Test automation can decrease release cycle time for software systems compared to manual test execution. Manual test execution is also considered inefficient and error-prone. However, few companies have gotten far within the field of test automation. This thesis investigates how testing and test automation is conducted in a test consulting setting. It has been recognized that low test process maturity is common in customer projects and this has led to equally low system testability and stability. The study started with a literature survey which summarized the current state within the field of automated testing. This was followed by a consulting case study. In the case study it was investigated how the identified test process maturity problems affect the test consulting services. The consulting automated testing strategy (CATS) been developed to meet the current identified challenges in the domain. Customer guidelines which aim to increase the test process maturity in the customer organization have also been developed as a support to the strategy. Furthermore, the study has included both industrial and academic validation which has been conducted through interviews with consultant practitioners and researchers.

In the competitive global economy, increasing customer value by improving software product quality is the aim for organizations. Academia and industry are collaboratively striving to find new ways to achieve this goal. The last two decades have seen a mind shift where emphasis is now on improving processes to improve the quality of products. This approach has its roots in the realization that a better development process would lead to a better quality product. Based on this process improvement frameworks were created. These frameworks enable organizations to systematically improve their development processes and strive towards the ultimate goal of improving product quality. However, these initiatives were not always successful. The deriving factors that make the adoption and implementation of such frameworks a success were still unknown. In this regard, several primary studies have been conducted to identify the factors that make software process improvement initiative successful. Researchers have been investigating factors that affect success of Software Process Improvement (SPI). There was still a lack of a secondary study where systematic approach has been used to find factors that affect the success of SPI. In our thesis project we present results of the systematic review to accumulate success factors for SPI. These findings were validated by conducting an industrial survey. With our secondary study we have identified 31 important success factor categories of SPI. We have contributed to the body of knowledge by devising formal definitions for important factors. We have also unveiled the relationship of SPI success factors not only to different SPI framework but also to software process areas.

Context. Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives like Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), Bootstrap etc., have been developed on the primary agenda of continuous software process improvement. Similarly, about two decades ago, the United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) have laid down a set of guidelines based on the ISO quality standards for providing certification to organizations named TickIT. TickIT is now obsolete with its successor scheme TickITplus taking up its place with a lot of significant additions. All the companies which were certified based on TickIT guidelines (more than 1000 companies) were asked to move to TickITplus in order to keep their TickIT certification. However, until now it has been three years since the inception of TickITplus and only 70 companies have adopted TickITplus. This is way below relative to the number of TickIT certified organizations. The present thesis is done in order to find the factors why most of the companies have not adopted TickITplus and also why the 70 organizations have moved to TickITplus.   Objectives In this study, an attempt has been made to accomplish the following objectives: Identifying the changes that have been brought about in the new scheme. The factors that a software organization looks into while adopting or migrating to a new software quality certification scheme are identified. Validate these factors with the help of survey and interviews. Analyze the results of survey and interviews to provide the reasons why most of the organizations haven’t adopted TickITplus certification scheme. Methods. This research is done by using a mixed method approach by incorporating both quantitative and qualitative research methods. An online survey is conducted with the help of an online questionnaire as part of the quantitative leg. Two survey questionnaires have been framed to gather responses. With respect to the qualitative research method interviews are conducted to get a wider understanding about the factors that led an organization to migrate or not to migrate to TickITplus. The gathered data is analyzed using statistical methods like bivariate and univariate analysis for the quantitative method and thematic coding has been applied for the qualitative method. Triangulation method is used to validate the data obtained by correlating the results from the survey and interviews with those extracted from the literature review. Results. Results pertaining to the reasons why companies have moved to and also why other companies haven’t taken up TickITplus have been gathered from the survey and interviews. It was identified that high costs and low customer demand were the main reasons for the organizations not to choose TickITplus while among the organizations which have moved to TickITplus have also chosen the scheme based on customer requirement. However, few other reasons apart from these have also been identified which are presented in this document Conclusions. Conclusions have been drawn citing the importance of costs incurred for implementing TickITplus as a reason for not selecting TickITplus as it was considered very expensive. Among other reasons customer requirement was also low which was identified as a factor for the relatively low number of TickITplus certified organizations. On the other hand, among the TickITplus certified firms, customer demand forms the prominent reason for moving to TickITplus and lack of appropriate people to take up the work was considered as an important hindrance while implementing TickITplus. Several other reasons and challenges have also been identified which are clearly detailed in the document.

