Software organizations have been initiating measurement programs as part of their software process improvement practices which in turn increase the quality of the software products. However, high numbers of organizations reported their measurement programs as failures. One of the major difficulties they faced was stated to be the difficulty in deciding which set of measures to collect for different software entities; products, processes, and resources. In addition to what should be collected, organizations would like to collect as minimum number of measures as possible in order to be cost effective. Different goal based measures selection models have been introduced to aid in these, namely Goal Question Metric (GQM) is one of the most well known and adopted ones by software organizations. It facilitates measurement programs to define goals and then collect measures according to goals. However, the current approaches require being more structured and integrated to enable an effective software measurement process. ‘Structured’ means the goals, questions and measures as well as their vertical and horizontal relations are well-defined. A structured measurement process can be ‘integrated’ to the organization via establishing links between business and organizational goals and the measurement process. The whole process becomes more ‘effective’ as these goals and measures become traceable, and hence the mechanisms to prioritize and select the optimum set of measures could be established. In this research work our main focus is to evaluate goal based models and to develop a framework for a more effective measurement process, called Structured Optimized Measurement Selection (SOMS). As part of SOMS, alternative ways for goals prioritization and measures optimization are proposed. In order to make the whole process more efficient, a tool is developed as well. Both SOMS with different alternative prioritization and optimization techniques as well as the tool were evaluated by conducting case studies in a CMMI level 3 software development organization and the results are compared to a previous case study conducted on the same case by using other techniques which are extensions of GQM, i.e. namely Structured Prioritized Goals Questions Metrics (SPGQM) and Optimum Measures Set Decision (OMSD).

Context This thesis verifies a method developed on alignment issues in different data points and is useful to validate the method in those data points. To find the alignment/misalignment problems occurring within the stakeholders in a company is done through surveys using Hierarchical Cumulative Voting (HCV). This paper presents a case study to explain the importance of alignment between the stakeholders to achieve quality. Time, scope and cost are given higher priority leaving quality as it is hard to measure. To maintain quality in a software product is a major challenge in most of the software organizations. Stakeholders play a major role in software development. Without the alignment and common understanding between the stakeholders, it is highly difficult to achieve successful software project with good quality. The reasons for misalignment/alignment between the stakeholders are being explained clearly in this thesis based on the interviews and the survey conducted in software development companies under the novelty of case study. Objectives To evaluate the usefulness of alignment approach in different data points, to achieve product quality, for understanding the reasons for misalignment and to provide common approach for aligning we need to know the actual aligning priorities given by the stakeholders. We have one method for aligning and we want to see how actual alignment is different in different data points. To find the reasons for different stakeholders’ groups focusing on different quality attributes and to manage quality that helps in aligning quality requirements in future. Methods In order to know the importance of quality, prioritization of requirements and about the alignment problem we have conducted the literature review. To understand the problem and to know the reasons for misalignment in the companies we have conducted a case study in which we interviewed 8 employees from a company and to know the individual ranking of quality attributes we also made use of surveys in which 17 individuals from two companies had participated. Results We have identified the reasons for misalignment using interviews in one company and the individual priorities given to different quality attributes through surveys in two different companies. The qualities are prioritized by the stakeholder groups in the surveys and these are used to calculate the alignment/misalignment between the groups using spearman rank correlation which pointed that there are some disagreements between the stakeholder groups. Conclusions This paper explains the results obtained from a case study for determining the alignment/misalignment between different stakeholder groups and the reasons for this situation. Through surveys we found that there is a strong disagreement between the stakeholders in one company and partial agreement in the other company with respect to priorities they assign to individual qualities and the reasons behind this are obtained through interviews. The reasons for misalignment are lack of common understandings between the stakeholders, less discussion on quality requirement, undocumented priorities, no importance given to quality and others. / This Thesis work is about Software Product Quality and how it is achieved through alignment between the people in understanding the requirements. / 0763138272, 0739849383

