The main object of this master's thesis is to introduce process management and then apply it on a real company. The aim of the theoretical part was to define terms used in process management and describe it from different perspectives. An outline of the history of process management has offered insights into the personalities and the companies that have played a part in how the process management has arisen, and therefore how it looks today. Business process improvement and implementing business management have been the subjects of further theoretical subchapters. These methodologies included reengineering, Kaizen, TOC, Lean, Six Sigma. Process mapping is described in the end of the theoretical part. The theoretical knowledge was then applied in the practical part of this thesis. Firstly the company ČZ a.s. was introduced. However the domain of this thesis have become a mapping and describing of business processes in the company mainly in the Sales Department of the Tools Division. The conclusion is how to change the process of Order management in the Sales Department and how it will affect the Tools Division.

abstract: With the aid of metabolic pathways engineering, microbes are finding increased use as biocatalysts to convert renewable biomass resources into fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other valuable compounds. These alternative, bio-based production routes offer distinct advantages over traditional synthesis methods, including lower energy requirements, rendering them as more "green" and "eco-friendly". <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> has recently been engineered to produce the aromatic chemicals (S)-styrene oxide and phenol directly from renewable glucose. Several factors, however, limit the viability of this approach, including low titers caused by product inhibition and/or low metabolic flux through the engineered pathways. This thesis focuses on addressing these concerns using magnetic mesoporous carbon powders as adsorbents for continuous, in-situ product removal as a means to alleviate such limitations. Using process engineering as a means to troubleshoot metabolic pathways by continuously removing products, increased yields are achieved from both pathways. By performing case studies in product toxicity and reaction equilibrium it was concluded that each step of a metabolic pathway can be optimized by the strategic use of in-situ adsorption as a process engineering tool. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Chemical Engineering 2014

A melhoria de processos é um tema abordado em diversos setores. Este trabalho concentrou-se na melhoria do processo de produção de tecidos metálicos usados como material de reforço na fabricação de pneus radiais. O estudo foi realizado em uma indústria fabricante de pneus, em uma calandra de configuração Z e teve como objetivo aprofundar os conhecimentos a respeito deste processo identificando oportunidades de melhorias para reduzir perdas causadas por problemas qualitativos. Além disso, buscou melhorar a qualidade percebida pelo cliente interno sem afetar a qualidade do produto final, percebida pelo cliente externo. Para tanto, foi realizado um mapeamento do processo produtivo em questão, seguido de um estudo do efeito das temperaturas neste processo. O mapeamento mostrou que muitas etapas possuem influência direta na qualidade dos tecidos, as oportunidades de melhoria foram destacadas durante e após o mapeamento e estão relacionadas principalmente ao controle das temperaturas da calandra e dos moinhos, à automatização do processo, aos procedimentos operacionais e à instalação de dispositivos de controle e alerta. Uma vez que o controle das temperaturas de toda a linha da calandra resultou ser um fator crítico para o processo, realizou-se um estudo do efeito das temperaturas usadas durante a produção, a partir do uso da metodologia de Projeto de Experimentos com a aplicação de um Projeto Fatorial 25-1 sem repetição Quatro variáveis de resposta foram estudadas: quantidade de grumos pré-vulcanizados, aderência tecido-tecido, reversão de enxofre e adesão borracha-metal. Os fatores controláveis usados foram: temperatura dos moinhos alimentadores, temperatura dos cilindros 1 e 4, temperatura dos cilindros 2 e 3, temperatura dos tambores de resfriamento e temperatura do aquecimento das cordas metálicas. Pela otimização das variáveis de resposta, chegou-se aos valores ótimos para o processo, sendo todos eles no seu nível alto, com exceção da temperatura dos cilindros 2 e 3 que apresentou o melhor valor no nível baixo. Os resultados deste trabalho aprofundaram os conhecimentos num processo que, apesar de muito antigo, ainda possui poucos textos publicados a respeito. Adicionalmente, forneceu uma otimização experimental para as afirmações encontradas na literatura sobre a importância do controle de temperaturas no processo de fabricação de tecidos metálicos. / The process improvement is a topic widely used in several sectors. In this work this topic deals with improving the production process of metallic fabrics used as reinforcement material for radial tires. The study was carried out in a tire industry in a Z configuration calender and aims to deepen the knowledge about this process by identifying improvement opportunities to reduce losses caused by quality problems in metallic fabrics. It also seeks to improve the quality perceived by internal costumer without affecting the quality of the final product, perceived by the external customer. Thus, a mapping of the production process in question was made, followed by a study of the effect of temperature in this manufacturing process. The mapping shown that many steps have direct influence on fabric quality, the opportunities for improvement were highlighted during and after the mapping and are related mainly to control the temperature of the calender and mills, to process automation, operational procedures and the installation of devices for control and alert. Since the temperature control of whole calender line proved to be a critical factor in the process, a study of the effect of the temperatures used during the production was performed from the use of the design of experiments methodology with the application of a factorial design 25-1, without replication Four response variables were studied: number of pre vulcanized lumps, tack, sulfur reversion and steel-rubber adhesion. The controllable factors chosen were: feeder mills temperature, temperature of rolls 1 and 4 of the calender, temperature of rolls 2 and 3 of the calender, temperature of cooling drums and heating temperature of steel cords. By the optimization of the response variables, it was reached the optimum values for the process, all of which are in its high level except for the temperature of the rolls 2 and 3 which showed the best value in the low level. These results obtained deepened knowledge in a process which, though very old, still has a few articles published. Additionally, it provided quantitative data to the statements found in the literature about the importance of temperature control in the manufacturing process of metallic fabrics.

