Software testing is the process of executing a program with the intention of finding errors in the code. It is the process of exercising or evaluating a system or system component by manual automatic means to verify that it satisfies specified requirements or to identify differences between expected and actual results [4]. Software Testing should not be a distinct phase in System development but should be applicable throughout the design development and maintenance phases. ‘Software Testing is often used in association with terms verification & validation ‘Software testing is the process of executing software in a controlled manner, in order to answer the question: Does the software behave as specified. One way to ensure system‘s responsibility is to extensively test the system. Since software is a system component it requires a testing process also. / Software can be tested either manually or automatically. The two approaches are complementary: automated testing can perform a huge number of tests in short time or period, whereas manual testing uses the knowledge of the testing engineer to target testing to the parts of the system that are assumed to be more error-prone. Despite this contemporary, tools for manual and automatic testing are usually different, leading to decreased productivity and reliability of the testing process. Auto Test is a testing tool that provides a “best of both worlds” strategy: it integrates developers’ test cases into an automated process of systematic contractdriven testing. This allows it to combine the benefits of both approaches while keeping a simple interface, and to treat the two types of tests in a unified fashion: evaluation of results is the same, coverage measures are added up, and both types of tests can be saved in the same format. The objective of this paper is to discuss the Importance of Automation tool with associate to software testing techniques in software engineering. In this paper we provide introduction of software testing and describe the CASE tools. The solution of this problem leads to the new approach of software development known as software testing in the IT world. Software Test Automation is the process of automating the steps of manual test cases using an automation tool or utility to shorten the testing life cycle with respect to time.

The replacement of the Meat Act 1981 by the Animal Products Act 1999 opened a new era for food safety management in New Zealand. Administering food legislation is now the sole responsibility of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority instead of being shared between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Health as previously. At the core of the legislative change is the requirement for Risk Management Programmes (RMP). Every single animal primary processing business is required to have an RMP for each type of product. An RMP is required to embrace the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). While there have been some studies considering the implementation of HACCP in food businesses worldwide, there has not been any study focusing on HACCP adoption in New Zealand. The mandating of RMP has also made the implementation process more complex. On the other hand, it also brings new experience in terms of food safety management. This thesis examines the implementation process of HACCP/RMP in New Zealand. It also explores the interaction between food safety management and international competitiveness through an economic analysis of the impacts of the program on a New Zealand food processing industry. The meat industry was chosen as a case study as it is one of the first industries that had to comply with the first deadline of the implementation (July 2003). Also, being a significant export-oriented industry of New Zealand, the meat industry provides an ideal case for the purpose of this study. The thesis consists of four parts. Part I presents an introduction to the study including a review of international and national food safety issues, the relationship between food safety and trade and international competitiveness, and the HACCP economic literature. This background helps to shape the research objectives and methodology as described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 discusses the design of the survey to collect plant experience regarding the implementation of HACCP/RMP in New Zealand. Part II analyses the experiences within the New Zealand meat industry regarding the implementation of HACCP/RMP. It discusses plant motivations to adopt the program and the implementation issues they are facing. Plant observations on the costs and benefits of the implementation are reported. Further, data gathered from the survey are used in a non-parametric analysis of the influences of the plant characteristics on the HACCP/RMP implementation process. The analysis provides implications for HACCP/RMP policy design. Part III presents the modelling techniques to quantify the costs and benefits of HACCP/RMP implementation. In Chapter 8, a quality-adjusted cost function is used to estimate the change in variable cost of production due to HACCP/RMP. It shows that this type of cost can make up a significant proportion of the total implementation cost. In Chapter 9, an export model is employed to analyse the impact of HACCP/RMP on meat industry export performance. The results show that the programme can bring a positive impact on exports. However, the magnitude of the impact depends on the status of existing food safety management before HACCP/RMP implementation. In Chapter 10, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model is used to simulate the scenarios where market accesses to significant export destinations are lost when HACCP/RMP is not adopted. The estimated costs of these losses signal the potential benefits of HACCP/RMP. The research results show that HACCP/RMP can deliver a net benefit to the New Zealand meat industry. The thesis concludes with implications for policy design and future research directions. It signifies that the research findings, in addition to reporting an investigation into HACCP/RMP implementation process in New Zealand, provide an important foundation for future research on food safety and international competitiveness.

