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This paper describes the way start-ups use Project Management, what their needs in this field are, and what tools they use to support it. In the first part of this paper, a comprehensive literature review is performed, divided into three main parts. First, Project Management in general is studied; second its benefits to SMEs are pinpointed; and finally its application to startups are reviewed. The second part of this paper is based on three case studies of start-ups in the Stockholm-region. Five representatives of these start-ups were interviewed, and the results of these face-to-face conversations are first exposed and then discussed by the author. In the end, this paper shows the traditional phase-based approach to Project Management does not suit start-ups. Instead, a more agile and iterative method is put forward, such as SCRUM. It is argued that such strategy should be kept by start-ups when growing and tapping other markets outside Sweden, although it is recognized that Project Management should become more formal than the general “on the go” approach witnessed in the three start-ups.

Byggsektorn är en av de äldsta projektbaserade industrierna i vår tid. I byggprojekt skapas och delas en stor mängd information, ofta i form av bygghandlingar som är juridiskt bindande dokument vilka ligger till grund för utförandet av byggnadsverk. Det kan vara oklart vem som ska läsa vilka handlingar, vem som ansvarar för att handlingarna blir lästa, att handlingarna blivit förstådda, efterföljda och hur informationen vidarebefordras på arbetsplatsen. Det är många parametrar som spelar roll för att hanteringen av bygghandlingarna skall fungera bra, så som ansvarsfördelning, kommunikation etc. Målet med studien var att kartlägga och besvara frågan om hur STRABAG Sveriges hantering av bygghandlingar fungerar. Då STRABAG Sverige är ett typiskt exempel på en byggentreprenör anser författarna att resultatet kan generaliseras. Två fallstudier gjordes på två av STRABAG Sveriges entreprenader. Författarna till rapporten har utgått från en kvalitativ metod i observationen av entreprenaderna. Författarna genomförde sin faktainsamling genom kvalitativa intervjuer med den personalen ur produktionsledningen författarna valt ut. Detta för att få svar på sin frågeställning. Det visade sig under arbetets gång att hanteringen av bygghandlingar är beroende av många parametrar. Några av de problem som kartlades var exempelvis vid uppstart av projekt , där rutinerna inte helt följts och skapat problem med hanteringen av bygghandlingar. Några andra exempel på kartlagda problem är också bristfälliga distrubitionslistor, introduktionen av ny personal och den interna kommunikationen. De kartlagda problemen analyserades med den litterärateori som tagits fram och slutsatser utifrån detta gjordes.  Slutligen gjordes några rekommendationer till STRABAG Sverige för hur de enligt författarna kan reducera de uppmärksammade problemen och där igenom förbättra sin hantering av bygghandlingar. / The construction industry is one of the oldest project-based industries of our time. In construction projects a lot of information is created and distributed, often as construction documents which are legally binding documents which form the basis for the execution of a building. It may be unclear who will read the documents, who’s responsible that documents gets read, that the documents have been understood and executed and how the information is forwarded in the workplace. There are many parameters that are important for managing construction documents, such as accountability, communication, etc. The aim of this study was to identify and answer the question set by the authors. How does STRABAG Sveriges construction document managing work? Since STRABAG Sverige is a typical Swedish contractor the authors consider that the result can be generalized in the sector.  Two case studies were carried out at two of STRABAG Sveriges projects. The authors of the report used a qualitative approach in their observation of the projects. The authors conducted their data collection through qualitative interviews with the leading production staff that the authors selected. This was done to answer their thesis. Throughout the project it became clear that the managing of construction documents is connected to a lot of different parameters. Some of the problems that were determined were for example the start of the buildingprojects, where the routines weren’t properly carried out. Some other examples of problems were insufficient distribution lists, the introduction of new personnel and intern communication. The problems that were determined were analysed in comparison with the theory from literature and conclusions were made out of this material. Thus, STRABAG Sverige received recommendations from the authors about how to improve their management of the construction documents.

