Requirements are important in software development, product development, projects, processes, and systems. However, a review of the requirements literature indicates several problems. First, there is confusion between the terms ?requirements engineering? and ?requirements management.? Similarities and/or differences between the two terms are resolved through a literature review; resulting in comprehensive definitions of each term. Second, current literature recognizes the importance of requirements but offers few methodologies or solutions for defining and managing requirements. Hence, a flexible methodology or framework is provided for defining and managing requirements. Third, requirements methodologies are represented in various ways, each with their respective strengths and weaknesses. A tabular view and hybrid graphical view for representing the requirements process are provided.

Information demand is a part of comprehensive business logistics which encompass logistics of information. The demand for information has provided a unifying framework for different needs on enterprise modeling. Hence, the problems organizations faces relating to flow and distribution has lead to the development of various framework for analyzing information demand and this is guided by a set of rules, methods and even a unified representation. This thesis work defines a specification for enterprise Information Demand Context model using XPDL as the language of construct. The paper gives reasons why XPDL was preferred for such a representation and show how mapping is carried out from the constructs of notations to its associated XPDL specifications, so that when we are defining a representation we are as well defining its meta model. The resulting specification is presented in such a way that it should be able to give a flexible, logical and more defined structure.

Quality defects are a common problem for producing companies, but causes and consequences are often unknown. The purpose of this thesis assignment is to develop a step-by-step analysis method for identifying the root causes of quality defects based on previously examined consequences. The first steps focus on customer recovery meanwhile the following steps concentrate on process recovery. The analysis method is process-orientated as the complete production and delivery process are scrutinized upstream by the combination of commonly used quality tools.   For testing the applicability of the presented method this thesis comprises a case study conducted at one company receiving complaints about quality defects. For the Case Study Company the consequences and causes of quality defects are described, analyzed and suggestions for improvement are developed.   In the investigated case, the developed method helps to identify causes and consequences of incomplete delivery, the company’s major quality problem. The upstream approach proved advantages for two reasons. First of all including the customer side guarantees that the cause analysis is limited to the relevant problems. With the help of the method the severity of consequences depending on the customers’ awareness of defects and available time can be detected. Secondly problems can be scrutinized in natural order as difficulties in production once identified can be followed step by step to the causes in a preceding step. The main causes identified in this case study are a lack of process definition and of standardization. Thus, the portrayed case suggests that regular appearances of quality defects are not a coincidence. The reasons are the underlying, possibly insufficiently defined and managed processes.   The general finding of the thesis assignment is the presented analysis method that comprises a systematic process-oriented approach designed to examine consequences and causes of quality defects. In contrast to the root cause analysis approaches found in literature each analysis step is described in detail. This makes the method easy to apply in practice. Therefore the method is a valid tool to deal with a high degree of complexity. The case study proved that it is effective and efficient to scrutinize problems with these characteristics. Under different circumstances the application of single quality tools might be sufficient and hence resource effective. Further investigation is necessary since this method has only been tested in one case study.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Mauro de Mesquita Spinola / Tese (doutorado) - Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo. Departamento de Engenharia de Produção, 2008.

Disruptive change transforms existing organizational processes. Newspaper organizations such as Orlando Sentinel Communications (OSC) tend to resist process change. As with most newspaper companies in the United States, OSC management was confronted with unprecedented disruptive change and challenges by the accelerated evolution of its business models and processes. This investigation identified and modeled OSC circulation processes to support disruptive change initiatives. The XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) is an XML specification and process modeling solution developed by the Workflow Management Coalition (WFMC) designed to exchange workflow process semantics and graphics. This investigation focused on developing an XPDL process model of OSC circulation processes to address process transformations inherent to disruptive change. The method was a case study of OSC circulation processes through the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) framework to develop a reproducible XPDL process model for OSC to use in planning for disruptive change. The investigation found that XPDL to be well-suited as the language for expressing workflow models to plan, align, and implement processes that anticipate disruptive change. The results of this research also confirmed that organizational values, workflow activities, and subflows play a prominent role in an incumbent organization's response to disruptive change. Finally, this study established that process model metainformation associated with workflow activities, transitions, and resources are core attributes in planning for disruptive change.