This study investigated the consumers' intention towards multi-channel shopping and the function of synergy in a multi-channel retailing format (i.e., brick-and-mortar stores, catalogs, and the Internet). Two questionnaires were developed, one for the multi-channel consumers and the other for the multi-channel retailers. The structural equation modeling was used to predict the effect of shopping benefits and costs perceived from each channel on the consumer's purchase intention. Data analysis (N = 500) indicated that the purchase intentions were affected by different shopping benefit and cost variables. Qualitative analysis of retailers (N= 10) revealed that the retailers considered synergy to be an important part of their multi-channels. Also, there existed a high level of synergy among the existing three retail channels.

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Renewable energy sources have received increasing attention in electric power systems around the world due to growing environmental concerns. Wind and solar are among the most promising alternatives to conventional energy generation. There has been a rapid growth of wind and solar energy integration in power systems in the last decade, and is expected to grow further in the years to come. The main concern with wind and solar energy sources is the uncertainty and the intermittency of power generation, which leads to problems in maintaining the overall system reliability. The impacts of these sources on bulk system reliability depend on a large number of factors. The strength of the wind or solar resource at the installation site, the existing renewable power penetration level in the system, the points of connection of these sources to the power grid, the correlation in resource availability between multiple installation sites, and the correlation between the load and the renewable power are key factors that are analyzed in this thesis. These factors are considered in evaluating the bulk system reliability and reliability benefits of wind and solar power sources, and the reliability worth to the electricity customers from the addition of these energy sources. The IEEE-RTS test system is utilized throughout the thesis to evaluate the effects of these factors on bulk system adequacy. Swift Current and Saskatoon wind resources are modeled and utilized in this thesis. The Swift Current area has a strong wind resource and provides better reliability benefit and reliability worth than the Saskatoon wind resource. The benefits from wind and solar power integration, however, also depend significantly on the location where it is connected to the grid network. Wind farms that are diversified in multiple regions with independent wind speed profiles provide superior reliability benefits and worth than wind farms located in one region. The incremental benefits of adding wind or solar power decreases as the renewable power penetration is increased in the power system. Wind power at practical locations provides higher reliability benefits than photovoltaics. However, the daytime contribution of photovoltaics to system reliability is relatively high. The reliability benefits and reliability worth of solar power are significantly different for different seasons. A comparison study on reliability benefit and worth between a wind integrated bulk system and a solar integrated bulk system is also done in this thesis in order to identify the best option for bulk system reliability.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze and assess the benefits and cosi resulting from the implementation of common currency in a small open economy in specific cases in chosen countries. The theoretical part is devoted to the monetary integration itself, its historical development in Europe anf the theory of optimum currency area. Attention will be focused also on the entry criteria of monetary union and the specifics of small open economies within the frame of monetary union. The analytical part evaluates and compares the readiness of chosen economies. Subsequently, the thesis deals with benefits and costs of monetary integration and their significance in a particular situation on the example of chosen countries. Individual benefits and costs will also be put into context with the crisis of monetary union. The results are discussed in conclusion.

Aim of the thesis is effects identification of the euro implementation on the company Jihomoravská armaturka Ltd.. and in terms positive and negative aspects of this change. Literature review deals with the way the common currency within the historical development of the EMU, the description of the convergence criteria and timetable for the introduction of the euro in Czech. Followed by evaluation of the domestic business sector and theoretically discussed the impact of the euro immediately acting on it. Basis of literature are applied to the selected firm in the analysis of the current situation, together with the determination of the overall impact of the European currency. The conclusion is devoted to recommendations and suggestions for the company to the future and in the preparatory process of the introduction of the euro.

