDES to the agile methodology of the fintechs, during the period of 2019 to 2021, as a vector of the bank's digital transformation. The results of this article aligned the main topics of the case study to the theoretical references, thus allowing the identification of the convergence points between theory and practice. Amongst the main results, one highlights the effort made to disseminate the agile methodology by forming multidisciplinary squads with the delivery of incremental minimum viable products, the integration of data bases and systems for real time collaboration, and the importance of the senior management to sponsor BNDES successful digital transformation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need for process automation, using agile software development practices. However, when agile methods are used in scaled contexts, many software development efforts fail, mainly due to lacking requirements engineering practices. When business-oriented software needs to be developed within a scaled context, the story-card method (SCM), developed as part of a previous study, assists in structuring emerging software requirements within a taxonomy that represents enterprise operation. The SCM helps agile team members to develop a common understanding about enterprise operation when they construct the enterprise operation taxonomy. Digital participatory enterprise modeling (PEM) may increase collaboration and understanding among team members, especially when team members are geographically dispersed, when they co-model their understanding of enterprise operations. Using design science research to further evolve the existing SCM, we identified two concerns regarding the existing SCM: (1) The modeling software did not encourage active participation during modeling, and (2) Low quality of the resulting cooperation structure diagram (CSD) that is used to derive an enterprise operation taxonomy, i.e., the need to further extend the existing SCM. As main contribution of this article, we addressed previous deficiencies of the SCM, developing an extended SCM (eSCM), based on principles and guidelines that would encourage online participation during PEM, also providing a comprehensive case to demonstrate the eSCM. As a second contribution, we used survey-feedback from research participants, as well as activity tracking to evaluate whether the modeling tool encouraged active PEM. Our third contribution is to evaluate the quality of the resulting CSDs with suggestions for future improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue comprises a selected set of high quality and extended articles of the 27th Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement (EuroSPI) Conference, held in 2020 in Düsseldorf, Germany (Figure 1). Automotive software is a relatively new, but important research field [[14]] and these two papers are directing two different but crucial challenges: SPI Implementation practices and the integration of security in the automotive software development lifecycle. EuroSPI is an initiative with the following major action lines http://www.eurospi.net: Establishing an annual EuroSPI conference supported by software process improvement networks from different EU countries. [Extracted from the article]

Die Vernetzungs- und Kompetenzstelle Open Access Brandenburg ist eine Maßnahme zur aktiven Unterstützung der Hochschulen im Land Brandenburg bei der Open-Access-Transformation. Sie wurde 2021 in Umsetzung der 2019 verabschiedeten Open-Access-Strategie des Landes eingerichtet und koordiniert unterschiedliche Maßnahmen, unter anderem einen landesbezogenen Publikationsfonds für Open-Access-Monografien und ein landesbezogenes Open Access Monitoring. Der Beitrag beleuchtet reflexiv die Entwicklung und den Aufbau der Stelle und formuliert drei Lessons Learned für ihre weitere Entwicklung: Integration von Strategie und Praxisnähe, Partizipation und ein agiles sowie zugleich planungsstabiles Vorgehen im sehr dynamischen Komplex von Open Access und Open Research. Open Access Brandenburg is a measure to actively support universities in the state of Brandenburg in the open access transformation. It was established in 2021 in implementing the open access strategy adopted by the state in 2019 and coordinates various measures, including a state-specific publication fund for open access monographs and a state-specific open access monitoring. The article reflectively examines the development and establishment of the project. It formulates three lessons learned for its further development: integration of strategy and practical relevance, participatory approach, and agile yet planning-stable action in the highly dynamic complex of open access and open research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Der nachfolgende Praxisbericht beschreibt die an der Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW) unternommenen Schritte zur Entwicklung und Etablierung einer OER-Community. Diese reichen von ersten Informations- und Sensibilisierungsmaßnahmen über die Entwicklung einer OER-Policy bis hin zur Umsetzung eines Nachhaltigkeitsprojektes im Bereich OER mit Studierenden und der Beteiligung des OER-Teams der Bibliothek an strategischen Initiativen der Hochschule. Im Zeitraum von 2018 bis heute haben die verschiedenen Aktivitäten sowie der Austausch und das Feedback aus der OER-Community den Fokus des OER-Teams von offenen Lehr- und Lernmedien (Open Educational Resources kurz OER) auf Open Educational Practices (OEP bzw. offene Bildungspraktiken) verlagert. Dieser Perspektivenwechsel ermöglicht es, mit dem Thema OER gleichzeitig Lehrende und Studierende zu adressieren und neue Entwicklungen im Lehr- und Lernumfeld der Hochschule mitzugestalten. The following practice report describes the steps taken at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) to develop and establish an OER community. These range from initial information and awareness-raising measures to the development of an OER policy, the implementation of a sustainability project in the field of OER with students, and the participation of the OER team in strategic initiatives of the university. In the period from 2018 until today, various activities, feedback and exchange within the OER community, have shifted the focus of the OER team from open educational resources (OER) to open educational practices (OEP or open pedagogy). This change of perspective has made it possible to address teachers as well as students with the topic of OER and to help shape new developments in the teaching and