La thèse porte sur le développement d’une nouvelle approche pour améliorer la performance des projets d’une organisation. Cette approche est basée sur un modèle conceptuel donnant une représentation cognitive permettant à l’organisation de construire et d’adapter les éléments ayant un impact dans la performance des projets. Le modèle est formé de trois parties. Les principes sont les préalables auxquels doivent adhérer les dirigeants de l’organisation et les personnes ayant des activités de coordination. Les concepts sont des définitions, idées et représentations mentales servant de bases au modèle. Les domaines de progression sont formés de problématiques et sous-problématiques qu’il convient de parcourir de manière équilibrée. Ce modèle a été décliné en une méthode destinée aux organisations entreprenant de manière régulière des projets internes. La durée de la thèse n’a permis de tester la méthode dans des conditions réelles. / The thesis focuses on developing a new approach to improve organizational project performance. This approach is based on a conceptual model giving a cognitive representation that enables the organization to build and adapt the items affecting the project performance. The model consists of three parts. The principles are the prerequisites that the leaders of the organization and people with coordination role must comply with. The concepts are definitions, ideas and mental constructs intended to be the model basis. The progress areas are made of issues and sub-issues that should be treated in a balanced way. This model has been used to create a method for organizations undertaking regularly internal projects. In the duration of the thesis, the method cannot be tested in actual situations.

