There is a continuous need within most manufacturing environments for more flexible production equipment, particularly where customer satisfaction and responsiveness promote quality improvement. In this paper, an automated agile manufacturing system that uses high-speed computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines to make automotive cylinder heads is proposed and evaluated by means of discrete event simulation using the ARENA simulator. Two alternative agile system configurations are constructed and simulated to achieve the production target. The simulation shows some significant benefits in using the agile system and demonstrates that high-speed CNC equipment is a viable option for cylinder head manufacture at a production volume of 550 000 units per annum. It is shown that the agile system can provide more flexibility and half the throughput time of the transfer line.

Background and Motivation. Requirements engineering is decision intensiveand involves many roles and stakeholders. As humans are often subjective in theirdecision-making and biased by subjective criteria, we are interested in exploring howthis impacts requirements prioritization. Each requirements prioritization techniquehas its advantages and limitations to use on software products for single/multiplepurposes in the software field. Understanding how human aspects affect requirementsprioritization remains greatly unexplored. Objectives. This thesis aims to understand how human factors impact requirementsprioritization. The primary goal is to address and understand the various human as-pects that affect people when they make decisions. The secondary goal is to identifyvarious human aspects that receive more attention while prioritizing requirements. Methods. Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and survey were chosen as the re-search methods for this thesis. A snowballing method was used to extract empiricalresearch papers that were used for implementing the survey questionnaire. Each em-pirical paper from snowballing method has identified some human aspects throughone or more prioritization techniques and prioritization criteria. Using these humanaspects as input a survey questionnaire is designed for gaining insights on occur-rences/experiences of these human aspects in a large organization of Agile practi-tioners. Results. From the literature review, we identified 21 papers through the snow-balling method. And we identified more than two human aspects from each SLRpaper that impact requirements prioritization that were grouped into 11 categories.We also discovered many requirements prioritization techniques and their criteriawhere we included the top 15 RP techniques, 11 human aspects, and 17 RP cri-teria in the web-based survey questionnaire that were extracted through the SLRapproach. Our survey respondents considered the human aspects as very importantare Domain Knowledge of Individuals/ Stakeholders/ Analysts; Ability to consid-er/understand multiple perspectives; Ability to build/reach Consensus; Cognitiveskills and Limitations; Group Cohesion/ Team Maturity; and Accept Diversity as-pects as having the largest impact when prioritizing requirements. We have alsodiscovered that Emotions/ Emotional Cohesion which is also rated by the surveyrespondents as very important and is having the least impact as a human aspectwhen prioritizing requirements. Conclusions. Our study focus on the human aspects in requirements prioritizationmethod, the actual human aspects are least graded and human behavior that is con-sidered as an human aspect is highly graded by the practitioners in the survey. So aclear map is needed to identify the human aspect bias for requirements prioritizationand the results of this study can be helpful to all the researchers who want to carryour research on requirements prioritization in relation with human aspects.

The study's primary objective is to investigate the obstacles associated with agile implementation in ICT public services and the importance of government facilitation and removal of these obstacles. It employs a case study strategy which includes data collection and analysis methods. The case study's purpose is to investigate the challenges of implementing the agile methodology in Kuwait's public services, and the findings are presented at the end. Thus the study is formulated around the following research questions: “What are the challenges of implementing agile methodology into the Kuwait ICT public services?” and “What are the recommendations for the government side to facilitate adopting agile transformation?”. In order to gain a better understanding, the study uses the appropriate approach for producing thematic analysis results in a table of themes, categories, and codes covering ICT managers and decision-makers in the public and private sectors who participated in semi-structured interviews. The conclusions are based on the data collected and analyzed, and the study provides evidence to support the final recommendations. The study concludes that implementing Agile methodology in Kuwait's public services faces several challenges, including cultural or regulation factors. The study provides recommendations for the Kuwaiti government to facilitate adopting Agile transformation, including developing a clear vision, providing training and support, and creating a culture of trust and collaboration. The findings also suggest that the Kuwaiti government can adopt an agile methodology to provide public services in the IT domain with faster response and feedback while changing the bureaucratic culture and ancient rules to be more adaptive and reasonable.

Purpose - The primary aim of this study is to explore the intricacies of knowledge management within theframework of large-scale digital and agile projects. This was undertaken within the context of a specificmanufacturing project referred to as 'Project X'. The project provided an opportunity to delve into the processesof knowledge creation, sharing, and utilization, and to identify the barriers of these processes, creating a morecomprehensive understanding of the subject. Method - An abductive exploratory single case study approach was employed, focusing on Company X as thesingle case company. The study utilized a combination of data collection methods, including document analysisand qualitative interviews. The interviews were conducted in three waves: exploratory, semi-structured, andvalidatory. The data obtained from the interviews and document analysis were analysed using thematic analysisand content analysis. Findings - The study found that knowledge creation is impeded by lack of communication and managingresources. Knowledge sharing was hindered by a changing project landscape and the lack of 'knowledgechampions'. Knowledge utilization was found to be affected by lack of structure, internal resistance to change,and a lack of knowledge repository. Theoretical contribution - This study contributes to the knowledge management literature by providing insightsinto the complexities of managing knowledge within the context of digital and agile projects in the manufacturingindustry. It underscores the pivotal role of communication, resource management, and organizational culture ineffective knowledge management and opens new avenues to explore and understand these areas. Managerial implications - From a practical standpoint, this study underscores the need for organizations toprioritize effective communication and resource management in the pursuit of effective knowledge management.Organizations should work towards creating a favourable environment for knowledge sharing and strive to bridgeknowledge gaps through structured storage and retrieval of information. The findings also provide a prioritycharting of recommendations to onset barriers based on value and effort. Limitations and future research - While this study provides important insights into knowledge management indigital and agile projects, it is not without limitations. It was confined to a single project within onemanufacturing company, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research should consider alarger sample size, spanning different companies and industries. Additionally, further exploration of the role oforganizational culture and the dynamics of change resistance in knowledge management would be beneficial.