[EN] The construction of railway infrastructure networks requires heavy investment, long planning and execution times and extended life cycles. An important family of projects in Railway Engineering are the Maintenance, Renewal and Improvement (MR&I) projects. They are critical to maintaining railway infrastructures in good condition and to adapt them to environmental changes and new operating conditions and needs. MR&I action plans have a great impact in the short term because they affect the performance of operating facilities A critical issue for public infrastructure managers and planners is the effective allocation of the scarce resources available for maintenance and repair of railway infrastructures. Obsolescence and lack of adequate maintenance and repair of the railway network affect productivity and lead to increased costs over time. Every year the Manager of a rail network area is faced with different MR&I needs. This involves different projects to be executed with different levels of urgency, different levels of investment and different improvement measures and action plans on the railway network. Therefore, the Manager has a portfolio of MR&I projects and a limited budget. The main problem that the manager faces is setting priorities among the projects to decide which ones will be executed first. It is a complex problem due to the number of different projects and criteria to be considered. Classical approaches are based upon the Cost Benefit analysis (CBA) but there are great uncertainties and variations between the economic values used in different models and the results are heavily dependent on the specific methodology adopted. Methods based upon Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) allow mixing quantitative and qualitative criteria, aggregate multiple experts evaluations and, in general, obtain more robust project rankings than CBA. There is little evidence in the scientific literature of the use of MCDA to similar cases. Research conducted in this thesis studies the decision-making process to choose MR&I projects in a railway network. Technicians and managers are given a methodological tool to help them establish a priority between all the projects in the MR&I portfolio. The problem is addressed as a Multi criteria decision making (MCDM) problem in which thee different ANP models have been used, comparing the results obtained with all of them: Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP), Analytic Network Process with subnetworks for Benefits and Costs (ANP-BC) and the Analytic Network Process with subnetworks for Costs, Benefits, Opportunities and Risks (ANP-BOCR) The main contributions of this works are: - Deep analysis of the decision criteria. - Design of a procedure for evaluating many different alternative projects. - A decision making process which is both systematic and strict has been obtained. It can be generalized to other areas of the railway infrastructure management company. Thanks to the results the budget can be used in the best-valued projects according to the criteria established by the decision maker. The priorization is then obtained in a transparent and documented way. / [ES] La construcción de infraestructuras ferroviarias requiere de grandes inversiones, largos plazos de planificación y ejecución y los ciclos de vida totales son muy largos también. Dentro de los proyectos que se realizan en este tipo de infraestructuras, una parte muy importante son las actuaciones sobre líneas en servicio, que se denominan actuaciones de mantenimiento, rehabilitación y mejora (MR&I por sus siglas en ingles de Maintenance, Renewal and Improvement). Las actuaciones de MR&I tienen un gran efecto a corto plazo al afectar al rendimiento de instalaciones que ya están en servicio en el momento de la actuación . La asignación eficaz de los escasos recursos disponibles para MR&I por parte de los gestores de infraestructuras es clave para mantener y mejorar el desempeño general de la red. Cada año el gestor de una zona de la red se enfrenta a diferentes necesidades de mantenimiento, rehabilitación y mejora de la red, por tanto, tiene conjunto muy grande de proyectos de MR&I y un presupuesto limitado para ejecutarlos. El problema que se plantea es seleccionar qué proyectos tienen prioridad a la hora de su ejecución y qué criterios ha de considerar para establecer esa prioridad. Es un problema complejo debido al amplio número de proyectos posibles y de criterios a considerar. Los métodos clásicos más utilizados se basan en el enfoque de análisis coste-beneficio, pero existen grandes variaciones e incertidumbres a la hora de obtener los valores económicos y los resultados del análisis dependen mucho de la metodología específica adoptada. Los métodos basados en el Análisis Multicriterio de Decisiones (Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis MCDA) permitan integrar valoraciones cuantitativas y cualitativas, agregar las preferencias de varios expertos y, en general, obtener ordenaciones de proyectos más robustas que el CBA. No existe apenas evidencia de la aplicación de MCDA al problema planteado en la literatura científica. La investigación presentada en esta tesis estudia el proceso de toma de decisiones para la selección de proyectos de MR&I en una red ferroviaria. Se dota a los técnicos responsables y a los gestores del mantenimiento de los administradores ferroviarios de una herramienta metodológica que les ayude a establecer una prioridad entre la cartera de proyectos de MR&I. El problema se afronta como una toma de decisión multicriterio (MCDM) en la que se han utilizado tres modelos del método ANP, comparando los resultados entre sí: el modelo jerárquico basado en el Proceso Analítico Jerárquico (AHP) , el proceso analítico en red con una subred de costes y otra de beneficios (ANP-BC) y el proceso analítico en red con cuatro subredes: beneficios, oportunidades, costes y riesgos (ANP-BOCR). Las principales contribuciones de este trabajo son: - El profundo análisis realizado sobre los criterios de decisión. - Se ha diseñado un procedimiento para evaluar un