Les environnements virtuels sont des outils de plus en plus fréquemment utilisés dans le domaine de la formation sans que leur conception soit systématiquement guidée par des préconisations ergonomiques. Ce travail de thèse propose d’élaborer et d’évaluer des recommandations ergonomiques relatives au guidage de l’apprenant au cours de son apprentissage en EVAH (Environnement Virtuel pour l'Apprentissage Humain). Après avoir évalué l’utilité pour l’apprentissage d’un EVAH destiné à des techniciens de laboratoire, deux expériences ont été menées afin de déterminer un guidage optimal de l’apprenant lors de sa formation au lancement de tests de coagulation. La première expérience analysait l’impact d’une organisation hiérarchique d’instructions sonores sur l’apprentissage. La deuxième évaluait les modalités de présentation d’un guidage visuel et leurs conséquences sur l’acquisition de la procédure. Les résultats obtenus à l’issue de ces deux expériences ont permis de proposer des recommandations ergonomiques quant à la conception d’un guidage sonore et d’un guidage visuel de l’apprenant lors de l’acquisition d’une procédure. Enfin, ces recommandations ont été implémentées dans l’EVAH. Ainsi « amélioré », il a été confronté à l’environnement virtuel de référence dans le but d’évaluer l’efficacité des préconisations. Les résultats montrent que la prise en compte des recommandations ergonomiques proposées améliore les performances des apprenants. / Virtual environments are tools that are becoming more frequently used in the field of training, however their design is not systematically guided by ergonomic considerations. This thesis presents the development and evaluation of ergonomic recommendations to guide the learner during VET (Virtual Environment for Training) training. After evaluating the usefulness of STA-R Virtuel, a VET for laboratory technicians, two experiments were conducted to determine optimal ways of cueing the learner during their training in the execution of coagulation tests. The first experiment analyzed the impact on learning of a hierarchical organization of auditory instructions. The second evaluated different ways of presenting a visual guide and their impact on learned proficiency in the procedure. The results obtained at the end of these two experiments were then used to develop ergonomic recommendations for the design of auditory and visual cues to enhance learner performance. Finally, these recommendations were implemented in the VET. The improved version was compared with the reference virtual environment in order to assess the effectiveness of the recommendations. The results show that the inclusion of the proposed ergonomic recommendations improves the learners' performance.

The occurrence of organic contaminants in the drinking water value chain (from source to tap) is a growing concern for the Drinking Water industry and its consumers given the high risk these contaminants can cause to the general public. These adverse health effects include such as endocrine disruption, toxicity teratogenicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. Some of these organic contaminants are included in national and international drinking water quality guidelines or standards. However, although there are similarities in the list of organic contaminants used by each organization or country, the organic contaminants are never the same given the local conditions. There are also noticeable differences in the concentration limits set as targets or criteria for organic contaminants for public health protection via the use of drinking water. A further question requiring the response from drinking water regulators was whether the standards listed in the international literature would be applicable in other countries like South Africa. Complicating this decision is the fact that the South African National Drinking Water Standard (SANS 241) does not adequately address this component of drinking water quality management. The current standard only provides for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and phenols. However, the standard contains a statement which specifies that if there is a known organic contaminant, that may pose a health threat, it should be included in the monitoring programme and evaluated against World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. To safeguard Drinking Water industry customers, it was deemed necessary to investigate this matter and establish a tool to assist with the identification of a list of organic contaminants to be monitored in the drinking water value chain. To achieve this a specific procedure/protocol needed to be developed, hence the aim of this study which was to develop a generic protocol for the selection and prioritization of organic contaminants for monitoring in the drinking water value chain (from source to tap). To achieve this, a critical evaluation and synthesis of the available literature on the approaches for the selection and prioritization of organic variables of priority to the drinking water industry was undertaken as a first step. From the literature review it was evident that there are currently many selection and prioritization approaches which are characterized mainly by the purpose for which the exercise has been conducted for. Approaches that prioritize chemicals according to their importance as environmental contaminants have been developed by government agencies and private industries such as the Health Canada’s Canadian Environmental Protection Agency (CEPA), the United Kingdom’s Institute for Environmental Health (IEH), the European Community’s Oslo and Paris (OSPAR) convention exercise for the protection of the Northeast Atlantic marine environment and the European Union (EU)’s combined monitoring based and modelling based priority setting scheme (EU-COMMPs). A few approaches such as ones published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), address the needs of the Drinking Water industry and there is no generic approach to the selection, prioritization and monitoring of organic contaminants in the drinking water value chain. From the review of selection and prioritization approaches, a generic model was developed. The model consists of three main steps, the compilation of a “pool of organic contaminants, the selection of relevant parameters and criteria to screen organic contaminants and finally the application of criteria to select priority organic contaminants. It was however realized that these steps were not enough if the protocol to be develop will serve its purpose. Selection and prioritization approaches are typically intended to be fairly simple and quick methods for determining the health and environmental hazards posed by the use and release of chemical substances into different environmental systems. This was taken into account during the development of the current protocol. Understanding that a protocol is a predefined written procedural method in the design and implementation of tasks and that these protocols are written whenever it is desirable to standardize a method or procedure to ensure successful reproducibility in a similar set up, a generic protocol was developed based on the model. The protocol developed in this study, operates as a multidisciplinary contaminants management and proactive protocol, thus exchanges toxicological, water quality, agricultural, chemical and public health