8,760 research outputs found
Evaluating Total Cost of Ownership for Software Platforms: Comparing Apples, Oranges and Cucumbers
No full textAlan MacCormack reports findings from a review of articles and studies that examine the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of different software platforms. In particular, he assesses the "state-of-practice" in measuring TCO, through a comparison of the methods employed and data provided in studies that investigate the costs of competing software operating systems. The results suggest that despite increasing interest in this method of evaluating different software platforms, many studies suffer from a lack of reliable data on which to base conclusions, as well as a lack of consistency in the approach taken to calculate TCO. Furthermore, only a handful of studies gather data from a large enough sample of firms to inspire any confidence that the results are representative of a broader population. While some organizationshave made notable efforts to overcome these problems, more work is needed to ensure greater consistency across studies.
Disrupting the Disruptors or Enhancing Them? How Blockchain Re-Shapes Two-Sided Platforms
No full textThe importance of platform-based businesses in the modern economy is growing continuously and becoming increasingly relevant. Specifically, the deployment of digital technologies has enhanced the applicability of two-sided business models, enabling companies to act not just as builders and owners of assets, but as orchestrators of external resources. Management research has therefore focused increasingly on the unique aspects of this model. At the center of a two-sided platform there is a platform provider that enables a transaction between the sides, reducing the relative transaction costs. However, in recent years, a new technology emerged that challenges some of the underlying assumptions of this model: the blockchain. Blockchain enables the creation of a peer-to-peer network that is able to authenticate transactions, upon which applications and services may be built. It allows users to conduct transactions without the need for a central platform. We explore how blockchain technology re-shapes two-sided platforms, focusing in particular on the role of the platform provider. The research is based upon multiple case studies, using an inductive approach to explore this emerging phenomenon. Our findings show there is a significant shift in the role of the central player that links the two sides of a transaction using blockchain. We frame this as a shift from a "platform provider" to a "service provider", leveraging the blockchain as a Platform-as-a-Service. Our work examines the peculiarities of this model, unveiling new dynamics in these businesses. Specifically, we show that different variables must be considered to classify two-sided platforms using blockchain. Furthermore, the essential characteristics of two-sided platforms must also be enlarged. For example, traditional platform theories emphasize the importance of cross-side network externalities in creating value. In blockchain-enabled platforms however, we show the use of “tokens” play a key role in creating different types of externalities between the two sides
Critical Decisions in Software Development: Updating the State of the Practice
No full textThis article focuses on how to choose the "right" software development process, how to structure global software design chains, how to manage the interaction of project structure and software design, and how to balance innovation and efficiency in a software business.IEEE Computer Societ
Managing the Sources of Uncertainty: Matching Process and Context in New Product Development
No full textThere is increasing interest in the literature about the notion of a contingent approach to product development process design. This interest stems from the realization that different types of projects carried out in different environments are likely to require quite different development processes if they are to be successful. Stated more formally, a contingent view implies that the performance impact of different development practices is likely to be mediated by the context in which those practices operate. This article provides evidence to support such a view. Our work examines whether projects in which the development process matches the context achieve superior performance. We focus on two sources of uncertainty that generate challenges for project teams: platform uncertainty, reflecting the uncertainty generated by the amount of new design work that must be undertaken in a project; and market uncertainty, reflecting the uncertainty faced in determining customer requirements for the product under development. We develop hypotheses for how these sources of uncertainty are likely to influence the relationships between a number of specific development practices and performance. We then test thes
Developing Products on "Internet Time": The Anatomy of a Flexible Development Process
No full textUncertain and dynamic environments present fundamental challenges to managers of the new product development process. Between successive product generations, significant evolutions can occur in both the customer needs a product must address and the technologies it employs to satisfy these needs. Even within a single development project, firms must respond to new information, or risk developing a product that is obsolete the day it is launched. This paper examines the characteristics of an effective development process in one such environment---the Internet software industry. Using data on 29 completed development projects we show that in this industry, constructs that support a more flexible development process are associated with better-performing projects. This flexible process is characterized by the ability to generate and respond to new information for a longer proportion of a development cycle. The constructs that support such a process are greater investments in architectural design, earlier feedback on product performance from the market, and the use of a development team with greater amounts of "generational" experience. Our results suggest that investments in architectural design play a dual role in a flexible process: First, through the need to select an architecture that maximizes product performance and, second, through the need to select an architecture that facilitates development process flexibility. We provide examples from our fieldwork to support this view.New Product Development, Software Development, Innovation, Flexibility, Internet
Alan Moore Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel
No full textEclectic British author Alan Moore (b. 1953) is one of the most acclaimed and controversial comics writers to emerge since the late 1970s. He has produced a large number of well-regarded comic books and graphic novels while also making occasional forays into music, poetry, performance, and prose. In Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel , Annalisa Di Liddo argues that Moore employs the comics form to dissect the literary canon, the tradition of comics, contemporary society, and our understanding of history. The book considers Moore's narrative strategies and pinpoints the main thematic threads in his works: the subversion of genre and pulp fiction, the interrogation of superhero tropes, the manipulation of space and time, the uses of magic and mythology, the instability of gender and ethnic identity, and the accumulation of imagery to create satire that comments on politics and art history. Examining Moore's use of comics to scrutinize contemporary culture, Di Liddo analyzes his best-known works-- Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, From Hell, Promethea , and Lost Girls . The study also highlights Moore?s lesser-known output, such as Halo Jones, Skizz , and Big Numbers , and his prose novel Voice of the Fire. Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel reveals Moore to be one of the most significant and distinctly postmodern comics creators of the last quarter-century.Intro -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1. Formal Considerations on Alan Moore's Writing -- CHAPTER 2. Chronotopes: Outer Space, the Cityscape, and the Space of Comics -- CHAPTER 3. Moore and the Crisis of English Identity -- CHAPTER 4. Finding a Way into Lost Girls -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- ZEclectic British author Alan Moore (b. 1953) is one of the most acclaimed and controversial comics writers to emerge since the late 1970s. He has produced a large number of well-regarded comic books and graphic novels while also making occasional forays into music, poetry, performance, and prose. In Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel , Annalisa Di Liddo argues that Moore employs the comics form to dissect the literary canon, the tradition of comics, contemporary society, and our understanding of history. The book considers Moore's narrative strategies and pinpoints the main thematic threads in his works: the subversion of genre and pulp fiction, the interrogation of superhero tropes, the manipulation of space and time, the uses of magic and mythology, the instability of gender and ethnic identity, and the accumulation of imagery to create satire that comments on politics and art history. Examining Moore's use of comics to scrutinize contemporary culture, Di Liddo analyzes his best-known works-- Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, From Hell, Promethea , and Lost Girls . The study also highlights Moore?s lesser-known output, such as Halo Jones, Skizz , and Big Numbers , and his prose novel Voice of the Fire. Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel reveals Moore to be one of the most significant and distinctly postmodern comics creators of the last quarter-century.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
In Alan Turing’s Name: Pardoning the Dead, Forgetting the Living
No full textThis special panel discussion brought together authorities on Alan Turing and the statutory pardon legislation intended to honour him. Leading academics, in conversation with those who have unsuccessfully petitioned to have offences disregarded, were joined by the Turing Bill’s author
System design and the cost of architectural complexity
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-166).Many modern systems are so large that no one truly understands how they work. It is well known in the engineering community that architectural patterns (including hierarchies, modules, and abstraction layers) should be used in design because they play an important role in controlling complexity. These patterns make a system easier to evolve and keep its separate portions within the bounds of human understanding so that distributed teams can operate independently while jointly fashioning a coherent whole. This study set out to measure the link between architectural complexity (the complexity that arises within a system due to a lack or breakdown of hierarchy or modularity) and a variety of costs incurred by a development organization. A study was conducted within a successful software firm. Measures of architectural complexity were taken from eight versions of their product using techniques recently developed by MacCormack, Baldwin, and Rusnak. Significant cost drivers including defect density, developer productivity, and staff turnover were measured as well. The link between cost and complexity was explored using a variety of statistical techniques. Within this research setting, we found that differences in architectural complexity could account for 50% drops in productivity, three-fold increases in defect density, and order-of-magnitude increases in staff turnover. Using the techniques developed in this thesis, it should be possible for firms to estimate the financial cost of their complexity by assigning a monetary value to the decreased productivity, increased defect density, and increased turnover it causes. As a result, it should be possible for firms to more accurately estimate the potential dollar-value of refactoring efforts aimed at improving architecture.by Daniel J. Sturtevant.Ph.D
Bernard Williams
No full textAn edited multi-author volume assessing the moral philosophy of the late British philosopher Bernard Williams. Contributors: Adrian Moore, John Skorupski, Alan Thomas, Robert B Louden, Michael Stocker, A. A. Long, Edward Crai
Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis
No full textA variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that this organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are developed. This dynamic occurs because the organization's governance structures, problem solving routines and communication patterns constrain the space in which it searches for new solutions. Such a relationship is important, given that product architecture has been shown to be an important predictor of product performance, product variety, process flexibility and even the path of industry evolution. We explore this relationship in the software industry. Our research takes advantage of a natural experiment, in that we observe products that fulfill the same function being developed by very different organizational forms. At one extreme are commercial software firms, in which the organizational participants are tightly-coupled, with respect to their goals, structure and behavior. At the other, are open source software communities, in which the participants are much more loosely-coupled by comparison. The mirroring hypothesis predicts that these different organizational forms will produce products with distinctly different architectures. Specifically, loosely-coupled organizations will develop more modular designs than tightly-coupled organizations. We test this hypothesis, using a sample of matched-pair products. We find strong evidence to support the mirroring hypothesis. In all of the pairs we examine, the product developed by the loosely-coupled organization is significantly more modular than the product from the tightly-coupled organization. We measure modularity by capturing the level of coupling between a product's components. The magnitude of the differences is substantial - up to a factor of eight, in terms of the potential for a design change in one component to propagate to others. Our results have significant managerial implications, in highlighting the impact of organizational design decisions on the technical structure of the artifacts that these organizations subsequently develop.Organizational Design, Product Design, Architecture, Modularity, Open-Source Software.
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