Um crescente número de empresas produtoras de software tem adotado um modelo organizacional de Fábrica de Software (FS), que facilita a terceirização por intermédio da segmentação das atividades e adoção de um sistema de produção mais flexível, dinâmico e controlado. Uma FS pode atender a múltiplas demandas de natureza e escopos distintos com o intuito de prover as necessidades específicas de cada cliente. Em face da diversidade e complexidade deste contexto, uma das questões principais a resolver é como mapear todos os processos envolvidos, identificando claramente o que, quem e, sobretudo como cada trabalho deve ser executado e controlado, visando o alinhamento dos processos à estrutura organizacional e conceitual de FS com foco nos processos de integração, alinhamento e reuso. Este estudo tem como objetivo mapear, definir, reestruturar e estabelecer processos de Fábrica de Software, conduzidos pelo método de pesquisaação em uma organização produtora de software do setor público, considerando seu contexto operacional, técnico e cultura organizacional. O desenvolvimento, execução, acompanhamento e resultados são descritos pelos ciclos da pesquisa-ação envolvendo o estudo de estruturas organizacionais, metodologias de desenvolvimento de sistemas, e mudanças organizacionais. Para isso foram definidas uma Estrutura Organizacional de Referência de FS, uma Arquitetura de Definição de Processos para FS e uma Metodologia de Desenvolvimento de Sistemas e Integração com foco organizacional, concebidos e desenvolvidos com base na literatura, experiência profissional e pesquisa empírica, que serviram como guia de condução da pesquisa-ação, culminando na associação do estudo empírico com o estudo teórico. As contribuições empíricas e teóricas geradas referem-se à melhoria dos processos organizacionais e operacionais de uma empresa de TI do setor público com base nos conceitos de FS. / A growing number of software producing companies have adopted an organizational model of Software Factory (SF), which facilitates outsourcing by segmenting activities and by adopting a more flexible, dynamic and controlled production system. A SF can serve the multiple demands of different nature and scopes with the purpose of providing each customers specific needs. Because of the diversity and complexity of this context, one of the main issues to be solved is how to map all the processes involved, clearly identifying what, who and mainly how each work must be executed and controlled, aiming at aligning the processes to the organizational and conceptual structure of SF focusing on the integration, aligning and reuse processes. The purpose of this study is mapping, defining, restructuring and establishing the Software Factory process, conducted by the action research method in a software producing organization of the public sector, considering its operational, technical and organizational culture context. The development, execution, follow-up and results are described by the action research cycles involving the study of organizational structures, system development methodologies and organizational changes. For this, a Reference Organizational Structure of SF, and Processes Definition Architecture for SF and a Integration System Development Methodology with organizational focus were defined, conceived and developed based on the literature, professional experience and empirical research, which served as a guiding line of the action research, peaking at the association of the empirical study with the theoretical study. The generated empirical and theoretical contributions refer to the improvement of the organizational and operational processes based on the SF concepts.