Our society is increasingly entangled with, and reliant on software. Previously, software has mainly been operated on-premises, i.e., installed and ran on a physical computer, manually supported, and maintained by individuals at the location where the software is running. Today, software is often delivered via the cloud using a pay-as-you-go subscription service, hosted, and continuously supported by the vendor, i.e., the organization providing the solution. A collective name for this type of solution is “Software-as-a-Service” (SaaS). SaaS is a popular delivery model amongst software start-ups, who are known to be innovative and create valuable new solutions that benefit society. Hence, it can be valuable to help SaaS start-ups understand how most effectively navigate and reach their first customers. This thesis does this by investigating what buyers find important when buying SaaS from a start-up vendor. Technology and innovation adoption has been extensively studied. Theories such as the “TOE-framework” and “Diffusion of Innovation” attempt to explain how the adoption of new solutions is determined and what factors influence it. Moreover, multiple studies have also investigated what affects the decision to buy SaaS. Finally, studies have examined what buyers find important when buying from a start-up. However, no studies have explored what buyers consider when buying SaaS from a start-up vendor. This thesis aims to fulfill the research gap presented above and to answer the following research questions:   What are the determining factors for adoption of Software-as-a-Service delivered by a start-up vendor? How do these determinants affect adoption? To answer the research questions, the study utilizes a deductive approach with elements of induction. Qualitative data is collected in 8 semi-structured interviews, all with a focus on buying organization's SaaS adoption decision. The interview structure is based on the theoretical framework which consists of four major categories that can affect adoption: “Technology”, “Organization”, and “Environment”, of the TOE-framework, and “Vendor Relationship” which is added by the authors of this thesis based on prior studies that suggested this as an important aspect in for the studied context. Within each major category, determinants of adoption, i.e., factors that influence the decision to adopt, are derived from theories specific to SaaS and start-up adoption. The findings confirm all four of the overarching categories of the theoretical framework as important in the decision to adopt SaaS from a start-up vendor. The confirmation of the vendor relationship category can be considered a key finding of the thesis since it is not present in the original TOE-framework or any of the studies on SaaS and start-up adoption. On a more granular level, the thesis highlights the observed adoption determinants under each of the categories and describes how they relate to each other and to existing theory. By answering the research questions, the thesis provides useful insights that can help SaaS start-ups better understand what factors potential buyers consider in their adoption decision. As a result, start-ups can better align their strategy with the wants and needs of buyers and increase the probability of success. Finally, the thesis contributes to theory by expanding knowledge related to the factors determining the adoption of SaaS, when it is delivered by a start-up vendor.

In the past, steam turbines were mostly used for base load operation. Nowadays, with the increased development of variable renewable technologies, these same steam turbines are withstanding higher cyclic operational regimes with more frequent start-ups and fast changing loads. As such, improving the operational flexibility of installed and future designed steam turbines is a key aspect to be considered by equipment manufacturers. Steam turbine start-up is a phase of particular interest since is considered to be the most intricate of transient operations. During this phase, the machine can potentially be subjected to excessive thermal stresses and axial rubbing due to differential thermal expansion. These two thermal phenomena either consume component lifetime or can lead to machine failure if not carefully controlled. As such, there is a balance to be considered between increasing turbine start-up speed while ensuring the safe operation and life preservation of these machines. In order to improve the transient operation of steam turbines, it becomes important to examine their thermal behavior during start-up operation. To do that, it is important to have tools able to predict the thermal response of the machine. In this thesis work the impact of different aspects and boundary conditions on the results of ST3M, a KTH in-house tool, were investigated with the aim of understanding how large was their impact on the way to capture the thermal behavior of the turbine in terms of metal temperature and differential expansion. A small industrial high pressure turbine was validated against measured data and implemented on a sensitivity study; this analysis showed that the geometrical approximation introduce errors in the results, that the use of empirical Nusselt correlations give similar results to the validated model and that the cavity assumptions have a large impact on the trend of the differential expansion. Lastly, a strategy to validate any other similar turbine to the one of the study case was proposed in order to give a guide to future works in how to validate a model and what are the most influent parameters to take care of.