learning environment of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software time and cost estimates are always challenging due to the quickly changing software process. Especially Agile project estimations are complex, and the story points differ from person to person. Due to the person-to-person variations, project managers have difficulty arriving at the project cost for development projects with different sizes or complexity of systems/software. This paper proposes a new estimation model named the WEighted COmplexity Factor Estimation (WECOFE) Model to reduce the complexities of Agile story point estimations. Weighted complexities factors identify Low, Moderate, and High Project Level Factors and Story Level Factors. For each level, multiple factors were defined. Derived Weighted complexity based on Project, Requirement, and Resource Level factors. Each story's point estimation is explained based on weighted complexity defined and assigned factors values. Conducted study on various industry projects, showing that the WECOFE approach is promising by observing the Magnitude of Relative Error (MRE) and Mean Magnitude of Relative Error (MMRE). Also, performed a t-test for one sprint project with 51 stories, and paired sample means are equal for WECOFE with actual story points spent by the team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of articles describe the challenges of adopting DevOps for DoD software development. A recent paper in this journal discussed DevOps adoption challenges within the acquisition programs of the Navy. For embedded software, these challenges have been overwhelming to date. However, for standalone applications, the story is different, even though the lingering impact of DoD Instruction 5000 and other DoD cultural practices remains problematic. The HPCMP CREATE™ program, or simply CREATE in this paper, is part of the portfolio of the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP). It has successfully adapted DevOps concepts and agile software development practices to develop a family of software applications that enable system-scale virtual prototyping and testing analysis for major DoD acquisition programs. This study describes the main enabling practices that made this possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile Project Management is a topic that has become popular both in business and academia, since the publication of the Agile Manifesto - a historic landmark in this subject. In the next 20 years, there was a relevant scientific production that must be analyzed to provoke reflection about the knowledge built up in this period. In this sense, this study aims to analyze the relevant scientific literature on Agile Project Management through a systematic review and a bibliometric analysis of articles published in scientific journals with Digital Object Identifier, in English, from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, from 2001 to 2021. The research results enable us to gain insights into the characteristics of this knowledge domain, regarding its volume and evolutionary trend, main contributors (i.e. scientific journals, authors, and their affiliations), main studies, methods used, and its central thematic axes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agility gives the ability to be highly responsive to changes and make improvements in the way the agile project is documented. The just-in-time and just barely good enough documentation may miss out on important executable specifications. Interestingly, the frequently asked 'how-to-do' questions on the popular question answering (Q&A) websites like stack overflow are strong indicators of gaps in documentation and respondent answers can complement conventional software documentation practices. Social interaction within these QA websites generates partially structured content commonly referred to as crowd knowledge that can offer a peer-reviewed re-documentation by integrating the answers of these 'how-to-do' concerns. But finding the best, value-added answer to the question which can contribute toward an enriched and curated documentation is computationally difficult. Moreover, query duplicates can cause seekers to spend more time finding these best answers. As a solution, the research proffers a novel question-answering crowd documentation model (QACDoc) which is based on a socially mediated documentation mechanics involving the dynamics of community-based web. Firstly, duplicate questions are detected using Siamese neural architecture where two identical hierarchical attention networks are used to generate vectors for similarity matching. Semantic matching is done using Manhattan distance function, and a multi-layer perceptron is trained to output the predictions. Next, all respondents of semantically matched questions are grouped to form an intent-based crowd and lastly, top k-experts are identified using representative social presence features for expert ranking. The crowd documentation is then filtered to only include answers of these identified experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noise action planning (NAP) requires collaboration among stakeholders, given the harmful health effects of noise and the subjectivity of how individuals perceive noise. Maptables can be used to mediate in such a collaborative spatial planning process. However, open software applications specifically designed for those devices are still limited or mismatched with user needs. This study presents the co-design and development process of an Open Geo-Spatial Interactive Tool (OGITO-noise) intended for maptables users. We explore to what extent such a tool can be usable and useful in supporting collaborative NAP in practice. Our methods combine agile software development and human-centered design (HCD) in a hybrid fashion, namely remote co-design meetings and face-to-face testing, to develop an open application that our intended users found useful. Those methods were utilized during a pandemic but can also be used when dealing with geographic or resource limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As various estimation methods are available to predict the completion time of requirements at earlier phase of software development. Function point analysis used to estimate the efforts required to develop the traditional project on time. Now industries are moving to the agile technology to develop the project with involvement of customer. team member and tester as well. To advancement in the agile development the