This study aims to discover and create an overview of how model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is utilized in Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) settings. The overall goal is to identify the challenges and opportunities, the best practices and to find different publication trends that exist for this combination. The combination is interesting to investigate given that MBSE is considered to traditionally be a waterfall-based way of working, whereas SAFe is an Agile way of working. The study was executed by conducting a systematic mapping study. The results we found that were linked to the publication trends where that the number of primary studies investigating the combination of MBSE and SAFe were relatively low, and that the amount of grey literature that were found were higher than peer-reviewed primary studies. The best practices of the combination of MBSE and SAFe were identified by analyzing different methods, tools, and processes. Identified challenges and opportunities of this combination were that it provides: enhanced collaboration and communication capabilities, centralized information about the system under development, reduction of complexity, and decreased development time.

Agile methodology has existed for over a decade – its potential benefits have made it attractive and popular. As part of innovation, public organisations increasingly invest in information technology systems. Nevertheless, complex information technology adaptive systems require adaptability and flexibility to improve public organisations' delivery systems. Even though the Agile methodology can increase productivity and quality, adopting agile scrum methodology in public organisations is challenging. This study investigates public organisations where IT projects have unclear requirements and cross-functional team environments – which the scrum methodology is typically best suited for. However, despite the widely spread agile method concept and the need increased in the last two decades, still public organisations are not fully adapted to agile scrum methodology, and researchers have noticed slow and ineffective changes in adopting it. While many studies are available on challenges in adopting agile scrum methodology in public organisations' IT project management, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of these challenges. Therefore, challenges in adopting Agile scrum methodology in public organisations' IT project management context were studied in this literature review. This study aims to report on a systematic literature review about adopting agile scrum methodology in public organisations' IT project management and provide empirical evidence about its current situation and challenges. This research has used a systematic literature review as a research strategy and thematic analysis to analyse the secondary data, where the analysis is conducted based on the filtered themes, sub-themes and codes. The systematic literature review uses the preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework; inclusion and exclusion criteria systematically assess the quality of chosen papers and either include or exclude them for this research. Most relevant studies for final inclusion were selected, screened, and shortlisted based on the keywords from academic databases and other online resources to investigate and analyse the research question. The implementation of the agile scrum methodology in IT project management can present notable challenges for public organisations. A number of sources have identified these challenges, and a thorough examination of the matter reveals their frequency.

This paper investigates advantages and disadvantages of working agile in an innovation process. Both agile and innovation are two words that can be seen as buzzwords. However, they are two words that in one way or another can make a company successful. The research question was tackled from three different angles; academic theory, expert interviews within the topic, and interviews with employees of a market research and marketing consultancy company that helps their clients with different kinds of innovation processes. The market research and marketing consultancy company in question was also where the practical part of the paper took place. The paper deals with theories from various academic articles that all center around agile, innovation or both. However, additional insights from books, blogs and websites are used. The method used includes semi-structured online interviews. The paper concludes with several advantages and disadvantages of agile working in an innovation project and also puts forward three recommendations: “Continue to recommend the agile way of working in innovation projects”, “Make sure the clients involve and prioritize their customers in their innovation process” and “The digital B2C service companies’ management should provide and prioritize its designated team a clear guideline”. The recommendations are meant for the company where the practical part took place. However, the recommendations are written and analysed to be valuable for digital B2C Service companies in general as well. This is since recommendations are based on academic theories and expert interviews, which both deal with the research question from a general point of view / Denna uppsats undersöker fördelar och nackdelar med att arbeta agilt i en innovationsprocess. Agilt och innovation är två ord som kan ses som modeord, men också två ord som på ett eller annat sätt kan göra ett företag framgångsrikt. Forskningsfrågan undersöktes från tre olika vinklar; akademisk teori, intervjuer med experter inom ämnet och intervjuer med ett marknadsundersökning- och marknadsföringskonsultföretag som hjälper sina kunder med olika slags innovationsprocesser. Det nämnda marknadsundersökning- och marknadsföringskonsultföretaget var dessutom samarbetspartner för uppsatsen och där den praktiska delen av uppsatsen tog plats. Teorin som uppsatsen bygger på är en majoritet av akademiska artiklar med agil, innovation eller en kombination som båda två som huvudämne. Teori-delen innehåller dessutom information från böcker, bloggar och webbplatser. Metoden som används i uppsatsens är intervjuer, semistrukturerade online-intervjuer. Uppsatsen resulterade i ett antal fördelar och nackdelar med att jobba agilt i innovationsprojekt, uppsatsen resulterar även i tre rekommendationer: ”Fortsätt att rekommendera det agila sättet att arbeta i innovationsprojekt”, ”Se till att klienterna involverar och prioriterar sina kunder i deras innovationsprocess” och ”Ledningen i de digitala B2C-tjänsteföretagen bör leda och prioritera det utsedda projektteamet med tydliga riktlinjer”. Rekommendationerna är avsedda för företaget där den praktiska delen ägde rum. Rekommendationerna är dock skrivna och analyserade för att vara värdefulla och användbara för digitala B2C-tjänsteföretag i allmänhet. Detta eftersom rekommendationerna bygger på akademiska teorier och expertintervjuer, som båda behandlar forskningsfrågan ur ett generellt perspektiv

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