information. The protocol uses previous or readily available information as a point of departure. It seeks to address the challenge facing the water industry in managing the current and emerging organic contaminants that are relevant to public health protection via the use of drinking water. Once the protocol was developed, it was validated in a prototype drinking water value chain. The exercise comprised of testing each step of the protocol from the selection of the “pool of organic contaminants (Step I) to recommending the final priority list of organic contaminants (Step VII). The implementation was successfully conducted in the Rand Water drinking water value chain. Emphasis of expert judgment was made as each step was validated and the opinion of key stakeholders used to shape the process. During Step III of the protocol, an intensive literature review was conducted to determine organic contaminants that have been identified in ground and surface water systems across the world. As a result of this review, major groups of organic contaminants that have been found to occur in source water resources across the world were identified. The identified groups of organic contaminants include, pesticides, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, per and polyfluoroorganic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes and alkenes, C10-C13 Chloroalkanes, pharmaceuticals and personal care products [PPCPs], surfactants, benzotriazoles, cyanotoxins and Carbon-based engineered nanoparticles. The risk profile of the identified organic contaminants was established using the persistence, bio-accumulation and toxicity criteria and the development of water quality monographs as an information dissemination tool. A conceptual framework for the implementation of the protocol by water utilities and relevant institutions has been developed from the experiences learnt during the validation exercise and a priority list of organic contaminants for the monitoring in the drinking water value chain to be used by Rand Water and other water utilities was identified. Some of the organic contaminants on this are currently being analyzed for in The Rand Water’s routine organic monitoring programme. During the validation exercise, the following were noted, <ul> <li>During the identification of the “pool of organic contaminants” from the consulted information sources such as the WHO guidelines for drinking water quality, Health Canada drinking water quality guidelines, the USEPA drinking water quality standards, the New Zealand drinking water quality standards, USEPA IRIS database, the PAN-UK list of registered pesticides for South Africa, the IARC list for recognized carcinogens and the Department of Agriculture pesticides manuals duplications were observed. </li> <li>The time allocated could not allow for the development of water quality monographs for all organic contaminants of concern but for a few selected contaminants whose information was inadequate to allow for decision-making. </li> <li>The determination of concentration levels of organic contaminants in fish, sediment and water samples could have been limited by the failure of current analytical instruments to go down to lower levels at which they occur in the drinking water value chain. <l/i> <li>Only two events could be planned, during the wet season (high flow) and dry season (low flow) based on time and budget constraints. </li> <li>Although various experts were consulted and invited to attend workshops in order to validate the process, the attendance could not be extended to all nine provinces given the time and budget constraints. <br></li></ul> Based on the above, recommendations were made for the dissemination and use of the products emanating from this study. For example, it is recommended that the current protocol be made available to water utilities and the process of revising the current priority list be repeated every 5 years. Further research should be conducted to obtain full coverage of organic contaminants impacting on source water quality in all ground water and surface water systems used as sources for drinking water production. Another major recommendation is the investigation of potential analytical methods that current chromatographic methods with high resolution mass spectrometry to ensure that organic contaminants can be detected at the ng/l to pg/l using a single enrichment method in order to make sure that those organic contaminants that occur at very low concentration in environmental samples can be detected. For example, the realisation that compounds such as synthetic organic polymer residues, emerging disinfectant by-products, detergent metabolites, chlorinated benzenes, alkyl phenol, polyethoxylates, their metabolites and cyanotoxins are continuously discharged into the environment via wastewater and industrial effluent discharges which increases their concentration in aquatic environment and concomitantly their potential to exert adverse health effects in water used as source for the production of drinking water necessitates that each of these groups be added to the current monitoring programme. The current water quality monographs can be used for the benefit of the Drinking Water industry. It is also recommended that a training manual on the production and use of water quality monographs is produced to facilitate their dissemination. CD-ROMs on the water quality monographs can be produced and distributed with the manual. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / PhD / Unrestricted

Conservation is costly, and choices must be made about where to best allocate limited resources. I propose a regional evolutionary diversity and endangerment (RED-E) approach to prioritization of endangered species. It builds off of the evolutionary diversity and global endangerment (EDGE) approach, but will allow conservation agencies to focus their efforts on species in specific regions. I used the RED-E approach to prioritize mammal and bird species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), as well as to make a ranking of species without ESA critical habitat (CH), as a practical application. Regional conservation approaches differ significantly from global approaches. The RED-E approach places a high significance on the level of endangerment of a species, but also allows for very distinct species to have increased prioritization on the RED-E list. Using the CH RED-E list, the U.S. government could begin focusing resources toward endangered and genetically diverse species.