requirements are framed in the form of user stories. In today IT industries. essential view of agile is estimation methods are required to measure the user stories. Need of estimation method of agile through the implement of function point analysis for prediction. To improve the organization success. project completion needs to done on time. There is requirement of approach to find out the actual effort estimation of user story. In this paper. assignment of function point to user story is done and find out the effort estimation required to implement the user stories on the basis of different complexity weights. Initially. extract the "I want" section and obtain the number of transaction types (external inputs. external outputs and external inquires) on the basis of operational keywords appearance This proposed work computed UFR TDL VAR adjusted FP and efforts in hours on the basis of weights such as low, average. and high of IFPUG and the average by release 5 of ISBSG. The average complexity weight of the IFPUG and the average of release 5 of the 1SBSG are the key parameters for the comparison perspective. The outcome of the proposed work provides the adjusted FP and effort estimation in hours. In order to predict effort required. the interpolated values of effort estimation is calculated using Lagrange's interpolation. Both outcomes give the usage of FPA through IFPUG and ISBSG to estimate the effort so that the completion of project on time. Function point analysis on agile user story is used to improve the organization success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although agile software development (ASD) has been adopted in the industry, requirements approaches for ASD still neglect non-functional requirements. Privacy has become a concern due to new user demands and data protection laws. Hence, privacy needs to be properly specified, but agile requirements engineering techniques do not explicitly represent privacy requirements and, therefore, are not able to proper analyze such requirements. In this context, Privacy Criteria Method (PCM), an approach to specify privacy in requirements activities, was proposed to produce more complete and detailed privacy requirements. By considering PCM a promising approach to be used in ASD and the importance of empirical evaluation of new methods, we have as objectives: 1 evaluate the ability of PCM to support systems analysts in specifying privacy requirements when used in conjunction with some agile specification methods; and 2 show our lessons learned in conducting empirical research based on an mix-method approach defined to empirically evaluate the suitability of a requirements specification in specifying privacy requirements. Mixed-method approach is a controlled experiment as a quantitative evaluation and a feasibility study (questionnaire and task analysis based) study as a qualitative and quantitative evaluation. The requirements specifications following PCM allow to represent privacy aspects, such as user's personal data and the privacy mechanism that can be used to mitigate a privacy risk scenario. We also observed that some extra time is necessary to specify privacy requirements with PCM, but it does not imply a greater perceived effort. Specifications produced with PCM are of good quality and more privacy detailed. Additionally, we attest to the importance of conducting empirical research to evaluate new methods. PCM assists in specifying more complete and detailed in relation to traditional techniques used in ASD, which facilitates communication between the requirements analysts and developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to present a model of factors affecting the successful project implementation by introducing agility and artificial intelligence to increase the company's competitiveness. In the model, the multidimensional constructs describing the implementation of an agile work environment and artificial intelligence technologies and tools were developed. These multidimensional constructs are agile work environment, agile leadership, agile team skills and capabilities, improving the work of the leader in the project, adopting AI technologies in the project, and using AI solutions in a project. Their impact on successful project implementation and on the company competitiveness was tested. The fundamental reason for conducting this research and developing the model is to enhance the understanding of factors that contribute to the successful implementation of projects and to increase a company's competitiveness. Our developed model encompasses multidimensional constructs that describe the agile work environment and the utilization of AI technologies. By examining the impact of these constructs on both successful project implementation and company competitiveness, we aimed to establish a comprehensive framework that captures the relationship between agility, AI, and successful project implementation. This model serves as a valuable tool for companies seeking to improve their project implementation processes and gain a competitive edge in the market. The research was based on a sample of 473 managers/owners in medium-sized and large companies. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. In today's turbulent environment, the results will help develop guidelines for a successful combination of agile business practices and artificial intelligence to achieve successful project implementation, increasing a company's competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metrics are key elements that can give us valuable information about the effectiveness of agile software development processes, particularly considering the Scrum environment. This study aims to learn about the metrics adopted to assess agile development processes and explore the impact of how the role performed by each member in Scrum contributed to increasing/reducing the perception of the importance of these metrics. The impact of years of experience in Scrum on this perception was also explored. To this end, a quantitative study was conducted with 191 Scrum professionals in companies based in Portugal. The results show that the Scrum role is not a determining factor, while individuals with more years of experience have a higher perception of the importance of metrics related to team performance. The same conclusion is observed for the business value metric of the product backlog and the percentage of test automation in the testing phase. The findings allow for extending the knowledge about Scrum project