The research presented is motivated by the demand for process improvement for companies active within software development. High demands on software quality are a reality. At the same time, short development time and low effort consumption are required. This stresses the necessity for process improvement. Empirical research methods and close cooperation with the industry partner addressed the research challenge. The research presented in this thesis shows how the analysis of faults through fault classification can be used to determine suitable and required process improvements. Two alternatives are investigated. First, a lightweight approach, and second a fault classification approach targeting all faults. The suitability of the fault classification is stressed as well as the importance of assigning the correct fault class. The latter is determined by classifier agreement calculations. Additionally, the research proposes that the appropriate occasion for a correct fault classification is alleged to be when the fault is corrected. The research also introduces an approach to tailor the verification and validation process. The tailoring process suggested considers the functionality characteristics and the software entity complexity in terms of couplings. This is used to select the appropriate and efficient process for verification and validation.

The thesis, entitled "Six Sigma and improvement of the specific financial control" deals with the Six Sigma methodology in general in theoretical part. It defines the method, the objectives of its establishment, its history, next, theoretical part covers key aspects of Six Sigma, its principles and benefits, tools, management responsibilities for Six Sigma, the COQ in terms of Six Sigma philosophy and most important, the DMAIC methodology, which combines theoretical and empirical part of the project. Practical part illustrates the use of Six Sigma, mainly the process of DMAICR method for ongoing project of the accounting department of financial headquarter of no - named international company operating in Slovakia, which aims to improve the reconciliation process of the Hypotax account as the reason of identifying the weaknesses and significant deficiencies in the process.

Manufacturing by mechanical machining has historically benefited from the use of cutting fluid. Cutting fluids help to reduce temperature, friction, flush away chips, and hence prolong tool life and improve machining performance. However, uncontrolled use of cutting fluid raises concern in respect of cost and environmental burden. For these reasons, dry machining is used in conjunction with high speed machining to reduce cycle times and simultaneously deliver a greener process. However, for some workpiece materials full implementation of dry machining is not economically viable due to the absence of the essential cooling and lubricating functions delivered by cutting fluids. The most feasible bridging technology is minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) where a very small flow rate of coolant/lubricant is delivered to the cutting zones. In terms of machinability, the application of MQL is promising. However, most studies conducted on MQL focused on the feasibility of MQL application and show-casing the technical benefits. No studies had been identified in literature systematically investigating the relationship between cutting conditions and MQL with the goal of optimising the process. Moreover, the presumed environmental benefits of MQL have not been systematically assessed because Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) derived evaluation models do not explicitly model the impact of machining conditions such as feedrates, cutting velocities and depth of cut.The motivation for this PhD work was to select the optimum machining process variables for maximising effectiveness of MQL, to explore process improvements and to assess the environmental credentials of the process in relation to other forms of cutting environments. In this work, high speed, end milling tests on tool steel were undertaken and 1) Taguchi methods were used to optimise the process, 2) the sensitivity of tool wear to nozzle position was evaluated and 3) the environmental burden of dry, MQL and flood coolants were evaluated based on direct energy needs and process outputs. A fluid soaking device was used to assess the amount of fluid collected or presumed to be delivered to the cutting zone for different nozzle orientations.The Taguchi process optimisation suggested that in HSM the size effect, brought about by a low chip thickness, should be considered in the search for an optimum process window for HSM. A significant and novel finding of this PhD was the dominance of MQL nozzle positioning. The study clearly showed that when machining hardened steel at a high cutting speed and RPM the tool life could be significantly increased by 50% by adjusting the position of the nozzle toward the rake face in relation to the end-milled face. The work opens up new science and provides recommendations as to where to align the nozzle when end milling tool steel at high cutting speeds. The fluid trapping and the blade-wiping angle are key parameters that influenced the effective delivery of MQL when high spindle revolutions per minute are used. These results from the fluid soaking device were found to correlate strongly with observed machining performance evaluations.In terms of modelling, the PhD developed an improved and more generic direct energy model that can be used to determine the environmental burden for direct electrical energy requirements and the energy embodied in other process material outputs. This model addresses the system boundary and activity that within the control of the manufacturing plant. The model was used to evaluate the environmental performance of dry, flood and MQL fluids. The impact of these results and models in optimising environmental performance was also illustrated.The work in this PhD is important to industry in that it contributes to the optimisation of MQL and gives an assessment of the environmental impact. The PhD developed new and significantly important machining science in the positioning of nozzles in MQL machining at higher speeds.

