GUI testing is expensive to perform manually. Software systems involving a heterogeneous set of components exclude the applicability of specific GUI testing techniques. Visual GUI Testing (VGT) is a test automation technique that combines image recognition with scripts. It applies to almost any GUI driven application. VGT is proven to be cost-effective in comparison with manual testing. Still, it is expensive to maintain. This study investigates if test script design by following specific guidelines positively affects maintenance costs. A case study was conducted to identify best practices for VGT w.r.t. maintenance time. Four VGT versions were developed for each manual test case. These consisted of two design versions, with/without guidelines, for the two VGT-tools EyeAutomate and Sikuli. Data was collected using time measurements, observations, and interviews. Results highlighted differences in initial development time and maintenance time between the two design versions. In total, 44 observations were collected. 17 were related to the design versions, 17 to the VGT-tools, and 10 to VGT in general, initial development, and the system under test. The interviews collected the perceptions of VGT in general, maintenance of the different VGT versions, and guidelines. In conclusion, the combination of the guidelines did not have a positive effect on maintenance in terms of costs and experience. However, some of the individual guidelines did. A rationale why the guidelines did not give the desired result was identified. Future research is necessary to investigate other combinations of guidelines, such as those identified as beneficial.

Diploma thesis will be focuses on the processing of steel chips, explanation of general con-cepts, the division of chips according to their origin, their types and examples of some machines that are related to the chip processing system. It will also describe which law to follow when sor-ting waste like this, how to recycle it and how much this topic is connected with the ecological point of view. The second part of the work will be focused on the processing of the aluminium waste from the production of aluminium components. It contains a specific example of the calculation of a proposal to change the treatment of the waste and the return on investment in this change. The reason why to undergo this change is described too and in what way it will be beneficial.

The thesis project analyses current investment opportunities in the real estate market. It investigates the standard sales through real estate agencies and direct sales from developers; the core focus is however on alternative options of buying properties, such as foreclosure auctions, auctions of financial authorities, purchases of agricultural land, etc. The theoretical part of the work examines the ba-sic terminology and ways of buying properties. The practical part uses the findings and evaluates investment opportunities with regard to their risks, the difficulty of the process of acquiring the property and most importantly the return on investment.

Thesis on residential investments into flats in selected towns and cities in the Czech Republic. This thesis provides a critical investment analysis and is a response to the systemic increases in property prices observed in recent years. These increases have fundamentally altered the profitability of rented flats across individual Czech cities and towns. Given that acquired flats are failing to meet profitability expectations, it is now vital to investigate how investment returns differ in selected Czech cities and towns. Based on the results of this thesis, investors may need to revise the location of their residential assets in order to maximise investment returns. The objective of this thesis is to make relevant calculations in order to determine the current return on residential investment into flats in selected Czech cities and towns. The secondary objective is to describe the matters associated with residential investments into flats. The analysis of profitability and term of return is derived from a database, which has been adjusted and evaluated according to appropriate statistical methods.

Emerging markets (EMs) contribute significantly year-on-year to global gross domestic product (GDP) and continue to offer developed countries huge opportunities such as raw materials and readily available markets for various goods and services produced in developed economies. However, multinational corporations (MNCs) from developed markets operating in emerging countries continue to develop inappropriate perceptions and assumptions influenced by Western imperialist and arrogant attitudes, which carry a very short-term view on the future of developing countries, despite extracting multibillion-dollar profits from these regions. The objectives of the research study were to establish the relationship between strategic management practices (SMPs) and the financial performance of MNCs in emerging markets, by testing, validating the viability and applicability of the SMPs framework and by evaluating SMPs financial contribution to the bottom-line of MNCs. The research study found that for MNCs with comprehensively adopted and implemented the SMPs framework their financial performance continues to improve year on year, depicting a positive relationship between SMPs and overall financial performance of MNCs with business interests in emerging markets. The study, however, concludes that the MNC executives wrong assumptions about emerging countries results in the crafting of strategies within business models that fail to fit in emerging markets. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Cloud computing is about delivery of different computing services involving databases, analytics, software, networking with the use of internet to enhance innovation, incorporate flexibility in resources and broaden profitability. However, Internet of Things (IoT) is an essential system for interrelating computer devices, digital machines, people and others which are offered with unique identifiers where data can be transferred with human involvement and wireless network. 42% of organisations in UK use cloud computing. The problem with cloud computing revolves around security and privacy issues as data is stored by a third party from inside or outside of the organisation leading to broken authentication, compromising of credentials and others. The use of IoT is vulnerable as it provides connectivity to devices, machines and people therefore, it needs to contain more storage that is made from cloud facilities. Survey has been conducted where primary quantitative method has been considered to obtain data from 101 managers of the organisation that has adopted cloud computing and IoT. However, 8 close-ended questions have been asked to 101 managers. Positivism philosophy has been used to make quantifiable observations along with descriptive design and others. The results and discussion will analyse responses of the respondents after conducting statistical analysis. However, research has been revolving around making a comparison between using cloud computing and IoT along with analysing organisational behaviour. / Revisión por pares