management processes and their teams, in addition to offering important insights into the implementation of metrics for software engineering companies that adopt Scrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile software requirements engineering processes enable quick responses to reflect changes in the client's software requirements. However, there are challenges associated with agile requirements engineering processes, which hinder fast, sustainable software development. Research addressing the challenges with available solutions is patchy, diverse and inclusive. In this study, we use a systematic literature review coupled with thematic classification and gap mapping analysis to examine extant solutions against challenges; the typologies/classifications of challenges faced with agile software development in general and specifically in requirements engineering and how the solutions address the challenges. Our study covers the period from 2009 to 2023. Scopus—the largest database for credible academic publications was searched. Using the exclusion criteria to filter the articles, a total of 78 valid papers were selected and reviewed. Following our investigation, we develop a framework that takes a three-dimensional view of agile requirements engineering solutions and suggest an orchestrated approach balancing the focus between the business context, project management and agile techniques. This study contributes to the theoretical frontier of agile software requirement engineering approaches and guidelines for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saturation pressure is one the most important parameters required for describing a hydrocarbon reservoir. The determination of saturation pressure using conventional laboratory method is expensive and time consuming; hence, it is necessary to develop agile, easy and accurate saturation pressure prediction methods. The application of machine learning techniques for determination of saturation pressure for any fluid type has been shown in this study; no such work has been reported in this area so far. Four machine learning techniques namely K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Support vector machine (SVM), Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LGBM) and artificial neural network (ANN) were utilized. A universal novel correlation has also been developed using ANN. Models were developed utilizing experimentally determined composition of 305 reservoir oil and gas condensate, properties of heptane plus and reservoir temperature. Results concluded that models and proposed correlation predicted saturation pressure with high accuracy. Results indicated that the LGBM model has performed better with coefficient of determination (R2) and mean absolute error (MAE) values of 0.9655 and 194.3887, respectively, for complete data set. However, the ANN model was the most accurate model with R2 and MAE values of 0.9507 and 271.8008, respectively, for test data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mentoring and coaching have many forms and formats. Choosing the right one is often challenging because of cost, delays on program launch, concerns with adoption, participation and capacity, overall readiness of mentors, prioritization and how it fits the company's objectives and culture. As part of talent development, organizational solutions, productivity and automations teams, which aim to develop mentor-mentee (coach-coached) matching engine and overall business process automation of a mentorship program, we had to identify the key deliverables, main features, evaluate existing solutions and then design, develop and operate the system. In this paper we present the in-house development process of a mentoring program software solution, its architecture and operations in trivago from 2018 until 2020 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The induction of anesthesia in children poses a challenge for the anesthesiologist, the parent and child. Anxiety and negative behaviours and strategies that effectively mitigate should be documented accurately and be available for future patient encounters. To address the need for a structured and standardized electronic documentation tool. Aims: Our aim was to develop a comprehensive electronic tool to capture and report behaviours during induction of anesthesia. Methods: We performed a literature search on existing validated tools for documenting behaviours during anesthesia induction. We used the nominal group technique to achieve agreement on the components to include. We used Agile software development techniques to design and review the integrated electronic tool. Twelve international hospitals informed the development of the tool. Results: We developed an electronic tool, the Standardized Anesthesia InductioN Tool (SAINT). SAINT incorporates validated scales for documenting key stages of the anesthesia induction journey (separation from caregivers, mask acceptance, induction behaviour, parental presence, the use of adjuncts and their effectiveness). In addition, the standardised data elements used in SAINT allow for local reporting, quality metrics and can assist in data across multi‐centre trials. To date the tool has been adopted by 133 institutions across four countries and is freely available. Conclusion: We show that collaborative development and rapid adoption of the comprehensive induction tool SAINT has led to its rapid adoption in the routine practice of pediatric anesthesiology across several countries. Further studies on how the SAINT is being used for quality improvement or research are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of model-based code generation and its limitations. While there have been successful industrial projects that have used code generation from abstract models, the widespread adoption of code generation from explicitly defined models has not been as successful. The article identifies several challenges, including developers' ability to think in abstract form, the limitations of existing tooling, the need for flexible adaptation of the generator, and weak tool support for defining abstraction levels in a model. The article suggests that a "smart" generator could address these challenges by generating code for various functionalities, such as data transportation, user interfaces, logging, and search functionality. However, the article acknowledges that current code generators are not yet capable of such smartness and that more work is needed in this area. [Extracted from the article]