226 research outputs found
Crunching the numbers Studying the enactment of analytics in an organization
No full textHuysman, M.H. [Promotor]Berends, J.J. [Copromotor]Weerd, G.C. van de [Copromotor
Requirements-driven Social Adaptation: Expert Survey
No full textSelf-adaptation empowers systems with the capability to meet stakeholders’ requirements in a dynamic environment. Such systems autonomously monitor changes and events which drive adaptation decisions at runtime. Social Adaptation is a recent kind of requirements-driven adaptation which enables users to give a runtime feedback on the success and quality of a system’s configurations in reaching their requirements. The system analyses users’ feedback, infers their collective judgement and then uses it to shape its adaptation decisions. [Question/problem] However, there is still a lack of engineering mechanisms to guarantee a correct conduction of Social Adapta- tion. [Principal ideas/results] In this paper, we conduct a two-phase Expert Sur- vey to identify core benefits, domain areas and challenges for Social Adaptation. [Contribution] Our findings provide practitioners and researchers in adaptive systems engineering with insights on this emerging role of users, or the crowd, and stimulate future research to solve the open problems in this area
Systematic elaboration of compliance requirements using compliance debt and portfolio theory
No full text[Context and motivation] Eliciting compliance requirements often results in requirements, which might not be satisfied due to uncertainty and unavailability of resources. The lack of anticipation of these factors may increase the cost of achieving compliance. [Question/problem] Managing compliance is an investment activity that requires making decisions about selecting the right compliance goals under uncertainty, handling the obstacles to those goals and minimising risks. [Principal ideas/results] (1) We define the concept of technical debt for managing compliance and we explore its link with obstacles to compliance goals. (2) We propose goal-oriented method and obstacles handling with a portfolio-based thinking for systematically managing obstacles and refining compliance goals. [Contribution]We use an exemplar to illustrate and evaluate the approach. The results show that our approach can provides analysts and compliance managers with an objective tool to assess and rethink their investment decisions when elaborating compliance requirements.</p
Analyzing the Effect of the Collaborative Interactions on Performance of Requirements Validation
No full textContext: Requirements validation is critical in the pursuit of quality software. It usually demands the collaboration of multiple stakeholders with different perspectives. Question: Our community has reported scarce experimental studies on the role of collaborative interaction in requirements validation. The goal of this study is to explore the effect of collaborative interactions on the performance of requirements validation. Principal ideas: We performed a quasi-experiment involving 118 bachelor students to act analysts, and 40 volunteering students from the Social Sciences department to act clients. The requirements were specified using UML activity diagrams. The overall performance is measured in terms of efficiency (missing requirements correctly identified in a time interval), and effectiveness (degree to which the validation yielded the correct result). Moreover, we measured also subjects’ satisfaction on collaboration (questionnaire). Contribution: We found that the teams composed exclusively of analysts showed better efficiency and effectiveness than mixed teams (client and analysts). However, for certain types of requirements, the mixed teams’ efficiency was superior. Also, the degree of satisfaction was higher among the clients than among the analysts. We end up with identifying future research topics
Rivierbakens: Post-Industrieel Rivierlandschap: Steenfabrieken in de uiterwaarden van de Waal
No full textSteenfabrieken en uiterwaarden, ze zijn onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden. Op zoek naar klei paradeerden ze langs de rivier, waardoor het landschap gevormd werd voor de rivier. Door een samengaan van natuurlijke processen en menselijk handelen bleef bijzondere flora en fauna achter, maar ook ovenlichamen en hoge schoorsteen die herinneren aan een florerende industrie. Helaas staan veel van deze gebouwen op het punt te verdwijnen.Mijn afstudeerproject geeft een voorstel voor vormen van tijdelijk of permanent gebruik en wil hiermee laten zien hoe dit belangrijk deel van onze cultuurhistorie behouden kan worden voor de toekomst. Geen behoud om het behoud, maar door de centrale fabrieken weer centraal te stellen in de natuur - en land¬schapsontwikkeling. Hierdoor zijn de fabrieken niet alleen waardevol voor hun context, maar dragen ze ook bij aan het beheer van de uiterwaarden. Deze nieuwe vormen van gebruik zullen een natuurlijke brug gaan vormen tussen het heden en lange termijn plannen als Ruimte voor de Rivier. De combinatie van waterberging in de uiterwaarden met historisch erfgoed, biedt exploitatiemogelijkheden en derhalve een extra impuls voor behoud van dit karakteristieke type industriële bebouwing in de toekomst.Steengoed! Gebakken in Gelderlan