A participação do segmento de serviços na economia mundial tem crescido a cada ano, superando a marca de 50% em diversos países. As dificuldades das empresas em oferecer e manter a qualidade de seus serviços ao longo deste crescimento gera uma preocupação global em promover e desenvolver pesquisas relacionadas ao tema. Neste contexto, o trabalho apresentado nesta dissertação tem por objetivo criar um modelo de ciclo de vida de projetos de melhoria de processos voltado para o setor de retaguarda (back-office) dos serviços. O trabalho é conduzido em campo através de uma pesquisa-ação que envolve uma instituição financeira multinacional. As pesquisas e as investigações focam os temas de gestão da qualidade, melhoria de processos e gerenciamento de projetos. No quesito metodológico, revisam-se os métodos de pesquisa comumente aplicados à Engenharia de Produção com especial ênfase ao método da pesquisa-ação, adotado neste trabalho. Após as revisões o foco é direcionado para a pesquisa de campo, os aprendizados e o processo de criação do modelo de ciclo de vida de projetos, detalhando suas fases, escopo, ferramentas e modelos de suporte. Além disso, destaca-se como os projetos desenvolvidos em campo contribuíram no referido modelo. Conclui-se argumentando como a opção pela pesquisa-ação dinamizou o trabalho desenvolvido proporcionando um ótimo equilíbrio entre contribuição cientifica e aplicação prática dos conceitos revisados. / The importance of the services sector on the global economy is growing bigger every year, exceeding 50% in many countries. The difficulties to sustain this growth along with quality and process improvement are currently an academic and organizational concern. This research focused on this topic through the development of a process improvement project life cycle to the back-office sector. The investigations went from process improvement, total quality management and project management to operations management research techniques, especially actionresearch, applied in this master\'s thesis. The evolution of an initial process improvement model through the action research performed at a multinational financial institution is shown, leading to the final model. Moreover the model is explored to the level of scope, duration, templates and tools. At the end, the conclusions, successes and limitations are presented along with the highlights of the chosen research method benefits and suggestions of futures researches on the proposed model and on related topics.

Os processos de gestão de requisitos têm influência direta na concepção do produto final e estão diretamente relacionados com a satisfação do cliente, pois é neles que se define o que o cliente espera do software. Seus produtos servem de base para os processos executados posteriormente e, portanto, a probabilidade de ocorrer falhas é maior caso haja falhas durante a elaboração dos requisitos do software. No entanto, tem-se observado que esses processos são uma das maiores fontes de problemas encontrados no desenvolvimento de software. Com o intuito de sistematizar os processos de desenvolvimento de software, a fim de se evitar prejuízos para as organizações desenvolvedoras e insatisfação para os adquirentes dos produtos desenvolvidos, surgiram os modelos para a melhoria de processo de desenvolvimento de software, tais como o Capability Matutity Model Integration - Development (CMMI-Dev). Esses modelos atuam como guias para a melhoria contínua dos processos de desenvolvimento das organizações. Entretanto, o nível de abstração dos modelos nem sempre é suficientemente específico para orientar colaboradores de organizações não familiarizados com o corpo de conhecimento da engenharia de software. Outro aspecto que dificulta a utilização de tais modelos é o financeiro, pois a implantação de tais melhorias apresenta alto custo, podendo ser inviável para organizações de pequeno e médio porte. Este trabalho apresenta um guia, denominado PROREQ, cujo objetivo é facilitar a implantação de melhorias nos processos de requisitos de pequenas organizações. É composto por um conjunto de boas práticas classificadas segundo a estrutura de organização das áreas de processo Desenvolvimento e Gerenciamento de requisitos do CMMI-Dev; uma estratégia de implantação, baseada na estratégia da norma ISO/IEC 15504 e em um conjunto de práticas retiradas de trabalhos empíricos relacionados à melhoria de processos de software; e um modelo de avaliação, baseado na norma ISO/IEC 15504 e no método de avaliação do modelo de melhoria de processo de software brasileiro (MPS.BR). Ao final é descrito um estudo de caso que apresenta os resultados da aplicação do guia PROREQ em uma pequena organização desenvolvedora de software / Requirements management processes have a great impact on the final product conception and are directly related to customers\' satisfaction, as the expected behavior of the software is defined during them. Their products serve as a basis for the processes executed subsequently and, thus, the probability of failure is higher when faults occur during the elaboration of the software requirements. However, it has been observed that these processes are one of the richest sources of problems found during software development. This motivated the appearance of models for improving software development processes, such as the Capability Matutity Model Integration - Development (CMMI-Dev), which act as guides for continuously improving the organization development processes. Nevertheless, the abstraction level of the models is not always specific enough to guide the organization collaborators that are not familiar with the software engineering body of knowledge. Financial aspects also make the utilization of these models more difficult, because to deploy these improvements is often expensive and can be unfeasible for small and medium organizations. This work presents a guide, named PROREQ, whose main goal is to ease the deployment of improvements in the requirements processes of small organizations. It is composed of: a set of good practices classified according to the organization structure of CMMI-Dev process areas Requirements Development and Management; a deployment strategy, based on ISO/IEC 15504 strategy and on a set of practices coming from empirical works related to software process improvement; and an evaluation model based on ISO/IEC 15504 and on the evaluation method of the Brazilian software process improvement method (MPS.BR). A case study is described to present the results of applying the PROREQ guide in a small software development organization