Inducer performance is investigated for a variety of inducer geometries operating at multiple flow conditions using computational fluid dynamics. Inducers are used as a first stage in turbopumps to minimize cavitation and allow the pump to operate at lower inlet head conditions. The formation of inlet flow recirculation or backflow in the inducer occurs at low flow conditions and can lead to instabilities and cavitation-induced head breakdown. Backflow formation is often attributed to tip leakage flow. The performance of an inducer with and without tip clearance is examined. Removing the tip clearance eliminates tip leakage flow; however, backflow is still observed. Analysis suggests that blade inlet diffusion, not tip leakage flow, is the fundamental mechanism leading to the formation of backflow. Performance improvements in turbopump systems pumping cold water have been obtained through implementation of a recirculation channel called a stability control device (SCD). However, many inducers actually pump cryogenic fluids, such as liquid hydrogen. To determine the real world effects of SCD implementation, inducer performance at on and off design flow coefficients with and without an SCD were modeled with liquid hydrogen as the working fluid. Relevant thermodynamic effects present in liquid hydrogen at cryogenic temperatures are considered. The results reveal that the SCD yields marginal changes in the head coefficient. However, a stabilizing effect occurs at all considered flow coefficients, where a reduction in backflow occurs over much of the pump operational range. This occurs due to the SCD maintaining consistent, low incidence angles at the inducer leading edge.The final consideration of this work is the acceleration of an inducer from rest to the operating rotational rate. Rapid acceleration of rocket engine turbopumps during start-up imparts significant transient effects to the resulting flow field, causing pump performance to vary widely when compared to quasi-steady operation. A method to simulate turbopump start-up using CFD is developed and presented. The defined outlet pressure is modified based on the difference between simulation inlet pressure and target inlet pressure of a previous simulation. This process is repeated until simulation inlet pressure is essentially constant during start-up. Using this novel simulation method, the performance of a centrifugal turbopump during start-up is simulated. Analysis suggests this simulation method provides a reasonable prediction of cavitation formation and inducer performance.

The growing shares of renewable energy sources in the market and solar thermal power applications have set higher requirements on steam turbine operation.These requirements are related to flexibility during transients. A key aspect sought of such flexibility is the capability for fast starts. Due to the varying temperature gradients during start-up, the speed at which the turbine can start is constrained by thermal stresses and differential expansion. These phenomena either consume component lifetime or may result in machine failure if not carefully controlled. In order to accomplish faster starts while ensuring that lifing requirements are preserved, it is important to analyze the thermal behavior of the machine. For this, a transient thermal model was developed with a focus on adaptability to different turbine sizes and geometries. The model allows for simple and fast prediction of thermo-mechanical properties within the turbine metal, more importantly, of the temperature distribution and the associated thermal expansion. The next step of this work was to validate the assumptions and simplifications of the model. This was done through the study and comparison of two turbines against measured operational data from their respective power plants. Furthermore,validation studies also included comparisons concerning the geometric detail level of the model. Overall, comparison results showed a large degree of agreement with respect to the measured data and between the geometric detail levels. The validated model was then implemented in studies related to reducing start-up times and peak differential expansion. For this, the potential effects of turbine temperature maintaining modifications were investigated and quantified.The modifications studied included: increasing gland steam pressure, increasing back pressure and increasing barring speed. Results yielded significant improvements starting from 9.5% in the start-up times and 7% in the differential expansion. / <p>QC 20141128</p>