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2018-04-13T13:45:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Claudia Torre.pdf: 4017373 bytes, checksum: 07d0e2bce6621bdd3aa4cdec6b777f11 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-13T13:45:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Claudia Torre.pdf: 4017373 bytes, checksum: 07d0e2bce6621bdd3aa4cdec6b777f11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-23 / The building of a project portfolio and their prioritization depend on a series of decision-making from people with different perceptions, judgments and interests. When a consensus is not reached, individual judgments can be weighed using decision support tools that can solve decision-making difficulties in multi-choice environments. However, for the application of a multicriteria method, the criteria need to be defined, and the lack of guidelines for establishing criteria for project selection is the main challenge faced by organizations in portfolio management. The main purpose of this work is the proposition of a method for the definition of criteria for the selection and prioritization of projects, and it was developed to solve a need of the Military Police of the State of São Paulo - PMESP. To achieve this goal, the research method Design Science Research was used in which the knowledge that involves understanding and solving the problem is obtained during the construction of an solution for a specific problem context. The method for defining criteria is able to contribute to the practice of project portfolio management, defining criteria for project selection and prioritization, recording the meanings of each criterion and formalizing the criteria definition process. Therefore, the criteria and their definitions are stored and can be accessed whenever necessary. In addition, the application time of the method can be adjusted according to the complexity of the organization and both public and private companies can benefit from the application of this method. / A formação de um portfólio de projetos e sua priorização dependem de uma série de tomadas de decisões de pessoas com percepções, julgamentos e interesses diferentes. Quando um consenso não é alcançado, os julgamentos individuais podem ser pesados usando ferramentas de apoio à decisão, capazes de resolver dificuldades de tomada de decisão em ambientes de múltiplas escolhas. Porém, para a aplicação de um método multicritério, há a necessidade da definição dos critérios, e a falta de diretrizes para o estabelecimento de critérios para a seleção de projetos é o principal desafio enfrentado pelas organizações no gerenciamento de portfólio. Este trabalho possui como principal finalidade a proposição de um método para a definição de critérios para a seleção e priorização de projetos, e foi elaborado a fim de solucionar uma necessidade da Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo - PMESP. Para o alcance de tal objetivo, por meio de uma abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, foi utilizado o método de pesquisa Design Science Research, no qual o conhecimento que envolve a compreensão e a resolução do problema é obtido durante a construção de uma solução para um contexto de problema específico. O método para a definição de critérios aqui desenvolvido é um conjunto de passos capaz de contribuir para a prática de gestão de portfólio de projetos, definindo critérios para seleção e priorização de projetos, registrando os significados de cada critério e formalizando o processo de definição de critérios. Dessa forma, os critérios e suas definições ficam armazenados, podendo ser acessados sempre que necessário. Além disso, o tempo de aplicação do método pode ser ajustado conforme a complexidade da organização e tanto empresas públicas e privadas podem usufruir da aplicação deste método.