Um crescente número de empresas produtoras de software tem adotado um modelo organizacional de Fábrica de Software (FS), que facilita a terceirização por intermédio da segmentação das atividades e adoção de um sistema de produção mais flexível, dinâmico e controlado. Uma FS pode atender a múltiplas demandas de natureza e escopos distintos com o intuito de prover as necessidades específicas de cada cliente. Em face da diversidade e complexidade deste contexto, uma das questões principais a resolver é como mapear todos os processos envolvidos, identificando claramente o que, quem e, sobretudo como cada trabalho deve ser executado e controlado, visando o alinhamento dos processos à estrutura organizacional e conceitual de FS com foco nos processos de integração, alinhamento e reuso. Este estudo tem como objetivo mapear, definir, reestruturar e estabelecer processos de Fábrica de Software, conduzidos pelo método de pesquisaação em uma organização produtora de software do setor público, considerando seu contexto operacional, técnico e cultura organizacional. O desenvolvimento, execução, acompanhamento e resultados são descritos pelos ciclos da pesquisa-ação envolvendo o estudo de estruturas organizacionais, metodologias de desenvolvimento de sistemas, e mudanças organizacionais. Para isso foram definidas uma Estrutura Organizacional de Referência de FS, uma Arquitetura de Definição de Processos para FS e uma Metodologia de Desenvolvimento de Sistemas e Integração com foco organizacional, concebidos e desenvolvidos com base na literatura, experiência profissional e pesquisa empírica, que serviram como guia de condução da pesquisa-ação, culminando na associação do estudo empírico com o estudo teórico. As contribuições empíricas e teóricas geradas referem-se à melhoria dos processos organizacionais e operacionais de uma empresa de TI do setor público com base nos conceitos de FS. / A growing number of software producing companies have adopted an organizational model of Software Factory (SF), which facilitates outsourcing by segmenting activities and by adopting a more flexible, dynamic and controlled production system. A SF can serve the multiple demands of different nature and scopes with the purpose of providing each customers specific needs. Because of the diversity and complexity of this context, one of the main issues to be solved is how to map all the processes involved, clearly identifying what, who and mainly how each work must be executed and controlled, aiming at aligning the processes to the organizational and conceptual structure of SF focusing on the integration, aligning and reuse processes. The purpose of this study is mapping, defining, restructuring and establishing the Software Factory process, conducted by the action research method in a software producing organization of the public sector, considering its operational, technical and organizational culture context. The development, execution, follow-up and results are described by the action research cycles involving the study of organizational structures, system development methodologies and organizational changes. For this, a Reference Organizational Structure of SF, and Processes Definition Architecture for SF and a Integration System Development Methodology with organizational focus were defined, conceived and developed based on the literature, professional experience and empirical research, which served as a guiding line of the action research, peaking at the association of the empirical study with the theoretical study. The generated empirical and theoretical contributions refer to the improvement of the organizational and operational processes based on the SF concepts.

The aim of this Thesis is to describe the practical implementation of process management in terms of Configuration Management process and subsequent implementation support tool, configuration and management database, focusing on describing and identifying particular steps needed for the definition and implementation process and the subsequent selection and implementation support tools. As an initial base of this Thesis I have used the practical experience of projects focusing on the definition and implementation of process management and subsequent implementation support tools, in which I acted in the role of the Configuration Manager. It means I assisted at course of entire projects. The Thesis focuses mainly on my run and defined Configuration Management process and describes the process and importance of various activities leading to the successful establishment of a process into practice, including identified problems and some of their solutions. The result of this Thesis should approach introducing one of the process of family ITIL v. 2 to practice and subsequent leading to the selection and implementation of the configuration and management database, as a major output of this process.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4892.pdf: 2883181 bytes, checksum: 6b4b510decd1413c928602b92eed6f11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-10 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Small companies face barriers to either implement or enhance their software testing processes due to the lack of experts in testing, the lack of resources and difficulties to adapt testing-related maturity models to a particular context. The goal of this research is devising a strategy that can be applied by software companies to the definition of testing processes, or even to the enhancement of the current company s process. The strategy for the definition of testing processes has been built upon the results of a case study of a small software development company. In such case study, we have characterized the company s current testing process and, based on it, we have devised a new process that relies both on the TMMi reference model and on the results of a survey that has gathered the opinion of professionals in software testing. The three main contributions of this research are: (i) a reduced test process model as a result of the mentioned survey; (ii) a newly devised testing process for the case company; and (iii) a strategy for the definition of testing processes devised from the case study, which is based on the TMMi reference model and on the opinion of software testing professionals. The sequence of steps performed in the case study enabled us to establish a testing process that takes into consideration the TMMi model and other company s particularities, thus resulting in a process whose focus is on quality. Performing such steps enables the company to evaluate and enhance its testing process whenever required. / Pequenas empresas encontram algumas barreiras para implementar ou melhorar seus processos de teste devido à falta de profissionais especializados em teste, falta de recursos e também devido à dificuldade em adaptar modelos de maturidade em teste para o contexto específico da empresa. O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma estratégia para que as empresas possam definir um processo de teste, ou melhorar o processo de teste existente. A estratégia para elaboração de um processo de teste para pequenas empresas foi extraída a partir da realização de um estudo prático em uma pequena empresa desenvolvedora de software. Nesse estudo estabeleceu-se como base o processo de teste existente na empresa e definiu-se um novo processo de teste, tendo como referência o TMMi e um survey, que coletou a opinião de profissionais que atuam na área de teste. Os três resultados obtidos neste trabalho são: (i) O modelo de um processo reduzido, resultante do survey; (ii) um novo processo de teste que foi proposto para a empresa; e (iii) uma estratégia para elaboração de processo de teste extraída de um estudo prático, com base no TMMi e na opinião de profissionais de teste. A sequência de passos que foi realizada no estudo prático permitiu chegar a uma proposta de processo de teste que leva em consideração o TMMi, sendo portanto, uma proposta de processo com foco em qualidade. A generalização dos passos executados resultam em uma estratégia que pode ser aplicada por empresas para avaliar e melhorar seu processo de teste sempre que necessário.