Contexto: Apesar de existirem muitas informações sobre a área de teste de software, elas se encontram de forma dispersa e sem conexão, o que aumenta a já existente dificuldade por parte de usuários em compreender os conceitos e as tecnologias dessa área e, conseqüentemente, em tomar a decisão de onde e quando usálas. Objetivo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi criar o arcabouço KITest (Knowledge and Improvement on Test) capaz de agregar o conhecimento em teste e disponibilizá-lo para a comunidade com a intenção de facilitar a sua transferência, a definição e a melhoria de processos de teste, com mais qualidade. Metodologia: Para facilitar a transferência de conhecimento modelou-se o conhecimento em teste por meio de um processo genérico de teste organizado em um mapa mental (KITMap). Para contemplar a questão de qualidade estabeleceu-se como base as práticas do modelo TMMi, distribuídas no processo de teste genérico. Para permitir que a comunidade interaja com essa base de conhecimento em teste criou-se uma ferramenta (KITTool) que permita acesso a essas informações, faça diagnóstico do processo de teste vigente e sugira melhorias. Para gerenciar toda essa estrutura utilizou-se uma estratégia de melhoria para que essa estrutura esteja sempre em evolução com base na realimentação da comunidade que a utiliza. Resultados e Conclusões: os resultados e as conclusões sobre a aplicação do arcabouço KITest estão apresentados no relatório técnico anexo a esta tese / Background: Although there is much information about the software testing area, they are dispersed and disconnected, thus hardening the understanding of concepts and technologies within this area. Consequently, this increases the difficulty on making decisions on where and when to use such testing-related information. Objective: The objective of this work was to create the KITest framework (Knowledge and Improvement on Test) aiming at aggregating knowledge of software testing and making it available to the community. The purpose of KITest is facilitating the knowledge transfer and supporting the definition and improvement of testing processes with respect to its quality. Methodology: Aiming to facilitate the knowledge transfer, the testingrelated knowledge was modeled through a generic testing process organized as a mental map (KITMap). TMMi was chosen as the underlying model to address the intended quality issues. The TMMi practices were distributed into the general testing process. To allow the communitys interaction with the testing knowledge base, we created a tool named KITTool. The tool allows the access to the testing-related information, supports the diagnosis of the current testing process and the suggestion of improvements to it. To manage all this structure, an improvement strategy is used to maintain a continuous evolution based on the communitys feedback. Results and Conclusions: The results and conclusions on the implementation of the KITest framework are described in the technical report that is attached to this dissertation