Large-scale land-use change across the tropics has led to the decline of animal populations and their habitat. With large investments into mining, hydropower dams and industrial agriculture this trend is likely to continue. Consequently, there is a need for systematic land-use planning to set aside areas for protection and allocate scarce conservation funding effectively. Even though primates are relatively well studied, data-driven systematic planning is still rarely implemented. The overall aim of this dissertation was to investigate population parameters needed for evidence-based conservation planning for the critically endangered western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) in West Africa. To this end, I compiled density datasets covering the entire geographic range of this taxon from the IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. database and modeled chimpanzee densities as a function of 20 social-ecological variables. I found that western chimpanzees seemingly persist within three social-ecological configurations: rainforests with a low degree of anthropogenic threats, steep areas that are less likely to be developed and are harder to access by humans, and areas with a high prevalence of cultural taboos against hunting chimpanzees. The third configuration of reduced hunting pressure is not yet reflected in commonly implemented conservation interventions, suggesting a need for designing new approaches aimed at reducing the threat of hunting. Based on the modeled density distribution, I estimated that 52,811 (95% CI 17,577-96,564) western chimpanzees remain in West Africa, and identified areas of high conservation value to which conservation interventions should be targeted. These results can be used to inform the expansion of the protected area network in West Africa, to quantify the impact of planned industrial projects on western chimpanzees, and to guide the systematic allocation of conservation funding. In addition, this thesis highlights the unique position of taxon-specific databases of providing access to high-resolution data at the scale needed for conservation planning. Data-driven conservation planning has the potential to enable conservationists to respond more proactively to current and emerging threats, and ultimately improve conservation outcomes.

Today’s world is a network of interconnected systems that are always running to facilitate information exchange so people can carry out their daily activities. Software applications are constantly evolving to meet the increasing expectations of the growing market, thereby giving rise to the development of large complex systems. It is very likely for these complex systems to encounter bugs which is a situation that can cause errors in software. These bugs can prevent the systems from operating as intended, slowing down software development and deployment, and causing delays in deadlines. This study undertook a systematic literature review to find trends in the field of bug prioritization. Software bug prioritization can help developers determine the order of fixing bugs by assigning priority levels based on the severity analysis. This study aims to identify the most promising techniques that can change the bug prediction and resolution process. It is observed that machine learning techniques (ML) have been gaining popularity in addressing the bug prioritization issue since they can automatically assign priority levels. However, these ML techniques also have limitations addressed in this study along with a taxonomic classification of identified techniques. The review obtained 34 manuscripts based on study selection criteria. These manuscripts discovered 63 unique bug prioritization techniques, including a mix of ML, data reduction and hybrid techniques. It is evident that though these techniques perform automatic prioritization, they can sometimes be slow and lack consistency in the accuracy of results.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第23182号 / 工博第4826号 / 新制||工||1754(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市環境工学専攻 / (主査)教授 米田 稔, 教授 高野 裕久, 教授 松井 康人 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DGAM

Regression testing is the process of testing software to make sure changes to the software will not change the functionality. With growing test suites theneed to prioritize arises. This thesis explores how to weigh factors such as the number of fails detected, days since latest test case execution, and coverage. The prioritization is done over multiple test systems, software branches, and over many test sessions where the software can change in-between. With data provided by an industrial partner, we evaluate different ways to prioritize. The developed mathematical model could not cope with the size of the problem, whereas a simulated annealing approach based on said model proved highly successful. We also found that prioritizing test cases related to recent codechanges was effective. / Regressionstestning är processen att testa mjukvara för att säkerställa att ändringar av mjukvaran inte kommer att ändra funktionaliteten. Med växande testsviter uppstår behovet av att prioritera. Det här examensarbetet undersöker hur man väger faktorer som antalet upptäckta underkända testfall, dagar sedan testfallen senast kördes och täckning. Prioriteringen görs över flera testsystem, mjukvarugrenar och över många testsessioner där mjukvaran kan ändras däremellan. Med data från en industriell partner utvärderar vi olika sätt att prioritera. Den utvecklade matematiska modellen kunde inte hantera problemets storlek, medan en simulerad kylningsmetod baserad på denna modell visade sig vara mycket framgångsrik. Vi fann också att prioritering enligt ändringar som gjorts i mjukvaran var effetivt