Rondom de Rotte: Herontwerp van een boezemlandschap
No full textThe Dutch landscape is about to be reconfigured yet again. This time not in order to make the delta inhabitable through reclamation or to organise it more efficiently for agriculture through land consolidation but, in this age of climate change and population growth, to make the land more resilient and liveable for human beings, flora and fauna. Owing to sea level rise, an increase in torrential rainfall events, summer droughts, progressive soil subsidence and saline seepage, water-related problems are on the rise.Fundamental to the organisation of the lowlying western part of the Netherlands is the socalled polder-boezem system. Created to drain the soggy soil and then keep it dry, this water system consists of ditches, leats, drainage canals, navigation canals, waterways, city canals, pondsand lakes connected by scores of hydraulic works. The water level in this system is controlled by dykes, dams, sluices and pumping stations, with excess water being drained via the boezems into the major rivers and the sea. While the need for continuous water management and drainage is incontestable, it is clear that the system is not up to the task of dealing with future problems.By the end of the twentieth century, hydraulic engineers were already drawing attention to the inadequacy of the usual measures, such as installing more powerful pumps, building higher and stronger dykes and letting in more water in times of drought. In 2000, to ensure a safe and effective water management system in the new century, the Committee for Water Management for the 21st Century established the ‘water triad’: a three-step plan of water capture followed by water storage and, as and when necessary, water drainage. This strategy has been the basis of every spatial project in the Netherlands since 2003.De inrichting van het Nederlandse landschap moet wederom op de schop. Dit keer niet om de delta door ontginning bewoonbaar te maken of door ruilverkaveling efficënter in te richten voor de landbouw, maar om het land in deze tijd van klimaatverandering en bevolkingsgroei bestendiger en leefbaarder te maken voor mens, flora en fauna. Door zeespiegelstijging, toename van de hoeveelheid neerslag in een korte tijdspanne, droogteperioden in de zomer, voortschrijdende bodemdaling en zoute kwel hopen de watergerelateerde problemen zich op. Aan de basis van de inrichting van laag-Nederland ligt het zogeheten poldeboezemsysteem.Dit watersysteem, gemaakt om het land droog te leggen en te houden, bestaat uit sloten, weteringen, tochten, vaarten, kanalen, grachten, singels, plassen en meren die door tal van waterwerken met elkaar in verbinding staan. Door dijken, dammen, sluizen en gemalen wordt het waterpeil in dit stelsel gecontroleerd en wordt overtollig water via boezems naar de grote rivieren en de zee afgevoerd. De noodzaak om het water continu te beheren en het laagland te bemalen is evident, maar het systeem is niet voldoende om toekomstige problemen het hoofd te bieden.Al aan het einde van de vorige eeuw constateerden waterbouwers dat de gangbare handelwijze van het inzetten van zwaardere pompen, hogere en sterkere dijken en het inlaten van meer water bij droogte niet langer toereikend is. Om voor de nieuwe eeuw een veilig en bruikbaar waterbeheer te kunnen waarborgen, stelde de Commissie Waterbeheer 21e eeuw in 2000 de zogeheten watertrits vast: een driestappenplan dat bestaat uit eerst water vasthouden, dan water bergen en indien nodig water afvoeren. Deze strategie vormt sinds 2003 het uitgangspunt bij elke ruimtelijke opgave
EPIC 2011: Third Workshop on Leveraging Empirical Research Results for Software Business Success