The thesis is focused on management processes in Havlíčkův Brod. The aim of the thesis is based on the analysis of Economics and management-manufacturing processes at the company to propose the improvement of existing, already implemented methods. A further aim of the thesis is to analyse these processes in the reference period and on the basis of the results to assess what impact these processes should change in the manufacturing programme.The theoretical-methodological part is focused on individual methods and indicators that are key for the race. In later chapters is given characteristics of the Organization, a description of the program before the change, after the change of production program, further development of the used methods. Work continues by analyzing and evaluating the economic indicators for products that are significantly involved in the production portfolio.The conclusion is a summary of the most important results and recommendations for the race, what to look for in the future.

Esta investigación aborda la mejora en la línea de producción de gres porcelánico en una empresa de cerámicos utilizando las herramientas de Lean Maintenance. En el primer capítulo, se muestra un marco teórico que permite conocer los orígenes de la metodología a empleada en este trabajo. En el segundo capítulo, se hace mención de la situación actual de la empresa y el problema principal que está asociado a las horas de intervención por mantenimiento no programado. En el tercer capítulo, se selecciona la metodología y las herramientas del Lean Maintenance para su implementación, los cuales registraron mejoras en la estandarización de los procedimientos operativos (SOP) en 33%, reducción del 20% en la secuencia de tareas y mejora en la reposición de inventario estándar en 42%. Por parte de la implementación del Mantenimiento Productivo Total (TPM) se pudo reducir los tiempos de limpieza e identificación de los equipos en 40% y 60% respectivamente, y por último se finaliza con la implementación del Mantenimiento Basado en la Confiabilidad (RCM) que permite aumentar el tiempo medio entre fallas (MTBF) en 25.81% y reducir el tiempo medio de reparación (MTTR) en 54%. Como resultados finales se logró un incremento de la disponibilidad en 13.26%, esto significa un aumento en la producción de 8,618 metros cuadrado al año. En el cuarto capítulo, se muestra la viabilidad técnica y económica del proyecto. Finalmente, se presentan las conclusiones y recomendaciones para su sostenimiento en la empresa. / This research addresses the improvement in the production line of porcelain stoneware in a ceramic company using the tools of Lean Maintenance. In the first chapter, a theoretical framework is shown that allows knowing the origins of the methodology used in this work. In the second chapter, mention is made of the current situation of the company and the main problem that is associated with the hours of intervention for unscheduled maintenance. In the third chapter, the methodology and the tools of the Lean Maintenance for its implementation are selected, which registered improvements in the standardization of the operative procedures (SOP) in 33%, reduction of 20% in the sequence of tasks and improvement in the replenishment of standard inventory at 42%. On the part of the implementation of the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) it was possible to reduce the cleaning and identification times of the equipment by 40% and 60% respectively, and finally it ends with the implementation of Reliability Based Maintenance (RCM) that allows to increase the mean time between failures (MTBF) by 25.81% and reduce the average repair time (MTTR) by 54%. As final results an increase of the availability in 13.26% was achieved, this means an increase in the production of 8.618 square meters per year. In the fourth chapter, the technical and economic feasibility of the project is shown. Finally, the conclusions and recommendations for its sustainability in the company are presented. / Trabajo de investigaciòn

The aim of this diploma thesis is look at ways of optimising business processes in a specific company acting as an insurance intermediary. The thesis consists of a theoretical part which defines the basic concepts of the issue. The analytical part maps the current state of the business processes in the company, which serves as the foundation of a proposal for their optimization with the use of a CRM system.

This thesis is focused on identification and evaluation of errors during pneumatic valve assembly. Theoretical part describes tools used: quality gate, flow chart, Pareto diagram and FMEA analysis. Within practical part the current assembly process is analyzed with current errors and besides evaluation, the improvement priorities and ways to accomplish these improvements in an actual company are defined. If the company chooses to take the opportunity to implement these improvements, thesis also monitors the results and reaction to the change of the analyzed process to a certain point.