Orientadores: Clenio Figueiredo Salviano, Clenio Figueiredo Salviano / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T14:19:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Banhesse_EdgarLopes_M.pdf: 3134823 bytes, checksum: 9c7388ffc24855503538ec9c8148602c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A Melhoria de Processo de Software (MPS) em organizações intensivas em software está estabelecida na indústria como um meio bem sucedido para melhorar o desenvolvimento de software. Um ciclo de MPS tem sido orientado por um modelo de maturidade da capacidade, geral-mente um modelo do CMMI ou um modelo baseado na Norma Internacional ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE). Como consequência dessa melhora, existe um conjunto de fatores que levam a uma evolução da atual MPS para tratar novas oportunidades de melhoria. Entre esses fatores existem: os princípios fundamentais dos modelos e os múltiplos modelos. O objetivo deste projeto de pesquisa é propor e mostrar que é viável utilizar um Metamodelo de Perfis de Capacidade de Processo para promover a integração de elementos de Múltiplos Modelos de Capacidade de Processo de Software. Este projeto faz parte de um esforço de pesquisa em direção a uma proposta de evolução da atual MPS. A especificação de um metamodelo foi revisada e foram especificadas as funcionalidades de uma ferramenta de software para representar e transformar arquiteturas de modelos de capacidade; esta ferramenta foi implementada como uma prova de conceito para validar o metamodelo. A ferramenta foi utilizada para representar e transformar modelos de arquiteturas diferentes a fim de promover a integração de elementos de múltiplos modelos, seis Perfis de Capacidade de Processo foram gerados e avaliados por seis especialistas em modelos. A avaliação e análise dos perfis foram satisfatórias, pois mostrou que o metamodelo implementado foi capaz de representar e transformar elementos de Múltiplos Modelos de Capacidade de Processo / Abstract: Software Process Improvement (SPI) in software intensive organizations has been established in industry as a successful way to improve software development. A SPI cycle has been driven by a capability maturity model, usually a CMMI model or a model based on the International Standard ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE). As a result of this improvement, there is a group of factors that lead to an evolution in current SPI, addressing new opportunities of improvement. Among these factors are: fundamental principles of models and multiple models. The objective of this research project is to propose and show that it is feasible to use a Process Capability Profiles Metamodel to promote integration of elements from Multiple Models of Software Process Capability. This project is part of research effort towards a proposed evolution of current SPI. A metamodel specification has been reviewed and the software tool features were specified to represent and transform capability models architectures; this tool has been implemented as a proof of concept to validate the metamodel. The tool was used to represent and transform models of different architectures in order to promote the integration of elements from multiple models; six Process Capability Profiles have been generated and evaluated by six models experts. The profiles evaluation and analysis were satisfactory, whereas they have shown that the metamodel implemented was able to represent and transform elements from Multiple Models of Process Capability / Mestrado / Engenharia de Computação / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

ABSTRACT Modern society has a higher demand for quality than it had before. There is a Plethora of quality improvement techniques available which makes it harder for companies to decide which one to apply. They need support in this decision and in knowing how to apply the chosen techniques, if they want to improve their business and stay competitive. Six Sigma approach is a very successful manufacturing quality improvement tool. In the last two decades, it has helped many companies to success. Recently, the Six Sigma approach was introduced in the software development industry. Some software companies have been trying to adapt Six Sigma for their business and development processes. But there are misconceptions about the applicability of Six Sigma in software‟s. Furthermore there is no generic software quality improvement solution based on Six Sigma. So there is a demand to debunk the misconceptions related to the applicability of Six Sigma. And to develop a generic software company quality improvement solution based on Six Sigma approach. In this thesis we take a first step towards such a solution. The thesis starts from Six Sigma concept identification and manufacturing investigation. After conducting interviews, a case study and several case studies reviews, we detail our method. We expect thesis result to be useful for software companies when applying Six Sigma in their company for process improvement. Keywords: Software Quality, Quality Improvement Tool, Six Sigma and Process Improvement

Quality assurance activities, in software development, are the backbone of whole project. These activities are not only responsible of product quality, but also for process quality. In conventional software development QA is a separate group of QA experts. As the trends of software development moved towards agile development, QA activities also got changed. In agile development most of these activities are performed by developers. Close people collaboration, onsite customer and Test Driven Development are the approaches in agile development to achieve better product quality. In this thesis we have presented the philosophical as well as practical angle QA in agile development. Mindset of agile development revolves around product quality but there is much work to be done to impart quality of process in agile development to get it standardized and more organized. QA activities remain centric and focused to testing. Practices like SPI and following some standards are lacking in agile methodologies. In this thesis we have proposed to inject an extra layer of QA in agile projects. Purpose of injecting and extra layer, is to use the knowledge of QA experts to achieve quality in development process that will result in higher level of product quality.