No full textFor many companies, software development is their core business process. For this process to be economically viable, it is not enough that software companies deliver software products that satisfy customers´ written specification. Software businesses also deem other requirements important as to deliver in time and on budget, to increase developers´ satisfaction and to optimize their delivery processes and reduce waste. Collective efforts by software engineering practitioners, consultants and researchers have yielded a huge variety of solutions for improving software processes, products and services. While it is generally known that the suitability and effectiveness of most of these solutions depend on the context where they are applied, only few empirical studies were done to uncover how the current process/product/servicefocused approaches used in software businesses yield outcomes that are aligned to the business goals of these organizations. With few exceptions, little is known about the empirical evidence that can possibly confirm or disconfirm the claims of effectiveness of different commercially viable approaches that solve particular process, product or service related problems. The primary goal of the first EPIC workshop was twofold: to initiate (1) the conversation of leveraging empirical research for software business success and (2) the process of creating a forum and a community to debate the need and value of using empirical/evidence-based approaches to researching aspects of software processes, products and services that contribute to software business success. An outcome of the workshop is the LinkedIn group, EPIC FORUM. The second EPIC event was a panel session that defined some roadblocks to the collaboration of software business practitioners and researchers, and some solutions that worked.The third workshop builds upon these first results and will extend the discussion on state-of-the art good practices for empirical research that adds value to both small and large software companies
How to Sell SaaS: A Model for Main Factors of Marketing and Selling Software-as-a-Service
No full textSoftware-as-a-Service providers have been growing fast while the
contemporary research literature has neglected analysis of their business-critical
marketing and sales processes. In this paper we collect the key factors
characterizing how to market and sell SaaS to business customers into an eight
dimensional model. We also use an explorative multi-case study to observe six
SaaS providers and validate the model. The interviewed providers emphasized
use of the Internet for marketing communication while personal direct sale was
the dominating sales approach. Customer acquisition cost was the key
performance indicator for marketing and sales while customer lifetime value
and churn were the KPIs in customer relationship management.peerReviewe
Two-dimensional superconductivity at the (111) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface
No full textWe report on the discovery and transport study of the superconducting ground state present at the (111)LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) interface. The superconducting transition is consistent with a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and its two-dimensional nature is further corroborated by the anisotropy of the critical magnetic field, as calculated by Tinkham. The estimated superconducting layer thickness and coherence length are 10 and 60nm, respectively. The results of this work provide insight to clarify the microscopic details of superconductivity in LAO/STO interfaces, in particular in what concerns the link with orbital symmetry.QN/Caviglia LabQN/van der Zant La
Eduard Gans y la idea de Europa
No full textEl presente artículo pretende ser una aproximación a la concepción de Europa de Eduard Gans, un autor al que un número creciente de intérpretes considera como el que es, quizá, el discípulo más destacado de Hegel. El tema de Europa era entonces de gran actualidad debido tanto al influjo de la Ilustración y la Revolución francesa como al desarrollo del Idealismo alemán. Gans está en estrecha relación con estas instancias y formula una idea de Europa que termina por ir más allá de la de su maestro Hegel. Se abre a los nuevos horizontes que se van configurando a partir de 1830 en Europa, a la vez que se muestra receptivo a los estímulos provenientes de América.This article is supposed to be an approximation to Eduard Gans´ conception of Europe, an author considered to be the most prominent disciple of Hegel by a growing number of scholars. In those times, the idea of Europe was a highly topical subject, due to both to the influence of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, but as well to the development of German idealism. Gans is closely related to these instances and formulates an idea of Europe that goes beyond the conception of his teacher Hegel. He takes into account the new instances that arise from 1830 on in Europe, while he is also receptive to the views coming from America
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