conjunto muy numeroso de actuaciones alternativas. - Se ha obtenido un proceso de toma de decisiones riguroso y sistemático que se puede generalizar para otras zonas de gestión de la Compañía Gestora de las Infraestructuras ferroviarias El resultado permite utilizar el presupuesto en los proyectos mejor valorados de acuerdo a los criterios establecidos por el decisor. Obteniéndose la priorización de forma transparente y documentada. / [CA] La construcció d'infraestructures ferroviàries requereix de grans inversions, llargs terminis de planificació i execució i els cicles de vida totals són molt llargs també. Dins dels projectes que es realitzen en aquest tipus d'infraestructures, una part molt important són les actuacions sobre línies en servei, que es denominen actuacions de manteniment, rehabilitació i millora (MR&I per les seues sigles en angles de Maintenance, Renewal and Improvement). Les actuacions de MR&I tenen un gran efecte a curt termini en afectar al rendiment d'instal·lacions que ja estan en servei en el moment de l'actuació . L'assignació eficaç dels escassos recursos disponibles per a MR&I per part dels gestors d'infraestructures és clau per a mantenir i millorar l'acompliment general de la xarxa. Cada any el gestor d'una zona de la xarxa s'enfronta a diferents necessitats de manteniment, rehabilitació i millora de la xarxa, per tant, té un conjunt molt gran de projectes de MR&I i un pressupost limitat per a executar-los. El problema que es planteja és seleccionar quins projectes tenen prioritat a l'hora de la seua execució i quins criteris ha de considerar per a establir aqueixa prioritat. És un problema complex a causa de l'ampli nombre de projectes possibles i de criteris a considerar. Els mètodes clàssics més utilitzats es basen en l'enfocament d'anàlisi cost-beneficie, però existeixen grans variacions i incerteses a l'hora d'obtenir els valors econòmics i els resultats de l'anàlisi depenen molt de la metodologia específica adoptada. Els mètodes basats en l'Anàlisi Multicriteri de Decisions (Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis MCDA) permeten integrar valoracions quantitatives i qualitatives, agregar les preferències de diversos experts i, en general, obtenir ordenacions de projectes més robustes que el CBA. No existeix apenes evidencia de l'aplicació de *MCDA al problema plantejat en la literatura científica. La recerca presentada en aquesta tesi estudia el procés de presa de decisions per a la selecció de projectes de MR&I en una xarxa ferroviària. Es dota als tècnics responsables i als gestors del manteniment dels administradors ferroviaris d'una eina metodològica que els ajude a establir una prioritat entre la cartera de projectes de MR&I. El problema s'afronta com una presa de decisió multicriteri (MCDM) en la qual s'han utilitzat tres models del mètode ANP, comparant els resultats entre si: el model jeràrquic basat en el Procés Analític Jeràrquic (AHP) , el procés analític en xarxa amb una subxarxa de costos i una altra de beneficis (ANP-BC), i el procés analític en xarxa amb quatre subxarxes: beneficis, oportunitats, costos i riscos (ANP-BOCR). Les principals contribucions d'aquest treball són: - La profunda anàlisi realitzada sobre els criteris de decisió. - S'ha dissenyat un procediment per a avaluar un conjunt molt nombrós d'actuacions alternatives. - S'ha obtingut un procés de presa de decisions rigorós i sistemàtic que es pot generalitzar per a altres zones de gestió de la Companyia Gestora de les Infraestructures ferroviàries El resultat permet utilitzar el pressupost en els projectes millor valorats d'acord als criteris establits pel decisor. Obtenint-se la priorització de forma transparent i documentada. / Montesinos Valera, J. (2015). Aplicación de las técnicas AHP, ANP-BC y ANP-BOCR de análisis multicriterio de decisiones a la selección de carteras de proyectos de mantenimiento, rehabilitación y mejora en infraestructuras ferroviarias [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/56821

This thesis examines the measurement, applications and properties of consumer inflation expectations in the context of eight European Union countries: France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. The data proceed mainly from the European Commission's Consumer Survey and are qualitative in nature, therefore requiring quantification prior to use. This study first seeks to determine the optimal quantification methodology among a set of approaches spanning three traditions, associated with Carlson-Parkin (1975), Pesaran (1984) and Seitz (1988). The success of a quantification methodology is assessed on the basis of its ability to match quantitative expectations data and on its behaviour in an important economic application, namely the modelling of wages for our sample countries. The wage equation developed here draws on the theoretical background of the staggered contracts and the wage bargaining literature, and controls carefully for inflation expectations and institutional variables. The Carlson-Parkin variation proposed in Curto Millet (2004) was found to be the most satisfactory. This being established, the wage equations are used to test the hypothesis that the advent of EMU generated an increase in labour market flexibility, which would be reflected in structural breaks. The hypothesis is essentially rejected. Finally, the properties of inflation expectations and perceptions themselves are examined, especially in the context of EMU. Both the rational expectations and rational perceptions hypotheses are rejected. Popular expectations mechanisms, such as the "rule-of-thumb" model or Akerlof et al.'s (2000) "near-rationality hypothesis" are similarly unsupported. On the other hand, evidence is found for the transmission of expert forecasts to consumer expectations in the case of the UK, as in Carroll's (2003) model. The distribution of consumer expectations and perceptions is also considered, showing a tendency for gradual (as in Mankiw and Reis, 2002) but non-rational adjustment. Expectations formation is further shown to have important qualitative features.