Leaders of youth intervention programs provide a significant social service by redirecting at-risk youth onto a productive path. The standards for youth-serving organizations are inconsistent from 1 organization to another across a wide range of youth-worker training certification programs in the United States. A single-case study was conducted to explore the strategies that 3 leaders of a nonprofit organization located in Minnesota, use to select, collect, and analyze data to assess the effectiveness of training certification programs for youth workers. The 2017-2018 Baldrige Excellence Framework provided the structure for a systems-based evaluation of the client organization; Freeman's stakeholder theory was the conceptual lens for the study. Data were collected from conducting semistructured interviews, reviewing the participating organization's internal documents and performance outcomes, and analyzing open-source resources. Through thematic analysis, 4 key themes emerged: (a) the social return on investment analysis and the overall cost savings by investing in and supporting youth programs, (b) the opportunity to focus research on certification for youth workers, (c) the value of providing training for youth workers, and (d) the opportunity to provide a platform for the youth to share success stories with their community. Specific recommendations stemming from the research findings were to create a state or national recognition standard for youth-worker certifications and to make youth work a paid profession. Implementation of these recommendations may result in positive social change by improving the lives and trajectories of youth.

The purpose of the presented dissertation thesis is to contribute to the development of the theory of electronic commerce in complex conditions of „network economy“ by the partial consolidation and integration of the highly fragmented existing knowledge and ideas, i.e. to offer more compact conceptual framework, based on research of the current state of knowledge and situation in the conditions of the Czech Republic. The thesis is focused on the contemporary theoretical knowledge analysis from the areas of interest concerning the electronic commerce security, used models of electronic shops and evaluation of its economic aspects, which this type of business bears. Next contribution is unification of this knowledge and creation of the conceptual base for the ongoing recognition and theory building related to electronic commerce. The work is also focused on the area of electronic cash, possible solution of some diversifications in payment transactions. On the practical level the author attempted to narrow the knowledge “gap” in the empirical cognition of the doctoral thesis issues concerning the effectiveness of electronic commerce and generally e-commerce applications. Proposed return on investment calculation methodology applied to e-commerce area may help managers making decisions in investing to these projects.

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<p>In an increasingly interconnected world, technology is now central to the operations of most businesses. In this environment, businesses of all sizes face an ever-growing threat from cyberattacks. Successful cyberattacks can result in data breaches, which may lead to financial loss, business interruptions, regulatory fines, and reputational damage. In 2021, the losses from cyber attacks in the United States were estimated at $6.9 Billion.</p> <p>Confronting the threat of cyberattacks can be particularly challenging for small businesses, which must defend themselves using a smaller budget and less in-house talent while balancing the pursuit of growth. Risk assessments are one method for organizations to determine how to best use their cybersecurity budgets. However, for small businesses, a risk assessment may require a significant portion of the budget which could otherwise be used to implement cybersecurity controls.</p> <p>This research builds on existing research from Lerums et al. for simulating a phishing attack to present a model that very small businesses may use in place of or as a precursor to a risk assessment. The updated model includes sensible default values for the cost and effectiveness of cybersecurity controls as well as the number of cyberattacks expected per year. Default values are based on academic literature, technical reports, and vendor estimates, but they may all be changed by organizations using the model. The updated model can also be tailored by non-technical users to reflect their network, relevant threat actors, and budget. Lastly, the updated model can output an optimized control set that yields the maximum annual net return and the single control with the greatest annual return on investment based on a user's inputs.</p> <p>After construction, the updated model is tested on organizations with 5, 25, and 50 employees facing varied sets of threat actors and attacks per year. Key takeaways include the high net return of all security controls tested, benefits of defense-in-depth strategies for maximizing return across multiple attack types, and the role of threat actors in tempering high estimates of security control effectiveness.</p> <p>    </p> <p>All code and releases are open source and available from: <a href="https://github.com/gjhami/AttackSimulation" target="_blank">https://github.com/gjhami/AttackSimulation</a>.</p>