E-commerce is an ever growing industry as the internet infrastructure continues to evolve. The benefits from a recommendation system to any online retail store are several. It can help customers to find what they need as well as increase sales by enabling accurate targeted promotions. Among many techniques that can form recommendation systems, this thesis compares Collaborative Filtering against Association Rule Mining, both implemented in combination with clustering. The suggested implementations are designed with the cold start problem in mind and are evaluated with a data set from an online retail store which sells clothing. The results indicate that Collaborative Filtering is the preferable technique while associated rules may still offer business value to stakeholders. However, the strength of the results is undermined by the fact that only a single data set was used. / E-handel är en växande marknad i takt med att Internet utvecklas samtidigt som antalet användare ständigt ökar. Antalet fördelar från rekommendationssytem som e-butiker kan dra nytta av är flera. Samtidigt som det kan hjälpa kunder att hitta vad de letar efter kan det utgöra underlag för riktade kampanjer, något som kan öka försäljning. Det finns många olika tekniker som rekommendationssystem kan vara byggda utifrån. Detta examensarbete ställer fokus på de två teknikerna Collborative Filtering samt Association Rule Mining och jämför dessa sinsemellan. Båda metoderna kombinerades med klustring och utformades för att råda bot på kallstartsproblemet. De två föreslagna implementationerna testades sedan mot en riktig datamängd från en e-butik med kläder i sitt sortiment. Resultaten tyder på att Collborative Filtering är den överlägsna tekniken samtidigt som det fortfarande finns ett värde i associeringsregler. Att dra generella slutsatser försvåras dock av att enbart en datamängd användes.

This MSc thesis was a project performed in a start-up that develops sustainable devices to exploit renewable energies, specifically in the field of energy harvesting in small scale. The objective of the thesis is to demonstrate the importance of developing the technical side of a project together with the development of the market. The idea is to enhance the success possibilities and work to get to the market as fast as possible with a minimum sellable product using the resources as efficiently as possible. The market analysis was the first step to be performed to understand what the start-up was getting into, at the beginning it was clear that the generator should be targeted to power remote applications that require small amounts of energy and a market that is not suitable for present technologies such as solar PV or micro wind turbines. After this a series of potential markets were identified in order to limit the research and three opportunities were selected. The buoy market was chosen, it has several sub-markets and the AtoN buoys, Fishing buoys and Meteorological buoys were considered the most important and suitable ones. Once the market was defined, the needs of the clients and users were discovered through research in the form of interviews and bibliographical research. Later on an experimental rig was used to test several models of the prototype under different parameters to select one that was close to what was demanded and that can actually be built. This approach was useful to dedicate resources efficiently, specially time and money. The last part of the thesis was to propose a sustainable business model describing a go-to-market strategy that considered both the limitations of the technology and the testing performed in the scope of this project and the expectations of the market for the proposed product. The methodology was a mixed use of business tools learned in the courses and the experiences of the people who were close to the start-up. There is a final reflection at the conclusions that describe the day-to-day of the start-up and the experiences learned as well as the recommendations for future work.

This study evaluated a novel perinatal health education program, entitled Preparing for Caring, teaching infant touch and handling skills for those who care for babies. Sensitive, attuned, and responsive interactions between caregivers and infants are crucial for the healthy development of foundational brain architecture. Research has confirmed that evidence-based perinatal health programs have the potential to increase the caregiver’s satisfaction and self-efficacy, to reduce anxiety about caring for a newborn, to increase the caregiver’s capacity to form an attachment bond with the infant, and to promote the infant’s health and development. The present study built upon evidence that nurturing touch is positively associated with brain development which positively impacts behavior, cognition, and the health trajectories of children from low-income urban and minority families who are more likely to experience disparities in lifespan health, including increased infant and maternal mortality. Caring and stimulus-rich environments, especially those promoted in intergenerational programs such as Early Head Start, offer “the most compelling evidence” for producing positive changes in both parents and children. The current study, providing perinatal parenting education within an urban Early Head Start (EHS) setting, was hypothesized to effect changes in parents that will positively influence their parenting skills during a critical period of neural and emotional growth and thereby positively influence their children’s development. Mixed-methods data were collected from EHS early childcare educators, parents and community caregivers, administrators, and the program developers. Analyses evaluated program fidelity, specifically in its translation to a new population and setting; identified barriers to and facilitators of implementation of the program; identified which program components were most likely to be accepted and incorporated into daily use by participants; and conducted and shared the results of a pilot study on what an impact evaluation of what participating in this program might look like for key outcomes (including caregiver self-efficacy and maternal self-esteem).