As globalisation is now a reality for most large organizations, and the competition for most businesses moving faster and becoming tougher, there is a need for engineering projects to deliver results faster in a more complex environment than ever, but also for companies to collaborate to utilize a wider array of competencies and to reach new markets with their products. This case study analyses which difficulties arise in interorganizational requirements engineering, and what organizations can do to alleviate the effects of those difficulties, as well as suggest which actions are most effective to focus on. The conclusion of this study is that the difficulties can be divided into three categories, namely interpersonal, structural and processual. Each category concerns a different set of people and require different actions for increased effectiveness. For the interpersonal category, prioritized efforts should be to establish a shared vocabulary and use techniques to build shared contextual understanding. For structural difficulties, evaluating management and control structures and the implementation of the project’s strategy should be prioritized. In the processual category, codifying existing processes to enable improvements, defining information artefacts and aligning information flows should be of high priority. / Globaliseringens effekter är idag en verklighet för de flesta stora organisationer, och konkurrensen för företag blir hårdare och förändrar sig allt snabbare. Därför blir det allt viktigare för utvecklingsprojekt att anpassa sig till en allt mer komplex miljö och leverera resultat snabbare än tidigare, men också att samarbeta mer med andra företag för att såväl utnyttja bredare kompetens som att nå nya marknader. Den här studien undersöker utmaningarna i interorganisatoriskt kravställningsarbete, vad företag kan göra för att möta de utmaningarna, såväl som att föreslå vilka handlingar som ger mest effekt för ett bättre kravställningsarbete. Slutsatsen av studien är att utmaningarna kan delas in i tre kategorier, nämligen personorienterade, strukturella och processorienterade. Varje kategori rör en viss mängd deltagare i projektet och kräver olika handlingar för ökad effektivitet. För att minska utmaningar i den personorienterade kategorin bör ett projekt prioritera att använda tekniker för att skapa ett gemensamt språkbruk och att använda tekniker för att bygga upp gemensam kontextuell förståelse. För strukturella utmaningar bör det prioriteras att utvärdera styrnings- och kontrollstrukturer, samt hur projektets strategi har implementerats och förankrats bland deltagarna. I den processorienterade kategorin bör det prioriteras att kodifiera existerande processer för att möjliggöra förbättringsarbete, definiera informationsartefakter och att försäkra sig om att informationsflöden är i linje med varandra mellan företagen, så att rätt information möts vid rätt tillfällen.